Nebraska...not feeling Frosty anymore

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[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VXaW0saFPAU"]The Nebraska Performance Lab - YouTube[/ame]

great video on where UNL is heading...

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sounds like Miles is in Lincoln and looks to be the leading candidate.... at least today.

[hack]

The Nebraska Performance Lab - YouTube

great video on where UNL is heading...

They're gonna be on their backs a lot more?

[entropy]

Looks like Miles will be the HC at Nebraska

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UNL baseball on BTN now..

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And the bats are not there tonight.

[Dr. Strangelove]

Can't say I've ever really heard of Miles but it looks like he did a good job turning Colorado State into a legit team

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Bats are very dead... Only 6 hits through the 7th and one run.. Maybe tomorrow night

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Randy York's N-Sider

Fully aware that legions of self-appointed pundits out there have their own critically personal opinions about who’s the right man to lead the Nebraska men’s basketball program into the Huskers’ new Pinnacle Bank Arena home in 18 months or so, let me go on record to express my own. Former Colorado State Coach Tim Miles, 45, is the right man at the right time for Nebraska for one very simple reason: He mirrors almost every competitive leadership principle of the man who hired him – Tom Osborne. Nebraska’s Hall-of-Fame football coach and fifth-year athletic director knew precisely what he was looking for in a head basketball coach, and Miles puts more exclamation points than check marks in every box that Osborne considers crucial. With that in mind, here are 10 reasons why Miles is the right man to take Nebraska to the next level:

#1 He believes in goals and process

“I love coaching basketball,” Miles said. “I love working with people. I love competition. I love winning. If you’re not trying to get better every day in every way in your life, you’re settling for less. We try to hold ourselves accountable.” Miles is a classic goal-setter. At Colorado State, his goal was to build a nationally known college basketball program that could make the NCAA Tournament on a regular basis. His junior-laden team made the NCAA Tournament this year, and he leaves a wealth of talent behind in Ft. Collins to his successor. At Nebraska, one word will change in that goal. “Make” the NCAA Tournament will be replaced by “Win” a game once you get there – something that, unfortunately, never has happened in Nebraska basketball history. As a Big Ten Conference team, Nebraska’s expectations will never go below that goal.

#2 He places a premium on recruiting

Make no mistake. Osborne and Marc Boehm, Nebraska’s executive associate athletic director in charge of basketball, went into this national coaching search with a keen eye on the candidates’ ability to recruit. In his first four stops – Mayville State, Southwest Minnesota State, North Dakota State and Colorado State – Miles has proven himself to be a fine judge of character. A year ago, he accelerated the stakes, hiring Ron Coleman as his recruiting coordinator. Coleman has been head coach of Chicago’s AAU Mac Irvin Fire, developing the squad into one of the nation’s top AAU programs with four McDonald’s All-Americans, four Illinois Players of the Year and 15 players who have participated in the NBA’s Top 100 camp and the LeBron James Skills Academy. He’s also been a highly successful prep coach in Chicago and has national connections galore.

#3 He’s a very savvy social media man

Every coach knows the value of social media, but few are willing to take the time to learn the skills and use them to their advantage. Even though Osborne is hardly a fan of this particular communications art, Nebraska’s AD knows the positive impact social media can have, and the man he just hired has been described as “the mastermind of the Tweet” by a Mountain West Conference media relations employee. “It’s been good for us in terms of national attention ... it really has,” Miles said. “Twitter and all the things that go with being on Twitter have really been fun for our program.” It’s been so fun that Miles even tweeted during halftime when his team was leading 30-1 Murray State in the NCAA Tournament. “Win the half, we’ll win the game,” he tweeted. It didn’t happen.

#4 He’s as competitive as Darin Erstad

Nebraska Baseball Coach Darin Erstad is a North Dakota native and wants to play every great baseball team willing to play the Huskers, at home or anywhere else. Ditto for South Dakota native Tim Miles, who yearns to play any non-conference power that might be willing to risk getting upset. At North Dakota State, Miles-coached teams upset #8 Marquette and shocked #13 Wisconsin, ending the Badgers’ 27-game home winning streak. At Colorado State, he personally set up games so his team could experience playing at Duke (3? months ago), playing Kansas at the Sprint Center in Kansas City a year earlier, and playing at UCLA the year before that. Miles was so intent to put North Dakota State on the map, he tried to schedule Texas Tech when Bobby Knight was most likely to set the all-time record for wins. At his team’s NCAA Tournament Press Conference, he even wondered how much Colorado State would have to pay for such publicity. He tweets for fans, for fun and for recruiting.

