NUdiehard

Should Fred put Walker back in?

Fred is riding with small ball even though enough time elapsed he could put Walker back in

Those dunks by Bryce are a product I of the 5 out lineup Nebraska is playing due to foul trouble.

Could Wilcher become what we always hoped Joe (Hambuger) McCray would be

Verge already has 8 assists. Wow

Why does Bryce insist on taking NBA 3s while still in college ?

Honest question. Do you watch the opposing team warm up? I haven't paid real close attention, but from what I see most games the opposing team's are just as loose and carefree as what I see from Nebraska. Maybe not the constant "alley-oop" tosses, but pretty close. I'm curious if you have seen differently.

There is no doubt losing Trey completely set this team back. Not only did he miss all those games, but even after he came back he clearly was not the same until maybe last game. This means we have essentially played this entire season without peak performance from our team leader, best defender and instrumental offensive player. Not to mention Wilhelm who would probably be getting a lot of Lat's minutes by this point (and maybe some of Andre's).

Starters played almost all 20 minutes of first half. Fatigue will be an issue 2nd half. Will they have enough to hang on?

Many of you have suggested that you do not think Hoiberg's "Scheme" can work in the B1G. Honest question. What do you mean by this? In order to answer this, I think you first need to describe what you think Hoiberg's scheme is, and then explain why you think it could maybe work in a different conference (such as the Big 12), but not in the B1G. And does your definition of "scheme" include the type of players Hoiberg recruits?

As currently constructed, the roster is not good enough to be successful in the B1G next year. Part of that is talent, but much is youth. If Walker returns, but Trey, Lat and Bryce no not, next year's team (as currently constructed) will have: 1 Senior - Walker 1 Junior - Tominaga 4 Sophomores - Andre, Wilcher, Edwards and Keita 6 Freshmen - McPherson, Oleg, Lloyd, Dawson, Lawrence and Breidenbach (assuming he gets medical RS) Even if this group is "talented", there is little chance such a young team can win regularly in the B1G. FWIW, this is why I feel Fred should get 5 years, but that is a different argument for a different thread. The dilemma will be if there are concrete signs of legit "talent" and quality/sound play from these younger players, but they are coming up short due to so much youth and inexperience. Most likely everyone will still want Fred gone, but it is important to look at what might lie ahead rather than what is past. In contrast, if the group of young players don't give much/any indication of real potential, then the decision will be very easy. Fred will have to pull in some quality and experienced transfers to have a shot next year, including a PG. It is possible (likely) that a couple of the player listed above will transfer. Will Edwards stick around? Andre? So there should be room for at least 2 or maybe 3 portal transfers. Let's hope they hit better than they did last year.

Bryce is such a liability on defense he is a net negative overall.

Went on that run with Bryce on the bench.

I will concede that the lack of effort in these recent games has been very disappointing. No one wants to watch that, ever. But is it a result of systemic coaching issues? Maybe. But because of Fred's prior coaching success, it seems better to give him some benefit of the doubt. If he is such a pathetic coach who doesn't teach any fundamentals, how did he take an Iowa St. team that had 5 losing seasons prior to him arriving and after one year take them to 4 straight NCAA tourneys with a sweet 16 and (multiple 2nd to 3rd rounds) and in his final year have his best Big 12 conference record of all? How does that happen if he is a bumbling fool of a coach? At the end of last year, the team had to be shut down for over 3 weeks, and then I think most would agree they gave a valiant effort those last few weeks where they crammed in game after game after game and still had a top 40 defense and I don't recall seeing any quit in them at that time. Do you? That was just last year. Did Fred forget how to motivate players since one year ago? Are Fred's problems with this year's team "systemic" if he did not have those same problems just last year? Did his team have problems last year? Absolutely. But the biggest problem was they couldn't score enough. Problem. But a different problem which was largely a result of a different roster (Banton was an excellent defender and rebounder but couldn't shoot to save his life; now we have Verge and Keisei and Bryce, who are decent/good at scoring, but can't defend). Fred has proven he can win in a power 5 conference with the right roster. His incoming recruits look like his best ever. If you fire Fred, next year is almost guaranteed to be disaster no matter what new coach they bring in because the new recruits will probably bail and the whole roster will have to be turned over on short time frame (like Fred's first year). So are you really losing much by giving Fred one more year to see what he can do with these new recruits? If it is a bust, fire him and at least you have the new recruits in house and can try to keep them longer.

