ECisGod

Fran McCaffery already has a new job. Penn hires ex-Iowa coach Fran McCaffery to restore program - ESPN

This should help Nebraska against ASU Transfer Joson Sanon chooses St. John's, Rick Pitino - ESPN

It has been reimagined - it will be real grass soon (for 2026 I think).

Elliot Cadeau from North Carolina is in the portal. Doubt we can get him, but if his improved shooting isn't a one year blip, he'd be a good get. North Carolina guard Elliot Cadeau enters transfer portal - ESPN

Gotta love the phrase "going rate".

Minnesota hires Miko Medved from Colorado State Minnesota names Niko Medved head men's basketball coach - ESPN Iowa hires Ben McCollum from Drake. Iowa hires Drake's Ben McCollum as men's basketball coach - ESPN

DeVries from West Virginia announced as new coach at Indiana. https://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/story/_/id/44306900/sources-indiana-targeting-west-virginia-hc-darian-devries

Two teams from all the conferences with "Big" in their names (Big Ten, Big 12, Big East) are guaranteed spots + 10 at large. I initially thought there was two from the Big Ten, Big 12, ACC, SEC, but recently saw otherwise.

Not defending Hoiberg's evaluation, but he made a big jump as a junior (as many players do) and then got injured and spent his senior year recovering. I'm sure the hope was that he'd return to his pre injury level.

Players have stepped up for Creighton & Nebraska's players regressed. The team still revolves around Ashworth & Kalkbrenner, but a couple of players have gotten better though the season as they've gotten playing time. Sorry I can't see the future.

Fred's seat will be VERY hot next year. He'll need to do a better job in the portal this Spring/Summer - of course that will take NIL money.

At least they didn't fire him at 2AM like Minnesota did to Ben Johnson.

A few more details in the USA Today story. Apparently, they announced his firing at 2:19 AM. Also have the lowest men's basketball budget in the B1G and pretty low NIL money that was mostly raised by Johnson & his staff. Good luck finding a coach when you treat the previous one so poorly. Minnesota fires basketball coach Ben Johnson in middle of the night

I know they reached out to him in their last search. Wouldn't have minded having Ashworth instead of the two point guards Nebraska had. Good enough ball handler & he can shoot. May be Kalkbrenner's last seven figure compensation package. He's not a very good on ball defender (he is really good off the ball at rim protection) & will get pushed around at the next level unless he goes to a mid-level league in Europe where he won't get paid seven figures.

Ben Johnson fired at Minnesota. Minnesota fires coach Ben Johnson after 4 seasons - ESPN

Could be. They pretty much lose everything (like the Huskers) this year. It will depend on how much they can bring in through the portal. Word is that both Ashworth & Kalkbrenner had seven figure NIL deals, so they will have plenty of money to spend in the portal if they spread it around. It's also basically the only sport Creighton and their fans give a darn about so they will throw money around to get what they want. It will be a matter of the team coming together and how the complementary pieces fit. Rutgers learned how important complementary pieces can be this year.

One of his assistants just took the head job at Murray State. Sources - Murray State set to hire Creighton's Ryan Miller - ESPN

Interesting story on USA Today. Show me the money: College basketball coaches making play for pool

I'd say it's a worse job than the Husker job. Indiana has sky high expectations & not significantly more resources dedicated to get those results.

Here's what ESPN has to say about coaching changes (no mention of Hoiberg). The latest coaching carousel buzz in men's college basketball - ESPN

Doesn't bode well for Fran's job if they regularly played in an arena that was 2/3 empty. That's what PBA looks like when we play the random SWAC teams early in the year, but at least there's a crowd for the B1G teams.

I think Sam could be a good backup point guard on a tourney bound team. He hustles, plays good defense and is a good, if unwilling, shooter. He probably shouldn't start, but he should get 15ish minutes per game.

We needed a consistent 3 point shooter. Essegian was too streaky & Griffiths never seemed to get the defensive concepts the team was trying to run and only shot 25% from three so he got no PT.

Brice Williams was named to the All-B1G first team by both the coaches & media. Williams Named First Team All-Big Ten - University of Nebraska - Official Athletics Website Nebraska’s Brice Williams makes All-Big Ten first team

Maybe??? It is likely to be mostly "major" conference teams (the 4 above + Big East), but that doesn't always mean better. Not sure what the payouts are for either tournament. I would guess that if you are a 1 or 2 seed in the NIT, you are probably better off financially because you will host a couple of games so you get some ticket revenue + concessions + whatever the NCAA pays out for the NIT. If you are a 3-4 seed, hard to say. If you are a 5-8 seed, probably better to go to Vegas. It did force the NIT to stop giving auto bids to teams that won their conference in the regular season, but didn't win the conference tournament.