Was It Just Me? Anybody Else Notice?

[Zstatman]

BN's strength and conditioning program is legend.

 

[Northside Hawk]

right, but Fran's teams didn't look very athletic against the Robert Morris's of the world either. We're all trying to think of a PG that could dunk.

Mike Gessell had his share. He just couldn't shoot consistently. Bryce Cartwright from Fran's early teams.

 

[Hillcrest1981]

I don't think Gessell showed much hops except the dunk in the game at UNC....

 

[Zstatman]

I don't think Gessell showed much hops except the dunk in the game at UNC....

Is the game at UNC when he was driving down the lane and all of a sudden elevated and stuffed it? I still remember that dunk, remember thinking where the hell did that come from.

 

[ICHawk24]

I thought McCaffery's teams could easily play with these guys on offense. Unfortunately, it is when you flip the page to Defensive stats that the problem becomes apparent.

Because Fran's entire coaching philosophy was towards offense, which included defensive concepts that were dedicated to getting into transition and improving the offense. EVERYTHING was about offense. Seems like it is easier to be elite offensively when you barely try on defense.

BMC teams would destroy Fran teams.

 

[Northside Hawk]

I don't think Gessell showed much hops except the dunk in the game at UNC....

He had others. At Ohio State (the loss where Fran publicly called out Uthoff for running from the ball down the stretch). At Hilton and vs Cyclones in Carver. He had a few.

 

[kicker22]

Don't know how accurate this was as I watched the game while somewhat distracted, but in the postgame interview, Dolph mentioned to McCollum that there are three of his players (one was Banks, for sure) who all seemed to be the same size with the same skill set.

I'll take three high energy guys in Banks' mold as opposed to stretch forwards that don't attack the glass or the paint and simply shoot the ball well. Year after year it seemed like we missed a true paint presence, lock down defender, slasher, etc... if Doph only noticed three guys that are similar I'm more then ok with that.

 

[Hawkfnntn]

I wish we could have kept Dix, but I think losing Freeman was addition by subtraction.

Truest words I've seen put out there on this whole transition of coaches & players. Dix is pretty much the only one I wish we woulda moved heaven and earth to have tried to keep. Freeman as good as he is is still a limited player inside. No range not a good FT shooter seemed almost lazy at times and not a great teammate from the sounds of it. If he woulda wanted to stay sure nobody woulda told him they didn't want him anymore amongst Ben or the fans. But if that 2 milly NIL price tag is even half accurate then good riddance.

I like the post players we have hopefully they won't get in early foul trouble like he did quite a bit. Even still Freeman to me would be a great complimentary piece but the problem was he was the main guy on our Iowa teams. So when he inevitably got in foul trouble it just messed up everything.

Sounded like their were rumblings about how he was as a teammate and they weren't the greatest so at the end of the day everyone is better off.

 

[Hawkfnntn]

He had others. At Ohio State (the loss where Fran publicly called out Uthoff for running from the ball down the stretch). At Hilton and vs Cyclones in Carver. He had a few.

MG was strong and sneaky athletic. Just didn't have great touch shooting outside. As good of a defender we've had at the PG position besides his running mate Clemens who like him was a bit of a limited offensive player. But he's still playing pro hoops over seas btw.

 

[Grady]

I thought McCaffery's teams could easily play with these guys on offense. They were athletic enough to finish second in the country (to Gonzaga) in assists, tenth in FG %, 36th in Fast Break Points, etc. Unfortunately, it is when you flip the page to Defensive stats that the problem becomes apparent. I've always believed that the majority of our players could play effective defense, they just weren't pressured to do so, even though we were told over and over that they were working on team defense.

Exactly. All the comments on this thread reek of revisionist history. Holy crap, folks, under Fran Iowa had one of the top scoring offenses AND most efficient offenses in the nation -- year in and year out. You don't achieve those rankings without being somewhat 'athletic'. Get a grip.

Now, if you want to talk defense, fine. But let's see where this team ranks in offensive scoring and efficiency at the end of the BTen season before going off the rails about their offensive 'athletic' ability.

