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Notes: Izzo enjoys loud student sections
Ratings: Big Ten, Feb. 7
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Long-suffering Nebraska basketball fans — are there any other kind? — have seen this movie before.
It's called "The Six-Season Itch." Here's the plot:
NU hires a coach. Said coach works to install his system. Results are fair with some notable upsets, but little traction is gained against good competition. Some NIT bids are involved. But the rosters are short of power conference-caliber players, the style of play wears thin and apathy takes hold.
So after six seasons, the athletic director decides to scratch that itch because neither hope nor results are in sufficient supply.
Nebraska's original version of "The Six-Season Itch" starred Bob Devaney and Moe Iba in 1986. The remake involved Steve Pederson and Barry Collier in 2006.
The question now is whether the third picture in this series — with Tom Osborne and Doc Sadler in the main roles — is set for release soon.
Sunday was a bad day in Sadler's attempt to postpone the final act of his NU story.
Nebraska (11-11, 3-8) lost at home to Minnesota, the ninth-place team in the Big Ten which played without its injured star. The Huskers are one game out of last place with what Sadler said before the season was his best team.
If there is one more setback in the final three Devaney Center appearances (to Michigan, Illinois or Iowa), NU will have seven home losses for the first time in 49 years (4-9 in 1962-63).
Other woes:
• The Huskers, who under Sadler have been full throttle in effort, appeared stuck in a lower gear against the Gophers.
• An in-state player who declined an NU scholarship offer (Elliott Eliason) came to the Devaney Center and showed promise for an opponent.
• And the crowd — yes, it was Super Bowl Sunday and it snowed the day before — was the fifth-smallest ever for a league game (6,683).
On the checklist of things a Nebraska basketball coach can get dinged for, that's a clean sweep.
Yours truly has walked the halls of the Devaney Center long enough that I covered both earlier versions of "The Six-Season Itch." Here's a review:
• Moe Iba Era: His .599 winning percentage is still the school's best for a coach with at least five years on the job. He recruited NU's all-time scoring leader, Dave Hoppen, from Omaha. And Iba led the Huskers to their first NCAA tournament game.
But other high-profile instate players (Ron Kellogg, Kerry Trotter, Bill Jackman, Cedric Hunter) went elsewhere. Critics bashed Iba's "Slo-Moe" offensive style, and attendance and booster support dropped to new lows at the time.
With a week left in the season, The World-Herald reported that Devaney already had talked to other coaches about replacing Iba, and that Iba had pursued the Texas-San Antonio job.
Iba handed his resignation to then-Associate A.D. Don Bryant as Iba walked off the floor following Nebraska's NCAA tournament loss to Western Kentucky — a game Devaney didn't attend.
• Barry Collier Era: Following a 24-day search in which then-A.D. Bill Byrne first pursued Bill Self of Tulsa, Leonard Hamilton of Miami (Fla.) and Oliver Purnell of Dayton, the Huskers hired Collier from Butler to replace Danny Nee.
Two concerns arose quickly under Collier: his aloofness among boosters, fans and former players, and his inability to recruit difference-makers. One of his first signees had a grade-point average (3.9) that was higher than his scoring and rebounding averages (3.5 and 3.1).
Collier's deliberate style of play and under-.500 record (89-91) led to an all-time attendance low in 2005-06 (6,593). Still, Collier was on track to coach a seventh season after Pederson flinched in letting Collier go in March 2006.
An hour before Nebraska's first-round Big 12 tourney game that season, Pederson spent 10 minutes with me dropping hint after hint that he was about to oust Collier.
But Nebraska beat Missouri in the first round, then upset Oklahoma in the second round. Pederson backpedaled, keeping Collier but with no contract extension.
Five months later, in the wake of multiple player defections and the departure of lead assistant Scott Spinelli, Collier resigned to return to Butler as athletic director.
Currently, it takes little effort to tie in story lines from the Iba and Collier days to Sadler's six seasons — lack of star power, low-scoring games, in-state talent going elsewhere (Mike Gesell to Iowa) and dwindling fan interest.
Sadler told me that he hasn't received any ultimatums to keep his job. Osborne has declined a World-Herald request to discuss the program's future.
So is it "Lights! Camera! Action!" on "The Six-Season Itch, Part III?" We'll soon see.
Contact the writer:
402-444-1024, lee.barfknecht@owh.com
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