Missing out on players from Nebraska.

[Huskers/Cubs]

Watching so many impact players from Nebraska playing for other teams is disappointing, John Tonje had 32 today in Wisconsin’s win over MSU, Hunter Sallis for  for Wake Forest and Chucky Hepburn for Louisville, these players are all transfers, which means Fred has missed on these players more than once.
I like Fred as a coach and person but he is being paid a top 30 salary and needs to be better in recruiting and the university needs to give him more NIL.

 

[Navin R. Johnson]

Fred was a little late to the party as Sallis and Hepburn had been contacted by coaches before Fred came to NU and there was not a lot of talent that the top kids would want to play with on the team at that time.  Most of the other guys like Tonje, Fidler and Wrightsell were late bloomers.  Creighton missed on them too and Mac has a good eye for spotting kids with potential.  From what I hear Coach Miles built up pretty good relations with Chucky.  Now transfer wise, you can say we might have missed but who knows how that ever plays out.

[LincecumFan]

6 minutes ago, Navin R. Johnson said:

Fred was a little late to the party as Sallis and Hepburn had been contacted by coaches before Fred came to NU and there was not a lot of talent that the top kids would want to play with on the team at that time.  Most of the other guys like Tonje, Fidler and Wrightsell were late bloomers.  Creighton missed on them too and Mac has a good eye for spotting kids with potential.  From what I hear Coach Miles built up pretty good relations with Chucky.  Now transfer wise, you can say we might have missed but who knows how that ever plays out.

I don't know what Tonje's high school career was like, but at Colorado State he was mainly a role player. I don't think he was ever more than their 6th guy off the bench. Then last year at Missouri I believe he was injured a good portion of the season. I had no idea he would become one of the best players in the Big Ten this year.

[OmahaHusker]

38 minutes ago, Huskers/Cubs said:

Watching so many impact players from Nebraska playing for other teams is disappointing, John Tonje had 32 today in Wisconsin’s win over MSU, Hunter Sallis for  for Wake Forest and Chucky Hepburn for Louisville, these players are all transfers, which means Fred has missed on these players more than once.
I like Fred as a coach and person but he is being paid a top 30 salary and needs to be better in recruiting and the university needs to give him more NIL.

 

Saw a post on another board that talked about how basketball won’t get more NIL allocation from the university until the football program is back where fans expect it to be. I tend to agree. The asking prices for all of those guys in the portal was way too high for us to compete with. 

[LincecumFan]

7 minutes ago, OmahaHusker said:

Saw a post on another board that talked about how basketball won’t get more NIL allocation from the university until the football program is back where fans expect it to be. I tend to agree. The asking prices for all of those guys in the portal was way too high for us to compete with. 

The sentiment expressed in your first sentence is exactly what makes me want to throw a brick through my TV.  And to be clear I'm not upset with you, it's having to live in a football first state.

Edited 3 hours ago by LincecumFan

[Huskerpapa]

51 minutes ago, Huskers/Cubs said:

Watching so many impact players from Nebraska playing for other teams is disappointing, John Tonje had 32 today in Wisconsin’s win over MSU, Hunter Sallis for  for Wake Forest and Chucky Hepburn for Louisville, these players are all transfers, which means Fred has missed on these players more than once.
I like Fred as a coach and person but he is being paid a top 30 salary and needs to be better in recruiting and the university needs to give him more NIL.

 

We are having a hell of a time in Omaha.  We are not only missing, shoot, we cannot even get our foot in most doors.

I was encouraged when I saw Bruce Chubick sitting with Coach Loenser the other day.  One issue involved a Chubick Sr. player.  We lost our foothold sometime during the Doc era, and totally slid off the mountain while Tim was in charge.  

It appears that Fred is starting to re-engage with Omaha coaches.  If that happens, we may have a better opportunity on players like Robinson, the freshman starter for Westside.

I guess time will tell (but that is one reason I was hoping for a strong push for Bahl).

Edited 3 hours ago by Huskerpapa

[hhcmatt]

The only reason Tonje ended up at Wisconsin was because Chucky got poached. Tonje had actually committed to New Mexico before Wisconsin poached him. 

[hhcmatt]

2 minutes ago, Huskerpapa said:

We are having a hell of a time in Omaha.  We are not only missing, shoot, we cannot even get our foot in most doors.

I was encouraged when I saw Bruce Chubick sitting with Coach Loenser the other day.  One issue involved a Chubick Sr. player.  We lost our foothold sometime during the Doc era, and totally slid of the mountain while Tim was in charge.  

It appears that Fred is starting to re-engage with Omaha coaches.  If that happens, we may have a better opportunity on players like Robinson, the freshman starter for Westside.

I guess time will tell (but that is one reason I was hoping for a strong push for Bahl.

 

You would think we could land a guy or two who does not want to play for Mac D.

[hhcmatt]

10 minutes ago, LincecumFan said:

The sentiment expressed in your first sentence is exactly what makes me want to throw a brick through my TV.  And to be clear I'm not upset with you, it's having to live in a football first state.

 

 Reads to me like we will be going with the Northwestern model of employing our coach for a while

[Huskers/Cubs]

The difference between the Northwestern model and the Nebraska model is Fred is the 15th highest paid coach and Collin’s is the 41st paid coach.

[HuskerFever]

2 hours ago, LincecumFan said:

The sentiment expressed in your first sentence is exactly what makes me want to throw a brick through my TV.  And to be clear I'm not upset with you, it's having to live in a football first state.

 

This might be revisionist history, but probably 15 years ago, the SEC got smart and saw the direction sports were going and saw the opportunity in college basketball. Outside of Kentucky and a couple teams here and there, they were terrible.

 

But then they got serious and paid for high quality coaches, built their stadiums, and have started to consistently put together strong teams. This season is one single data point, but the SEC has a sizeable lead in conference strength this season.

 

I only say this, because the "football first" mentality can work. But it can also leave us behind and be mediocre in both.