A little under sized to play with Purdue. Nice depth. Playing very well at home. When even Berke is hitting 3s and free throws you know things are going well.
It sure does take me back to the origin of Nebrasketball in the “glory days” of
We’ve given him time to adjust his staff and build something. I’ve been a huge supporter in the darkest days. Best coach we’ve ever had and I go back to Cipriano.
Dumping his main man assistant Abdelmassih let him change his entire approach to the type of roster. Abdmassih brought in the great talent but we saw how they couldn’t coach them together as a team. I’m not ready to say Fred is the best ever not until he exceeds what Danny Knee did. All it will take is 1 tourney win.
What did Danny do? He recruited some very good talent but they mostly disappointed. Danny was a great recruiter. He wasn’t a very good X’s and 0’s coach. Fred is going to eclipse Danny. Better coach. IF Fred can keep getting players like Mast and Frager he’s going to exercise that NCAA tourney demon.
Fred’s a pretty decent coach and the portal favors those kind of guys.
Say what you want about Danny but he is the most accomplished coach in Nebraska history. Now that isn’t saying much of anything at all. A big 8 championship. A NIT tournament championship. The choke jobs in the NCAA tournaments were very disappointing.
Except Fred’s teams have improved once he stopped turning over 80% of the roster like he did his first 3-4 years
>90% of being a good college coach is recruiting. NIL and the portal no doubt has helped us lure guys to what has been a doormat basketball program.
He had some great players. Under performed. Bad in game coaching. JMO. He would make some end of game player substitutions that were absolute head scratchers.
Well Creighton does suck by their standards, a shell of what they typically are
Yes with the talent that was there, no reason at all they didn’t make a sweet 16 or 2
Guess I hadn’t paid attention yet. Maybe it’s a chance for DePaul to make a move to the top haha
They can beat Purdue. When that team shoots the ball well, they can play competitively with anybody. And as for other teams, size and athleticism is overrated in today's boring game. Too many great athletes today get caught up playing what used to be the fat man's game. Dribble, dribble, dribble and shoot from long range.
God I used to hate watching some of Fred's early teams play. The recruiting was a bit of a reminder of Husker football in terms of bringing in guys with stars next to their name who can't actually play worth a ****.
Who exactly were the guys with stars next to their names who you didn’t want? I can think of one transfer who scored a bunch and was suspended or quit before a season ended. Most of the rest were solid contributors on teams woefully short on talent.
They played as a group of individuals not as a team. Who cares if you have a guy averaging 22 points a game but the team goes 10-18 on the year.
I'm not going to waste my time looking it up. There was a kid from DePaul who was a 4 star and wasn't getting playing time on a bad DePaul team. NU took him. Then there was a collection of guys who looked good on paper and collectively couldn't play like a team if their lives depended on it. They didn't shoot well. Couldn't hit free throws. Were disinterested in defense. I could not care less if one or two of those guys has hooked on to a NBA roster.
We were desperate to try to get bodies to Lincoln who could score. We took some transfers with issues no doubt. That said, the highest ranked kids we had were high schoolers and landing them might of set us up to have better guys view us as a serious option to make it to the NBA. Fred struggled for a while to recruit kids to a program which is the only P5 program to never win an NCAA tourney game. Imagine that. Looks like with the patience we’ve shown AND NIL we might finally break that curse.
Fred completely changed his approach. Brought in some much better basketball coaches. That first year with the new staff anyone who has coached basketball at a meaningful level could see right off the bat that they were better coached just by watching the team warm up. They started recruiting shooters, kids with character, brought in a couple tough kids. Watching Bandoumel and Gary play together that first year after seeing those lazy ******* refuse to even bend their knees half the time. That was like going from listening to an elementary band to hearing a symphony for those of us who pay attention to the little things.
I honestly believe that where we’re at now is due to multiple factors. Even though we maybe wanted more from McGowens, landing him raised our profile. That helped. A fringe P4 player Derrick Walker showed that Fred’s offensive concepts could work at NU. Being patient with Fred IMO showed recruits that we were committed to letting him build something. Even though Fred struggled with the Bulls, NBA head coach is still on his resume. I always liked Fred as a player and as ISU’s coach. Very happy we have him. He’s our best hope (along with NIL) of building something.
Fred deserved to be fired after the first 3 years, but sometimes forcing changes in assistant staffing works. I don't think Fred is the only coach who could have turned this program around, but the important point is that he now is. Hoping the same thing happens with our football program without having to pay a $60 million buyout.
IF you’re firing a coach with Fred’s resume in his first 3 years you’re just confirming that the problem is you and not the head coach. Fact.
IF the coach is some no name never done it in D1 guy maybe his take had merit. But Fred’s not that. Legit coach. Great resume. Great dude. He’s been there done that.
He legitimately sucked and deserved to get fired. He ended up correcting; it took awhile, probably longer than it should, but he's redeemed himself finally.
It is actually possible for some people to know if a guy is a good coach or not. So resume should not matter. But you're right, it does matter and it can buy a guy time. Another factor that has proven itself out time and again is a suffering football program will keep the vultures away for a while as well.
Double down on that take. It really makes you look like you know what you’re talking about. Fred was starting from scratch rebuilding a program, the only major conference program that had never won an NCAA tourney game.
