The fine edge - hawks almost beat the champs

deanvogs said:
Even if everyone comes back, Conner is healthy, and with adding Joe Weiskamp, this simply IS NOT a NCAA team. Or at least I just don't see it. Now if we get a good Grad Transfer guard, Joe comes in and is a 10+ PPG scorer, and Cook also comes back and is motivated to play D, then we could be a NCAA team. That is A LOT of ifs, and I just don't bank on that.
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Well it’s a two part question to me.

I think (if Cook returns) Iowa has an NCAA caliber roster next season. We return 4 double figure scorers and bring in a top 50 recruit. Not many teams can say that, our offense should be strong. As always, defense will be the question, but I truly believe that the right coach could make this team into an average defensive unit. There is a enough size and athleticism there to do it.

That leads to the second part of the question to me, which is will Fran be able to find the right mix of players to do it? That part remains a mystery to me. If he continues to go 10/11 deep and play the slow footed three forward lineups than I would say we will see more of the same. What if Connor really isn’t the best option, will Fran sit him? My guess is Fran won’t change much, and we will head back to the NIT.
 
Cook stays, JW is an impact freshman, and the coaching improves they will be better. But it might be NIT better only.
 
Honestly I thought Michigan handed Iowa that game and Iowa couldn't grab it. Michigan went like 0 for 8 in the first half from 3 point land and Mo Wagner and Abdur-Rahkman both were in massive foul trouble all game.

On the game, Michigan shot 3-19 from 3, got out rebounded, and still beat Iowa with their 2 best players fouled out. Its not any sort of moral victory I'm going to hang my hat on.
 
That and the whole concept of nearly beating the champs in the 2nd round is just silly to me. I think we could have beaten Nebraska with how we were playing at the end of the year vs. when we lost to them earlier but I have no reason to believe we would then go on to beat MSU and Purdue so. Almost beating the champ does NOT actually mean you're almost the best in the league. Not to mention in the end, we lost.

I remember in 2015 when Nebraska beat MSU in football and I had to listen to idiots in the office crowing that they beat the champs even though they had lost to Iowa and had a pretty mediocre season in general. It really doesn't matter.
 
jparmley3 said:
Connor McCaffrey is not a B1G caliber point guard. He never has been, he never will be. I've said that since I watched him as a sophomore in HS.
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I like to reserve my judgements on players until after they play a year. For instance I don't think many around here would have ever imagined Jordan being as good as he has been the first two years.
 
NikeHawk21 said:
Well it’s a two part question to me.

I think (if Cook returns) Iowa has an NCAA caliber roster next season. We return 4 double figure scorers and bring in a top 50 recruit. Not many teams can say that, our offense should be strong. As always, defense will be the question, but I truly believe that the right coach could make this team into an average defensive unit. There is a enough size and athleticism there to do it.

That leads to the second part of the question to me, which is will Fran be able to find the right mix of players to do it? That part remains a mystery to me. If he continues to go 10/11 deep and play the slow footed three forward lineups than I would say we will see more of the same. What if Connor really isn’t the best option, will Fran sit him? My guess is Fran won’t change much, and we will head back to the NIT.
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The thing about the right coach making us better at defense is there is a good chance he would make us worse at offense. That's not to say he won't be an overall better coach. Just pointing out that the good offense isn't a given. It's due to Fran.
 
deanvogs said:
I like to reserve my judgements on players until after they play a year. For instance I don't think many around here would have ever imagined Jordan being as good as he has been the first two years.
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Yeah, as pissed as I am at this season and as much as I don't ultimately think Fran will elevate us above where he's had us before, Judging Connor on the few minutes we saw him play is just pointless. Worst case scenario he is bad and we are bad again and the clock on Fran not being here starts. Best case he frees up JBo to be more of a shooter and even if he doesn't have B1G athleticism he might have "coaches son" game presence ability.
 
NoBeer said:
That and the whole concept of nearly beating the champs in the 2nd round is just silly to me. I think we could have beaten Nebraska with how we were playing at the end of the year vs. when we lost to them earlier but I have no reason to believe we would then go on to beat MSU and Purdue so. Almost beating the champ does NOT actually mean you're almost the best in the league. Not to mention in the end, we lost.