Doc was the head coach here for 6 years. Anyone who can’t see that this year’s defense is virtually the same as Doc’s defense doesn’t know basketball. I attended multiple of Doc’s practices when he coached the defense when he was HC. This year’s defensive scheme is the same. Husker.com says Doc is the coordinator of the defense. It is the same defense NU ran last year and the year before when Doc was an assistant coach in charge of defense. Whether he is physically on the floor teaching it everyday is largely irrelevant. He is the one scheming it and developing it, whatever coach is out on the floor is just his mouthpiece.

Whether the problems are systemic is up for debate. Last year's team had a top 40 defense (adjusted for tempo). This year's defense is terrible. The difference was last year they had Delano Banton, a long, athletic player who could defend and rebound at a high level, and this year replaced that with Verge and Keisei. Same coach, different players, different result. Problem was Delano couldn't shoot, which hurt on the offensive end. Again, player problem, not coaching problem. Having players that can shoot, defend and rebound is going to miraculously make the coach and his system look much better. Does anyone dispute this? It may or may not be be "probable" that Fred will be fired and we will have to start over with a new coach in the next year or 2. But it is not 100% certain. There is a chance that if Fred got another year or two, he could turn it around sufficiently that he gets retained for much longer because he is showing improvement and success. I personally think that probably is higher with Fred (who has proven he can win at a power 5 school) than some no-name mid-major who will come here and think he is different than Collier, Sadler and Miles before him. Besides, even if Fred fails to meet expectations in years 4 and/or 5, at least he will have already brought in his new highly ranked recruits. Those recruits are much more likely to stay with the new coach if they are already here and been in the program a year or 2. If you fire Fred now, most of them likely leave and never set foot on campus. Keeping Fred another year or 2 could be the difference between leaving the cupboard bare (if fired this year) vs. leaving fairly well stocked (after next year or the year after). Next year is almost guaranteed to be terrible if we fire Fred now, so I see little downside to keeping him at least one more year.

Why does no one talk about what happens if Fred is fired? If you think bringing back Fred will be bad, how much worse if Fred it fired? If Fred is fired, most current players and probably a lot of the recruits will leave, forcing the new coach to turn over the roster just like Hoiberg had to do in his year 1. There is almost zero chance a new coach will be able to assemble a roster with more talent than Fred will if Fred returns. Why is this such an appealing option? If you fear fans are leaving, hiring a new coach and turning over the entire roster again is not a great way to bring them back. In contrast, If Fred's new recruits come in and show some effort, talent and progress, the fans will return.

Trey has been an absolute disaster on the offensive end ever since coming back.

Lol. So sensitive. There are a lot of Eric’s from Cozad out there.

FWIW, when I mentioned haters I was thinking more about people like Eric from Cozad. Hard to say guy who takes time to personally call Fred to “fire” him isn’t a hater.

Going back to the OP. I still think Fred is the man for the job and I am encouraged by the progress in recruiting I see going forward, especially next year's class. There may not be many of us, but for those of us who still believe Fred is the best chance to get this done at NU, I encourage you all to email Trev and let him know. No doubt, all the cynics and haters are going to be blasting their disdain of Fred to Trev non-stop. One poster already shared his experience of emailing Trev all his grievances. We need to make sure the haters aren't the only voices heard. Trev needs to hear from long-time fans like us that we see things differently. That there are other considerations that show a more positive outlook. That we support Fred and we will continue to go to the games because we believe he has as good or better of chance of turning this around than any new coach. Here is his email. [email protected] Here is his twitter: trevalberts

