I think Nebraska can be a great Basketball Team in the Future

[Bigred511]

Heck, I watched the Cubs struggle for years and took 108 years between championships to Win a World Series. Basketball is a sport that you can have success in a hurry. You need the right coach that can recruit and develop. Every team gets 13 scholarship players. Getting all 5-star players is probably close to impossible right away with a bad history. However, with steady improvement, anything is possible to build a championship team in the future. A couple of great players can really turn things around in a hurry.

 

[huskerfan1414]

Ill stick my neck out there and say this, even now:

The next basketball coach at Nebraska will be the first to win a game in the NCAA tournament.

 

[spartanhusker]

Well, we are due

 

[newAD]

Ill stick my neck out there and say this, even now:

The next basketball coach at Nebraska will be the first to win a game in the NCAA tournament.

Maybe in Dayton.

 

[spartanhusker]

well, it would be a start!

 

[Crazyhole]

The Cubs analogy is a good one. We havent won a regular season conference title in 70 years. That may be even more futility than the Cubs had.

 

[Husker4real]

Agreed. Maybe NU won’t become the equivalent of Duke or Carolina, but they can surely raise the bar from what it’s been.

It’s not easy getting to the NCAA Tournament on a regular basis - but it is definitely not as hard as NU makes it look.

 

[nudan92]

The people who say it can't be done here are morons. K-State seems to attract very good coaches...they may see the program as a stepping stone to somewhere else, but they always seem to have good coaching. Anyone ever been to Manhattan, Kansas? Lincoln blows that town away. We have facilities and fan support that rival the best college basketball programs in the nation, what we lack is a top tier coach. Clearly just having fan support and televisions in the shower is not enough to attract the talent. We need a coach.

 

[mgbreis]

I'm not 100% clear on K-State's basketball history, but at least on the surface it seems like all it took to turn the switch there was one year of Bob Huggins. That's why I hope we do something other than get the latest ho-hum mid-major guy. We need to do something off script.

 

[spartanhusker]

He DID change the climate!

 

[newAD]

The people who say it can't be done here are morons. K-State seems to attract very good coaches...they may see the program as a stepping stone to somewhere else, but they always seem to have good coaching. Anyone ever been to Manhattan, Kansas? Lincoln blows that town away. We have facilities and fan support that rival the best college basketball programs in the nation, what we lack is a top tier coach. Clearly just having fan support and televisions in the shower is not enough to attract the talent. We need a coach.

K-State has been relevant in basketball since the 1950s, with four final four appearances and dozens of appearances and victories in the dance. They aren't some "Johnny come lately" program, or a "Never has been like Nebraska."

Have you seen the basketball facilities at K-State? It is pretty damn nice.

Our fan support? Congrats, it helps keep under achieving basketball coaches employed. You don't have to make a change at coach if your program is mediocre if the people keep coming.

Yes we need a coach. One that will attract players to come here. We just don't know if any will take the job.

 

[TruHusker]

I am not banking on seeing the Nebraska basketball program climb to “great” status in my lifetime. I believe they can be consistently good with some better years sprinkled in. The “greats” are the Dukes, North Carolina, Kansas, Villanova, UConn and others. There are always tiers of greatness and clearly we at the bottom.

Interesting how this thread went from being great to being compared to K-State. I could remember some of the past KSU coach’s but not all so I looked them up. Interesting names and stats.

Tex Winter 53-1968 261-118
Cotton Fitzsimmons 68-1970 34-20
Jack Hartman 70-1986 295-169
Lon Kruger 86-1990 81-46
Danna Altman 90-1994 68-54
Tom Asbury 94-2000 85-88
Jim Woolridge 00-2006 83-90
Bob Huggins 06-2007 23-12
Frank Martin 07-2012 117-54
Bruce Weber. 12-current 143-85

Hate to make comparisons but people make fun of the Iowa football that is consistently good with the occasional really good season, but that is more likely what we will have. KSU had two coaches under .500 back to back and they didn’t last long. The good coaches seem to be able to turn things around quickly and keep them going fairly consistently. It appears that building a good basketball team can be done much faster than a football team - duh.

I don’t remember where some of these coaches came from but I am going to guess most were upstarts with some good coaching tree past and connections for recruiting.

Conclusion - hire the right person. Brilliant I know.