#5 His teams know how to fight uphill

Let’s not kid ourselves. Nebraska is facing a monumental task to gain respect and credibility, and Osborne wanted a leader who knew how to start from the bottom and work his way up. Miles' first team at Colorado State was 7-25 and winless in the Mountain West Conference, leaving no choice but to clean house. This season – the kind of time it takes to turn something that was upside down right-side up – CSU came full circle. The Rams won 14 of 15 home games and posted their first undefeated conference home season in 51 years. They also earned their first NCAA bid in nine years. They beat three nationally ranked teams – UNLV, San Diego State and New Mexico. We also should mention they swept their state, beating Pac-12 Tournament champion Colorado – that school down the road – as well as Northern Colorado, Denver and Air Force.

#6 He values, respects and enjoys fans

As much as Miles loves coaching basketball, he considers paying fans an equally important part of his job. “We have a great fan base and a loyal fan base,” Miles said in a video on the CSU website. “We want Moby Madness.” Well, guess what? Miles inherits another great/loyal fan base that will embrace a coach with the background and the skill sets to repair and rebuild the roster, re-energize and reinforce the fan base and restore the confidence among those who quit coming to home games. Husker fans are going to get all of that and more when Miles and his carefully picked staff roll into Lincoln. Nebraska is making a big commitment not only to its new head coach, but also enabling him to hire a talented coaching staff that can hit the recruiting ground running.

#7 He puts the ‘student’ before ‘athlete’

Never underestimate how important this fact is. Osborne has based his entire career on this fundamental principle. “It’s essential that our players realize the value of their education at CSU,” Miles said. “Academics is our top priority. We want to represent this program, this university and this community in a first-class manner at all times. We want to make sure all of our guys have a game plan for life, not just basketball.” Boehm said Miles “was blown away” Friday after visiting Nebraska’s basketball practice facility and the Student-Athlete Center. “Nebraska’s like the Biltmore. Everywhere you go, everything’s just perfect,” Miles told Osborne and Boehm. “Everything is catered to the student-athlete. I’ve never seen a place with so much attention to detail.”

#8 He believes strongly in giving back

When Miles was first hired as CSU’s head coach in 2007, he didn’t just announce how much he wanted the school to be a consistent winner and a postseason player. He talked about creating a culture for his team to support and give back to the community, and he's done his part to lead that effort. Miles and his wife, Kari, have been generous donors to the school’s scholarship endowment and have reached out to support several educational initiatives and philanthropic opportunities that benefit children and single moms. “Fort Collins has been good to us, and we feel strongly that we need to reciprocate,” Miles said. “Kari and I know we’re fortunate to be in a position to show our support. We believe very strongly in education and want to provide every opportunity we can.”

#9 He’s a highly motivational coach

Trust me on this one. I watched a video of Miles on CSU's website, and you can tell instantly how well he communicates and how highly he motivates. He’s animated, instinctive and intense in all the right ways. He claps his hands. He constantly reinforces, and he knows when to repeat words he believes in. “Hustle! Hustle! Hustle! ... Attack, Attack, Attack!” he exhorts. Later, he implores: “We always fight back! We always fight back! We always fight back! Do the little things! Play for each other! Screen for each other! Move to get open!” Here’s where he really mirrors Osborne. “The idea is to make practice situations even more difficult than what you might undergo in games,” Miles said. “We keep the pressure on and demands high to help players perform better.”

#10 He maximizes players’ potential

Miles was recently named the District VIII Men’s Basketball Coach of the Year by the U.S. Basketball Writers Association. “We try to use passion and energy to create an edge in every player,” he said. “We spend a lot of time with our players to find out what makes them tick. We know who the introverts are, who the extroverts are and what motivates them. My job as coach is to minimize your weaknesses and maximize your strengths and help you play to your strengths.” Having seen Nebraska’s practice facilities and then envisioning the new Pinnacle Bank Arena under construction, Miles knows he has facilities with unlimited potential to recruit great players.

CSU vowed to meet or exceed Nebraska’s best offer Friday before Miles flew back to Fort Collins to tell his team that he was accepting NU's offer. It’s flattering for any coach when two schools want your services at the same time. Fortunately, Miles decided he was ready to move, willing to assemble an energetic staff to attract high-powered recruits and able to take on a supreme challenge. After all, he wants to maximize his own potential every bit as much as he wants to maximize those smart enough to play for him.

