Premium ContentMouse over Home then click on Premium Content for information.LINCOLN — With Nebraska’s baseball program falling from the nation’s elite, Nebraska Athletic Director Tom Osborne said Monday that he isn’t evaluating the team’s head coach on his win-loss record alone.
Mike Anderson, the nine-year Nebraska coach whose contract expires in 2012, is under heavy scrutiny from a growing sector of fans disappointed in the Huskers’ recent slide. Now six years removed from three College World Series appearance in five seasons, NU is in danger of missing its third straight Big 12 tournament.
Osborne hasn’t been thrilled with the on-field results, either. But his eyes are on the bigger picture.
Academic success, team discipline and general player morale are just a few other examples of criteria that Osborne said he uses to assess a coach’s performance.
“There isn’t just one metric that we throw up there and say that’s it,” Osborne said. “I may look at the world of athletics a little differently than most people. The final score’s important ... but all of those other things go into as well.”
So there’s plenty to discuss when Osborne conducts his annual evaluation of Anderson — and much of the dialogue will be based on aspects of the job that fans may not necessarily be knowledgeable about.
“We’ll see how (the season) all shakes out and visit about it,” Osborne said. “I certainly respect the views of the fans, I’m always interested in what they’re thinking, but it won’t be a decision made by the fans.”
Anderson and the Huskers certainly could help to alter the outsiders’ general perspective with a strong finish to end the season.
They’ll be at TD Ameritrade Park on Tuesday night, going for their first season series sweep of Creighton since 2008. Senior Matt Freeman is scheduled to start against the Bluejays’ Ty Blach.
They’ll travel to Texas A&M this weekend. If they’re able to win two of three from the 11th-ranked Aggies, the Huskers would at worst be in a tie for eighth in the conference standings with Kansas State.
Even if Nebraska gets swept at Texas A&M, it won’t be mathematically eliminated from qualifying for the Big 12 tournament.
The Huskers, clinging to faint postseason hopes, would like to avoid that. They end the regular season with three home games against seventh-place Missouri.
“We’re scratching and clawing for anything right now,” Anderson said. “We’ve put ourselves in position where we probably need help. But we’ve got six games left within conference. Let’s see if we can’t get something done and extend (the season).”
Contact the writer:
402-473-9585, jon.nyatawa@owh.com
twitter.com/JonNyatawa
Copyright ©2012 Omaha World-Herald®. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, displayed or redistributed for any purpose without permission from the Omaha World-Herald.
RSS Feeds