Nebraska’s Fred Hoiberg Among National Coach of the Year Candidates

As Nebraska men’s basketball continues to set school records and is firmly in the national conversation, coach Fred Hoiberg is receiving much-earned praise.

Under Hoiberg’s guidance, Nebraska (21-3, 10-3 Big Ten) has graduated from being the best story in college basketball because of his team’s turnaround, to a club people need to take seriously in March. The Huskers are a projected 2-seed in Joe Lunardi’s latest ESPN Bracketology. Nebraska is ranked seventh in the latest AP Top 25 Poll.

Nebraska’s three losses were to No. 3 Michigan, No. 9 Illinois and No. 13 Purdue.

Nebraska can compete with any team in the nation. That should provide the Huskers with a major boost of confidence when March gets here and it’s easy for doubt to set in.

ESPN has noticed. The media outlet recently listed 12 candidates for the Coach of the Year and Hoiberg is on the list.

In fact, Hoiberg is No. 2 on the list. Feels about right, Tuesday’s loss to Purdue notwithstanding.

Huskers’ turnaround season

ESPN writers Jeff Borzello and Myron Medcalf compiled the coaching list, which has No. 1-ranked Arizona’s Tommy Lloyd at the top.

About Hoiberg, Medcalf wrote: “After finishing 7-13 in the Big Ten last season, Nebraska’s athletic director had to release a statement to temper hot-seat talk around Hoiberg. Now Hoiberg is authoring one of the greatest turnarounds in Division I basketball history, coaching his team to a program-record 20-game winning streak to open the season.

“The Cornhuskers could capture their first conference title since 1950 with Rienk Mast, who missed last season due to injury, and Iowa transfer Pryce Sandfort leading a top-25 offense.”

Huskers have many ways to win

Hoiberg has crafted a team with multiple ways to play and win. The Huskers play unselfish basketball — something that goes directly to Hoiberg’s teachings. Nebraska looks for the open player, sometimes giving up decent shots in quest of better shots.

Some games, that Nebraska offense simply is the difference. The Huskers will shoot the heck out of the ball and opposing defenses will have trouble containing them.

Nebraska shoots 47.2 percent from the field, 68th in the nation out of 361 teams. The Huskers rank 86th in distance shooting at 35.6 percent.

In postgame comments, Hoiberg repeatedly says plays are designed to find the hot player and how important that is to success.

They play with toughness. Defensively, Nebraska often goes belt-to-belt on defense and that has proven to be a problem for many teams. Again, that’s a coaching philosophy. Getting turnovers is an obvious benefit and it helps trigger the Huskers’ transition game.

Nebraska’s defense is the catalyst for its offense. When Nebraska gets downcourt before its opponents, the result can be uncontested shots, even from distance. Maybe especially from distance.

Even after losing that incredible overtime against Purdue, Hoiberg calmly dissected the game in his postgame news conference. He didn’t blame others, just talked about the difference in the game, which he believed were Purdue’s offensive rebounds and Nebraska’s turnovers.

Hoiberg has nine players averaging double digits in minutes played and a 10th player, Jared Garcia, averages 8.6 minutes per game. Yes, you need the personnel and talent to spread minutes around, as Hoiberg has. But he also has confidence in his players — instilled at practice and refined in games — to give so many players so many minutes.

Nebraska has four players averaging double figures in points. Pryce Sandfort is the leading scorer at 17.0 points per game. Whether this is by coaching design, or necessity, not relying on one scorer should help the Huskers through the remainder of the Big Ten schedule as well as the NCAA Tournament.

Teams that rely on one scorer — not matter how good they are — can struggle when that one scorer is having a mediocre shooting game. Nebraska, with so many weapons capable carrying a team, should be better insulated if Sandfort or Rienk Mast or someone else struggles on offense.

MSU’s Tom Izzo on Hoiberg

When Nebraska defeated visiting Michigan State, 58-56, on Jan. 2, Spartans coach Tom Izzo, whose teams have been to eight Final Fours, started his postgame news conference by talking about Hoiberg.

“Happy for Fred Hoiberg,” Izzo said. “It wasn’t that many years ago that everybody was on his butt. He did a hell of a job. Nebraska did a hell of a job.

“It was the biggest game in 36 years [for Nebraska]. They responded.”

They were important words from Izzo moments after a humbling Big Ten loss.

Nebraska coach Fred Hoiberg talks with Michigan State coach Tom Izzo in February 2021. | Nick King/Lansing State Journal via Imagn Content Services, LLC

Hoiberg’s career

This is Hoiberg’s seventh season in Lincoln. He has a 105-111 record. This is his third consecutive 20-win season, an indication his program is headed in the right direction. He has made the NCAA Tournament once at Nebraska, in 2024, which also was his first winning season with the Huskers.

Before Nebraska, he spent five seasons at his alma mater, Iowa State. He was 115-56 at Iowa State and went to four consecutive NCAA Tournaments.

Coach of the Year candidates

Here the top 12 candidates, in order, as per ESPN:

1. Tommy Lloyd, Arizona
2. Fred Hoiberg, Nebraska
3. Mark Byington, Vanderbilt
4. Dusty May, Michigan
5. Bill Self, Kansas
6. Brad Underwood, Illinois
7. TJ Otzelberger, Iowa State
8. Tom Izzo, Michigan State
9. Travis Steele, Miami (Ohio)
10. Jon Scheyer, Duke
11. Bucky McMillan, Texas A&M
12. Josh Schertz, Saint Louis

Each of these teams likely will go to the NCAA Tournament, with the Huskers, Vanderbilt, Miami (Ohio) and Saint Louis having the most surprising seasons — and their coaches deserving of this kind of attention.

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