Nebrasketball: B1G Media Day Recap

Does the name “Hilton Rosemont” get your blood flowing this morning? If not, then consider it in the context of it being the host for the B1G Basketball Media Day today. Coach Hoiberg and the team arrived on time without any storm trouble on their flight last night.

Coach Hoiberg’s comments were fairly familiar to those made prior, but here is the summary I took away from them:

• Italy trip was beneficial and allowed bonding time.
• Didn’t try to pronounce Thor’s full name, but highlighted he and Dachon Burke as important members of the roster being they’re the only returning players.
• Team comes to work every day. It’s a competitive team that likes to get after it and be fast. But they are under-sized and have to play fast. Have to “play with great pace” and “with a chip on the shoulder.”

• “If we can really buy in to going out there and playing together, going out there being a low turnover team; every night we’ve got to find a way to defend; and we have to rebound. That’s going to be our biggest challenge, I think, is rebounding just with the size of our team,”
• The question that’s been asked by some of us here at CN at least has been answered: Rick Ross is an Adidas performer and that’s how Nebraska wound up booking him. Bass made Coach Hoiberg think his pacemaker was going to explode, though.
• After being fired by the Bulls, Hoiberg spent a lot of time with Coach Izzo last season throwing X’s and O’s on the board. He has also reached out to him after being hired to get a feel for the B1G layout.
• Need to focus on speed to counter rebounding disadvantage being a small line-up.
• Thinks NIL is good progress and he looks forward to seeing how it pans out. He “would have relished that opportunity.”

Update: BTN Panel Interview and Other News Items

Not really much here for you, but a few things worth mentioning:

• Ha-neeve Chee-Thum seems to be the exact pronunciation in case anyone wanted to know. (He didn’t correct Dave Revsine for what it’s worth)
• Prepare for heavy three point shooting!
• We have another “play with great pace” line drop.

• Coach Hoiberg doesn’t really give a firm answer on goals he has for the team for this season, but makes clear long term the goal is conference and conference tournament titles and deep runs in March on a consistent basis.
• Having said that, he thinks if the team can figure out how to crash the glass well and improve their defense, they’ll compete just fine in the conference. “I am confident we can get out and run with anybody.”

Other tidbits from around the league:

• Commissioner Delaney highlighted the strong non-conference schedule the league as a whole has. MSU-Duke & Purdue-Virginia lead the highlights, but there is a smorgasboard of good games coming up early in the season.
• Delaney also threw a bit of shade at the other major conferences that the B1G had the fewest mentions in the ongoing FBI college basketball scandal.
• The flavor of the day question wise for all the coaches was NIL. Generally coaches said positive things about it but are tentative about the evolving nature of it and want clear details sooner than later. Commissioner Delaney came out strongly against the bill, however.
• Coach Izzo asked if Jack, Coach Hoiberg’s son who is a walk-on at MSU, was going to leave to play for his dad at Nebraska but apparently Momma Hoiberg put her foot down on that option.

If you couldn’t catch the full comments live, be sure to tune in below.

Big Red is front and center last night:

And with that, it’s a wrap here from Rosemont:

I lied. One final update for the day. They’re making a documentary about Husker basketball!