Cyclone Fans keeping up with news in the state have no doubt heard the news that "The Mayor" Fred Hoiberg was announced today as ISU's new head coach of the men's basketball team. It was a bit of an out-of-left-field decision by athletic director Jamie Pollard and has caused no shortage of discussion, debate, and excitement on the Cyclone message boards and local sports talk shows. Fred has no prior coaching experience, but has spent his high school, college, and professional NBA careers around the sport. He's played for some great coaches at all levels (Johnny Orr, Tim Floyd, Larry Brown, Larry Bird, Flip Saunders, Kevin McHale), and he's a smart guy, so I am hoping he can parlay that wealth of experience into success as a head coach over the next five years of his contract. All current players and most if not all of the incoming recruits have announced they are still staying/coming. A few players who had previously decided to transfer after this season have indicated they are open to changing their minds. Fred is keeping T.J. Otzelberger, the best recruiter from McDermott's staff, as associate head coach, and if he gets another couple of experienced assistants, I think he'll be in as good a position as anyone to get ISU men's basketball back on track. His comment during the press conference this morning that he has the phone numbers of all the NBA General Managers on his cell phone's speed-dial shouldn't hurt recruiting.
I still remember sometime during the spring of 1996 (thanks Wikipedia!) when I was a high schooler, and was at a bowling alley with my family, the TVs were showing the last ever Big 8 Men's Basketball Tournament with ISU playing Kansas. We stuck around after finishing our bowling to watch a great close finish as ISU beat the Jayhawks. Fred Hoiberg was a big part of that team and that game, and if he can get Hilton Magic going again at the coliseum in Ames, I think we'll start seeing some good wins over great teams in a few years.
Now when do those season tickets go on sale...
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