 

[Hawkfnntn]

Because Fran's entire coaching philosophy was towards offense, which included defensive concepts that were dedicated to getting into transition and improving the offense. EVERYTHING was about offense. Seems like it is easier to be elite offensively when you barely try on defense.

BMC teams would destroy Fran teams.

Fran would mix defenses he had them play man to man and then some different zone concepts and 3 quarter court trapping. I liked how he'd shake things up sometimes by doing that but he just never got the guys bought in or taught to emphasis it as much. On paper they should've been better then they always were. That's what was always frustrating and that was universal. Be it the Freeman yrs the Garza yrs or however far back you want to go.

 

[rschneider]

I mean it's been a long standing joke about Iowa being too white.

 

[hawkrr]

I'm not sure I would be making any declarative statements regarding the athleticism of the team. Let's see how they fare against some of the heavy hitters we will see on the schedule. For one game, against an overpowered Robert Morris team, we looked pretty good and luckily, our immediate schedule will allow us to work through some of our issues before the real poop hits the fan. I'm just wondering how this "Drake" team will be able to compete in the B1G, where they will encounter bigger and quicker athletes.

The players from Drake were on a team that beat Missouri in the NCAA Tournament. They were not able to control Toppin from Texas Tech in the second round match up, but still played a decent game.

 

[NorthKCHawk]

Truest words I've seen put out there on this whole transition of coaches & players. Dix is pretty much the only one I wish we woulda moved heaven and earth to have tried to keep. Freeman as good as he is is still a limited player inside. No range not a good FT shooter seemed almost lazy at times and not a great teammate from the sounds of it. If he woulda wanted to stay sure nobody woulda told him they didn't want him anymore amongst Ben or the fans. But if that 2 milly NIL price tag is even half accurate then good riddance.

I like the post players we have hopefully they won't get in early foul trouble like he did quite a bit. Even still Freeman to me would be a great complimentary piece but the problem was he was the main guy on our Iowa teams. So when he inevitably got in foul trouble it just messed up everything.

Sounded like their were rumblings about how he was as a teammate and they weren't the greatest so at the end of the day everyone is better off.

Whether Freeman checked out on his team last year is rumor. He seemed well-liked. And, I would not view him as addition by subtraction at all. Iowa does not have a center in its rotation right now. Freeman is a back to the basket, run the floor, rebounding, banging center that Iowa does not have heading into a conference slate with a lot of big bodies. I watched Freeman's opening game at Creighton and he did not start, is still recovering from injury, and nonetheless was Creighton's leading scorer and looked good.

You can chew on all the sour grapes you want, but losing Freeman and Dix were both big losses. I am okay with the rest of the crew scattering to new homes.

 

[NorthKCHawk]

I mean it's been a long standing joke about Iowa being too white.

I always found it a bit cringy that Iowa's coach was nicknamed "White Magic" as a player and Iowa was the only P6 school that I ever saw that started 5 white guys several times.

 

[Hawkfnntn]

Whether Freeman checked out on his team last year is rumor. He seemed well-liked. And, I would not view him as addition by subtraction at all. Iowa does not have a center in its rotation right now. Freeman is a back to the basket, run the floor, rebounding, banging center that Iowa does not have heading into a conference slate with a lot of big bodies. I watched Freeman's opening game at Creighton and he did not start, is still recovering from injury, and nonetheless was Creighton's leading scorer and looked good.

You can chew on all the sour grapes you want, but losing Freeman and Dix were both big losses. I am okay with the rest of the crew scattering to new homes.

It was an extremely well spread one... It was talked about all over the place at the time. Sure we aren't going to have the same production this yr from the post. This team is built way different and won't play the same way at all. This team is going to go as far as the PG takes them. You can give the kid the benefit of the doubt about the rumors if you want. Doesn't mean others have to. We saw what we saw and he did what he did. Not having that on your team is addition by subtraction in my book

 

[ICHawk24]

A coaching change nowadays leads to all players leaving. If losing Dix and Freeman was the price to land BMC, I am SUPER HAPPY to make that exchange. The alternative was watching Fran win 19 games again.