10 Wins

H

hawkeye12345

Well-Known Member
Devan Bawinkel
Andrew Brommer
Jarryd Cole (transferred)
Brennan Cougill (transferred)
Aaron Fuller (Transferred)
Matt Gatens
John Lickliter (transferred)
Eric May
Nick Neari
Cully Payne (eventually transferrred)
Anthony Tucker (drunk)

That's the mother f'in roster that Fran was looking at prior to him accepting the position at Iowa. That team accomplished what no other Iowa Hawkeye basketball and had the worst 3 year run in program history.

This program sucked donkey balls and was completely unwatchable. No coach in their right mind would come here and take over that program.

It took 3 years to land the first 'big' recruiting class and we won 25 games in 2012-13 season. I'll readily admit that we plateaued a bit but we made the NCAA tournament last year for the first time in recent history. I would bet anyone that we would make the tourney again this year too.

Now we've started to land some kids from Chicago, a truly needed area of recruiting that we haven't touched since the Mr. Davis days.

I'm all for calling out Fran when he does stupid **** like play Oglewinkel for any period of time and I'm almost positive he made a deal with the devil that would mandate T-Rex getting starters minutes at the C position.

This team has talent. This team continues to improve at the player level whether you want to see it or not is up to you.

Fran's here for another 3 years at least unless he shows himself to the door, which I don't see happening.

Our biggest mistake as a fan base was to start calling for the "Next Level" when Mr. Davis Davis was here.

Let me give you a last bit of warning. We beat a top 25 team in North Carolina. Our only losses on the season are to top 25 teams. Those losses are not going to keep us out of the tournament. It's not like we are losing to NJIT and EMU with 4 and 5 star recruits on our roster...just think about that before you start calling for a coaches head that has resurrected a program from a pile of dog ****.
 
I think I could have played on that team.

I have noticed in the past couple of meaningful games that Oglesby hasn't played near the minutes he did early or last year. It's refreshing to see Fran have the ability to realize when someone is not playing well and replace them with someone that may give us the spark we need. He also seems to play guys more minutes that are playing well.

Don't we complain about that in another sport?
 
[FONT=minion-pro, Georgia, serif]Let me give you a last bit of warning. We beat a top 25 team in North Carolina. Our only losses on the season are to top 25 teams. [/FONT]Those losses are not going to keep us out of the tournament.[FONT=minion-pro, Georgia, serif] It's not like we are losing to NJIT and EMU with 4 and 5 star recruits on our roster...just think about that before you start calling for a coaches head that has resurrected a program from a pile of dog ****.[/FONT]


No, just all the losses that we will encounter when the B1G starts...

 
I loved sticking it to NC on their court but when the season is over I don't think NC will be in the Top 25. Right now we are an average team. We aren't bad... We aren't good. The tough part about watching this team is seeing some of the same misgivings that haunted us last season. I agree Fran came to Iowa and had nothing to work with. It doesn't help though that the coach in Ames had no coaching experience whatsoever and has repeatedly placed solid teams on the court with different players and multiple NCAA tourney appearances. It's time for us to get over this hump.
 
Jarryd Cole definitely didn't transfer. The Purdue game on his senior day was a fun game to watch. Seeing him sent out like that was a pivotal moment in Fran changing the culture of the program. Outside of that, good post.

This team isn't an elite team by any means but it is drastically better than the one Fran inherited. Iowa State can shoot the ball. When they are hot, they can beat anybody in the nation, yes maybe even Kentucky if they are hot enough. It was the handful of turnovers to start the second half that did us in. Avoid those and they don't get a double digit lead so quickly. That took the wind out of our sails and the team folded for five minutes before starting to rally back, but it was too late by then.

You hate to say that a loss came at a good time, but if you are going to lose, I truly think it came at a good time. It came right before finals which gives the team 8 days to flush it and start anew. I'm not giving up on this team just yet, they still have promise. There will be a few more games when opposing teams will shoot lights out but I wager there will be a few that Uthoff, Oglesby, & Jok do as well.

It's going to be a long week without watching the Hawks but stick with this team, they may just surprise us a few times this year.
 
I remember during the lick years listening to our game in the big 10 acc challange and they called a foul against the other team that gave us 2 free throws for a chance to tie with no time on the clock. The guy shooting them was a freshman I'd never heard of named.... Andrew frickin Brommer. Think about that one for a bit. We were in a position where Andrew Brommer our best option at the end of a close game at the beginning of his freshman year. Remembering that is enough for me to not complain where Fran has us for long time.
 
PCHawk said:
I remember during the lick years listening to our game in the big 10 acc challange and they called a foul against the other team that gave us 2 free throws for a chance to tie with no time on the clock. The guy shooting them was a freshman I'd never heard of named.... Andrew frickin Brommer. Think about that one for a bit. We were in a position where Andrew Brommer our best option at the end of a close game at the beginning of his freshman year. Remembering that is enough for me to not complain where Fran has us for long time.
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For some reason I remember that game, I think it was @ Boston College if I remember correctly.
 
If I would have to guess I would say Kyle Meyer was about as good his redshirt freshman year as Brommer was his senior year. He left because he wasn't going to sniff the court in his 3rd year in the program. Yet Brommer was getting serious play time at the beginning of his freshman year. I just can't get over how bad that is.
 
JG10Hawk said:
For some reason I remember that game, I think it was @ Boston College if I remember correctly.
Click to expand...

I think that's right. Brommer scrambled for a loose ball and they called a foul 30 feet from the basket with under a second left in the game.
 
