(Photo: Dylan Widger, USA TODAY Sports)

 

The main focus is on Nittany Lions, but Fred Hoiberg offered his thoughts Friday on the postgame incident when an Iowa fan jumped into the handshake line directly in front of the coach after the Hawkeyes’ 57-52 win over Nebraska on Tuesday in Iowa City.

Hoiberg swiped at the phone of the fan suddenly right in front of him.

“First of all, I want to thank Iowa for the statement that they put out,” Hoiberg said. “At the end of the day in the handshake line under no circumstances should anybody ever enter and charge up on you out of nowhere. And that’s what happened. So I appreciate Iowa coming out and talking about that. And listen, it’s a learning opportunity I think for everybody. Court storms, there’s been a lot of different things that have happened over the years – unfortunate things. I’m not against court storms. I think it’s great to be able to go out and celebrate.”

That’s what it should be about, he added. Go enjoy that moment with your team. Nebraska had a court storming earlier this year after a win over Michigan State at Pinnacle Bank Arena.

“But you can’t go into the handshake line and put players and coaches in danger,” Hoiberg said. “It was a heated moment, it was an unbelievable game. I was going through the handshake line congratulating the Iowa coaches on a hard-fought win. And all of a sudden out of nowhere this kid rushes up on me and I reacted to it. And I think anybody in my position after a game like that would’ve reacted in a similar way.”

Hoiberg mentioned he’s also 100 percent reliant on a pacemaker.

“I’ll never forget a conversation with my doctor: A cell phone can put it off. If anything ever happens, I’m done. I will not survive if something ever happens to a pacemaker. I’m very cognizant of that. So when somebody rushes up on me with a cell phone, of course I’m going to react. So, yeah, what’s the likelihood of that happening? Close to zero. But it was also close to zero that I even developed heart block when I was under the knife on my first open-heart surgery. So there’s circumstances that were involved maybe people don’t understand and realize.”

Iowa Athletics issued a statement about the incident on Wednesday.

“The University of Iowa Athletics Department implemented its court‑intrusion guidelines following last evening’s Iowa vs. Nebraska men’s basketball game,” the Iowa statement read. “Unfortunately, an individual gained access to the court through a restricted area, directly confronting Coach Hoiberg and putting Nebraska players, coaches, and staff in a reactive situation. We apologize for this incident and will conduct a review of our procedures and security measures to determine what adjustments may be needed to further strengthen our protocols and help prevent similar incidents in the future.”

It was a highly-emotional game and one of the craziest atmospheres the Huskers have played in this season, Hoiberg added.

The Husker coach also got the number of the Iowa staffer he made contact with during that moment to call him.

“I felt bad about that. I apologized to him on the spot and I communicated with him yesterday. And his response was, and this should put it to bed, ‘Coach, it’s all good. I would’ve done the same thing.'”