GoBigRed

We have a really good in-game atmosphere at PBA, which usually only pumps up every opposing team to shoot the lights out.

333 out of 350.

Iowa State is 8-0 and ranked #19 under first-year head coach TJ Otzelberger. Minnesota is 7-0 and receiving votes under first-year head coach Ben Johnson. I don’t believe either one has spent so much as a day coaching on an NBA staff. Both teams were also terrible last year. Oh well I guess. Maybe next year. Or the year after that.

Our lead recruiter isn’t really high on Nebraska kids so…

So just hold on to him forever because he coached in the NBA and because we’ll never get anybody else who coached in the NBA? OK got it. FWIW I am not suggesting he is on the hot seat yet. What I am suggesting is if we are 24-66 after three years, why shouldn’t it be hot or at least warm? 24-66 over three years is putrid even for Nebraska basketball. For those who down voted my post or say there’s no hot seat talk at all at the end of this year, what kind of benchmarks do you need to see next year then if we are indeed 24-66 after three years and Bryce has left? I’m not seeing any growth in this program whatsoever. That non-NBA head coach Tim Miles had us in the NCAA Tournament in year 2 and won 47 games in his first three years here. Heck, he won 19 games in his final season here and we fired him, and we’ve won 19 games total since Fred got here. I get that “it’s Fred freakin Hoiberg”. But we really, really suck.

Kansas State only chance in my opinion. I cheated and just voted now for 0.

Who would have ever thought we’d be saying “how can anyone stomach this Hoiberg offense?” in year three. I blame the type of players they’re bringing in though, not the actual system itself. It feels like they don’t practice what they preach bringing in guys like Teddy Allen and Verge.

I’m sure you’re right. Trev will be patient and give more time. I guess I just don’t see why we should. In my opinion of course, it isn’t working and I have no reason to believe it will. But I hope to be wrong. This program has been pretty bad forever, but the last few seasons now have been even worse.

If we win only 10 games this year, I can live with one more year of running this back. But if I have to watch this one more season….no way. PBA has already been a ghost town for some of the non-conference games since the Creighton debacle.

But doesn’t that bold part contradict itself? Is he a great coach? Or is he just really knowledgeable about basketball and how it should be played but could only translate it into success for a few years? Big difference in my opinion. Why do we bring in all these shooters who have great numbers and they get here and fail? There are only two explanations IMO: 1) we are just cursed, or 2) there’s some over coaching or under coaching going on. I’m not saying it’s 2 either. We very well may be cursed.

It’s year 3. Back when Fred was hired I think the honest trajectory most of us expected or hoped for was: Year 1: any postseason would be really cool but not expected. Hope for good foundation building and get better throughout season (7-25 with some losses to teams we had no business losing to, lost 17 in a row to end the year) Year 2: an NIT berth would be solid progress and on the bubble would be great. (7-20, Covid issues played a part, but overall vastly underwhelming and we beat no one of significance) Year 3: middle of the pack Big Ten team solidly in the NCAA Tournament. (5-4 right now and realtimerpi projected 10-21, one of worst 3 point shooting teams in the entire country, lost another buy game, wasting the best recruit in program history) assuming that happens that’s 24-66 over three years. Why should this staff get another year? What has worked or been even remotely encouraging?

I get that but at what point are players not making shots year after year on Fred? This is like Frost saying his system works great as long as the snaps are accurate, as long as the O Line blocks, as long as we don’t fumble the ball, as long as we don’t false start or hold, etc etc etc. Fred and Matt A bring in the players who are supposed to be elite shooters. So why do we have the worst 3 point shooting team at Nebraska in the last 20 years?

It’s really really hard to understand. Fred wants an offense that spaces and moves the ball and can shoot. And they recruit a ball-dominant transfer guard who can’t shoot and isn’t inclined to pass, a ball-dominant 5 star freshman whose biggest offensive flaw is perimeter shooting, and those two players would not pass a lie detector test if they said yes that Nebraska basketball winning was more important than impressing NBA scouts in this 5 months of season. Then we still have no inside presence to compete in the Big Ten, and also either some bad luck or poor coaching that Mayen and Wilcher and Tominaga all came in as highly rated shooters but for whatever reason they have all struggled, some more than others.