PCHawk said:
I remember during the lick years listening to our game in the big 10 acc challange and they called a foul against the other team that gave us 2 free throws for a chance to tie with no time on the clock. The guy shooting them was a freshman I'd never heard of named.... Andrew frickin Brommer. Think about that one for a bit. We were in a position where Andrew Brommer our best option at the end of a close game at the beginning of his freshman year. Remembering that is enough for me to not complain where Fran has us for long time.
Click to expand...

Yeah I agree about Brommer, but for me, the fact that Little Lick was getting meaningful minutes in conference games says it all. Brommer (Minnesota), along with Bawinkel (WVU), were both guys that were told to get packing by other programs because they wouldn't be playing if they stuck around... Leave it to Lick to snap them up. Little Lick should have been a walk on type player who only saw the floor the last few minutes of a blowout, like Mr. Davis's gray teamers. Fran inherited horrendous "talent".

I'll be the first to say that Fran did a great job of making Iowa competitive again, but just being better than Lickliter shouldn't be the benchmark for this program. After all, Lick compiled the worst winning percentage of ANY coach in program history. Let that sink in for a minute. So just being better than Lick.. The bar should be a bit higher than that.

I'm starting to get the distinct feeling that this program has reached its ceiling under Fran's coaching, barring an influx of better talent. We have more 3* players coming in.. Hopefully Fran is seeing something in these players that many other programs missed, but IMO 3* talent only gets you so far. About NIT/fringe-bubble territory is my guess, which is where the program has been the past few years now. 3* players are going to have holes in their games - they can't shoot, they aren't athletic, or both - etc. Some things you can coach and fix, some you can't.

I know a lot of people are excited about this next class coming in, but let's be honest - there were people on these boards that were excited about Lick's recruiting classes, too... I'm not writing anyone off or trying to be a downer, don't get me wrong. I'm just saying that I will need to see the proof that these particular 3* recruits are better than the other 3* recruits Iowa has gotten in the past. I sincerely hope to be proven wrong.
 
1977Hawkeye said:
Yeah I agree about Brommer, but for me, the fact that Little Lick was getting meaningful minutes in conference games says it all. Brommer (Minnesota), along with Bawinkel (WVU), were both guys that were told to get packing by other programs because they wouldn't be playing if they stuck around... Leave it to Lick to snap them up. Little Lick should have been a walk on type player who only saw the floor the last few minutes of a blowout, like Mr. Davis's gray teamers. Fran inherited horrendous "talent".

I'll be the first to say that Fran did a great job of making Iowa competitive again, but just being better than Lickliter shouldn't be the benchmark for this program. After all, Lick compiled the worst winning percentage of ANY coach in program history. Let that sink in for a minute. So just being better than Lick.. The bar should be a bit higher than that.

I'm starting to get the distinct feeling that this program has reached its ceiling under Fran's coaching, barring an influx of better talent. We have more 3* players coming in.. Hopefully Fran is seeing something in these players that many other programs missed, but IMO 3* talent only gets you so far. About NIT/fringe-bubble territory is my guess, which is where the program has been the past few years now. 3* players are going to have holes in their games - they can't shoot, they aren't athletic, or both - etc. Some things you can coach and fix, some you can't.

I know a lot of people are excited about this next class coming in, but let's be honest - there were people on these boards that were excited about Lick's recruiting classes, too... I'm not writing anyone off or trying to be a downer, don't get me wrong. I'm just saying that I will need to see the proof that these particular 3* recruits are better than the other 3* recruits Iowa has gotten in the past. I sincerely hope to be proven wrong.
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First off I would say we are way better than with Lick, not just better. I agree about the 3 star talent though. The only thing is, there are a couple kinds of 3 stars. Some were spotted early, ranked, and never moved.
it seems like the guys in this class are getting kore and more buzz as their high school years go on. Those are the types of 3 stars that outplay their ranking. Don't hold your breath that their rankings will be moving up though since they commited to iowa.
 
HawkeyeWalker said:
OP, good post.
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It was??

I'm not so sure..

Listen I'm not calling for Fran's head but I know where this program was when he came to Iowa. In Year #5 I would expect more than what I'm currently seeing, but would rather give Fran a bit more time.
 
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Let's look at last years 10 & 11 seeds and how they are doing this year so far.

#10 - Stanford (5-2) Lost to Duke and Depaul, not signature wins
#10 - BYU (8-3) Lost to two top 20 teams and a loss to purdue with no signature wins.
#10 - ASU (6-3) Lost to Maryland, Alabama, and Tx A&M with no signature wins.
#10 - Saint Joes' (5-4) Lost to two top 25 teams and two more to randoms. No signature wins.
#11 - Providence (8-3) Lost to Kentucky, BC, and BROWN with no signature wins.
#11 - Tennessee (4-3) lost to two top 25 teams with a signature win against Butler.
#11 - Nebraska (6-3) A loss to a team that had you not already read about them you wouldn't even know they had a basketball program with no signature wins.
#11 - Dayton (7-2) Loss to the only top 25 team they will play this year and no signature wins.

Iowa - (8-3) with three losses to top 25 teams and a signature win over North Carolina.

I'm not trying to imply that we are only up against those 8 teams for an NCAA berth but at least look at where this program is heading. Predictions have us at 20-11 overall and 10-8 in conference with an RPI of 39.5 which will get us into the tournament without question.

Here is a little more for some of you to chew on. In Mr. Davis's 4th season as our HC he went 12-16 overall. In his fifth season we went 21-11 and made the 2nd round of the tournament. In his 6th season we won 19 games.

Fran's teams have won 25, 20, and predicted to win 20 games this year.
 
OP, solid post. I'd love to know who gave you the down votes. As I've said in other posts, three things that you need to ask yourself and realize....

1. Where did you have us (W/L) after the ISU game?
2. We're not going to go undefeated (pretty sure some of you believe this).
3. Someone has to step up and make plays/shots. Doesn't have to be the same guy every game.
 
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