Hoiberg, NAPL Team To Maximize Potential For Huskers

Seldom, if ever, did we hear Fred Hoiberg grumble about his Nebraska basketball team's effort during practices. Even during his difficult first season as head coach, when youth, inexperience and unfamiliarity dominated the headlines rather than victories, Hoiberg held firm in publicly praising his team's practice habits.
 
A motivational ploy to keep his players positive? Perhaps. Yet Hoiberg, most times unsolicited, consistently commended his players for giving maximum effort and showing attention to detail in practice.
 
Fans may also have noticed the very few reports of players missing multiple practices for muscle pulls or ligament sprains – those nagging injuries that sideline key contributors for long spells or severely limit their practice minutes. While no team goes through a season completely unscathed in the injury department, Nebraska maintained very good health in the 2019-2020 season.
 
Credit attentive players and good fortune, if you want. That's fair. Yet we can also link all of the above to Hoiberg's penchant for sports analytics and science, his connection with the Nebraska Athletic Performance Lab and his close work with Dr. Chris Bach, sports scientist for the men's basketball program and director of the NAPL.
 
"When I first saw NAPL, I was blown away at everything that we can do," Hoiberg said. "I've never seen that before, and I've been to a lot of different facilities. When I was working in the NBA, my job was to go and scout different players, and I was able to see a lot of facilities. I'd never seen anything like NAPL until I got here at the University of Nebraska.
 
"When recruits see the NAPL facility and everything that's involved in it and all the information that we can gather from the testing that we do, and how we can improve the players as they progress with their career at the University of Nebraska, I think it's a great tool to have. I think the recruits see that, and I think the families see that."
 
Bach, in his third year with Nebraska, sees the basketball team daily throughout the season and travels with the team for road games. Every morning, he tests the student-athletes' recovery, gauging how well their bodies have responded to stresses they deal with on a daily basis. That could result from anything – basketball, classes or social issues.
 
"We take a look at that recovery, and we've had some of our athletes start to compete against each other as to who recovered better last night," Bach said. "What that also does is it gives us an opportunity to talk to athletes daily about different recovery strategies, and educate them on how we can help them recover from that practice and move forward for that next day to perform their best."
 
Bach analyzes his recovery results – how players feel physically, their stresses from the previous day's practice or game – and reports them every morning to Hoiberg, who uses the information to strategize for that day's practice, or maybe make plans throughout the week, depending on the results.
 
"What I did in the NBA as a coach, I used a lot of the numbers that we use here at Nebraska," Hoiberg said. "There were some of the things we did as far as recovery tests, as far as exertion level on the floor, as far as when we can push our players a little bit further and when I need to back off.
 
"Are they more susceptible to an injury based on the number we get from that test? There are a lot of things that I took from my time as a coach in the NBA, and I would apply that to my practice time we use here at Nebraska as well."
 
So when Hoiberg lauds his team's solid effort in practice and doesn't have a daily laundry list of nagging injuries to update, it's fair to thank his focus on science and analytics to a large degree.
 
"To have a dedicated sports scientist to work only with men's basketball is a huge luxury to have," Hoiberg said. "To have somebody who has a PHd in that category, in sports science, it's a huge luxury."
 
Among his many data, Bach uses heart rate technology to determine stresses at practice, and heart rate variability to assess how well they have recovered.



Specifically with heart rate data, Bach can monitor it live and give minute-by-minute feedback to Hoiberg and his staff – what players need pushing, what players need to ease up. Or for the team in general, knowing when to push and when to pull.
 
"I would say our athletes have been very receptive to it," Bach said. "When you can sit there and you can show them their own data and how their personal response to practice, how their recovery is affecting their play on the court, it really hits home to them. Once we can tie the metrics and all the information we're collecting on them back to their performance, the conversation really changes."
 
Hoiberg's overall philosophy as a coach is to gather as much data as possible to give his players their best chance to be successful, and analytics are important to him in that regard. In spending 19 years in the NBA – 10 as a player, five in the front office, four as a coach – he learned how to use those numbers differently in each one of those aspects.
 
"NAPL, we're so fortunate here at Nebraska to have a facility like that, where we can gather so much data and help the player to achieve their best success," Hoiberg said. "One thing that I've seen that I've also talked to Dr. Bach about – who I think's as good as anyone I've ever seen in this business – is we put our players through basically what they would see in an NBA combine. They can see where they rank as far as their numbers and players who are in the same position as them, and see what we can do to help them improve those numbers."
 
In recreating the NBA Combine, Bach and his staff went a step deeper into those metrics, aiming to give Nebraska's players an advantage and provide student-athletes with the information they need on how they can best maximize their chances to succeed and to reach the next level.
 
"With all the data we collect from our combine data, we build it into an algorithm we've created here, and we can estimate your likelihood of getting drafted in the first round versus second round," Bach said. "We can kind of toggle with those metrics to maybe figure out where can we maximize your potential on an individual, physical characteristics scale, to figure out what maximizes your chances of getting drafted in the first round, or getting drafted in the lottery.
 
"If we can maximize your physical capabilities here through our entire performance team, then we feel like we're not only helping you succeed and helping our team succeed at Nebraska, but also setting you up best for success at the next level."
 
Another aspect Hoiberg appreciates of the NAPL – which works with all of Nebraska's athletics programs, not just basketball – is the baseline test administered to all student-athletes when they arrive on campus. If they are recovering from an injury, athletic trainers and coaches can determine how quickly they can resume practicing, once they return to their baseline number.
 
"Or, where do they compare, let's say six months into our strength and conditioning program, to where they started with those baseline numbers?" Hoiberg said. "That's a great way for them to see their improvement and how they're getting better as a basketball player."
 
That Bach is with the basketball team on a daily basis allows him to communicate and get to know the student-athletes, too. He can communicate recovery data with them, or stress data, and have conversations to alleviate some concerns.
 
"One thing that makes Chris so good, he's an unbelievable communicator," Hoiberg said. "If somebody is recovering low, he has the ability to go and connect with that player and to talk to him about how he can improve his sleep habits, or where he can get additional rest, or if we need to use hydration, which we have a great nutritionist as well.
 
"Chris does an excellent job, and I think our players see how knowledgeable he is in that category, and how much time and effort he puts into it."
 
Reach Brian at brosenthal@huskers.com  or follow him on Twitter @GBRosenthal.