Hawkeye Hoops Needs More Help

[PCHawk]

True.....but it doesn't even have to be Clark Level. It is just needs to be a couple of good/great guards....don't have to be all-time. We can't even get that.

We've had good guards like Marble, Jok, Wieskamp, and Perkins. We haven't had great guards yet. We've had great forwards and the best center. We've had good seasons. We've had one great season. We've had a great NIT run. We've had a great Big 10 title run (which is equally as hard as a final 4 run). We haven't had success in the NCAA tournament yet.

And I hate to beat the same drum over and over because it's making me seem like a fanboy. But Harding is the best point guard Fran has had yet. If he stays all 4 years he will walk away as the all-time assist leader. That's assuming Perkins doesn't come back and take 10 minutes a game from him all next year.

 

[trj]

We've had good guards like Marble, Jok, Wieskamp, and Perkins. We haven't had great guards yet. We've had great forwards and the best center. We've had good seasons. We've had one great season. We've had a great NIT run. We've had a great Big 10 title run (which is equally as hard as a final 4 run). We haven't had success in the NCAA tournament yet.

And I hate to beat the same drum over and over because it's making me seem like a fanboy. But Harding is the best point guard Fran has had yet. If he stays all 4 years he will walk away as the all-time assist leader. That's assuming Perkins doesn't come back and take 10 minutes a game from him all next year.

You really love you some Harding.

 

[HaydenHawk56]

We've had good guards like Marble, Jok, Wieskamp, and Perkins. We haven't had great guards yet. We've had great forwards and the best center. We've had good seasons. We've had one great season. We've had a great NIT run. We've had a great Big 10 title run (which is equally as hard as a final 4 run). We haven't had success in the NCAA tournament yet.

And I hate to beat the same drum over and over because it's making me seem like a fanboy. But Harding is the best point guard Fran has had yet. If he stays all 4 years he will walk away as the all-time assist leader. That's assuming Perkins doesn't come back and take 10 minutes a game from him all next year.

Marble......not with the game on the line though
Jok....he was good.....but as I recall the supporting cast sucked.....didn't he have great senior year...but the talent around him was down? I forget
Wieskamp....good player....but would disappear at times
Perkins.....had his best year this year.....then went MIA these past two games.

Ya, I can buy these guys are good players for the most part.

Harding I think remains to be seen. We have seen his passing potential. If he gets his shooting down consistently that would help. Being he is a freshman, I won't throw the baby with the bathwater out there just yet. Though, I don't think he is going to be that guy that breaks people down off the dribble taking it to the hoop.....hence I don't see Andre Woolridge there. I think he has a decent shot of being a good guard for us.

To further add to the guard problem....Fran has not had a great guard play to match up with a great center play most years.

 

[PCHawk]

Marble......not with the game on the line though
Jok....he was good.....but as I recall the supporting cast sucked.....didn't he have great senior year...but the talent around him was down? I forget
Wieskamp....good player....but would disappear at times
Perkins.....had his best year this year.....then went MIA these past two games.

Ya, I can buy these guys are good players for the most part.

Harding I think remains to be seen. We have seen his passing potential. If he gets his shooting down consistently that would help. Being he is a freshman, I won't throw the baby with the bathwater out there just yet. Though, I don't think he is going to be that guy that breaks people down off the dribble taking it to the hoop.....hence I don't see Andre Woolridge there. I think he has a decent shot of being a good guard for us.

To further add to the guard problem....Fran has not had a great guard play to match up with a great center play most years.

Agree completely on Marble, but he was still good. Jok had a good junior year and a great senior year. Led the league in scoring I think.

Harding has gotten into the lane this year in limited minutes more than any Fran guard over a 4 year career. He doesn't always do great things when he gets there, but getting there is easy for him.

 

[tampabayhawk]

2nd, Senior Year? let me guess you're on the Faber College curriculum. You, related to Bultarsky by any chance. You are correct your dissertation here, had me going to get the no-doze. Posted on another thread previously, I don't care if the kids are playing in a local Y, the coach and the kids had their destiny in their hands, they are a 7 seed (joke) and Ohio state a 10, came out Flat as a Pancake, problem starts with the coach, he recruits right, then trickle down to the kids, once again I say, these kids should be playing at a mid-major, probably would enjoy it much more.

Undisciplined. Learned too much not on curriculum. Dear friend stuck around 7 years for undergrad. When asked, "Why?" he replied, "No one told me it was a race."

