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Nebraska Basketball's Fred Hoiberg Named National Coach of Year
Husker men's coach receives the Jim Phalen award as the season's top Division I coach
Another honor for Nebraska men’s basketball coach Fred Hoiberg.
Hoiberg was chosen as the recipient of the 2024 Jim Phalen Coach of the Year award Thursday. The award, given annually to the nation’s top Division I coach, is determined by a 10-member committee of current and former head coaches as well as two senior staff members of collegeinsider.com.
“I just want to say how honored and humbled I am to receive this great award,” Hoiberg said in a video posted to social media. “This is a hard business, and we’ve been through a lot of things over the last five years here at the University of Nebraska. But we’ve never lost our mission.
“We’ve always tried to come in with an unbeatable work ethic with our staff and go out there and really stick to the core values of what’s important with this program and try and build a winner.”
Hoiberg led Nebraska to a 23-11 record and a bid to the NCAA Tournament. The 23 wins are the second-most in school history and the NCAA Tournament appearance was the first in a decade.
As part of his effort in leading NU to a pair of wins over top-10 teams this past season, including a victory over then-No. 1 Purdue who is in the Final Four this weekend, Hoiberg shared Big Ten Coach of the Year honors.
The Jim Phelan Award is named in honor of the legendary bow-tied coach who spent his entire head coaching career at Mount Saint Mary’s University.
