Nebraska Basketball: Tim Miles era comes to a close

Nebraska basketball made headlines on Tuesday, firing head coach Tim Miles. This was the right decision for the Nebraska Cornhuskers, as they need to make strides toward improving the basketball program.

After seven seasons as Nebraska basketball‘s head coach, the Tim Miles era is over in Lincoln. The Nebraska athletic department announced they’d be parting ways with Miles, but a new hire hasn’t been made yet.

Miles finished out his career for Husker hoops with a record of 116-114 (he had three winning seasons) while making it to the NCAA Tournament just once. That tournament appearance came during the 2013-2014 season and many thought that’d be the first of many.

Instead, the Huskers never made it back under Miles and that’s why we’re in this situation today.

This past season provided the best chance for the Cornhuskers to make it to March Madness and after an electric start to the season, fans started to buy in. With the three seniors (James Palmer Jr., Glynn Watson Jr., and Isaac Copeland) along with junior Isaiah Roby, the team seemed poised to make a run at the Big Ten title, or at the very least, going dancing in March.

Yeah, things didn’t exactly go down that way or this story wouldn’t be written.

After their 7-2 start, Nebraska finished the 2018-2019 season going 19-17 with an ugly conference record of 6-14. That record got them a 13-seed in the Big Ten Tournament, where they did make a bit of a run. They ultimately fell to Wisconsin and what once seemed to be a promising season turned into being an NIT team instead.

Simply put – The two sides needed to move on from each other. Tim Miles seems like a really nice guy and his words after his firing have proven that, but Nebraska basketball needs to work on shedding that ugly “never won an NCAA Tournament game” label that follows them around.

Whether Fred Hoiberg is the next hire or someone else, it needs to be someone who can recruit and bring great talent to Lincoln. Fans are hungry for a successful hoops program and finding the right head coach can turn a mediocre program into a great one in just a matter of years.

Hopefully Tim Miles hooks on with another program (he did have a winning record at Nebraska, so schools will be interested, I’m sure), but this move is for the best. Best of luck to Miles and as always, Go Big Red!