Fran to Penn...

Yeah, it'll be interesting to see how his system works when there is no clear advantage in recruiting/money across your competitors.

I get he graduated from Penn, but I thought he should have flipped coasts for his final gig.

No idea what jobs are open, but I would have loved to see him in the West Coast Conference. Santa Clara, Pepperdine, Loyola Marymount, San Diego....something like that. That's a fun league (and a nice change from the Midwest), with games up and down the west coast. St Mary's has a nice program now, and Gonzaga is still a handful (although slipping)...but a lot of room for a new style to get traction and win some games. And most schools probably aren't going to outclass you in payroll.

I'd think his system could resonate a little better on the west coast. Plus, I keep wondering if there isn't going to be a trickle down effect to realignment with a few more west coast kids not wanting to play in the now Big Ten or ACC schools.

But I'm biased and have a rule about generally trying to stay west of the Mississippi.
 
I'm still trying to wrap my head around his house moves. I'm not sure I understand the trouble of selling your house, buying a new house and remodeling it if you KNOW you are leaving within a year.

Wouldn't you just stay in your house at that point?
 
I think that would be a good retirement gig. While they don't have athletic scholarships, they do admit students with "an exceptional ability in some area".

You can also get money to some/all of those schools if you have an exceptional talent or ability such as having a piece of literature published, having performed in a big time music orchestra (or whatever), etc., which helps bring positive attention to the school, or if you help meet a minority "quota" (not that it's constitutional to call it that, but, well, ya know).
Yeah I think it'd be a good low-key gig without a lot of pressure (they haven't had a coach with a career record over .500 since the early 2000s), and having the Palestra as your home court would be pretty cool itself. He was born in Philly and played there himself obviously so I couldn't think of a better retirement gig. Short flight to Indy, he's got huge money coming in from Iowa which negates the low salary he's going to get at Penn. Ivy Leagues don't publish salaries but I'm guessing it would be in the $200 thousand range based on what I'm seeing online. Hopefully he's saved enough money that the interest on his Iowa cash over the years will make him way more than that every year.
 
So we don't anticipate losing any of our guys to follow him there right? Who amongst our guys in the portal are Ivy League material that don't want a scholly? That number would be zero.
 
I'm still trying to wrap my head around his house moves. I'm not sure I understand the trouble of selling your house, buying a new house and remodeling it if you KNOW you are leaving within a year.

Wouldn't you just stay in your house at that point?
With people who have that kind of cash it's a no-brainer IMO. If you have say $10 million in the bank, buying a house for a million bucks is nothing because you'll usually sell it for $1.6 or whatever a few years later. If you spend a couple hundred grand on remodeling what's the big deal? It isn't like they're lifting a finger at that level of wealth. They pay people to move all their stuff, pay accountants to handle all of the paperwork/transactions/legal stuff, and the remodeling you just pay someone to be in charge of the contractors etc. and tell them what you want. Basically you just tell your "people," I want to buy that house, my wife has some remodeling she wants done, set up a date that she can walk through with XYZ contractor. Then sign some paperwork.

It's all just phone calls and conversations.
 
Yeah, it'll be interesting to see how his system works when there is no clear advantage in recruiting/money across your competitors.

I get he graduated from Penn, but I thought he should have flipped coasts for his final gig.

No idea what jobs are open, but I would have loved to see him in the West Coast Conference. Santa Clara, Pepperdine, Loyola Marymount, San Diego....something like that. That's a fun league (and a nice change from the Midwest), with games up and down the west coast. St Mary's has a nice program now, and Gonzaga is still a handful (although slipping)...but a lot of room for a new style to get traction and win some games. And most schools probably aren't going to outclass you in payroll.

I'd think his system could resonate a little better on the west coast. Plus, I keep wondering if there isn't going to be a trickle down effect to realignment with a few more west coast kids not wanting to play in the now Big Ten or ACC schools.

But I'm biased and have a rule about generally trying to stay west of the Mississippi.
I don't think he's probably interested in going someplace high-pressure and having to fight NIL. He won't have to do that in the Ivy League.

Plus I think it's more than him just graduating there. He was born and raised there, played there, family is close (his brother is a sports reporter out there too), it's pretty much a low-pressure homecoming for him to ride his career out and he's still making millions from Iowa without having reporters and idiot fans breathing down his neck. He's making B1G money to coach at a super low level of basketball.
 
With people who have that kind of cash it's a no-brainer IMO. If you have say $10 million in the bank, buying a house for a million bucks is nothing because you'll usually sell it for $1.6 or whatever a few years later. If you spend a couple hundred grand on remodeling what's the big deal? It isn't like they're lifting a finger at that level of wealth. They pay people to move all their stuff, pay accountants to handle all of the paperwork/transactions/legal stuff, and the remodeling you just pay someone to be in charge of the contractors etc. and tell them what you want. Basically you just tell your "people," I want to buy that house, my wife has some remodeling she wants done, set up a date that she can walk through with XYZ contractor. Then sign some paperwork.

It's all just phone calls and conversations.
Right, definitely for a few years...which makes me think Fran wasn't expecting to be gone within the year.
 
I don't think he's probably interested in going someplace high-pressure and having to fight NIL. He won't have to do that in the Ivy League.

Plus I think it's more than him just graduating there. He was born and raised there, played there, family is close (his brother is a sports reporter out there too), it's pretty much a low-pressure homecoming for him to ride his career out and he's still making millions from Iowa without having reporters and idiot fans breathing down his neck. He's making B1G money to coach at a super low level of basketball.
Yeah, I totally get it. West Coast Conference was more my dream for him, not what I thought he'd want.
 
