uneblinstu's postgame chatter : vol 17; ed 31- Iowa

[Nebrasketball1979]

12 minutes ago, hskr4life said:

 

This is 100% spot on and why I feel we need to be careful about trying to make excuses about this season. Sure we had some bad luck on the court, Berke rolled an ankle at the wrong time, we missed a few key and important shots. But as you said, results have to matter. If this was more of a one-off year and we had a very successful first few seasons then maybe you could point to this as an outlier.

 

I don't remember which game thread it was, but I jokingly said that the only reason we could entertain the idea of not wanting Fred back was if we missed the B1G tournament. At the time, I figured we'd 100% make it. There was no way we wouldn't. In a two to three week period we went from 80% likely to make the NCAA Tournament to not even making the B1G tournament.

 

I'm firmly on the fence honestly. The university I feel will 100% retain Fred and give him more opportunities and I truly am ok with that. I hope we pony up some money and we're able to secure the type of commitment that went elsewhere last year. However, I won't sit here and say that I'd be up in arms if the university decided to move in a different direction either.

 

Whether the season was a failure or not is, I believe, all about how you look at the season as a whole. If you are going by before the year, I believe that expectations were a little bit lower, so maybe one could say that it was an ok season where we finished about where some expected. BUT if you look at the season by what we now know, I can certainly see how one could thing it is a failure of a season. 12-2 and just beat UCLA at home. Blow a 15 point lead and rattle off 6 straight losses. Win 4 in a row including a road sweep and then lose 6/7 to end it. Blow an 80% chance to dance. I could see it being a failure in the sense of we were greatly exceeding expectation and all we had to do was play average to do something special. And we played well below average to finish at "expectations".

Yeah, that's fair.  Knowing how close we were in so many games and moments definitely slants my opinion.  They all went against us.  Is that bad luck or emblematic of an issue with coaching, leadership, etc.  We didn't have these issues in 2023-2024.  Or, I don't remember many gut punches that year although I am sure there were some.  We took kicks to the balls repeatedly this season.  So which season is the outlier or is the reality probably somewhere in the middle?  If it was even sort of close to the middle this year, we are talking about seeding today.  And, right or wrong, I largely ignore Fred's first three seasons here.  He had to do a hard reset and adjust his coaching and recruiting philosophy to today's college basketball.  Maybe I am part of the standards problem with Nebrasketball but I am willing to give someone I believe to be a really good head coach the benefit of extra time and patience.

 

Regardless, as I said, next year is pivotal for Fred.

[Navin R. Johnson]

2 hours ago, hskr4life said:

Baseball looking like it may throw their hat in the ring too if we don’t get it turned around.

 

Losing our All American pitcher and one of our top relievers does not help a team who's big bats are struggling.

[Navin R. Johnson]

1 hour ago, HB said:

We'll just have to agree to disagree on that.   You state the better year as fact.  Hardly.  A complete regression and failure of a year.

 

Agreed.  I argue enough with my wife the way it is, no need to argue on this board!

[HuskerFever]

People need to point out where they actually think these two programs are on this graph, because those two programs don't exist on the same local maximum...

 

 

And for those who enjoy our demise, global minimum = Rock Bottom 

[roscoe]

On 3/9/2025 at 8:14 PM, hskr4life said:

Now that I’m home— wanted to post some thoughts about the crowd and atmosphere today.

 

It was just off in PBA today. Someone mentioned Brice seems to be feeling the weight of the entire season today. Honestly, I think it was everyone. PBA was quiet from the jump. We were up 9-2 but I’ve heard PBA louder down 9-2. The students didn’t show behind the hoop. The crowd was pretty slim for senior day announcements. The screen shot of our recruit felt like weird timing. Even the two former players coming on the screen and trying to get us pumped was off. Even their energy was just… tired.

 

I don’t know how to describe it, but I hope we can get that PBA magic back next year. It truly can be a special place.

I got the same feeling yesterday walking in as i did when they hosted "Ladies Night". It seemed more like a picnic atmosphere instead of do or die. I checked the website yesterday but just felt I needed to deflate. (A buddy asked me over to have his golf simulator laugh at me.) There's lots of good points being made about several different things. 

As for the game yesterday, I told my son when we led 18-15 that we were playing decent but only being ahead by 3 was disappointing as felt should've been ahead by much more.

