How quickly things change.
A mere two years ago, Nebraska basketball coach Fred Hoiberg took a sizeable pay cut to remain as the Huskers’ head coach. After three straight 20-loss seasons, plenty of Husker fans wanted him gone.
Now? Hoiberg’s the co-Big Ten Coach of the Year and has Nebraska in the NCAA Tournament for the first time in a decade. And for that, he’s being handsomely rewarded.
A raise from $3.5 million to $4.25 million for 2024-25 with incremental raises after that through the 2028-29 season, when he’s set to be paid a base salary of $4.65 million. Before Tuesday’s news, Hoiberg’s contract ran through 2026-27 and was set to pay him $3.5 million annually through the end of the contract unless the “agreed upon metrics” weren’t met.
Ah, yes, those pesky metrics — ones that then-athletic director Trev Alberts and Hoiberg never wrote down, meaning they weren’t subject to public records law since a public record of them never existed, a judge ruled in 2022.
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Whatever they were, that’s ancient history now. After the season Nebraska has had — and could continue to have — it doesn’t matter that Nebraska doesn’t have a permanent president or an athletic director: extending Hoiberg was a no-brainer.
It’s not unprecedented for interims to make decisions on coaches — heck, Kansas had an interim athletic director when it hired Bill Self back in 2003 — but it is certainly interesting that the two men not named Fred Hoiberg who executed the extension both have the interim tag with interim President Chris Kabourek and interim athletic director Dennis Leblanc.
But that’s how easy of a decision this was.
“I am thrilled that we are keeping Coach Hoiberg a Husker,” Kabourek said in a statement. “He’s all-in on Nebraska and I love what he’s doing to help our team compete on and off the court. Coach Hoiberg is an outstanding representative of the University of Nebraska and I know he will continue to lead the young men in our basketball program to great success, both as players and as leaders in the classroom and in the community.”
“I have had the opportunity to work closely with five men’s basketball head coaches in my four decades in Nebraska Athletics, and I am more confident than ever in the direction of our men’s basketball program,” Leblanc said in a statement.
This is where Hoiberg wants to be, too — making that apparent last week at the Big Ten Tournament.
With Nebraska’s victory well-secured in the late stages of NU’s game against Indiana, Hoiberg leaned on the scorer’s table and smiled — seemingly taking it all in.
The moment, wonderfully captured by Nebraska director of photography Scott Bruhn, is a perfect encapsulation of that sequence of events.
During a dead ball, a fan from across the way shouted, “I love you, Fred” toward Hoiberg. It was so quiet that everyone in the arena likely heard the fan’s praise, including Hoiberg. Hoiberg smiled and pointed right back at him.
He isn’t just saying it with his body language. He has used his words, too.
“I'm all in on this place,” Hoiberg said after Nebraska beat Indiana, advancing to the Big Ten Tournament semifinals for the first time in program history. “I love it. I want to be here.
“Hopefully, we can continue to have success, have sustained success at Nebraska. There's no doubt that we can do it with the fan support, with the facilities that we have. This is a place that is really special.”
It’s a place that’s really special, and it’s a place where Hoiberg’s crew is doing really special things.
First win at the Big Ten Tournament in years. First time in the Big Ten Tournament semifinals ever and the first conference semifinal appearance since 2006. Second-most wins in program history, only behind the 26 victories NU had in 1990-91. First time in the NCAA Tournament in a decade, and only the eighth appearance ever.
There’s no telling what other special things this group and future groups can accomplish.
And with this extension, Nebraska feels that way too.