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Nebraska basketball: Hunter departure another blow to Miles era

By Oliver VanDervoort

BLOOMINGTON, IN - DECEMBER 28: Head coach Tim Miles of the Nebraska Cornhuskers watches the game from the sideline in the first half against the Indiana Hoosiers at Assembly Hall on December 28, 2016 in Bloomington, Indiana. (Photo by Dylan Buell/Getty Images)
BLOOMINGTON, IN - DECEMBER 28: Head coach Tim Miles of the Nebraska Cornhuskers watches the game from the sideline in the first half against the Indiana Hoosiers at Assembly Hall on December 28, 2016 in Bloomington, Indiana. (Photo by Dylan Buell/Getty Images) /
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The Nebraska basketball lost its lead recruiter on Monday morning and this loss might be bigger than any one player deciding to go pro or transfer.

If you thought a few Nebraska basketball players going pro was the biggest concern for the Huskers this summer, you are now wrong. With the announcement that assistant coach Kenya Hunter is leaving, Tim Miles and company find themselves in an interesting position.

Make no mistake, Hunter was the Top Gun when it came to getting the young talent into Lincoln. Hunter was the recruiter for both Karrington Davis and Xavier Johnson in the 2018 class.

He is someone that had a huge hand in getting the program to where it is now. Is it possible he had a bigger hand than head coach Tim Miles did? It’s not out of the question.

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And now he’s moving on. To UCONN.

While that program has been down and out for a few seasons, it sure seems like it’s about to come back in a big way.

Instead of having Hunter here to help continue rebuild (or just build) this program, he’s going to one of the preeminent basketball schools in the country. The rich get richer, and the Cornhuskers get stuck trying to replace a very good assistant for the second time in Tim Miles’ career.

Yes, one should expect an assistant coach to leave from time to time. You would like to think the only time they’re going to leave is when they are getting the option for a head coaching gig.

There is also the possibility that an assistant from a smaller school would make the jump to a larger one. That’s not really what happened here.

“I looked at the opportunity that UConn presents for me, working with a staff that I’m very excited about, plus I felt that I needed a change,” Hunter said in a UConn press release. “Obviously, UConn has a great tradition of winning — four national championships and one just four years ago. It’s recent, not outdated.”

The “I felt I needed a change” is the most concerning. Since that statement, Hunter has said this was a personal thing and had nothing to do with Miles.

How many people do you know have made lateral moves that weren’t, at least in part, driven by the relationship they had with their boss? Even if Kenya Hunter is being fully truthful and this move was more about a desire to go to UCONN then leave the Nebraska basketball team, it’s a big blow. It could play a big part in what the rest of the Tim Miles era looks like and how long it lasts.

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