Oh I definitely think Fred is consulted, but he’s not on the phone arranging contracts.
NU BB transfer
- Thread starter HBK4life
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Gee. What is different between those names and Fred? Those guys have virtually unlimited NIL resources. Few has Stockton etal funding and promoting Gonzaga not to mention their tournament success. People need to come to grips with our situation. It’s different than all of the schools where those guys coach.
You know what else is VASTLY different. Those guys will get fired if they don’t win NCAA tournament games plural. Some will get fired for not winning enough NCAA tournament games. We’re just asking Fred to win one fvcking NCAA game in the almost decade he’s coached at NU.
Those guys get paid 5 million a year to make final 4s. Fred gets paid 5 million a year to hopefully win 1 fvcking tournament game. But go on and keep defending his 7 years of jack nothing.
They’ll get fired because ALL of their schools have relevant past success. Fred is trying to do something that has never been done before at Nebraska. Fact. I just don’t think firing Fred would be financially prudent for the program at this time. I believe he gets 2 more years barring a complete disaster this next season. 😕
He has more four seasons left on his contract. What does he need to accomplish in the next two years to stick around for seasons 3 and 4?
Do you give any NIL for basketball? If ye good for you. If not go fk yourself.
I have no idea. I get your frustration. I just am resigned to the fact that we’re pot committed to Fred. I watched Cipriano coach from wooden portable bleachers in the old Coliseum. I’m used to mediocre NU basketball. I guess I’m just happy I never have to watch another Moe Iba or Doc Sadler coached team.
You can’t fire him now. You either do it after the end of the regular season or you do it the next year.
That pretty much sums up my frustration - which is not that they haven't fired Fred. It's that there are absolutely no benchmarks for what the program needs to accomplish. It's just an outcome-based exercise in goalpost-moving that says, "Well, you know, Fred's a good guy, and I doubt anyone else coulda dun any better."
Great work if you can get it. Arguably the best damn job in all of college sports.
I can agree that there’s no red line he has to stay above other than butts in seats and the appearance of competitiveness. These past couple of years he’s done that at least. I thought this was the year we would finally get a tourney win then the collapse happened. No coach at NU IMO has ever had a minimum goal set for them other than win enough games to sell tickets and don’t get humiliated. I could enjoy watching them these past two years. That’s a start but if my expectations are low, it isn’t just because of Fred. I’ve watched it for too many years. Nee had a team that could have won a couple of tourney games the year they won the NIT. Other than that, too many roster holes.
Nee also went to four consecutive NCAA tournaments (and five total), including one team that earned a #3 seed and another that was a #6 seed. Disappointing they never got past the first round, but apparently his biggest mistake was establishing expectations of success.
I did, but it's irrelevant because each school's economy is different. There isn't anywhere near as much money in the Lincoln Nebraska area as there is in the Durham NC area. Nebraska's fan performance for Basketball is already spectacular. Nebraska is already #28 in team attendance and that's with Creighton down the road at 8th. People in Nebraska show up no matter what. Nebraska gets not much less attendance than the combined attendance of Florida and Houston, the 2 teams in the NCG this season.
We're in the B10 so we get that TV money. We have almost sold out attendance so we get that money. The haymarket does banner business on game days. There's not much more to squeeze out of that rock.
If NIL is the reason he can’t get players, what explains his inability to get players before NIL was a thing?
Probably being the only major-conference program to never win an NCAA tournament game
He actually got higher rated players before NIL. Bryce McGowins and Delano Blanton were higher ranked recruits than anything Fred has signed in the NIL era.
Our history I seem to recall the Jays getting caught offering enticements not too long before NIL was a thing. You know damned well you were paying players.
Fred’s kinda starting to own McDermott and Jays. Pretty sad fact from a team that doesn’t regularly make the tourney
Nee made it to many NCAA's which was great. He also could recruit and had the best roster of talent in UNL basketball history. Unfortunately every first round in the NCAA he would get outcoached by the opposing coach consistently. And we were favored in some of those games. All we need is a coach who can recruit and coach them up with a reasonable NIL budget in today's environment.
Oh I’m not yearning for the days of Danny Nee, I’m just wondering when all expectations went completely out the window. If Fred ever goes to four consecutive NCAA tournaments, even with zero tourney wins, it feels like he would get a lifetime contract and the court would be named after him. And yet it landed Danny Nee at Duquesne, and later the Merchant Marine Academy.
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Back in the day, there was groupthink that NU tolerated less success from the basketball program because we were a football school, and obviously a very successful one. But its like the bar for the basketball team has fallen proportionately to the football program's success level. Nee averaged 20 wins for almost the entire 90s and was fired following his first losing season in a decade (and for not being such a nice guy). Fred, on the other hand, has 2 20 win seasons, including this past season where it took 4 wins in a post season tournament of also-rans to get there, and there are posts in this thread suggesting he is setting the bar for success at NU.
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Winning conference records:
Fred 1 in 6
Miles 2 in 7
Sadler 1 in 6
Collier 0 in 6
Née 7 in 14
Iba 5 in 6
Cipriano 13 in 17
Jerry Bush (Fred’s grandpa) 1 in 9
So, back to back 20+ wins is nice. Fred still has our bar set pretty low.
Someone suggested that the last two years have been the second best stretch in program history. What? For one, earlier years had fewer games. Secondly, Fred has had only one above .500 record in conference in six years.
Winning conference records:
Fred 1 in 6
Miles 2 in 7
Sadler 1 in 6
Collier 0 in 6
Née 7 in 14
Iba 5 in 6
Cipriano 13 in 17
Jerry Bush (Fred’s grandpa) 1 in 9
So, back to back 20+ wins is nice. Fred still has our bar set pretty low.
It isn't easy to go .500 in the Big Ten. So it would be one thing if NU was on the fringes of .500 most years, but falling a little bit short. But Fred is 37-82 in B1G play, for a .311 winning percentage.
But oh well, something something about "great fit" and butts in the seats.
I would say Barry Collier killed any expectations and then Doc buried them under a pig confinement compost pile.
Yeah I think some of the stuff going on with recruiting and “private” things played a larger role in Nee getting axed. He had a legendarily foul mouth but my impression was that people liked him. There are some things that are terminal at NU. I think the losing season was an excuse but maybe not as causative as some think.
Unfortunately some of the alums who could maybe help us attract high level recruits have been basically absent. Ty Lue and a few others could help us immensely IMO if they would do some of the things to promote us like Stockton does for Gonzaga. The Zags IMO have a more affluent basketball alumni base, but Lue holding say a point guard camp at NU might be a big boost.
That sorta line of thinking is blatant gas lighting by Fred’s sycophantic apologists.
Agree, Lue could be a big ambassador if he was so inclined as he is obviously well known and respected at the top level of the game. He played his career at NU under Nee and was one of the few players who showed up for practice when the player boycott happened towards the end of the Nee era trying to get him fired. I've never heard any news bites that suggest Lue harbors ill will to the school for ultimately firing Nee, but maybe he does, or maybe he just has moved on and isn't interested in reinvesting in that part of his life.
