If I remember right Fred won less than 10 games when we did have a NBA player on our team. Twice.
Fred, Fred, Fred.....
- Thread starter spartanhusker
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Rutgers has 2 of the Top 3 picks in next year's NBA Draft, and they are not even going to make the NCAA Tournament this year (unless they somehow catch fire and win like 10 of their last 12 games).
You have to build a complete team to win at a high level in this league. We saw with McGowens that one NBA-caliber player doesn't make that much difference if the rest of the team sucks.
Still, I don't think it makes sense to fire Fred, I'd rather use the $10 million it would take to buy him out and invest that in bringing in a well-rounded group of transfers/recruits. The group he brought in this year just does not have a lot of athleticism or scoring ability.
I would've vehemently disagreed with you a week ago, but now I think you might be right. I don't think Nebraska will fire him but I think there's a chance he pulls an Erstad and exits stage left. Sam is done, Gary and Williams are gone, it's an uphill battle, the roster needs another big reset.... he might just walk away.
It can be done, Danny Nee recruited NBA type players and a lot of his teams were pretty good. Just an aside to make everyone feel a bit better, Nebraska leads all time against colorado in men's basketball, so they've got that going for them. 
We had multiple people who could hit 3s last year. Tominaga, Mast, Wilcher and Williams.
This year… Essegian and Williams are about it. Berke will get an occasional 3 but if we’re gonna count him we have to probably should count Hoiberg and Gary too. And then you’d have to count them for last year as well. IMO, none of Berke, Hoiberg or Gary are good enough shooters to be considered a real threat from 3.
Nebraska is similar to Iowa in terms of what there is to offer yet Iowa state is rather successful and the Hawkeyes have decent years as well. Creighton has a good program in this nothing to do state. Anything to do in Manhattan Kansas? Yet K State is successful
None. But as others have said you don’t “need” NBA caliber talent to be a really good team at the college level. Probably be 30ish + teams in tournament that don’t an NBA caliber player on their roster. And some of those teams will win games in the tournament.
Don’t get me wrong, you recruit and take NBA level recruits when you can. And we definitely need more talent/better players. But you don’t need NBA guys.
Danny Nee proved you can recruit good talent to NU. His teams from the early 90s were athletic, big and deep - fan's today would be going ga-ga if Hoiberg could put together rosters like Nee had. Nee was a better recruiter than he was a coach, and how some of his best teams didn't win a game in the dance is a reflection of that - they certainly weren't losing those games because of talent. Maybe times have changed and it is harder to recruit to NU, or maybe Collier, Sadler, Miles, and Hoiberg are simply not the recruiters that Nee was.
Kind of a continuation from my earlier post, but for as small as Ninja was, he could take it to the hoop. And finish most of the time. That is desperately needed when we get late in the shot clock and need a playmaker. Someone that forces the opponent to play defense, which results in a score or a foul (and free throws). We don't have that. Williams can get to the lane but more often than not has to finish with a tough jump shot or leaner. Sam can penetrate but is too small to finish. Ulis can penetrate but doesn't have the ability to finish. Worster is capable of being able to post up his defender, but that is best when early in the shot clock. Gary is probably our best but seems reluctant to do it. So, we settle for a 3 pointer. As we have seen, the shooting percentage is low when it is "required" to shoot a 3 pointer.
Mast and Walker were able to do that as a big man playing from the high post. Morgan has some skills but not late in the shot clock.
I once subscribed to the theory that our basketball suckiness was the tradeoff for being excellent in football for so many decades. We didn't deserve to be good in both.
But surely we're long past that by now, right?
But surely we're long past that by now, right?
Our last 5 head coaches prior to Hoiberg coached for a combined 21 seasons as head coaches at other D1 programs after leaving NU with zero NCAA tournament appearances, one NIT appearance, and a total of 6 winning seasons. Sitting in 9th place in their conference, Miles' current SJSU team doesn't seem on track to improve on that track record. Maybe we're just not very good at hiring coaches.
And Tominaga SUCKED when he first got to NU. His 3 point shooting was great but the guy we really miss this year is Mast.
Essegian might end up that way as a designated shooter. He has some work to do. Brice is maybe a bench NBA guy. What a lot of people under estimate is the level of defensive play in the B1G. Our bigs are just okay. They’re not really a threat like Mast was last year.