Here’s the kicker in all this. Every time Osborne and Boehm discussed which coaching candidate fit Nebraska to a T, they kept coming back to the same name …Tim Miles, a native of Doland, S.D. (population: 180). Before you judge that choice, consider this: Former U.S. Vice President Hubert Humphrey is a native of that same tiny South Dakota town. Somehow, Osborne, a three-term U.S. Congressman, must figure Doland natives have the moxy to rise to monumental challenges. And if a Hall-of-Fame football coach, who also happened to be an incredibly talented small college basketball player, feels that Miles is the right man at the right time, really, who are we to disagree?

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Watched his introduction on the BTN... He's saying all the right things. Well find out in 4 years

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Miles to have larger salary pool for assistant coaching staff

By BRIAN ROSENTHAL / Lincoln Journal Star | Posted: Saturday, March 24, 2012 10:00 pm
Colorado State head coach Tim Miles talks with guards Wes Eikmeier and Dorian Green during a game against BYU in Fort Collins, Colo., on Saturday, Jan. 22, 2011. (AP)

Nebraska athletic director Tom Osborne gave Tim Miles two choices when negotiating Miles' salary as the Huskers' new men's basketball coach.

Miles could take a larger sum for himself, leaving a smaller salary pool for his assistants, or he could accept a smaller amount and have more to spend on his staff.

He chose the latter option.

"Which, to me, spoke volumes," Osborne said. "He's here to get the job done."

Nebraska executive associate athletic director Marc Boehm said at Saturday's news conference to introduce Miles as coach that Miles would have $720,000 to spend on three assistants and a director of operations.

That's about $150,000 more than former coach Doc Sadler had to spend on the same positions, and a figure that ranks near the top of Big Ten schools.

Boehm said Miles would be given leeway to spend beyond the $720,000, if he finds the right assistant deserving of the salary.

Miles said Saturday he's not made any decisions on his assistant coaching staff, but one name to monitor is Ronald "Chin" Coleman, who worked last season as Miles' recruiting coordinator at Colorado State.

Coleman, a Chicago native, was head coach of Chicago's AAU Mac Irvin Fire from 2005-11. There, he coached four McDonald's All-Americans, four Illinois Players of the Year and 15 players that participated in the NBA Players Association Top 100 camp.

"Chin's awesome," Miles said. "Have you ever met him? He's a blast. You'll love him. He's a great guy. We just have to work it out. I'm not going to say official today where we're at with things. But Ron's a great friend of mine. He's a great personality with a tremendous Big Ten footprint."

Coleman, though, could be a candidate to replace Miles at Colorado State, as could any of Miles' assistants.

Whoever Miles turns to, he wants coaches with Big Ten recruiting ties. In fact, even at Colorado State, which plays in the Mountain West Conference, Miles said he began focusing his recruiting in Big Ten areas, which led him to Coleman.

"He was highly recommended by some other Division I assistants," Miles said. "We'd already been in Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, the Dakotas, Minnesota. I wanted to continue to go east. I didn't want to go west."

Miles said that at one point at Colorado State, he had 17 straight players from California who left the program before completing their eligibility. It turned him off from recruiting the state again.

Miles also said he'll focus his recruiting on high school players, noting that junior college players and foreign players are "more high risk."

Of the 29 players Sadler brought to Nebraska in his six seasons, 14 were transfers, including 10 from junior college, and five players were foreign. Overall, 11 of the 29 players left the program before finishing their eligibility.

Miles, who had four Nebraskans on this year's Colorado State roster, said he'll continue to recruit Nebraska players, and realizes the importance of having local talent.

"They've got to be good enough," he said. "If they're good enough, they're in. If they're not good enough, you can't appease everybody. It's hard."

Nebraska has signed five players to next season's recruiting class, including three junior college players ? one of them from Bosnia ? and two high school players.

Miles said he wants to talk with them within the next few days.

"I want to see them," he said. "I want to see them play, see their academic transcripts, see what's going on that way.

"We want to make sure these guys are committed to Nebraska, they're committed to getting their education, and they're going to be good enough to play in the Big Ten."

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http://www.omaha.com/article/20120324/BIGRED/703249811/1001#shatel-miles-has-recruiting-skills-sense-of-humor

Shatel: Miles has recruiting skills, sense of humor

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btw.... Husker women's gymnasts are B1G Champs

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UNL Baseball wins game two vs. Ill 18-5. That is more like it..

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UNL baseball wins today 13-3 to take the series 2-1. Over 15,000 fans attended the weekend series... Nice showing by the fans.