Ex-Chicago Bulls HC Fred Hoiberg released from hospital after scare

The last head coach of the Chicago Bulls prior to Jim Boylen, Fred Hoiberg, was sent to and released from the hospital on March 11.

A former head coach of the Chicago Bulls, now in the same role at the collegiate level with the Nebraska Cornhuskers, Fred Hoiberg gave the college hoops world a big scare on March 11. Hoiberg was showing symptoms during a Big Ten Tournament game on Wednesday night. He would later be taken to the hospital given all the novel coronavirus scare going around lately.

According to a report from Adam Rittenburg of ESPN, Hoiberg was taken to the hospital in that 89-64 Nebraska loss at the hands of the Indiana Hoosiers. Hoiberg was apparently taken to the hospital as a “precautionary” measure. But he would be later released after getting tested at the hospital in the same night.

Hoiberg reportedly had two open heart surgeries in the past, one in 2005 and the other in 2015. He is one of the younger coaches in college basketball, and he was in the NBA too during his tenure as the Bulls head coach. He is just 47 years old.

Coaching what was a rather short handed Huskers men’s basketball team this season, Hoiberg didn’t have much hope of winning his first game in the Big Ten Tournament. Nebraska is likely done with their season now, finishing up with a record of 7-25 (2-18 Big Ten). They even had to add two players form their football team to make ends meet in the rotation for the Big Ten Tournament.

Moreover, after Hoiberg was taken to the hospital the entire Nebraska team didn’t leave the arena and was quarantined. The quarantine of the team came from a report from Christopher Heady of the Omaha World.

The visible symptoms Hoiberg was showing on the Nebraska bench finally resulted in him leaving the game with about four minutes to go. But it turned out not to be a positive test for COVID-19.

The NBA went ahead and suspended the rest of their season until further notice after Rudy Gobert of the Utah Jazz tested positive for COVID-19. The March 11 NBA slate played out and the rest will be postponed or cancelled entirely.