Peterson: Surgery may have major impact on Hoiberg's career

AMES, Ia. – This is Fred Hoiberg's watershed moment, Friday's open heart surgery that substitutes a faulty valve with a mechanical valve. Sometime around then, the Iowa State basketball coach, in my opinion, will have that defining deep talk with those closest to him, primarily his wife and kids.

This will be when The Mayor restores what he already knows — that life can't get any better than living and working in your home community of Ames, where you'll never worry about job security.

Ever.

He may not say it. He probably won't. But people who know him best are more convinced than ever on Iowa State being Hoiberg's destination job — his first-and-only coaching venture, save for maybe helping out someday with the grandkids.

After recovering from his second open heart surgery in 10 years, he'll remember there's unfinished business. He'll recall his personal bar is set a lot higher than four NCAA Tournament appearances in a row and two Big 12 Conference Tournament championships.

Hoiberg won't consider this a successful finished product until he wins a national championship, and assuming all goes well at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., on Friday, that will continue to be his coaching motivation.

He's not packing up his office, even if that mission is accomplished. If that title comes next season, then he'll be just that much more driven to do it again.

That's my response when people ask if Friday's surgery might hasten Hoiberg's coaching retirement. It won't rush it, I tell them. It will just confirm his devotion to Iowa State University.

That's speculation, of course. It's what people who know him think. The only thing I know after this procedure is completed successfully is that Hoiberg will watch practice differently. Instead of hanging out around center court — where he actually was once run over by Matt Thomas — he'll instruct nearer the sideline.

He'll be on blood thinners the rest of his life. His body will take longer to recover from violent and nonviolent collisions. Otherwise, that's it.

He'll recover at home — he wouldn't miss Paige's high school graduation for the world. He'll recover at the cabin — and I use that word loosely — on a Minnesota lake.

People outside his family won't see him much for a while. This isn't like having meniscus scraped from a knee, you know. This is heart surgery. It's serious stuff, and remember, he had complications the first time he had it back in 2005.

"Seems like I had that just last week," Hoiberg said last Friday. "I hope to get through this thing a lot better than the last time."

He worked through the stress of last season — with the help of family and friends and the doctor who is always courtside at home basketball games. He knew this surgery was coming. He just didn't know when.

"(The operation) was on my mind, (but) didn't think about it a lot," he said.

People told him he lost weight. He looked pale.

"It's December in Iowa," he countered. "You look pale, too."

A pacemaker the doctor placed near his left shoulder keeps his heart functioning, and last summer, it needed new batteries.

It works so well that Hoiberg feels each beat from what he calls the ticking time bomb in his chest — and that's not even imaginable. You're coaching against Kansas, your biggest rival ...

Thump ... Thump ...

Your star player is involved in a collision under the basket.

Thump ... Thump ... Thump ...

The call goes against your star player.

THUMP ... THUMP ... THUMP ...

Yeah, he's staying in Ames — close to his family and close to his doctor. Where else can he have all the comforts of home?

That's my hunch.

No more speculation. No more fan concern.

No bull.