I remember in 2015 when Nebraska beat MSU in football and I had to listen to idiots in the office crowing that they beat the champs even though they had lost to Iowa and had a pretty mediocre season in general. It really doesn't matter.
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If you are extending my OP to say I think we could have won the tourney I never said that and we probably had worse matchup problems with MSU and Purdue than Mich.
 
Any chance Gary hangs a banner for it? "We almost beat a team that won the BTT and played in the NCAA tournament"
Or "close to a March situation" banner?
 
Hey, we MADE the BTT. Maybe we should hang a banner for that. Another year in the post season by Gary's measuring stick.
 
NoBeer said:
Yeah, as pissed as I am at this season and as much as I don't ultimately think Fran will elevate us above where he's had us before, Judging Connor on the few minutes we saw him play is just pointless. Worst case scenario he is bad and we are bad again and the clock on Fran not being here starts. Best case he frees up JBo to be more of a shooter and even if he doesn't have B1G athleticism he might have "coaches son" game presence ability.
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I kind of see a healthy Connor the same way. 4.0 student and a coach's son he brings a good amount of intelligence to the table which I thought we caught glimpses of in the little bit that he played this season. He will star in baseball and and give us some workman like minutes at point guard running the offense efficiently and cutting down on turnovers while freeing Bohannon some to play off the ball. I see that as a plus for the offense. If we have a transfer Fran can bring in a guard to help defend the perimeter and we will have more what we need IMO.
 
PCHawk said:
The thing about the right coach making us better at defense is there is a good chance he would make us worse at offense. That's not to say he won't be an overall better coach. Just pointing out that the good offense isn't a given. It's due to Fran.
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My opinion is we have an NCAA caliber roster next year, with the right man guiding the ship. I don’t know if Fran is the right man to guide it.

I’m not sure if we had an NCAA roster this year, but I do know fo sure that we severely underperformed, and I place most of the blame for that on Fran.
 
NikeHawk21 said:
My opinion is we have an NCAA caliber roster next year, with the right man guiding the ship. I don’t know if Fran is the right man to guide it.

I’m not sure if we had an NCAA roster this year, but I do know fo sure that we severely underperformed, and I place most of the blame for that on Fran.
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I agree .
 
PCHawk said:
I agree .
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I agree also and feel curious about what direction Fran heads next year. I have some sense that he realizes he has reached somewhat of a pivot point by the comments he made after the Michigan game. Beefing up the weight training program, focusing on defense and skill development all seem the right things to do at this point. He doesn't seem open to making any kind of staff change which I find rather disappointing. My question becomes how different will we really look next season or does this just represent tweaking around the edges?
 
Interesting thread. I am not a big fan of comparative scores, i.e., the Iowa/Michigan game vs a host of other comparisons. However, I did find it very interesting that since Michigan is one of the best defensive teams around, we still managed to be efficient enough on offense, on that particular night, to make a real game of it.

As I have said all along, the biggest mystery about our inability to perform even respectively on defense this past season, is that we have enough quality athletes to perform as well or better than any other team in the BT on offense. Still kind of waiting for a response to that fact??

As to next year: I think we will be much improved. I think we have a clear shot at an upper division finish in the BT and an invite to the Big Dance. Another year of experience, the clear picture for our coaches that our defense must improve significantly, the addition of a couple of new players who have real potential, and a "fresh start" mentality that may help us believe we can win.

I honestly believe that we lost confidence in ourselves this year, since I have seen that happen to teams over many years of watching college sports. Basketball, and football, for that matter, are mind games with momentum being a major issue.

Here is an aside. I watched this team early in the year when Conner Mac was able to at least make an appearance. I will predict that he will be a far better addition than the conventional wisdom on this board suggests. If I have to eat my words on this one, I will just use a lot of ketchup and carry on.
 
Someday it'll be nice to read a thread like this, in say, the Gopher board, relating to them and Iowa.
 
But if Iowa would have, against all odds, won a close game against a quality team like Michigan...they would not have beaten the "champion" because Michigan would have lost and not won it.

Having a "chance" to win a big game and then losing it...have we read this novel before? "Grapes of Wrath?" "Great Expectations?" "For Whom the Bell Tolls?"
 
I dated Mariah Carey's first cousin. So close to stardom.

Michael Goss is my 2nd or 3rd cousin. Then again Ive never met some 1st cousins on that side. So close.
 
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