And even though things looked bleak we got within 47-45 and in my opinion had 2 puke worthy offensive possessions. 

Also thought the the Juwan and Brice departures from game were...not sure how to say it. Juwan fouls out and a few Iowa players gave him hugs and got similar treatment from Fred and a couple on NU bench. Brice fouls to get subs in and he goes to bench like he's being subbed out in non-conference game in early December. Maybe I'm reading too much but I thought it was 2 ends of spectrum.

Now for stuff that's been gone over in this thread. 

How can you get 3 bigs in transfer portal that fell down as much as Berke, Morgan and Meah? 

Essegian and Berke were only okay to decent additions and I as huskerpapa noted the others were pretty much whiffs. Morgan and Meah had moments but once every 4-5 games don't cut it. Rollie was a little worse than that and Griffiths and Ulis were terrible. The turnover Ulis had yesterday is in line with 2 bad offensive possessions mentioned earlier. Either bounce pass or go over the top. He picks option 3 and throws right to a Hawkeye. Still game(s) to play and I'll keep on cheering. Things will slow down on here for few months but I'll jump back in feet first next October with the rest  of you.  

 

Edited yesterday at 03:38 AM by roscoe

[roscoe]

Forgot to add to my previous message that Big 10 is top notch at lip service. Fred and officating supervisor had talk and discussed the missed calls versus tosu. Glad to see they missed taunting call on Iowa player after Berke got called for foul.

so there I got my reffing complaint noted.

[fr8-train]

24 minutes ago, roscoe said:

Forgot to add to my previous message that Big 10 is top notch at lip service. Fred and officating supervisor had talk and discussed the missed calls versus tosu. Glad to see they missed taunting call on Iowa player after Berke got called for foul.

so there I got my reffing complaint noted.

 

When during the game did that happen?  I didn't get to watch much of it and haven't seen any highlights showing the incident.  

 

I was hoping maybe after OSU we'd get favorable treatment from the zebras as compensation.  Of course, you still have to make shots to be competitive, which we obviously were unable to do.  

[LincecumFan]

On 3/9/2025 at 7:14 PM, hskr4life said:

Now that I’m home— wanted to post some thoughts about the crowd and atmosphere today.

 

It was just off in PBA today. Someone mentioned Brice seems to be feeling the weight of the entire season today. Honestly, I think it was everyone. PBA was quiet from the jump. We were up 9-2 but I’ve heard PBA louder down 9-2. The students didn’t show behind the hoop. The crowd was pretty slim for senior day announcements. The screen shot of our recruit felt like weird timing. Even the two former players coming on the screen and trying to get us pumped was off. Even their energy was just… tired.

 

I don’t know how to describe it, but I hope we can get that PBA magic back next year. It truly can be a special place.

On the TV call of the game, Kugler and Bahe kept mentioning how the tension in the PBA was so thick you could cut it with a knife. If the crowd and the announcers could feel the tension then you know the players had to feel it. Hard to play a smooth game when you're playing afraid of losing.

[hhcmatt]

7 hours ago, LincecumFan said:

On the TV call of the game, Kugler and Bahe kept mentioning how the tension in the PBA was so thick you could cut it with a knife. If the crowd and the announcers could feel the tension then you know the players had to feel it. Hard to play a smooth game when you're playing afraid of losing.

 

Maybe. If anything it seemed like a early game crowd. 

Otherwise If the team doesn't have the mental fortitude to beat Iowa at home on Senior day, they weren't going to go anywhere when the stakes actually were high.

[roscoe]

10 hours ago, fr8-train said:

 

When during the game did that happen?  I didn't get to watch much of it and haven't seen any highlights showing the incident.  

 

I was hoping maybe after OSU we'd get favorable treatment from the zebras as compensation.  Of course, you still have to make shots to be competitive, which we obviously were unable to do.  

It was after foul call on Berke and he fell down out of bounds under basket. Thelwell, who drew foul, walked by Berke and clapped at him. Students reacted and reply showed it. 

My son also said after Cale fouled Iowa player late in 1st half the Iowa players elbow hit Cale in face/jaw after whistle. I didnt see it and there wasnt replay. 

[HuscurAdam]

14 hours ago, Nebrasketball1979 said:

And, right or wrong, I largely ignore Fred's first three seasons here.  He had to do a hard reset and adjust his coaching and recruiting philosophy to today's college basketball. 

