Real question for Rob Howe

[Adam]

Rob,

I can hear the anguish and disgust in your write-up's this year. You are obviously feeling the pain that most Iowa basketball fans are feeling.

So my question is unless some miracle B1G tournament run happens this team is not playing in a post season at all. Do you believe that Fran's seat will be heating up? Could it be so hot that it is smoldering?

I am grateful to Fran for upgrading the program back to a point that we expect to compete for the B1G and make the NCAA tournament. I find myself completely torn on whether I want Fran gone or not, but there is no mistaking that the failures of the past 2 seasons are on him overall.

 

[GotTimDodge]

He has said earlier nothing this year, but next year seat will get hot if no progress.

 

[Adam]

He has said earlier nothing this year, but next year seat will get hot if no progress.

Yes but these things are fluid and start to compound quickly as back to back losses keep stacking up. I want to hear Rob's opinion for this very moment in time.

 

[NikeHawk21]

My question for @RobHowe would be is there a deeper issue with this team? Are they upset with Fran? When you watch the games something just doesn’t feel right. Last night at one point it looked like our coaches weren’t really seeing eye to eye as well.

 

[1hawkeye1]

My question for @RobHowe would be is there a deeper issue with this team? Are they upset with Fran? When you watch the games something just doesn’t feel right. Last night at one point it looked like our coaches weren’t really seeing eye to eye as well.

Ah, the 'ol Aaron White Affair...as it came to be known, has reared its ugly head again?

 

[GotTimDodge]

Yes but these things are fluid and start to compound quickly as back to back losses keep stacking up. I want to hear Rob's opinion for this very moment in time.

Even if Iowa goes winless for rest of year, Rob thinks next season is hot seat time.

 

[tksirius]

I wonder what the other coaches think about Fran spending more time berating the officials than coaching his fricken team.

 

[Adam]

I wonder what the other coaches think about Fran spending more time berating the officials than coaching his fricken team.

Unless it it some young hungry stud coach looking at the B1G as a soft conference prime for perennial domination, eyeing Iowa as a potential place to launch such a campaign. Well then they should just mind their own business.

 

[mopkins]

Rob,

I can hear the anguish and disgust in your write-up's this year. You are obviously feeling the pain that most Iowa basketball fans are feeling.

So my question is unless some miracle B1G tournament run happens this team is not playing in a post season at all. Do you believe that Fran's seat will be heating up? Could it be so hot that it is smoldering?

I am grateful to Fran for upgrading the program back to a point that we expect to compete for the B1G and make the NCAA tournament. I find myself completely torn on whether I want Fran gone or not, but there is no mistaking that the failures of the past 2 seasons are on him overall.

I didn't think last year was a failure on Frans part at all. They lost 4 starters and had a boatload of freshman coming in and still nearly made the ncaa tournament. They were the first team out and got screwed over up in Minnesota.

This season is just mind boggling to me. I don't understand how you lose Peter Jok and end up worse on defense. It's a failure all around but I still don't think it puts Fran on any sort of hot seat

 

[hawkdrummer1]

Ah, the 'ol Aaron White Affair...as it came to be known, has reared its ugly head again?

Refresh my memory

 

[mopkins]

Refresh my memory

There were rumors back in 2014 that Aaron White banged Zach McCabe's girlfriend and that's why they went from ranked 10th in the country to falling off a cliff and losing to Tennessee in the play-in game.

 

[InGoodCo]

There were rumors back in 2014 that Aaron White banged Zach McCabe's girlfriend and that's why they went from ranked 10th in the country to falling off a cliff and losing to Tennessee in the play-in game.

He was caught riding bitch on a moped.

 

[Adam]

I didn't think last year was a failure on Frans part at all. They lost 4 starters and had a boatload of freshman coming in and still nearly made the ncaa tournament. They were the first team out and got screwed over up in Minnesota.

This season is just mind boggling to me. I don't understand how you lose Peter Jok and end up worse on defense. It's a failure all around but I still don't think it puts Fran on any sort of hot seat

Fair enough point for last season, but when combined with this season thus far it feels like last season was the start of the collapse.