 

[eyekwah]

As I step away from this season I think it achieved what was expected and maybe a little more. Iowa, other than Perkins, didn't have much of a senior class. Krike and McCaffery contributed, but sagged once in conference play. Below is the roster and you can see how young this team was, mostly freshman and sophomores. That doesn't cut it with all the older players with a Covid year. Next season's team will be young as well, mostly sophomores and freshmen. Right now Payton Sandfort and possibly Tony Perkins will be seniors. The next seasons junior class of Dix, Mulvaney, and Bowen doesn't offer much, other than Dix.

Iowa didn't have a problem being a development program until Covid came along and the transfer portal rules changed. The arena and how it is used isn't going to make a huge difference, especially with NIL here. There are teams that catapulted with transfers. It may be working well now for them, but in season 2026 those Red Shirt/Covid Year players age 25 or more will be exhausted. Iowa will have to put up with it and should be able to improve markedly in the 2026 season.

What the AD does to improve the fan experience is only incidental. As a fan I hope the 2025 season begins to generate excitement,

 

[HuckFinn]

As I step away from this season I think it achieved what was expected and maybe a little more. Iowa, other than Perkins, didn't have much of a senior class. Krike and McCaffery contributed, but sagged once in conference play. Below is the roster and you can see how young this team was, mostly freshman and sophomores. That doesn't cut it with all the older players with a Covid year. Next season's team will be young as well, mostly sophomores and freshmen. Right now Payton Sandfort and possibly Tony Perkins will be seniors. The next seasons junior class of Dix, Mulvaney, and Bowen doesn't offer much, other than Dix.

Iowa didn't have a problem being a development program until Covid came along and the transfer portal rules changed. The arena and how it is used isn't going to make a huge difference, especially with NIL here. There are teams that catapulted with transfers. It may be working well now for them, but in season 2026 those Red Shirt/Covid Year players age 25 or more will be exhausted. Iowa will have to put up with it and should be able to improve markedly in the 2026 season.

What the AD does to improve the fan experience is only incidental. As a fan I hope the 2025 season begins to generate excitement,

View attachment 10752

Thanks for the chart. Nice summary of where we will be. Also, good stuff on a couple of recruiting classes. Kind of disappointed. I believe Pmac could return.

 

[99topdawg]

One thing I think skews our view of this all is Garza and the Murrays. They were stars. Freeman could be as well if he sticks around. The problem is, what do we have around them? Sure, we have guys like Sandfort that could play for most/all places, but then what? So many guys with hole in their games.

I agree that Fran can develop and does a great job of finding those diamonds in the rough. He does as well as anyone. The problem is that they max out and we don't get enough to fill out a team with those guys. So many of them are role players that have developed. That kills us against good, athletic teams. When we have had our best regular seasons, we get beat by athletic teams and bitch about how we need to get more athletic guys. Can you imagine having to play a team of athletes with this group? Dix? Patrick?

Also, a lot of these guys that are our good players we have are basketball players but not necessarily athletic. They have a feel for the game and intangibles that make them play at the level they do, but they're aren't necessarily athletes Connor is a perfect example. We also get guys that are are athletic but play basketball, as opposed to being basketball players. Extreme examples (not from the Fran era, I know, but so you know the type I'm talking about) would be Kevin Smith (5 ppg) and Gerry Wright (8 ppg) but damn were they athletes.

Athletic basketball players are tough to find, but ISU seems to be able to it. With that type of player and Fran's ability to develop, we could have something. We all can see they type of player and the body type we have playing the 2 and 3 and keep bringing more of them. I don't care how well they can shoot, it ain't happening. That's the problem I have with Fran.

 

[99topdawg]

I believe Pmac could return.

Dear God no.

 

[NorthKCHawk]

Some folks on here are distracted by the fact that the women are selling out Carver. That doesn't mean taht Carver is a good fan experience. It just means CC is a cultural phenomenon. I mean, they were also selling out road venues across the country to see CC. The venue did not matter, it was the person they came to see.

That said, it does show that Iowa fans will pack arenas when the product is really good. But two things can be true at once. Iowa fans can be great when the moment calls for it, but Carver can also be a below average basketball experience. It is.

Iowa's administration can just continue to bury its head in the sand as to the deficiencies of the fan experience, and then wonder why the gate for a MBB is 6,000 on a Wednesday night, or it can take actions.

