Nebraska Basketball: Fred Hoiberg draws praise from McGowens family

The 2022-2023 Nebraska basketball season is still a little more than a month away, but one thing is for sure. There won’t be a McGowens brother on the roster for the first time in a couple of years. In fact, both Bryce and Trey McGowens ended up spending just a short time with the Nebrasketball than they could have, but it doesn’t appear that was because of any strife between the basketball stars and their head coach, Fred Hoiberg.

In fact, earlier this week, Bryce and Trey’s father, Bobby McGowens went out of his way to take to social media in order to praise the Nebraska basketball coach, who finds himself in the same kind of “prove it” season that Nebraska football coach Scott Frost started the fall in.

The Twitter post doesn’t seem to be in reference or reaction to anything. Which makes the post that much more heartwarming. It appears that the elder McGowens just felt the Nebraska basketball public needed to know how thankful he was that Hoiberg was there to help mentor his sons.

"“From the bottom of my heart, a sincere thank you to @CoachHoiberg & his staff for an amazing 2 years mentoring my sons & allowing them to create lifelong memories in Lincoln! We couldn’t have asked for a better coach or person to lead our sons! We love & support you 4ever coach!”"

The tweet was accompanied by a picture with the entire McGowens clan standing with Hoiberg on the Nebraska basketball home court during senior night.

The tweet underlined what was certainly an interesting era in Nebraska basketball. Trey McGowens started his college basketball career with the Pittsburgh Panthers, but transferred to Nebraska after the 2019-2020 season. After a fantastic first season with the Huskers, he missed a good part of his final year due to injury and then decided to go pro.

Bryce McGowens spent just one year with the Nebraska basketball team, averaging 16.8 points and 5.2 rebounds per game as a true freshman. After the season, he too left the Huskers, declaring for the NBA Draft. He was selected in the second round by the Minnesota Timberwolves and later traded to the Charlotte Hornets.

Without the brothers on the Nebraska basketball team, there is definitely some concern that the 2022-23 season could be another very bad one, considering the seasons were plenty bad, even with their talent on the court.