[Husker] Basketball: Tim Miles vs John Groce

[Mike Jaixen]

I certainly hope Osborne contacted Groce.  Both Omaha papers indicated that Groce was high on Nebraska's list, for what it's worth.

However, many Ohio sources indicated that Groce had showed no interest in coming to Lincoln.  The long-standing perception that you can't win at Nebraska appeared to be the downfall here, reality or not.  Could Groce have been "money bombed" as Gregg Doyel from CBS had suggested?  Maybe.  I'll be interested in what Illinois hired Groce at, as I would have hoped that Nebraska would/could have offered something similar...if not more.

I was really high on Groce, and was disappointed at first when Nebraska hired Miles before even trying to change Groce's mind.  But then when the Bobcats took North Carolina to overtime, it finally sunk in that even if Osborne offered $5 million a year, Groce was not coming to Lincoln.

 
Mike Jaixen
http://huskermike.blogspot.com
http://www.cornnation.com


________________________________
 From: Don Mares <donmares at gmail.com>
To: “Husker List“ <husker at tssi.com> 
Sent: Thursday, March 29, 2012 12:10 PM
Subject: [Husker] Basketball: Tim Miles vs John Groce
 
I'm curious if anyone has any reaction to the John Groce hire at Illinois
and how that compares to the Tim Miles hire at Nebraska?

Illinois went after VCU coach Shaka Smart first and then Butler's Brad
Stevens but both publicly turned Illinois down.  Groce is their third
option to lead the basketball program. At this point, most are pretty
apathetic with the choice.

Personally, I didn't think we could get Smart at Nebraska but I was hoping
Nebraska would try and send out feelers and compete with Illinois for his
services.  I expected Nebraska to interview and talk to and hopefully hire
John Groce who coached Ohio to the sweet 16 this year.  Instead, Nebraska
hired Tim Miles from Colorado State who lost by 17 points in the first
round of 64 (I'm old school) - his first visit to the tourney as a coach.
I think it will be interesting to watch the progress of each of these
coaches through the next few years.

Initial opinions?  Does anyone feel Nebraska came out ahead and why?

Personally, I was not excited about the Tim Miles hire since he didn't have
much of a resume to me.  But he seems like a really nice guy who cares
about the players, is excited to be here and give it his best shot. I
thought John Groce was young and passionate with a lot of success and would
do a good job.  Overall, we probably did get that with Tim Miles.  Neither
have a lot of experience with big successful programs or top recruits.
Although Groce was an assistant to Thad Matta at Ohio State for 4 years.  I
agree Osborne knows how to identify a good coach better than I do and I'm
willing to give him the benefit of the doubt.

Does anyone know if Osborne even considered John Groce?

Thanks,

Don
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