Nebraska Basketball: 2019-20 season review for the Cornhuskers

When Nebraska Basketball hired coach Fred Hoiberg they didn’t expect to have the worst season in school history. Hoiberg can only go up from here.

Heading into the season no one knew how the Nebraska Basketball season would play out. The Cornhuskers were breaking in a new coach in Fred Hoiberg and the roster he put together had a ton of question marks. Hoiberg had to build a roster in a few months and while he did fill all of the scholarships available, the Huskers had a roster that was pieced together and had many holes. As the season wore on these holes got bigger and bigger.

It is old news by now, but as everyone knows Nebraska is the only power conference school to never win an NCAA tournament game. Everything looked like it was going a season ago when Nebraska, led by former coach Tim Miles, started the season 14-2 and were playing like one of the best teams in the country at that time. One key injury to a star player in Isaac Copeland and everything went south. It cost Coach Miles his job and the rebuild under coach Hoiberg was beginning.

The biggest adjustment for the Husker fans was the stark contrast in style between Coach Miles and Coach Hoiberg. Miles ran a more isolation offense predicated on ball movement and putting the ball in the best players’ hands. The offense under Miles relied a lot on getting to the free throw line as well. Hoiberg runs a very spread out style and loves long-range shots and rolls to the basket. The offense is highly successful if given the right personnel.

Hoiberg will be successful at Nebraska, but he is trying to build the program essentially from the ground up. It takes time to build a program and the current coaching staff has this moving in the right direction. In the next couple of seasons, the fans should start to see progress.