I think we’ve been hoodwinked. Hoiberg perhaps isn’t the genius coach we’ve made him out to be. He got hot at ISU when transfers weren’t a thing anywhere else. He shows no emotion or fire, his teams plays like robots that have their wires crossed, and unless we’re hitting 40% of our threes on a fluky night we pretty much have no prayer of winning. Our 5 star freshman can’t shoot from distance worth a lick but Fred continues to let him jack up shots at will. Hell none of them can shoot. It just isn’t working.

Now at a robust 27.1% from 3 basically at the 1/3 mark of the season. This staff should be on the hot seat. You don’t need “time” to turn around a basketball program. And when you have a 5 star freshman who is probably gone after one year and you look as bad as ever, well, why should we believe it will be better next year? Or the following?

What was expected, sadly.

Don’t hate it. They’re not doing their jobs well. This team is horrible and has no chemistry whatsoever.

This team isn’t even enjoyable to watch. I have serious questions about this program moving forward under this staff, which I can’t believe I’m saying (hell, look at my user name). Honestly, Fred’s shocking failure here so far has been more surprising than Frost so far. This team stinks. They can’t shoot, which should be the ONE thing a Hoiberg team should be able to do. Abdelmassih is bringing in a random hodge podge of players and there seems to be no plan or direction. Incredibly disappointed in this team is an understatement.

I’ll keep posting this until it’s no longer true. At 26.6% from 3 it’s the worst Nebraska shooting team in the 21st Century. Only two teams (2002-03 and 2014-15) finished the season under 30%. They went 11-19 and 13-18. So you can see where we are headed. It really is mind-boggling to wrap your head around. Is Fred over coaching mechanics? It’s not just a thing this year either. All of his Husker teams have been pathetic. We used to chalk it up to lack of recruited shooters but that can’t be an excuse anymore. Are they recruiting mental head cases who can’t handle performing on this stage? Lat’s been dreadful since he got here despite that report where Fred said he hit like 88 out of 100 in a drill (unguarded of course). Keisei has grossly underperformed even his most conservative expectations (21%…puke). Even Lakes is a guy they talked about lighting it up in practices and was automatic at lower levels…only 30.8% in his Husker career. I just don’t get it. Perhaps we are just destined to suck forever. On paper we have the most highly rated players in our program we’ve ever had, with a handful of guys who were labeled sharp shooters. And yet we don’t play as a team, we don’t play smart, and we are fundamentally piss poor.

Fitting end to the half. 3 guys collapse in the lane on a driver and leave a guy open in the corner and I mean there was not a Husker jersey within 15 feet of him.

Some of the most pathetic defense we’ve seen yet. Apparently our philosophy remains the same: run around like chickens with their heads cut off until the other team has an open look at a 3.

We’re shooting 27.2% from 3 five games in. Obviously it’s early and law of averages should correct itself. Otherwise that’s our worst percentage since at least 2000 (as far back as Huskers.com stats go). So yeah we sure as hell better start hitting some soon. Bryce (23.8%), Keisei (23.5%) and Lat (25%) in particular are the three that either need to start hitting or perhaps stop shooting (particularly Bryce with a team-high 21 attempts). Sorry love ya Bryce but you’re not a shooter and a lot of those attempts are pull-ups with a man in the face. But Lat is incredibly disappointing. He was wide the F open so many times today. He had time to set up a picnic for himself before shooting some of those. Still missed.

He hasn’t been making threes for two years now so…..

on the McGowens podcast all summer the player who was always mentioned as going to make a big jump from last year to this year was Lat Mayen. So it’s no surprise he looks just like (worse?) last year.

Lat and Keisei seem to have joined the Jack McVeigh and Matej Kavas club for “Kids Who Used to Shoot Threes Good But Come to Lincoln and Forgot How To Shoot Threes Good”