 

[dinglefritz]

Ill stick my neck out there and say this, even now:

The next basketball coach at Nebraska will be the first to win a game in the NCAA tournament.

Yep. Miles has built them a good foundation to launch from.....

 

[nudan92]

K-State has been relevant in basketball since the 1950s, with four final four appearances and dozens of appearances and victories in the dance. They aren't some "Johnny come lately" program, or a "Never has been like Nebraska."

Have you seen the basketball facilities at K-State? It is pretty damn nice.

Our fan support? Congrats, it helps keep under achieving basketball coaches employed. You don't have to make a change at coach if your program is mediocre if the people keep coming.

Yes we need a coach. One that will attract players to come here. We just don't know if any will take the job.

My point is that it can happen anywhere if you get the right coach. Nebraska has a history of mediocre coaching hires in the basketball program. If it can be done at Gonzaga then why not here? They were a crap program from the 1940s to the mid 90s. They've been a powerhouse since then. VCU? Texas Tech? How was Oklahoma before Billy Tubbs got there? They've had a string of great basketball coaches and players.

You don't have to have tradition before you have it. You just have to have the right coach. The cheapskates at Nebraska have never been willing to go after a name coach. Always willing to settle for the "hot" mid major coach that just made his first NCAA tournament.

 

[spartanhusker]

Actually OU was pretty good under John McLeod, but I totally agree... if us fans show up for crap, think what GOOD ball would ring in!

 

[schuele]

How was Oklahoma before Billy Tubbs got there?

Dave Bliss had some success at Oklahoma prior to Tubbs being there.

Of course Dave Bliss is a career criminal who should be in prison, but he did win quite a few games at Oklahoma.

 

[mgbreis]

K-State has been relevant in basketball since the 1950s, with four final four appearances and dozens of appearances and victories in the dance. They aren't some "Johnny come lately" program, or a "Never has been like Nebraska."

If KSU is a great program NOW, it's entirely because of Huggins jolting them out of suckitude and not because as a program they had a glorious history. He spent one season at KSU and totally flipped the script. In the 27 seasons prior to Huggins (back to '80) KSU won 20 games 7 times. Same time period for Nebraska? 20 wins 6 times (and it would be 7 if you included 06-07). KSU is 11 for 13 on 20 wins seasons since then. If KSU was a hotbed of success before 1980, great but ancient history. They basically were the same or worse than Nebraska in the 25 years prior to Huggins. KSU is 100% the perfect example of why we can be successful also. Or maybe they got lucky and something like that will never happen again. It was indeed crazy that he went there.

 

[spartanhusker]

And they be done it with three loons at the helm!!!

 

[TruHusker]

K-State has been relevant in basketball since the 1950s, with four final four appearances and dozens of appearances and victories in the dance. They aren't some "Johnny come lately" program, or a "Never has been like Nebraska."

If KSU is a great program NOW, it's entirely because of Huggins jolting them out of suckitude and not because as a program they had a glorious history. He spent one season at KSU and totally flipped the script. In the 27 seasons prior to Huggins (back to '80) KSU won 20 games 7 times. Same time period for Nebraska? 20 wins 6 times (and it would be 7 if you included 06-07). KSU is 11 for 13 on 20 wins seasons since then. If KSU was a hotbed of success before 1980, great but ancient history. They basically were the same or worse than Nebraska in the 25 years prior to Huggins. KSU is 100% the perfect example of why we can be successful also. Or maybe they got lucky and something like that will never happen again. It was indeed crazy that he went there.

No doubt Huggins turned things around in his one year there. Number of wins isn’t comparable to today. If my math is correct, Hartman averaged 27 total games from 70-86. Look more at their winning %.

Fitzsimmons - .630
Hartman - .636
Kruger - .638
Altman - .557
Asbury - .491
Wooldridge - .480
Huggins - .657
Martin - .684
Weber - .627

I think what made Huggins look so good is where the program came from. We really didn’t get to see what he could do recruiting long term at KSU with his limited time. I think if you compare this to our football coaches over the years, Bob, Tom, Frank, Bo, Mike, and now Frost. Unless you are a Duke or NC you are likely going to have some down years. The question is how long do you put up with coach’s when things don’t seem to be going well. I for one am glad we didn’t run Tom off. That makes no comparison to Tim BTW.

