If you were NU AD would you move on from Hoiberg?

[huskerj12]

I find it pretty hard to care about NU bball these days, to be honest... It felt easier to root for Doc and Miles to figure it all out because they both had their own brands of passion and personality they brought to the team, with Fred he's just kinda there and his W/L results have been worse than both of those guys overall. But for whatever reason we owe him zillions of dollars to go away, so I can't imagine we'll be firing him any time soon.

 

[Irv]

Obviously he’s staying but it’s wild that we can dress up one ncaa appearance in six years.

He’s the 28th highest paid coach in the country. That’s a colossal overspend for the results.

Maybe Nebraska can’t expect better than dancing 1-2x a decade. But if that’s the case, you don’t need to throw away money on the head coach. Pluck some nobody (not a hot name) out of a mid-major or lower. Put the savings toward NIL and improve the roster. There’s no reason you need a top 30 salary to go to the tournament once every six years, even at Nebraska.

Also, do not get sucked into the agents’ trap of extending guys who are not terribly successful. If they want to walk, fine. You don’t want to keep guys only because they are too expensive to fire.

 

[Quint]

I find it pretty hard to care about NU bball these days, to be honest... It felt easier to root for Doc and Miles to figure it all out because they both had their own brands of passion and personality they brought to the team, with Fred he's just kinda there and his W/L results have been worse than both of those guys overall. But for whatever reason we owe him zillions of dollars to go away, so I can't imagine we'll be firing him any time soon.

From an ‘I like this guy’ standpoint, I liked Doc, Miles and even Danny Nee more than Hoiberg, and I’m not really sure why.

I didn’t see much of the non game related coverage of any of the previous Husker coaches, because I moved out of Nebraska in the middle of Cipriano’s tenure. For whatever reason, I’ve never made a connection to Hoiberg, though I’ve watched more Nebraska basketball the past two years than I have since Danny Nee’s years.

As we sit here today, Hoiberg has the WORST record of any Nebraska basketball coach since I’ve been alive. Barry Collier was closest and got fired.

 

[Flabio]

If we had Texas money then yes replace him. Since we don’t I would let it fall apart next year on a renegotiated lower buy out.

 

[nscottie]

How many coaches will hire/fire before we realize we will always suck at basketball?

 

[Stan Raymond]

I agree, Hoiberg has done a shitty job outside of last year, but I think you are oversimplifying the idea that "it really isn't that hard for a power conference team to make the NCAA tournament." There are only 37 spots available for at-large teams once all the conference tournament champions are in. The P5 will generally get the most bids and send the most teams, but that still requires to finish generally in the upper half of your conference, but that doesn't guarantee a spot.

Below are the 37 projected at-large bids for this year, leaving only 34 P5 at-large spots available—making the path to the NCAA Tournament pretty tough, even for P5 programs. If it were truly "easy," teams with richer basketball histories than NU like Louisville (last appearance: 2019), Utah (2016), Wake Forest (2017), Butler (2018), Cincinnati (2019), and St. John’s (2019) would be making the tournament consistently.

The only P5 schools with fewer all-time bids than Nebraska (8) are Northwestern (3) and UCF (5). UCF wasn't D1 until 1985.

Projected
View attachment 51096

Now if you were to say that making your conference tournament should be easy, which Nebraska failed to do, I would totally agree with you.

Still say it's not hard to make the NCAA tournament, teams that aren't good do it all the time. Nebraska almost did it this year and we are not a good team. You don't even have to go .500 in conference to make it, like most likely tOSU, Arkansas or Vanderbilt. There are some pretty crappy teams that are currently projected to make it, like Oklahoma, 6-12 in conference and projected to make the tournament, they aren't a good team.

It doesn't take a "special" season or a particularly good team to make the NCAA tournament, it's not that hard to do, just have to be a top 45 or so team for that year. 41% to 49% of Power 5 teams make the NCAA tournament, a team doesn't have to be good, just slightly above average.

You have to be a pretty bad team not to make the conference tournament, which sadly we are.

 

[Southendzonehusker]

Also, do not get sucked into the agents’ trap of extending guys who are not terribly successful. If they want to walk, fine. You don’t want to keep guys only because they are too expensive to fire.

Hard part of this is recruiting. Coaches have to be in 5 year deals. No high school kid would commit to a coach with only 2 years left on his contract.

 

[Huskers633]

Fred isn't going anywhere 1 year after being Co-B1G Coach of the Year. Also because of the raise and buyout. I really like Fred, and I do think he's a good coach. I'd keep him and give him more funds, but that's easy for me to say because I care more about the basketball team than I do the football team.

But as much as I want Fred to succeed, anything less than a top 12 finish in the B1G next year we have to move on.

 

[Kinish]

I think if NU had a booster who was like "fuck fred. here's money to change"

he would be gone yesterday... clearly nobody with real money gives enough of a fuck so freds my ride or die

 

[djw004]

One thing I don't think gets enough shine is how we've changed our scheduling to, essentially, gurantee we are starting with 10+ wins going into conference play. .500 conference results will guarantee a tourney spot every year. It's smart. But a lot of Fred's "improvement" is based on significantly easier scheduling the last half of his tenure compared to his first half.

Last year was great and fun, but is an outlier in comparison to the rest of his tenure. We are a botttom 25% B1G Basketball team with one year that was equivalent to Linsanity. That's just the fact.

