Nebraska Basketball: It’s a strange time for Tim Miles and the Huskers

With the NIT opening Wednesday for Nebraska basketball and a head-coaching search seemingly underway, it’s a strange time for the Huskers.

This is going to be a really strange week for the Nebraska basketball team as head coach Tim Miles and the players are focused on beating Butler Wednesday, while a lot of the outside world is focused on the potential hire of Fred Hoiberg.

Reports about the Huskers interest in Hoiberg started to trickle out Monday but it wasn’t surprising. Hoiberg, who played for Iowa State and then the Chicago Bulls, before being the head coach at both places, is the ideal fit for Nebraska basketball.

He built a winner at Iowa State, which is a program somewhat similar to Nebraska. Obviously, the Cyclones have had a lot more overall success in just about every measurable way, but the culture of basketball is different in Nebraska than it used to be.

Nebraska has a fancy new arena and when it comes to the basketball program, there is no doubt that moving to the Big Ten helped advance the program.

Now there are some resources to build a program capable of reaching and winning at the NCAA tournament. I have been a Nebraska basketball fan for about 25 years or so and I have seen them make the tournament three times.

The three best moments I can remember are beating Oklahoma State for the Big 8 championship, beating Wisconsin in 2014 and probably winning the NIT. That’s pretty sad.

But Nebraska basketball has the ability to change some of that with the right coach. Hoiberg seems like the guy that could do it. With his NBA background, both playing and coaching, recruiting should get better and his fun, wide-open system should make the Huskers a team players want to play for.

While this is all well and good, there is still the simple fact that the 2018-19 Huskers still have a game this week. Their 18-16 record may have been disappointing, but they played inspired basketball during the Big Ten tournament and they deserve some support as they open the NIT Wednesday night.

James Palmer and Glynn Watson Jr. are ending their Nebraska careers and Isaiah Roby might be right behind them, although, hopefully, he decides to come back for another season.

This week might be weird for the players but it has to be even weirder for Miles, who knows that he is going to get fired. It’s an open secret at this point and athletic director Bill Moos hasn’t done a great job of handling this situation.

Miles and the players deserved better and if the Huskers end up missing out on Hoiberg, who doesn’t sound like a slam dunk to say yes, it will all be for not.

You have to give Miles credit because he has conducted himself with class. It seems like everyone would be better off if the season just ended, yet it doesn’t seem like the coach and his players have bought into that mentality and hopefully, they don’t.

Hopefully, the Huskers go a run and make it all the way to the Big Apple. That would make things even weirder and right now, I can’t picture a better way to end the era of Tim Miles than with an NIT championship, celebrating on the same stage with Moos, the man who created this mess in the first place.