I think Fred is a nice guy. I have talked with him several times at football games.
However, despite whatever success he had in the past...he sucks as a coach here. He can't seem to "coach" this team (or any team for as long as he has been here) to do whatever to takes to win. His teams start good but then turn into a bunch of losers ...losers that seem okay with losing.
However, despite whatever success he had in the past...he sucks as a coach here. He can't seem to "coach" this team (or any team for as long as he has been here) to do whatever to takes to win. His teams start good but then turn into a bunch of losers ...losers that seem okay with losing.
Unless NU gets a big, big name coach to come to Lincoln, which is highly unlikely, what you see is what you get. Fred has already proved he’s a pretty good coach trying to constantly piece together a competitive team. I think Lincoln is a tough sell for good basketball players….the talent level probably isn’t ever going to be like some other BigTen schools. It is what it is.
Nebraska players that actually played meaningful minutes in the NBA stopped with Tim Miles leaving. Also the last time we beat USC at home. It’s been only mediocre talent since.
Miles was very successful prior to coming here. It was a good hire. He got decent talent here. Yet it appears his stop at SJSU has provided his worst results yet.
Right on. This year's roster does not have the athleticism or quickness to match up with most all of the teams in the conference. Fred knows it but can't comment publicly to the media. Hopefully he addresses it in recruiting/transfer portal soon because the current roster will not be sufficient going forward. I hope he will have decent NIL money to make the upgrade.
We definitely miss Mast out front with his passing skills and ability to knock down some three's. But he also had Allick down low to rebound and play defense. And he was quick, athletic for his size. We don't have that this year and it's showing up big time in the conference games
Lawrence also ended up shooting 36% from the arc last year, and that was after a miserable start. He shot 42% in conference play.
Can't believe Miles took the SJSU job. That might be the worst job in college basketball. He should have worked as an assistant at a major program for a couple of years until a better mid-major job opened up.
Kansas = Established program
Creighton = Established program
Iowa State = Established program
Iowa = Meh
As I said I believe that Nebraska has a recruiting barrier in its location and climate. I don't believe its the ONLY barrier.
Yeah, Kansas, Creighton, and Iowa State have a long tradition of winning. The only thing Nebraska Basketball is known for is for being the only major conference team to never win an NCAA tournament game. Add in that our location and climate is not appealing for most kids, and it's difficult to attract talent here.
Going forward? Most, if not all, will be gone next year. Need to get mid major talent. Cheaper and they have a chip on their shoulder.
Exactly. Unless we get a big name “splash hire” coach, this is our reality. Either that or we strike gold and get lucky hiring an unknown, young coach who turns out to be the basketball equivalent of a Tom Osborne.
Im telling you... Nebraska is where good coaching careers go to die. At least it sure seems that way. Who was the last Nebraska HC to go onto a power 5 as a HC? In anything?
You’re right! Last I checked I could only find one. Doc Sadler. He went from Nebraska to Southern Miss. I kid.😎
I kind of stinks that the state of Nebraska had a pretty good run of high school players come out from about 2018-2022 and Nebraska kind miss on most all of them. Even after going in to the transfer portal. You did get Griesel and Allick on the rebound, but missing out on all of the 21-22 class hurt.
You're right, and that's why people who think a successful coach at a major program is going to leave their job for Nebraska are delusional. This job is known as a coaching graveyard in the college basketball world.
Want to know something about Creighton? At one time they weren’t established. What got them established? Coaching. 2 of them, Dana Altman followed by McDermott. For certain Altman had far less resources to work with.
Yep. When I went to college at UNL in the 80s, the Huskers had a better BB program than Creighton. Creighton became an "established" program by recruiting better coaches than NU and establishing a system that works and maintaining continuity. I do not buy that NU is a coaching graveyard. Both Altman and McDermott came to CU with prior P5 coaching experience. NU has tried that 1x in the past 60+ years - that is Fred.
Actually, Creighton was a step down for both of them. Altman from Kansas State, McDermott from Iowa State. I watched Nebraska beat Creighton in the late seventies. I scoffed at the thought of playing them back then. Boy, have times changed.