 

[The_Glove_Man]

Back in the day, I would offer a wager, at the beginning of every basketball season, that Nebraska would not win an NCAA tournament game that year. I stopped doing so NOT because I thought it might happen, but because I thought it was a cynical thing to do.

But if anyone is interested in putting some money down on NU winning an NCAA tournament game next March, I'll take that bet.

I have to impose a $100 limit because I'm afraid several people might take me up on it and I want to be able to cover, just in case.

 

[Hoosker Du]

I'm not 100% clear on K-State's basketball history, but at least on the surface it seems like all it took to turn the switch there was one year of Bob Huggins. That's why I hope we do something other than get the latest ho-hum mid-major guy. We need to do something off script.

K-State's success was well before Bob Huggins entered the picture. They have multiple final 4s, Elite 8s, and Sweet 16s. Historically a very relevant program.

And keep in mind that Bob Huggins is old school and no doubt knew K-State's history when he decided to go there.

 

[scarletred]

K-State's success was well before Bob Huggins entered the picture. They have multiple final 4s, Elite 8s, and Sweet 16s. Historically a very relevant program.

Correct K State has a lot of Basketball history, 4 Final 4,13 Elite 8,and 18 sweet 16..

 

[mgbreis]

And prior to Huggins they hadn't been out of the first round since 88-89. I'm not arguing with you guys that they had history when Huggins went there, it was just ANCIENT history. It's a fun debate; I still say the reason for the turnaround was Huggins, not their fantastic history. Of course its not entirely one or the other, it's never that simple. Did Michael Beasley grow up fantasizing about K-State basketball? Nah.

"I went to a small school in Manhattan, Kansas that nobody heard of in 25 years." - Michael Beasley

 

[spartanhusker]

Ah, Mike Beasley... “ I’m gonna drop 50 on Nebraska”...

 

[red scowl]

The people who say it can't be done here are morons. K-State seems to attract very good coaches...they may see the program as a stepping stone to somewhere else, but they always seem to have good coaching. Anyone ever been to Manhattan, Kansas? Lincoln blows that town away. We have facilities and fan support that rival the best college basketball programs in the nation, what we lack is a top tier coach. Clearly just having fan support and televisions in the shower is not enough to attract the talent. We need a coach.

This ^ 100%

 

[noazhusker]

I'm not 100% clear on K-State's basketball history, but at least on the surface it seems like all it took to turn the switch there was one year of Bob Huggins. That's why I hope we do something other than get the latest ho-hum mid-major guy. We need to do something off script.

If that is what you think is the extent of KSU’s b-ball coaching history you need to do some research

 

[spartanhusker]

If that is what you think is the extent of KSU’s b-ball coaching history you need to do some research

In fairness, they went through some serious suckage with Wooldrige and the guy before him....they had hardly been relevant.

 

[mgbreis]

If that is what you think is the extent of KSU’s b-ball coaching history you need to do some research

I did do some research and I acknowledge they had some ancient history when Huggins took the job. He's the reason for their turnaround, not their status as a proud and storied program. I know some of you guys think the 70's and 80's are relevant, but they're not. Not when you've predominantly sucked for 20+ years.

I guess all the closet K-State fans got their feelings hurt by my comment, but that wasn't my point. I maintain my opinion that Nebraska basketball can succeed quickly with the right coach. Seems like an obvious statement. When Tim Miles was hired 90% of us said "who?", we can't do that again.

 

[TruHusker]

I did do some research and I acknowledge they had some ancient history when Huggins took the job. He's the reason for their turnaround, not their status as a proud and storied program. I know some of you guys think the 70's and 80's are relevant, but they're not. Not when you've predominantly sucked for 20+ years.

I guess all the closet K-State fans got their feelings hurt by my comment, but that wasn't my point. I maintain my opinion that Nebraska basketball can succeed quickly with the right coach. Seems like an obvious statement. When Tim Miles was hired 90% of us said "who?", we can't do that again.

Careful, our success in football is irrelevant in the same scenario just like the Iowa fans say.

 

[mgbreis]

Careful, our success in football is irrelevant in the same scenario just like the Iowa fans say.

It kind of is. This is just my opinion, I'm not asking anyone to agree with me. I feel that if Nebraska football challenges for conf titles and playoff berths, it's because of Scott Frost and has little to do with our history. Like I said above, it's not one or the other, it's a mixture. But it's like an 80/20 split weighted towards the importance of the coach.