Fred Hoiberg’s heart visibly ripped in half on Nebraska’s grave 4-player mistake
· Yahoo Sports
Was it a magnetic late Iowa run or, after being in control all game, a stunning late Nebraska collapse?
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I suppose it depends on who you ask. But if there's a seminal sequence from the Hawkeyes' victory to advance to the Elite Eight, it's probably what happened in the last minute of the game. With Iowa clinging to a three-point lead, Cornhuskers head coach Fred Hoiberg called a full timeout to organize his team.
It looks like he did everything but.
How do I know this? Well, you see, Nebraska came out of this timeout, with the game and its season hanging in the balance, with four players on the court. Four. Yes, yikes. Smelling blood in the water, Iowa promptly took advantage of this miscue with a full-court pass to a savvy, cherry-picking Alvaro Folgueiras, who finished an and-one dagger at the rim. If you root for Nebraska, this was a disastrous sequence in itself.
But if you watch the devastating replay closely, trust me: you'll somehow feel even worse about how Hoiberg managed this clutch-time moment. Below, you'll quite literally see Hoiberg realizing his mistake in real time as Folgueiras got behind his defense. In a manner reminiscent of the timeless Ralph Wiggum, you could actually pinpoint the moment Hoiberg's heart ripped in half.
Ugh. After seeing this, I honestly feel really bad for the guy:
It's one thing for Iowa to win straight up and snatch victory out of the jaws of defeat. You could live with a result where you simply got beaten. It happens all the time. But for it to happen partly off a crushing self-inflicted mental mistake? For that to end your entire season when you were on the verge of advancing to the next round?
That's the kind of play that tends to haunt you for a long time. It lingers without mercy.
Hoiberg is going to get a lot of heat for Nebraska's failure on this play. From a narrative perspective, it unfortunately might overshadow Iowa's incredible effort, too. To say I don't envy him one bit would be an understatement.
This article originally appeared on For The Win: Fred Hoiberg reacted way too late to Nebraska’s grave 4-player mistake