Ex-Bulls coach Fred Hoiberg hired at struggling Nebraska
Fred Hoiberg, the former NBA player who coached Iowa State and the Chicago Bulls, was hired Saturday to coach a Nebraska team that had big hopes this season but finished with a 19-17 record.
He has strong ties to the school, which announced his hiring four days after seventh-year coach Tim Miles was fired.
Hoiberg, dismissed by the Bulls in in December, agreed to a seven-year contract paying a total of $25 million.
The 46-year-old Hoiberg was born in Lincoln and grandfather Jerry Bush was the Cornhuskers coach from 1954 to 1963. Another grandfather was a professor at Nebraska and his parents are graduates of the school.
Hoiberg went 115-155 from 2010-15 with the Bulls. Before that, he had a successful five-year run as Iowa State's coach with an up-tempo, spread-the-floor offense. He went 115-56 and led the Cyclones to four straight NCAA Tournaments and two Big 12 tournament titles.
Nebraska's most recent regular-season conference championship came in 1950. The Huskers remain the only Power Five conference program to have never won an NCAA Tournament game.
As a star player for Iowa State, Hoiberg competed twice a year against the Huskers from 1991-95 — when Nebraska enjoyed its most sustained success, with four straight NCAA appearances. In the 25 years since, the Huskers have gone to the tournament just twice (1998, 2014).
Nebraska had reason to be encouraged this season. Impressive wins over Seton Hall, Clemson and state rival Creighton were part of a 13-4 start that pushed the Huskers into The Associated Press Top 25 for the first time since 2014. Then the Huskers lost 11 of the next 13. A brief run in the Big ten Tournament wasn't enough to earn an NCAA bid.
The Huskers will lose seniors James Palmer Jr., Glynn Watson Jr. and Isaac Copeland, and junior Isaiah...