 

[djw004]

How many coaches will hire/fire before we realize we will always suck at basketball?

I firmly believe if we want to change our stars in basketball, we have to do it differently here.

No one will EVER go for this, because it's too volatile. I get it. But I will go to my grave BEGGING that we become OK with being a stepping stone program that signs the top mid-major, young, energetic, forward thinking, coach every 3 years or so. Then they move on to a big time job after us.

We will always be cutting edge, we will always be injecting NCAA Tournament talent through the portal from the coach's previous school (a la JMU and Indiana in FB), they will have more resources to get top end talent than they've ever had, they have a drive to prove at this level so they can go to the next "real" Power 5 job.

And - eventually - one of them will fucking LOVE Lincoln so much that they never leave and will set the record for most career wins in the NCAA

This is an easy formula.

 

[huskerj12]

Hard part of this is recruiting. Coaches have to be in 5 year deals. No high school kid would commit to a coach with only 2 years left on his contract.

Is this true in basketball? I genuinely don't follow it closely enough to know, but it seems like bball players can have a different approach with a way shorter timeline than football players, since they can potentially go pro after one year. And obviously the transfer free for all. I just wonder how many high schoolers take into account whether the coach is going to be there for 2 years vs 5 years.

 

[Huskers4420]

I think if NU had a booster who was like "fuck fred. here's money to change"

he would be gone yesterday... clearly nobody with real money gives enough of a fuck so freds my ride or die

The boosters with that kind of money have enough fatigue from donating to football and stadium reno. Basketball isn't even on the brain.

 

[DrinkItIn]

I firmly believe if we want to change our stars in basketball, we have to do it differently here.

No one will EVER go for this, because it's too volatile. I get it. But I will go to my grave BEGGING that we become OK with being a stepping stone program that signs the top mid-major, young, energetic, forward thinking, coach every 3 years or so. Then they move on to a big time job after us.

We will always be cutting edge, we will always be injecting NCAA Tournament talent through the portal from the coach's previous school (a la JMU and Indiana in FB), they will have more resources to get top end talent than they've ever had, they have a drive to prove at this level so they can go to the next "real" Power 5 job.

And - eventually - one of them will fucking LOVE Lincoln so much that they never leave and will set the record for most career wins in the NCAA

This is an easy formula.

Isn't this essentially what Nebraska was doing before hiring Hoiberg, or are you suggesting something different?

• Nee: Ohio
• Collier: Butler
• Sadler: UTEP
• Miles: Colorado State

 

[djw004]

Isn't this essentially what Nebraska was doing before hiring Hoiberg, or are you suggesting something different?

• Nee: Ohio
• Collier: Butler
• Sadler: UTEP
• Miles: Colorado State

The difference here would be each of those guys came here for 7+ years. We weren't intended to be their stepping stone, we were the height they were going to reach. Not one of them went to a better place than Nebraska AFTER Nebraska. We were their ceiling...

I am talking about what LSU did with Will Wade (a little longer than I'm thinking though) - a 34 year old obvious coaching stud that needs to break in. If he wasn't a total asshole cheater, he'd be at a blue blood by now.

Bob Richey
Bucky McMillan
Pat Kelsey (obviously not now...at louisville)
Matt Langel
Bryce Drew
Huss
Valentine
ROBERT JONES (added) Give me him...

I'm not advocating for any one of these guys - but this kind of person. Insanely successful lower level resume, obvious potential to be big, let them make their name bigger for 3 years in the B1G then leave us for a big boy Basketball job. Then do it all over again.

 

[Herbie]

How much is he owed if fired

 

[Huskers4420]

How much is he owed if fired

I think on the radio they said $16 million

 

[DrinkItIn]

The difference here would be each of those guys came here for 7+ years. We weren't intended to be their stepping stone, we were the height they were going to reach. Not one of them went to a better place than Nebraska AFTER Nebraska. We were their ceiling...

I am talking about what LSU did with Will Wade (a little longer than I'm thinking though) - a 34 year old obvious coaching stud that needs to break in. If he wasn't a total asshole cheater, he'd be at a blue blood by now.

Bob Richey
Bucky McMillan
Pat Kelsey (obviously not now...at louisville)
Matt Langel
Bryce Drew
Huss
Valentine
ROBERT JONES (added) Give me him...

I'm not advocating for any one of these guys - but this kind of person. Insanely successful lower level resume, obvious potential to be big, let them make their name bigger for 3 years in the B1G then leave us for a big boy Basketball job. Then do it all over again.

I understand where you're coming from, but it’s still going to take a hefty contract to attract any basketball coach to NU. No coach would take a job at a power 5 level without being well compensated for it, especially at NU. If they succeed and move on, that’s great—but if they fail, like most coaches seem to do at NU, the program is stuck with another expensive contract.

 

[PonyBoy]

Hard part of this is recruiting. Coaches have to be in 5 year deals. No high school kid would commit to a coach with only 2 years left on his contract.

That's not the (full) case anymore with the portal.

Is this true in basketball?

It's not as important in any sport as it was prior to the free-for-all portal option.

 

[Herbie]

That's not the (full) case anymore with the portal.



It's not as important in any sport as it was prior to the free-for-all portal option.

Yeah no wouldn’t fire him.
The basketball program isn’t worth that type of investment