Nebraska’s Fred Hoiberg was honored as The Associated Press men’s college basketball coach of the year Friday after a 28-win season that included the Cornhuskers’ first NCAA Division I tournament win and a run to the Sweet 16.
Hoiberg received 17 votes from a 61-person media panel of AP Top 25 poll voters, edging Duke’s Jon Scheyer (13) to become the Big Ten’s first winner of the award since Michigan’s Juwan Howard in 2021. Arizona’s Tommy Lloyd received 11 votes.
“It took us some time to get here, but it was all about getting the right players in here, especially the ones that the fans could get behind,” Hoiberg said.
Hoiberg did just that, building a roster that played an exciting style of basketball, locked down defensively and ignited the Big Red fan base’s excitement for the basketball program and upended the notion that Nebraska is just a football school.
Nebraska went to the NCAA tournament for the first time in 10 years in 2024 and took a bigger step this season, matching the program record of 26 wins before even getting to March Madness. The Cornhuskers also had a program-record 15 wins in the rugged Big Ten, which makes up half of this year’s Final Four with Illinois and Michigan.