Without burden of expectations, Nebraska basketball steps forward in early days under Fred Hoiberg (The Athletic)

[seaofred92]

https://theathletic.com/1495750/2019/12/30/nebraska-huskers-basketball-fred-hoiberg-expectations/

Fred Hoiberg didn’t set measurable goals for his first basketball team at Nebraska. Not the kind tracked by traditional means, that is, like wins or points.

And though the first-year coach recognized the outside perspective, even agreed somewhat, Hoiberg never discussed it with the Huskers.

“Obviously,” he said, “expectations weren’t very high for this group.”

Hoiberg wanted to see Nebraska “take positive steps,” he said. Sunday brought another.

The Huskers beat Texas A&M-Corpus Christi 73-52 at Pinnacle Bank Arena — an unremarkable win against an overmatched opponent. Nebraska shot poorly and pulled away with eight minutes left after the Islanders cut the lead to 12. A year from now, this type of performance likely won’t represent anything significant.

Thirteen games into the Hoiberg era, every step forward matters. Nebraska remains among three major-conference teams with more losses than wins. But for these Huskers, a 6-7 mark isn’t so bad, even with 18 Big Ten games to play in 2020 and not a single victory to be taken for granted.

 

[NUance]

No burden of expectations?  I dunno.  I think people sorta expected us to beat North Dakota on our  home court.  And Southern Utah.  And UC Riverside. Just sayin..  

 

[HuskermanMike]

No burden of expectations?  I dunno.  I think people sorta expected us to beat North Dakota on our  home court.  And Southern Utah.  And UC Riverside. Just sayin..  

I'm with you. However, I would rather get those losses out of the way now in year one than in year 4 or 5. Obviously, we will probably be upset by lower teams in the future with bad shooting nights. Anyway, Fred is a great offensive mind and draws up some monster plays and gets his guys to execute out of time outs.