The fact that Fred seemingly was interested in Minnesota and is now at Nebraska says a lot. He wants to be in the Midwest but not in Ames, a place where he felt he and his family couldn't breathe and had zero privacy. Even Lincoln is significantly bigger than Ames and basketball is second by a long-shot there, so you have some more breathing room - and his kids are mostly grown up now. I personally think both are inferior jobs than ISU from a basketball perspective, but Minnesota has a good deal of history and is the only major D-1 school in a state with decent HS basketball, and Nebraska has family connections and a brand new arena that they're filling every night. Coaching the Bulls, even with as bad of management as they had when he took the gig, would be a dream job for a lot of people (history, Chicago is one of the biggest cities in the country) and if you're a coach at that level, you always believe that you'll be the guy to get it done even if the odds aren't in your favor.
I wish all the best for Fred but I think his coaching career is done at this point, and it's sad. I don't know what he does moving forward - possibly goes back to the type of job he had with the Wolves if he's lucky. It still kills me that he's not coaching the Cyclones and that he didn't want to be our Coach K, although there's no guarantee he could have sustained success here. It bothered me for at least 3-4 years after he left as the way things ended just left a very raw taste for all of us. But that's in the past and we've gotta hope that TJ can figure out how to get us to that level.
Give it up, he was over his head at ISU and the Big XII.
