Nebraska coach Fred Hoiberg will return for the 2022-23 season, athletic director Trev Alberts said Thursday. Hoiberg boasts a 21-65 record thus far with the Cornhuskers.

"Over the past few weeks, I have had several productive meetings with Coach Hoiberg, and we agree the results of our team are not acceptable," Alberts said in a statement. "No one is more disappointed or frustrated than Fred Hoiberg. … I believe in Fred and look forward to working with him as he executes his vision for the future of Nebraska men's basketball."

Also within his statement, Alberts said the program will "restructure his contract," something Hoiberg agreed to in order to "help us make the changes that are necessary to reorient our program." If fired, Hoiberg would've been owed $18.5 million per his current contract.

Nebraska currently sits in last place in the Big Ten with a 7-20 overall record, including a 1-15 mark in conference play. The team finished last in the Big Ten in the previous two seasons with Hoiberg at the helm and has now secured three consecutive 20-loss seasons for the first time in school history.

Hoiberg was hired by Nebraska ahead of the 2019-20 season after spending three-plus seasons in the NBA as the head coach of the Chicago Bulls. He was fired in December of 2018 after the team got off to a 5-19 start that season.

Before that, Hoiberg began his college coaching career at Iowa State from 2010 to 2015, during which he helped the Cyclones claim two Big 12 tournament titles. He was also named the Big 12 Co-Coach of the Year in 2012 after leading the program to its first NCAA Tournament appearance since 2005.

(Photo: Brian Spurlock / Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

What does this mean for Nebraska as an athletic department?

Mitch Sherman, Nebraska writer: If you’ve paid attention to Alberts’ work in his first seven months on the job, this shouldn’t come as a shock. He’s intent to clean up the messes created by his predecessor Bill Moos, who left unceremoniously with a big check last June.

Alberts’ brought football coach Scott Frost back for a fifth season despite his poor record, getting Frost to agree to a buyout chopped in half in 2022. Like Frost, Hoiberg will have to earn his right to stay long-term. For now, though, it’s about Nebraska avoiding a situation where it loses in competition and on the bottom line.

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Why hasn't it worked yet for Hoiberg at Nebraska?

Brian Hamilton, senior college basketball writer: The simplest explanations are usually the correct ones, right? Hoiberg's reputation as an offensive mastermind hasn't translated, at all, to Lincoln. Nebraska ranked 190th and 179th nationally in offensive efficiency in his first two seasons, respectively, and this season sit at 197th as of Thursday.

To be good on that end, you need good offensive players or, at minimum, a bunch of decent offensive players who are willing to sacrifice and play together. Nebraska has neither. Draw your own conclusions on that.

Can Hoiberg still be the one to turn things around?

Hamilton: Famously, Hoiberg built his good Iowa State teams in part by owning the transfer market and developing stars for whom things didn't work out elsewhere. Everybody does that now. The approach won't distinguish Nebraska these days.

So Hoiberg needs to learn some new tricks or else his reprieve is doomed already. That might require a staff overhaul and a really hard look at reinventing the general culture in the basketball facility.