Pitchin' with Pritch: Out with Miles and in with Hoiberg
A week ago I wrote that Tim Miles’ days at Nebraska were probably limited. That was a just a shot-in-the-dark guess because it had been suggested for the last couple of months that it was going to happen.
Last Tuesday it became a reality as Nebraska Athletic Director Bill Moos announced that Coach Miles had been relieved of his duties as the head basketball coach.
I would bet Coach Miles had an inkling it was going to happen, but I also bet it is still a shock to your system when you hear the words, “You are relieved of your position” or whatever sentence was formed.
Coach Miles was not one of Moos’ hires, and if things are not going well and a new AD comes aboard, the rope gets shorter. Even though the Huskers played pretty well at the very end of the season, it wasn’t good enough for the athletic administration and a change was made.
Coach Miles finished up with a seven-year record of 116-114. That is the third-most wins in school history, but his winning percentage (.504) is better than only one Husker coach (Barry Collier) since 1994.
The Huskers got to one NCAA tournament under Coach Miles and never got past the quarterfinals of the Big 10 tournament.
The Husker basketball program has not been very successful when it comes to the NCAA tournament. In fact, it is one of very few teams that has never won a game when they did make the tournament.
Miles might not have won the big jackpot in coaching, but he is going home with a pretty nice gift as he cleans out his office.
The consolation prize in the contest is a $105,000 per month check through March of 2021 which is about $2.5 million total.
That amount might decrease if Miles takes another job. So he was right when he tweeted a couple of weeks ago that if he got fired he would still be a millionaire.
It isn’t a bad going away present at all.
Coach Miles showed a lot of class upon his release and made a nice statement thanking the university for the time spent there, the friends made and the people who had supported the program.
Enter the worst kept secret of this situation, Fred Hoiberg. The former Iowa State and Chicago Bulls head coach was announced on Saturday as the next head coach at Nebraska.
Most Nebraska people probably remember Hoiberg as a really good player at Iowa State in the middle 90s where he was named to the first-team All-Big Eight team in 1995.
He was also a professional player with the Indiana Pacers, Chicago Bulls and the Minnesota Timberwolves.
He later replaced Greg McDermott, the current Creighton coach, as head coach at Iowa State in 2015 and then was named the coach of the Bulls in 2015. Coach Hoiberg had success at Iowa State winning the Big 12 in 2013-14 and getting to the Sweet 16 of the NCAA tournament.
The Hoiberg family has roots in Nebraska as he was born in Lincoln.
His grandfather, Jerry Bush, was the head basketball coach at UNL. His other grandfather was a professor at UNL and his folks graduated from UNL. I am pretty sure he knows where “O” street is in Lincoln.
I hope he is a great recruiter, I hope the Huskers win games, I hope they get into the NCAA tournament and win a game or two, but I am pretty sure all that will not happen next year.
Patience is something that sometimes is in short supply with sports fans, although the basketball fans in Nebraska have done a pretty good job of keeping PBA pretty full for games.
I would say expectations are on the rise in both football and men’s basketball at UNL, and I certainly hope some of the expectations are met. Go BIG RED!