Nebrasketball Updates and Other Musings From College Basketball

Gooooood Afternoon, folks!

A lot has happened over the past week and we here at Corn Nation missed a bit of it. Yeah, we know. We should be on top of these things but the prep of the new hire mixed in with the football team’s spring games has us a bit behind on daily work.

Lucky for all of you, I’ve condensed a few items down that might be of interest to you. There are a lot in regard to Nebraska basketball and a few other tidbits that have been floating around the NCAA.

So, here’s a rundown.

Nebrasketball Updates

• Former head coach Tim Miles talks about being unemployed.
• Bob Lutz will join the team as special assistant. Bob was another one of Fred’s coaches at Iowa State. He has a long history in the game and will be a huge asset to the team. Nothing has been officially announced by Nebraska but should in the next few days.
• Armon Gates will stay on with Hoiberg being the only one of Tim Mile’s coaches to transfer over to the new squad so far. This is big as Armon has been a very valuable recruiter for the program and Miles did have a nice crop of future talent coming into Lincoln. Like Lutz, nothing has been confirmed by Nebraska but should be soon.
• Speaking of recruiting, there are four coming this weekend to the Husker football spring game. As a football school, this type of event is big and should “wow” any recruit from any sport. Those arriving this weekend are: Jervay Green from Western Nebraska Community College. He origianlly committed to Miles and is currently trying to decide if he will stay with Nebraska or look elsewhere. Forward Maurice Callo, a transfer from Oklahoma State who was kicked off the Cowboys squad for vandalism. I wouldn’t look to harshly on that as he was in Stillwater. Finally we have two transfers from UNLV in Jonathan Tchmwa and Joel Ntambwe. Both are forwards, a much needed position to fill for the Huskers
• There has been some interesting developments with Fred Hoibergs coaching hires. It has been reported by various sources that former Nebraska head basketball coach Doc Sadler is being looked at for Hoibergs defensive assistant coach. Doc coached under Fred at Iowa State after Nebraska let the head coach go in 2013. While the Huskers offense left a little to be desired, his defenses were the shining component of his tenure at Nebraska. With Fred’s coaching philosophy based around lots of scoring, it would benefit the team to have a tough defensive mind coach on the sideline. He just resigned as the Southern Miss head basketball coach after going 20-13 this past year. Again, nothing has been confirmed but is expected at some point in time. My guess, early next week after the Spring game. We are a football school first, ya know.

More College Basketball Goodness

• Is there another chapter coming in the NCAA College Basketball Scandal?
• ESPN has, of course, cranked out their Way-Too-Early Top 25 for 2019-2020. No, the Huskers are not on it but 4 other Big Ten Teams are.
• The Wall Street Journal has their most valuable college basketball programs. Even with their long, dramatic, and uneventful coaching search the UCLA Bruins made the list. John Wooden’s ghost really is carrying the program along.

That’s all I have this week. Hopefully we will have more for you next week as Coach Hoibergs staff is finally rounded out and can start moving forward.

Later folks,

Jesse Johnson-USA TODAY Sports