Nebraska men’s basketball coach Fred Hoiberg
Hoiberg joined USC’s Eric Musselman and Indiana’s Mike Woodson for the Big Ten Men’s Basketball Coaches Roundtable Thursday in Rosemont, Illinois. The trio joined Big Ten Network’s Rick Pizzo midway through the six panel discussions.
The discussion began with Hoiberg updating his health situation after having a procedure last Friday to replace a pacemaker.
“I feel really good,” Hoiberg said. “I went in there, it was about a 30 minute procedure. The biggest thing right now is just being careful. I’m coaching a lot on the sidelines, trying not to get hit. I just can’t get hit in the area where they did the procedure.”
The trio discussed how they handled the transfer portal over the offseason. Indiana was able to grab three of the top five transfers.
“We had no choice,” Woodseon said. “I lost three players to the portal. I lost two seniors and Kel’el Ware was drafted to the Heat as the 15th pick in the draft. I had to go out, along with my staff, and start really working to try to build our team back.”
Similarly building through the portal, Musselman added 11 transfers, the most in Division I, ahead of his first season at USC.
“From a chemistry standpoint, its about what you can do in the eight-week offseason program,” Musselman said, adding that his team did a number of non-basketball activities during that time as well. “Out of necessity, with the way the roster was with one returning player, we had to go to the portal. We’re excited about a lot of guys.”
Hoiberg and Nebraska added six transfers during the offseason.
“Last year we were the oldest player in the league,” Hoiberg said. “We needed to replace a lot of really important pieces that we lost from a year ago, including Rienk Mast who unfortunately had a knee procedure and will be out for the season.
“For us to go out there and try to get that experience to replace a Keisei Tominaga, Rienk, Josiah Allick, who are great leaders for us as well as great players on the floor. We did a pretty good job of that.
Hoiberg noted that his team has eight players in at least their fourth year of college basketball. That led to a conversation about keeping momentum going from the year before, where the Huskers made the NCAA Tournament for the first time in a decade.
“(The NCAA Tournament) is such a different experience, being on the big stage and all the coverage that you have” Hoiberg said. “We only really had on our active roster one guy that had played in the tournament. Now we have a bunch of guys that have been there.
“We’ve talked about this a lot as a group: The challenge now is not only getting back there, but winning in March. It’s taking this program to where it’s never been before.”
Indiana has had a history as good as anyone’s in the postseason. That’s something the former Hoosier and now head coach is trying to get the program back to.
“We took a step backwards last year by not making the tournament,” Woodson said. “That was kind of disappointing. We got to move forward. At the end of the day, its about winning Big Ten titles and winning national titles. I remember the good days, when I played, and some of the great years that Bob Knight had at Indiana. It’s been missing.”
Although Musselman is entering his first year at USC, he brings NBA, G League, and international coaching experience on top of more than a decade at the Division I level. That’s something he’s falling back on as expanded travel becomes the norm with an 18 team league, stretching from coast to coast.
“I think that some of the NBA lessons with travel can help,” Musselman said. “We also met with the LA Rams a couple weeks ago about how they travel when they go west to east. What do they do on that first night that they land and how do they handle the morning before like a 1 o’clock kickoff. It’ll be learning process for all of us.”
With expanded travel, coaches and teams can’t look at just the next game. They have to look at the season as a whole to prepare for what’s coming up next week and next month.
“The way you manage your team in November and December can have an impact on how you play in March,” Musselman said. “Obviously, the goal for all of us is to have our teams playing their best basketball in March. A lot of that has to do with mental fatigue, physical fatigue, and then where you are with your bodies and minds come the end of the season.”
Adding the four west coast programs of UCLA, USC, Oregon, and Washington is going to add to the grind of the Big Ten season, but Hoiberg believes Nebraska is in a good place geographically to handle that.
“The travel is going to be something that none of us have ever experienced at this level,” Hoiberg said. “I think we’re set up in a pretty good spot in Nebraska. The west coast grind, I don’t think will be quite as much as it is for the east coast schools. But at the same time, you really do have to prepare for it.
“One thing that we do a really good job of is we have a sports scientist that monitors every practice. We have a load progression that we really want to follow to try to be fresh when it matters most. The last couple years we’ve had a very successful February and March record.”
Momentum on all three campuses is high already, particularly coming by way of the football programs. Those teams are a combined 12-2 to begin this season.
“Coach (Matte) Rhule’s doing a phenomenal job and it’s so much fun,” Hoiberg said. “We had our 400th consecutive sellout in the last game. It’s been sold out since 1962. The passion and the energy right now around Nebraska football, it’s been awesome to see.”
Hoiberg and Husker seniors Juwan Gary and Brice Williams will join the B1G Live: Men’s Basketball Media Day Special at 1:15 p.m. CDT.
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