I know this will sound like excuses, but one other factor I think Trev should take into account is how much the Covid "extra year" affected the strength of teams in the B1G this year. Most believe the B1G is a bit down this year. I disagree. The top may not fill up the national top 10, but top to bottom this league is a beast Northwestern is a really good team. I know, I watched them with my own eyes. Michigan is really good (noticed they beat Purdue by 24 points the other day). Every team I have watched this year (sans maybe Minnesota) looked really solid to me. I especially realized this when I watched NU play Minnesota, who is a good but not great team, and how much different it was than all the other teams we have played so far in the B1G. Other teams were able to retain some very, very good 5th year seniors because of the extra year. Think of Wisconsin and Brad Davison. He torched us. Had it not been for Covid, he wouldn't have been eligible. Many teams have this advantage and having 5th or 6th year players is a huge, huge advatage. In contrast, the only "covid" eligible players on NU are Webster and Lakes (who has been injured and never really played). Now, we could blame Fred for this, but not really. Fred inherited a mess and had to turn over the entire roster in year 1. That is why many argue year 1 should not count. But that turnover did not allow for these 5th and 6th year players to be on the roster this year unlike all of our B1G foes. This is where it gets tricky comparing Fred's record this year to other NU coaches in the past. I just don't think we've ever seen a time when every team in the conference is so good/solid. Plus, the B1G now has 20 conference games, so less chance to beat up on cupcakes (Doc's speciality). And one more thing. And I know y'all are going to scream "excuses excuses", but I can't remember a year like this when the other teams seemed to be so healthy. NU has had two pretty significant injuries in Trey and Wilhelm. It seems like most of the teams we have played this year are at full or close to full strength. I previous years, it seemed other teams always had injuries of major players and that allowed for an upset or two to happen. Heck, a few years ago Miles NU team played Creighton when Creighton had 4 starters injured--and still lost! Not this year. Most every team we have played had most or all of their best players while NU did not have Trey and Wilhelm for most of the year. Does anyone think we don't beat NC State if we have Trey? Maybe others. In short, my position is that year 1 is a throw out year. Year 2 was a mess because of Covid (no fans, players sitting out, the entire team could not play for 3 full weeks and then had to cram a bunch of games in, etc). And now, in year 3, we are still under unique circumstances due to Covid that frankly, IMO, benefit most of the other teams much more than NU just do to the timing of when Fred was hired. Again, call it an excuse. But that is just what I see and that will go away next year because all those "extra year" players will be gone and it will go back to even for everyone.

That's fine, I could maybe go for that. But Keon is not a PF. He is about 170 lbs soaking wet. He would get abused on the defensive end by most teams. and I'm not sure playing him completely out of position (at PF) is "developing" him, but maybe it is worth a try.

Trey was an absolute beast on the defensive end and his intensity and refusal to lose carried over to the entire team. I don't think people give enough credence to how much losing him (and Wilhelm) set back this team this year. With that said, Trey's offense is still way off since he came back. It just has been difficult for him to get his timing and touch after missing so much of the season. He was 2-8 on FG and 2-9 on FTs. That is rough. Verge was atrocious in the first have and electric in the 2nd half. Wild swings. Of course everything looks better when his often ill-advised shots actually go in. Lat was 2-10 missed about 4 point-blank, wide open layups. If NU made half its layups and 70% of its free throws it wins this game by 30. Kobe is super small and is not explosive and is not a PG. That is why he is not a legit B1G player, but unfortunately NU doesn't have any other options. I almost wonder if Fred will try some minutes with Trey at the PG just to see how it goes.

I agree about Lat. But what are the other options? Wilhelm has been out all year. The only other option at PF is Wilcher, who is about 6'4". Combine Wilcher at 6'4 (and no vertical) with Walker at 6',7" (and no vertical), and ya all wonder why we struggle to rebound and defend.