So we don't anticipate losing any of our guys to follow him there right? Who amongst our guys in the portal are Ivy League material that don't want a scholly? That number would be zero.

Mulvey?

Wasn’t he a really good student coming out of high school? Granted, he probably isn’t number one in the pecking order of McCollum trying to sweet talk into coming back.
 
So we don't anticipate losing any of our guys to follow him there right? Who amongst our guys in the portal are Ivy League material that don't want a scholly? That number would be zero.
Sure it's a risk, but at the same with a new coach comes an entirely different system. We have to trust Ben and his recruiting and cannot depend on those entering the portal to return. IF they want to be here and Ben wants them here they'll stay. If not all we can do is move forward and leave the past behind us.
 
Mulvey?

Wasn’t he a really good student coming out of high school? Granted, he probably isn’t number one in the pecking order of McCollum trying to sweet talk into coming back.
He's already announced he's going to Sienna... Ironically enough where Fran also had coached before coming to Iowa. And yeah I don't think Ben woulda went all in on going after him.

Sure it's a risk, but at the same with a new coach comes an entirely different system. We have to trust Ben and his recruiting and cannot depend on those entering the portal to return. IF they want to be here and Ben wants them here they'll stay. If not all we can do is move forward and leave the past behind us.

Oh this program was getting gutted and it needed to happen anyway. Dix, Sandfort Koch are probably the main ones that Ben woulda loved to keep. Sandfort I'm confident will. Dix I think is gone. Koch I'm not as sure on but I'm hopeful.

So far Tadjo, Trayore and Kingsbury are still on roster/not in the portal. Along with the Isiah Johnson-Arigu kid that transfered in from Miami mid season last yr.

So we'll see what happens I'm sure now that he's done with the media blitz from yesterday he'll be putting his staff together and burning the phone lines up on trying to put a roster together.
 
Happy for Fran. He will win a lot at Penn, I think.
This. I have ZERO ill will towards that guy.

He ran a clean program, his guys would all take a bullet for him, and he stuck up for his players even if it meant going full Tasmanian Devil and getting ejected. He just wasn't a people person and unfortunately that's what you have to be in P4 basketball to get money and players now.

I might even buy a Penn hoodie. It'll make people think I'm really smart and support the Franamaniac at the same time.
 
This feels like the end of Blue Chips. An old coach has a great run at the major college level, doesn't adjust to all the cheating, politics, and bullshit, so he rides off into the sunset to coach high school basketball. There are some similarities.
 
Oh this program was getting gutted and it needed to happen anyway. Dix, Sandfort Koch are probably the main ones that Ben woulda loved to keep. Sandfort I'm confident will. Dix I think is gone. Koch I'm not as sure on but I'm hopeful.
I still believe that to be successful in the B1G you have to have size and strength. You need the big ass heavy bodies down low to muscle people around like Purdue, Illinois, Michigan, et al have. You can't get it done in this league (or in the tournament) with skinny shooting guards and forwards. Fran tried that for years and it's pretty proven IMO that it won't work. You need to prioritize size and athleticism over what you'd call pure basketball skills like shooting and passing. Kinda like Tyler Cook if we're talking about Iowa players. That dude would be in the NBA right now I think if he had landed at a Purdue or Illinois. But he didn't fit Fran's style and it didn't work out for him the way it could have.

If Run BMC can make that happen with the money he's got it will work, if not, it won't.
 
The whole NIL situation is nuts. Some of these teams now have basically what is a new roster every year. When there is some adversity, a team can splinter quite quickly. I think that happened at Iowa State this year.

Run BMC is going to have to run hard and fast to get Iowa competitive again. It is going to be quite interesting, to say the least.
 
He's already announced he's going to Sienna... Ironically enough where Fran also had coached before coming to Iowa. And yeah I don't think Ben woulda went all in on going after him.



Oh this program was getting gutted and it needed to happen anyway. Dix, Sandfort Koch are probably the main ones that Ben woulda loved to keep. Sandfort I'm confident will. Dix I think is gone. Koch I'm not as sure on but I'm hopeful.

So far Tadjo, Trayore and Kingsbury are still on roster/not in the portal. Along with the Isiah Johnson-Arigu kid that transfered in from Miami mid season last yr.

So we'll see what happens I'm sure now that he's done with the media blitz from yesterday he'll be putting his staff together and burning the phone lines up on trying to put a roster together.
Helpful post. The 3 you mentioned, assuming they stay, would be a good way to connect with the new guys and at worst could add some depth. Isiah hanging in there is a big +. Yeah, we are gonna lose some guys, but new coach will be aggresive, for sure. He has been through this before.
 
I still believe that to be successful in the B1G you have to have size and strength. You need the big ass heavy bodies down low to muscle people around like Purdue, Illinois, Michigan, et al have. You can't get it done in this league (or in the tournament) with skinny shooting guards and forwards. Fran tried that for years and it's pretty proven IMO that it won't work. You need to prioritize size and athleticism over what you'd call pure basketball skills like shooting and passing. Kinda like Tyler Cook if we're talking about Iowa players. That dude would be in the NBA right now I think if he had landed at a Purdue or Illinois. But he didn't fit Fran's style and it didn't work out for him the way it could have.

If Run BMC can make that happen with the money he's got it will work, if not, it won't.
Agree with you on the guards/wings. We've just never had physical enough of guys that can make a difference defensively and with rebounding.

Cook I thought was a dang good player he just overlapped with Garza. Cook wasn't a stretch 4 at all he was a traditional 4 man with his range only being about 15 ft or so at the elbows. He was a little robotic with his moves but dude was strong and could jump. I thought he coulda rebounded better then he showed.
 

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