 

[JoeyLabasForPresident]

Fran is never taking this program to the next level, and neither is Kirk. The difference is in the levels those programs are at. Kirk fields an annually top twenty program. Fran doesn’t. Fran keeps his job while maintaining what is essentially the median team in the league. They are different sports, clearly, but the team’s performance under Fran in the dance and end of season collapses is enough for me to not be satisfied until we move on.

People point to 2020 as the one data point that might have broken the trends, but we’ve had way too many seasons now with one common denominator that ties together the lack of growth, and that’s the coach. This isn’t a Nebraska situation. Under Fran, we’re six games above .500 in conference play. His performance has amounted to a single conference tournament title in fourteen years and four first round wins. That’s the list.

63 points against Richmond should have been a fireable offense.

Why do we (collectively) delude ourselves into thinking that this rebuild is different? This time Fran is building a team that can win. He’s not. He’s had too many chances. He will disappoint us again.

 

[SwirlinLingerie]

Fran is never taking this program to the next level, and neither is Kirk. The difference is in the levels those programs are at. Kirk fields an annually top twenty program. Fran doesn’t. Fran keeps his job while maintaining what is essentially the median team in the league. They are different sports, clearly, but the team’s performance under Fran in the dance and end of season collapses is enough for me to not be satisfied until we move on.

People point to 2020 as the one data point that might have broken the trends, but we’ve had way too many seasons now with one common denominator that ties together the lack of growth, and that’s the coach. This isn’t a Nebraska situation. Under Fran, we’re six games above .500 in conference play. His performance has amounted to a single conference tournament title in fourteen years and four first round wins. That’s the list.

63 points against Richmond should have been a fireable offense.

Why do we (collectively) delude ourselves into thinking that this rebuild is different? This time Fran is building a team that can win. He’s not. He’s had too many chances. He will disappoint us again.

I can hear some criticisms of Fran and his program, but there are a couple things to point out in your comparison.

Kirk fields a top 25 or so football program out of 135 teams. And Iowa has better resources and support than a vast majority of the programs below them.

Fran fields a top 40 or so basketball program out of 350 teams. And doesn't have nearly the financial advantages that Iowa football enjoys over many of its peers.

 

[Gander Hawk]

I will say it again, his point about the women. If you put a good/great product out on the court (that fans believe in), Carver will get filled.

View attachment 10750

Easy, just sign a generational, top-five recruit every four years. Surprised Fran hasn't figured that out.

 

[Gander Hawk]

As I step away from this season I think it achieved what was expected and maybe a little more. Iowa, other than Perkins, didn't have much of a senior class. Krike and McCaffery contributed, but sagged once in conference play. Below is the roster and you can see how young this team was, mostly freshman and sophomores. That doesn't cut it with all the older players with a Covid year. Next season's team will be young as well, mostly sophomores and freshmen. Right now Payton Sandfort and possibly Tony Perkins will be seniors. The next seasons junior class of Dix, Mulvaney, and Bowen doesn't offer much, other than Dix.

Iowa didn't have a problem being a development program until Covid came along and the transfer portal rules changed. The arena and how it is used isn't going to make a huge difference, especially with NIL here. There are teams that catapulted with transfers. It may be working well now for them, but in season 2026 those Red Shirt/Covid Year players age 25 or more will be exhausted. Iowa will have to put up with it and should be able to improve markedly in the 2026 season.

What the AD does to improve the fan experience is only incidental. As a fan I hope the 2025 season begins to generate excitement,

View attachment 10752

Who the hell is Mulvaney?

 

[eyekwah]

Who the hell is Mulvaney?

Sorry Mulvey

 

[HaydenHawk56]

Easy, just sign a generational, top-five recruit every four years. Surprised Fran hasn't figured that out.

Doesn't even have to be that good. Just get some competent guards and centers most years and you are in like Flynn.

 

[RobHowe]

There might be a Mulvaney in the portal

 

[Hawkfnntn]

To be fair, there has to be a Caitlin Clark to recruit before you can recruit her. If the greatest men's player to ever play the game grows up in Iowa anytime soon and commits to the hawks, whoever happens to be coaching them at the time will become a God, even if it's Fran. Of course the problem with that is said men's player would only be there one year, where as the women stay for 4.

It'll probably end up being Frans 3rd son... That's just how our luck goes

 

[Gander Hawk]

There might be a Mulvaney in the portal

Our Mulvaney? I mean Mulvey.

 

[thedukeofearl]

Our Mulvaney? I mean Mulvey.

It is all Malarkey to me