SIOUX FALLS, S.D. -- Minutes after his freshman season came to an end, Frankie Fidler was asked what lesson he’d most take away from his first collegiate season. Whether he meant it or not, in just a few lines the Omaha forward covered all the main themes of the previous four months for him and his team.
“Never get too high or low, stay in the middle,” he said following UNO’s quarterfinal loss to South Dakota State in the Summit League Tournament. “There’s ups and downs all season, so just fight through it and it’ll be good at the end of the day.”
There were certainly some downs for Omaha last year. The Mavericks ended the season at 5-25 (4-14), never really recovering from a 1-11 start while struggling to keep opposing offenses in check throughout the year. It was the team's second consecutive five-win campaign and there certainly were tough breaks.
An injury wiped out La’Mel Robinson’s entire season, keeping the guard from building on a promising redshirt freshman campaign in 2020-21. Wanjang Tut and Isaiah Poor Bear-Chandler also struggled with injuries throughout the year, limiting two players slated to be big parts of the Maverick frontcourt. In the end, it led to the program moving on from Derrin Hansen after a 17-year run spanning two NCAA divisions and a plethora of competitive Maverick teams.
Maverick alum Chris Crutchfield is now in the top seat in Omaha, and he inherits the neon-level bright spot of last year’s difficult campaign: Fidler.
The Bellevue, Neb. native was a key cog and starter from the jump, scoring 15 over 34 minutes in the Mavericks’ season-opening win over Hastings. As can be the case with freshmen, he endured an early down swing, averaging just 4.8 points per game and struggling from the 3-point line over an eight-game stretch from Nov. 17 to Dec. 15.
But as league play began, it was all highs. Fidler grew into one of the Summit’s most dangerous scorers, and finished the year on a particular high note, dropping in 34 points against the juggernaut Jackrabbits in the Summit League quarterfinals, keeping Omaha within shouting distance of a major upset.
The conference season also saw him drop in a memorable winner against Kansas City on Jan. 29 at Baxter Arena. With the game in its final seconds and the Mavericks down by a point, Fidler came off a screen, stopped his dribble just inside the 3-point arc and released a floater to drop in a game winner just ahead of the buzzer.
It, like the outburst in Sioux Falls, were highlights in a season that saw Fidler flash a well-rounded offensive game (12.8 ppg, 1.8 apg, 42.9 3P%) unlike any other Hansen had seen from one of his rookies.
“I think he’s the best freshman I’ve coached and I’ve coached a lot of good players,” Hansen said after the quarterfinal loss to SDSU. “I’ve coached 500 games at Omaha and he’s the best incoming freshman I’ve had. He passes it, has a great feel, obviously shoots the ball well and knows where he’s supposed to be.”
Those words were high praise from Hansen, who coached his share of talented freshmen over his long tenure in Omaha. That list includes fellow forwards Tre’Shawn Thurman, who grew into an all-league player and spent time in the NBA's G-League, and Matt Pile, who would go on to nab a Summit League Defensive Player of the Year award. It also includes a slew of players that would develop into dynamic scorers in Marcus Tyus, Zach Jackson, K.J. Robinson and J.T. Gibson.
That’s lofty company for Fidler, who did things last season – especially toward the end – that few players have ever done at Omaha during the program's Division I era, freshman or otherwise.
The 34-point outing against the Jackrabbits was just the second 30-point or more game any Maverick has scored in March. The other was a 37-point effort from Devin Patterson against Duquesne in the 2016 College Basketball Invitational, a wild game that saw the Mavericks score 112 points in a close loss.
Fidler – who also had 37 points against North Dakota in February – became just the third Maverick to notch multiple 30-point games in a season, period. He joined Patterson (who had three in 2015-16) and Tyus (who had five in 2016-17) on that impressive list, but both of those players were seniors during those campaigns.
That potential wasn’t ignored by the league media and coaches, who named Fidler to the preseason all-league first team. He now looks to build on that unprecedented freshman campaign as the presumptive centerpiece of Crutchfield’s inaugural Mavericks team.
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