A little appreciation for Gatens

Ease up Smoot. Matt has had it sort of rough. Going to school on an athletic scholarship is not walk in the park under the best of circumstances. Throw in the turmoil that has taken place under Matt's watch, and it would have been easy for him to throw in the towel.
 
Matt is a true Hawkeye, to stay loyal after suffering the disgrace of the Lick years is proof. I do believe that this will be a very good year for Matt. The drastic transition from Lickball to Fran's style is done and he will benefit from the versatility of the new recruits. The opponents will not be able to double team him on the perimeter.
 
sioux34 said:
Ease up Smoot. Matt has had it sort of rough. Going to school on an athletic scholarship is not walk in the park under the best of circumstances. Throw in the turmoil that has taken place under Matt's watch, and it would have been easy for him to throw in the towel.
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It's a lot easier that working 20-30 hours per week and still having loans to pay off when you're done as many individuals I knew did when they went to college. You'd be stupid to turn down a full ride even if the team did suck. I'd say he's in a pretty good position for his future.
 
Good find. I am proud of Matt sticking it out. We all know he bleeds black and gold,but as the data indicates,he is still the lone exception out of hundreds of recruits...that is impressive no matter the Hawkeye legacy in the family. We have seen other Hawk legacy recruits,like Bohannon,snub the Hawks.

I,for one,am grateful to Matt for his loyalty,and really,really hope he gets some sweet payoff for that loyalty this year by making the NIT at minimum.
 
I hope Gatens & Company can earn a post-season bid this year. Matt certainly deserves that, along with our respect and admiration.

Smoot, why so grumpy?
 
smoot27 said:
Poor him, received a good education without the debt burden of loans.
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Very juvenile. No one was comparing him to a traditional student. Rather, his loyalty in a time of turmoil (in sports terms) should be noted in a time where young athletes are so quick to move on to greener pastures.

Also note that he comes from a well-to-do family, making the money even less of a factor and his willingness to stay even more impressive. Also, being a D1 athlete in a sport like basketball demands well over 20-30 hours a week on average...
 
OnLookin08 said:
Very juvenile. No one was comparing him to a traditional student. Rather, his loyalty in a time of turmoil (in sports terms) should be noted in a time where young athletes are so quick to move on to greener pastures.

Also note that he comes from a well-to-do family, making the money even less of a factor and his willingness to stay even more impressive. Also, being a D1 athlete in a sport like basketball demands well over 20-30 hours a week on average...
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His dad is well connected to UI athletics so it wouldn't have made much sense to leave. Secondly, why would he necessarily want to leave when he is a feature player in our offense who probably wouldn't receive near the amount of playing time on a better team? Let's not confuse Gatens with a Big Ten star. Gatens would probably be a 6th or 7th man on the majority of other Big Ten programs. He would be coming off the bench for even ISU next season. No reason for him to leave.
 
smoot27 said:
His dad is well connected to UI athletics so it wouldn't have made much sense to leave. Secondly, why would he necessarily want to leave when he is a feature player in our offense who probably wouldn't receive near the amount of playing time on a better team? Let's not confuse Gatens with a Big Ten star. Gatens would probably be a 6th or 7th man on the majority of other Big Ten programs. He would be coming off the bench for even ISU next season. No reason for him to leave.
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Man, if Matt's that bad I don't understand why he is playing oversea with other talented NCAA players. Must be luck or something.

Matt was runner-up for Big Ten freshman of the year and has been solid for Iowa. He's not an all-American, but he is a solid Big Ten player who loves the Hawkeyes. That's something this program needs. And it's something that is quite admirable.
 
storminspank said:
Man, if Matt's that bad I don't understand why he is playing oversea with other talented NCAA players. Must be luck or something.

Matt was runner-up for Big Ten freshman of the year and has been solid for Iowa. He's not an all-American, but he is a solid Big Ten player who loves the Hawkeyes. That's something this program needs. And it's something that is quite admirable.
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I never said I'm not glad he's on the team, but you have to get a kick out of the Hawkeye homers who overrate every player on the team. Homers think Cartwright is one of the best point guards in the league, Basabe is a top PF and Gatens is an above average contributer. They also think Marble has shown the ability to be a star, Cole was above average and McCabe will be very good. All this and we finished with a whopping 4 wins in the conference and suffered losses to powerhouses South Dakota State, Iowa State and an awful, awful Wake Forest team. Glad the bar is set high here.

The reality of the situation is Basabe is above average, Cartwright is average and Gatens is a situational shooter without the athletic or ball handling ability to be a full-time starter.

He is Chris Babb part 2 and Babb might be a better overall player due to his better defensive ability.
 
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CAARHawk said:
Matt is a Hawk through and through, but the odds of him starting on a top B1G team might not be great.
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If he wanted to transfer plenty of big name schools would have welcomed him. He's not an elite B10 player but he would certainly be in the rotation on any team in the conference.
 
smoot27 said:
I never said I'm not glad he's on the team, but you have to get a kick out of the Hawkeye homers who overrate every player on the team. Homers think Cartwright is one of the best point guards in the league, Basabe is a top PF and Gatens is an above average contributer. They also think Marble has shown the ability to be a star, Cole was above average and McCabe will be very good. All this and we finished with a whopping 4 wins in the conference and suffered losses to powerhouses South Dakota State, Iowa State and an awful, awful Wake Forest team. Glad the bar is set high here.

The reality of the situation is Basabe is above average, Cartwright is average and Gatens is a situational shooter without the athletic or ball handling ability to be a full-time starter.

He is Chris Babb part 2 and Babb might be a better overall player due to his better defensive ability.
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Haters gonna hate
 
I like the dude but I hate that our lights out 3 point shooter can't shoot the three. Kind of annoying IMO
 
smoot27 said:
It's a lot easier that working 20-30 hours per week and still having loans to pay off when you're done as many individuals I knew did when they went to college. You'd be stupid to turn down a full ride even if the team did suck.
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You would think that, but your wrong. You obviously have no idea the time demands that are put on these kids. These kids put in a lot more than 20-30 hours a week, and at the end of practice, they are dead tired. I know when I was playing in college, I didn't get a lot of studying in after practice. Once I was done playing and working 30 hours a week, it was not problem to study another four or five hours a night.
 
sioux34 said:
You would think that, but your wrong. You obviously have no idea the time demands that are put on these kids. These kids put in a lot more than 20-30 hours a week, and at the end of practice, they are dead tired. I know when I was playing in college, I didn't get a lot of studying in after practice. Once I was done playing and working 30 hours a week, it was not problem to study another four or five hours a night.
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I agree. I was on a DIII basketball team (guess which one by my avatar) and we put in more than 20-30 hours a week of practice during the season. Plus we carried a full class load - no special tutors for DIII players either. AND we all graduated in four years!
 
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