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BIG TEN CONFERENCE BASKETBALL MEDIA DAYS

October 2, 2019

Fred Hoiberg

Hilton Rosemont - Rosemont, Ill.

FRED HOIBERG: Just want to talk a little bit about the way things have gone with our team so far. We have a lot of new faces with this group, and we had a trip to Italy about a month ago, which was very beneficial for our group. Of our 16 players, 14 of them are brand-new. The only player returning that had any Big Ten action last year was Thor, who averaged two points and one rebound. We don't have a lot of production coming back. Dachon Burke was a player who's been really good for us so far in the preseason that sat out a year ago, so he was able to watch what the Big Ten was all about.

With all the new faces, our big thing is trying to make progress every day. The fact that we had those two weeks, almost two weeks in Italy, the best thing about that trip was the fact that our players had an opportunity to bond with each other and get to know each other. And when you have as many new faces as we do, that was the important part of that trip.

X's and O's, putting in our system obviously is important, but the fact that our guys got to spend a lot of quality time was the biggest benefit of that trip over to Europe.

I like this group. They play extremely hard. They come to work every day. We're going in the mornings right now, sometimes got to kick them in the butt a little bit to get them going, but they're very competitive. They like to get after it. We're going to have to be a team that plays fast. We're going to be -- especially seeing some of the student-athletes here in the practice room this morning, we're going to be undersized at pretty much every position, so we're going to have to try to play fast, get out, play with great pace, and try to win games that way.

But I do like this group. I hope we go out and play with a chip on our shoulder every time we step on the floor. But we're hoping for a great year.

Q. I saw a statistic recently, you mentioned you only have two guys back from the program from the year before. But as I understand it, the fans have sold out your building for the entire season. What kind of excitement level is building even though the fans have no idea what product they're going to see on the court, but they know that better times are coming, I guess, for Nebraska?
FRED HOIBERG: Well, our fan support is off the charts, and we had our opening night event just this last Friday, the night before the Ohio State football game, and every seat in our arena was filled, and that just shows you the support. And I think more than anything, the fans just wanted to see what our players looked like and put a name to the face. It was very well attended. Our guys did a great job. We went out and played two running clock scrimmages.

But that's one of the great things about Nebraska. We have two things going for us as much as any in the country. One is the support with our fans, Memorial Stadium has been sold out since 1962, which is unbelievable, and we've sold every seat for our upcoming season. And the other one is the facilities. I think our facilities are as nice as any in the country.

Again, we're excited to go out there. We just want to put a product on the floor that makes our fans proud.

Q. I'm going to ask the same question I asked Coach Frost at Big Ten football days. What's it like for you to be back home, family around, and be in Nebraska, family atmosphere for you?
FRED HOIBERG: Yeah, for me, I was born in Lincoln, and I have a lot of family ties to the University. Both my parents, they went to high school together, Lincoln Southeast; both went to the University of Nebraska. And then when my dad got his Ph.D. back in 1974, he had two job offers actually; one was in Lawrence, Kansas, and one was in Ames, Iowa. And I'm forever grateful to my dad for making the right choice and moving our family to Ames.

The really cool thing for me, both my grandfathers have a great history with Nebraska. My Grandpa Hoiberg was a history professor for 30 years. My Grandfather Bush was the head coach at Nebraska for nine years. And to hear stories of his former players that have come to practices or sent me letters or emails and just talk about the impact that he had on their lives, that's been really cool. And just all the connections that people have. I have an aunt and uncle that live there, I have two cousins that live there, my brother lives in Omaha. So it's been great. I always consider Ames my home. There's no doubt about that. But it's funny how life comes full circle sometimes, and it certainly has for me.

Q. Rick Ross performed last week --
FRED HOIBERG: He did.

Q. How did that happen?
FRED HOIBERG: I'm a huge fan. The way that works is -- that's really your question? The way it works is he's an Adidas performer, and through his Adidas sponsorship, that's how that concert was.

