RON MALY HAS BEEN WATCHING THE PARADE GO BY FOR A LONG TIME. THIS IS ONE OF HIS WEBSITES.

Saturday, March 14, 2015

America's Enchantment With Fred Hoiberg

By RON MALY

I'm not sure there's anyone in America who's having a better weekend than Fred Hoiberg.

Fred Hoiberg
I mean, if  the Iowa State coach isn't the king of collegiate basketball right now, I don't know who is.

He's certainly my national coach of the year.

The guy also obviously has the biggest TV sports network in the world in his back pocket.

By that, I mean ESPN and its entire stable of stations.

It's a given that ESPN play-by-play announcer Brent Musburger is absolutely enchanted with Hoiberg.

It's been that way ever since Musburger made his first trip to Ames.

It's not just ESPN.  Heck, count ESPN2, ESPNU, ESPN News and maybe even the ESPN channels that carry hockey, baseball and Australian rules football  among the TV outlets that are nutty about the man Iowans refer to as The Mayor.

Mayor? Heavens to the memory of Johnny Orr, Hoiberg is such a hot item these days that he could be elected to any office in the nation in landslide fashion.

Musburger gushed about Hoiberg from Kansas City to every metropolitan area and unincorporated community in the country today as Iowa State's Comeback Kids [thanks for that, Georges Niang] won a second successive Big 12 Conference tournament championship by rallying for a 70-66 victory over Kansas.

Obviously, the nation is caught up with Hoiberg's superb coaching savvy and his ability to put a collection of recruits and transfers on the floor that looks like a team fully capable of making it to the NCAA's Final Four.

Not that he needs the help, but Hoiberg is receiving some marvelous recruiting tools from ESPN and the other networks that broadcast collegiate basketball. 

ESPN not only has been raving about his recruiting skills and his coaching ability all season, but it's also been giving Hoiberg's wonderful family plenty of air time during games throughout the season. 

That happened again during today's telecast.

Fred's family certainly has an all-America look about it, and he obviously has an all-America image.

I'm sure glad I was able to cover Hoiberg in his playing years at Iowa State.

I could see then that he was headed for some huge accomplishments, whatever it was he chose to do in his adult life.

And now we're seeing it all happen.

Keep it up, Fred.  

America loves you.