 

[HawkPrdatr40]

I wonder what the other coaches think about Fran spending more time berating the officials than coaching his fricken team.

Great point!! My guess is They love it..

 

[mopkins]

Fair enough point for last season, but when combined with this season thus far it feels like last season was the start of the collapse.

Could be. We'll find out in a year or two.

I would just remind people that only one coach in the history of Iowa basketball has taken Iowa to 4 straight NCAA tournaments...and that was Lute. Mr. Davis never did it, Alford never did it, Raveling wasn't around long enough to do it, and shockingly Lickliter never did it either

Its ok to want it, it's ok to expect it, but history says that its not really realistic

 

[tksirius]

Great point!! My guess is They love it..

I know right. Berating the officials is for guys like me

 

[MelroseHawkins]

My question for @RobHowe would be is there a deeper issue with this team? Are they upset with Fran? When you watch the games something just doesn’t feel right. Last night at one point it looked like our coaches weren’t really seeing eye to eye as well.

This morning the question if he has lost this team came to me. They seem to be just going thru the motion on the court with little passion. Who is the team leader of this team anyway. Someone needs to really step up and be a vocal leader.

 

[PCHawk]

This morning the question if he has lost this team came to me. They seem to be just going thru the motion on the court with little passion. Who is the team leader of this team anyway. Someone needs to really step up and be a vocal leader.

I did hear Cook yelling at everyone to huddle up after a dead ball against Michigan. It took forever to get everyone together, probably because they didn't expect it because they never do it.

 

[Robowe]

I did hear Cook yelling at everyone to huddle up after a dead ball against Michigan. It took forever to get everyone together, probably because they didn't expect it because they never do it.

From Mark Emmert's, article after last night's game

http://www.hawkcentral.com/story/sp...-rotation-provides-little-payback/1005120001/

In search of Alpha male
Who is the leader of the Iowa basketball team? It was a question posed to McCaffery and some of his players after the team dropped to 9-8 on the season.

McCaffery pointed to the absence of last year’s senior star Peter Jok as a big dropoff, particularly away from the court.

“Pete was as fierce a competitor as I’ve ever been around. It was infectious in the locker room, in practice … in the offseason,” McCaffery said. “If his teammates weren’t coming with him, he was going to let them know about it. And sometimes you need that. It can’t always be me or my staff. It’s got to be ‘that guy’.”

McCaffery said Devyn Marble, Aaron White and Jarrod Uthoff were similar players on past Hawkeye teams. He said Cook is the most likely to pick up that mantle.

“I think TC has that ability. Right now, he’s still a young player,” McCaffery said.

Freshman center Luka Garza added Baer and Jordan Bohannon as other vocal leaders, but also said that burden falls on all players.

“There’s not one guy I could say that’s like our confident leader. We have a lot of guys that can step up and talk in the moments when everything’s going down. We need to do that more. Any player can do that,” Garza said.

“When things were going good (Thursday), we did a good job of that. But when they started to go bad, I think we were kind of discombobulated as a team.”

The fact that leadership is a topic at all, of course, is usually a sign of a team that is struggling to find success.

 

[Adam]

Could be. We'll find out in a year or two.

I would just remind people that only one coach in the history of Iowa basketball has taken Iowa to 4 straight NCAA tournaments...and that was Lute. Mr. Davis never did it, Alford never did it, Raveling wasn't around long enough to do it, and shockingly Lickliter never did it either

Its ok to want it, it's ok to expect it, but history says that its not really realistic

I don't expect perennial NCAA teams at Iowa. I also don't think that it is impossible either though. There is way better youth basketball in this state then there has been in previous era's. McCaffery is doing the right thing by keeping the great Iowa High Schoolers home, and I definitely understand rebuilding years. I don't know that anyone would be this concerned if Fran had taken a team or 2 to the Sweet 16 or made the Elite 8 in the year that we had the horses to do so.