Nebraska Basketball made it official Saturday.
Some people may call this news rather anti-climactic. After all, many websites and blogs had the new head coach of Nebraska Basketball picked weeks ago. Nevertheless, the news became official Saturday. Fred Hoiberg is officially the new Nebraska Basketball coach. This undoubtedly marks a new era of Nebraska basketball.
The program has signed him on for seven years at a price tag of more than $3 million per year according to Evan Daniels of 247Sports. Hoiberg is also expected to bring St. John’s assistant Matt Abdelmassih to Lincoln. Both coaches worked together at Iowa State and Abdelmassih helped out recruiting players.
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Although he may have had a rough go of things coaching in the professional ranks, Hoiberg’s success at Iowa State cannot be ignored. While there, he led the Cyclones to four 20-plus win seasons. His best campaign came in the 2013-14 school year. He led Iowa State to a 28-8 record which included an 11-7 mark in Big 12 conference play. Good enough for a third-place tie in the conference, he led them to a spot in the Sweet 16. His accomplishments the following year, his final season with Iowa State, were nothing to scoff at either. Leading the program to a 25-9 record, he improved his conference record to 12-6. Good enough for second in the conference, the Cyclones made it to the round of 64 where they fell at the hands of UAB in a heart-breaker.
Nebraska Basketball fans should be excited about this hire. Too often, new coaching hires are young and inexperienced. While many young coaches have gone on to be very successful, that is not what the Huskers need right now. They need someone that can come in and help rebuild the program again. The Huskers are losing talent whether it be to graduation or players transferring following the firing of Tim Miles. They need someone who can stabilize the proverbial ship, as Nebraska Basketball tries to weather that storm.
This should be an exciting day for the program. Hoiberg has the opportunity to turn things around and make the program his own. What that will look like we do not know at this time, but I have a feeling Nebraska Basketball will be contending in no time. He certainly has a lot of work ahead of him, but his resume suggest that he should be able to handle it. There may be a couple bumps in the road at times, but he should be able to make it work.