 

I think this is probably where most of the disconnect lies. There are two different camps of fans between those that give Fred judge Fred based on his “full body of work” and those that give him grace for the first three years. While I am in the latter camp, I certainly understand why others would be in the former. There are valid arguments both ways and I don’t think it is that important to bridge the gap because ultimately both camps want to see success for the program. I will just agree to disagree on the point; no hard feelings.

 

Personally, I don’t consider Fred’s first three years much at all, and that probably puts me on the extreme even among those that give him grace. In my mind, Fred inherited nothing to build from and had to hastily throw together his first roster, then Covid struck, then had a disastrous season in what should have been a breakout year.  However, after that season he recognized what was not working and implemented a complete program reset.

 

Since then, we have had the best 3 year stretch in the past 30 years. Even this season, which was an “abject failure,” found us on the bubble until the last game of the season.  The way I look at it is…if we hired a coach 3 years ago, and he produced these results, would I want him fired? For me the answer isn’t just no, but heck no. I expect to see progress, but understand progress isn’t always linear.

 

For those that say his record is what it is, it’s not good enough, and we should move on…I can’t argue with that. Frankly, if I wasn’t willing to overlook those first 3 years (right or wrong), I would absolutely agree with you.     

[CanadianHusker]

1 hour ago, roscoe said:

It was after foul call on Berke and he fell down out of bounds under basket. Thelwell, who drew foul, walked by Berke and clapped at him. Students reacted and reply showed it. 

My son also said after Cale fouled Iowa player late in 1st half the Iowa players elbow hit Cale in face/jaw after whistle. I didnt see it and there wasnt replay. 

I saw Cale take that one to the jaw watching on tv. Maybe we need more flippers who will embellish whatever fluke happens so we can get some calls too. 

[cornfed24-7]

1 hour ago, HuscurAdam said:

 

I think this is probably where most of the disconnect lies. There are two different camps of fans between those that give Fred judge Fred based on his “full body of work” and those that give him grace for the first three years. While I am in the latter camp, I certainly understand why others would be in the former. There are valid arguments both ways and I don’t think it is that important to bridge the gap because ultimately both camps want to see success for the program. I will just agree to disagree on the point; no hard feelings.

 

Personally, I don’t consider Fred’s first three years much at all, and that probably puts me on the extreme even among those that give him grace. In my mind, Fred inherited nothing to build from and had to hastily throw together his first roster, then Covid struck, then had a disastrous season in what should have been a breakout year.  However, after that season he recognized what was not working and implemented a complete program reset.

 

Since then, we have had the best 3 year stretch in the past 30 years. Even this season, which was an “abject failure,” found us on the bubble until the last game of the season.  The way I look at it is…if we hired a coach 3 years ago, and he produced these results, would I want him fired? For me the answer isn’t just no, but heck no. I expect to see progress, but understand progress isn’t always linear.

 

For those that say his record is what it is, it’s not good enough, and we should move on…I can’t argue with that. Frankly, if I wasn’t willing to overlook those first 3 years (right or wrong), I would absolutely agree with you.     

I'm a tweener. Hoiberg should have fired after year 3. Just atrocious. But he wasn't. Now I get the benefit of hindsight. So how I look at it is this.

 

Year 1 - 3 is now a nightmarish excruciatingly long year 1 for me. Full disclosure if you made the "it's really year 1"  argument to me at the beginning through the late middle of year 4 I would have howled from my soap box about how wrong you were.

 

The next 3 years theres some success and some horrible let downs that really make you question if Hoiberg can sustain the successes. And you got that wart of a first season in the back of your mind. 

 

Which means to me he's got this next year. His year 5 so to speak.  Prove you can be successful again. Because if he  doesn't make the tournament I will have zero confidence Hoiberg ever will again. And it's not like I'm starting with a surplus of confidence going into next season to begin with.

 

And I really want see Sam get his last year with his Dad. Having two sons has softened me . A Dad getting to coach his son's last year. I'm here for it. It's not like I can't wait one more year to start over from scratch again

[cozrulz]

4 hours ago, HuscurAdam said:

Personally, I don’t consider Fred’s first three years much at all, and that probably puts me on the extreme even among those that give him grace.

 

I couldn't even tell you what happened.  I generally ignore it.  I'm also not sure how many coaches could have pulled a 180 after the first 3 years.

 

I look at how long Collins has been at Northwestern and think, well we haven't tried that.