I have a pacemaker, the bass was so loud, I thought my pacemaker was going to explode. Our guys loved it, they were up on stage with him, and really overall it was a great night for our team.

Q. You obviously had a lot to accomplish in a short amount of time when you got here. At this point given that you play an exhibition game in less than a month, are you to the point that you expected to be? And I guess maybe gauge the progress you've made since day one?
FRED HOIBERG: No, I don't think if you talked to any of us right now we're where we want to be, still so early in the process. Again, I'll go back to our guys' mentality and their approach. Every day they come in with a workmanlike approach, and that's the thing that I've really enjoyed about this group.

I do think they're going to go out there and compete. Right now the battle that we're having with our players -- and this is whether we were playing the exhibition games over in Italy or we have our inter-squad scrimmage -- when things are going well, we're pretty damned good. We're out there, playing with a swagger, playing fast. When we hit a little adversity, that's when you've got to find a way to break through and continue to go out there and fight. That's human nature, I think, with everybody. Especially when everybody right now is still so new and trying to figure each other out, is how do you stay together collectively and fight through those tough times because we're going to hit it every time we step on the floor.

Q. Obviously Jack is on Michigan State's team as a walk on. You got to spend time around Tom Izzo's program last year. How much did that help you get a lay of the land in the Big Ten, and how much did you rely on Tom Izzo for advice in that process?
FRED HOIBERG: Yeah, Coach Izzo is one of my favorites, and when I got let go in December last year in Chicago, I spent a lot of time in East Lansing. For me, it was more beneficial to go up and watch the practices because Jack had a huge role running the scout team as the point guard. I'd spent days with Coach Izzo -- even on a game day we spent three hours together just writing ideas up on the board and talking about different things, X's and O's-wise. But I have relied on him, and I've talked to him a lot. You know, I consider him a very good friend in this business, and there's not a better guy to lean on than Coach Izzo, who's done as much as he has and who's respected as much as he is.

Q. You've got a lot of new faces on your team, but you've got a lot of high-scoring players. Do you believe this team could surprise a lot of people this season?
FRED HOIBERG: Well, that's what we're going to strive for. I know we've been picked towards the bottom, and I understand that, with all the new faces and people just haven't seen our guys very much. We have high school kids, we have a couple grad transfers that are eligible for us, and we have a couple junior college players.

But you know, like I said, if we can really buy into going out there and playing together, buying into going out there and being a low turnover team, every night we've got to find a way to defend, and we have to rebound. That's going to be our biggest challenge, I think, is rebounding, just with the size of our team.

But if we can get that, I am confident that we can get out and run with anybody. Hopefully, we'll stick to that, but like I said, it's a group that I really like because of their competitive nature.

Q. You have a lot of experience. You've been an NBA player, executive, obviously college coach. This new California bill that would allow players to capitalize on their images and likenesses, where do you stand on that?
FRED HOIBERG: I'll say this: As a former student-athlete I would have loved to be compensated for my likeness. There's no doubt about that. I think especially playing in my hometown. I think that could have been a pretty good deal for a guy like me.

It's going to be interesting to see how it all plays out. I have no idea how it will play out. But I do think it's progress, no doubt about that. And it's going to take people a lot smarter than me to figure out how to get this thing moving in the right direction, but I do think it's progress.

Q. What's something that you learned during your experience coaching in the NBA that you can now bring back to the college ranks that you may not have known before?
FRED HOIBERG: Well, I know this: I'm a lot better coach for being in that league for four years, and when you're going up against the greatest minds on the planet on a nightly basis -- just game planning against Gregg Popovich one night and Mike D'Antoni the next night, Budenholzer -- there's so many great basketball minds you learn from, and it helped me. I'll always cherish my time that I had here in Chicago. It was very important for me as a coach. Hopefully we can apply some of those things that we learned from and be better because of it.

But I'm looking forward to getting back on the sidelines. I'd had enough of waking up and drinking coffee and watching game shows and doing puzzles. I'd had enough of that. So I was ready to get back out here, and I'm really excited to be at Nebraska.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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