Are Iowa's Assistant Coaches Holding Us Back?

If you think about it...we have some serious talent on this roster. Cook is a beast. What Garza did as a freshman is impressive and he's not intimidated in the least. Jordan is one of the best shooters in the country...Moss has all the physical tools and if he's more consistent night in and out can average 16 a night. Throw in Nunge, Baer, Dailey...and if they improve...that's a really solid group. If they do the work in the offseason, and everyone gets stronger and better at their craft...then this team is going to be a handful offensively. Throw in another guy, Weiskamp, who is the perfect three and can shoot the three, has a high basketball IQ, and an attitude of doing whatever it takes to win. I think this team is going to be a tough team to stop offensively.

Defense, defense, defense. That's all I'm concerned about. What's interesting is that I thought they did a pretty good job against Michigan in the B10 tourney. There was really only one area where we broke down (point guard penetration) and it was the difference in that game.
 
uihawk82 said:
Lute had another one or two top years but his tourney failures took the luster off. I agree with Northside that only 4 or 5 great years in 40 years is not very good.
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We haven't won even a share of a regular season conference title since 1979 and only then because Bobby Knight dismissed his starting and backup point guards based on an early season substance incident. This ultimately led to him getting into the Isiah Thomas sweepstakes and snatching him away from Lute Olson. Isiah could have teamed with Ronnie Lester in the backcourt for one year and been there to step in when Ronnie went down. Kenny Arnold, a fiercely underrated player, did a great job but Isiah Thomases don't grow on trees.
 
uihawk82 said:
Lute had another one or two top years but his tourney failures took the luster off. I agree with Northside that only 4 or 5 great years in 40 years is not very good.
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We were set up nicely in 1989 and 1993 as well. We were so loaded on 1989 that Davis could afford to redshirt Acie Earl. But Matt Bullard, Michael Ingram, and Rodell Davis all went down with various knee issues and Ray Thompson was declared ineligible the day before the NCAA tournament.

We had a veteran team in 1993 and may have been the best defensive team in the country with Kenyon Murray and Kevin Smith on the perimeter and Earl, Street and James Winters inside. We all know what happened on January 19th. That team, like 1989, had final four potential.
 
Northside Hawk said:
We were set up nicely in 1989 and 1993 as well. We were so loaded on 1989 that Davis could afford to redshirt Acie Earl. But Matt Bullard, Michael Ingram, and Rodell Davis all went down with various knee issues and Ray Thompson was declared ineligible the day before the NCAA tournament.

We had a veteran team in 1993 and may have been the best defensive team in the country with Kenyon Murray and Kevin Smith on the perimeter and Earl, Street and James Winters inside. We all know what happened on January 19th. That team, like 1989, had final four potential.
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Good points, tragedy and injuries, and injustices have hurt the hawks. We could go back to Connie Hawkins getting railroaded out of college ball at Iowa just after Iowa had been to 2 final fours as a turning point in fortunes for about 8-10 years, James Speed was supposed to be a great player and he got sick, Ray Thompson was just a very good freshman player and maybe there could have been more remedial or whatever scholastic help to give him but that hurt along with the injuries you mention.
 
uihawk82 said:
Good points, tragedy and injuries, and injustices have hurt the hawks. We could go back to Connie Hawkins getting railroaded out of college ball at Iowa just after Iowa had been to 2 final fours as a turning point in fortunes for about 8-10 years, James Speed was supposed to be a great player and he got sick, Ray Thompson was just a very good freshman player and maybe there could have been more remedial or whatever scholastic help to give him but that hurt along with the injuries you mention.
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You just described life in general. Life happens.
 
MelroseHawkins said:
Don't know why, but I've never been sold on Sherm. I don't know the guy so is probably unfair but just doesn't look like he has a lot of passion. He's just so unassuming I wonder if recruits take him seriously or if the players really respond to him. Probably a nice enough guy, but is he just too nice and quiet?
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Not just a nice guy, he's a good golfer. He plays golf with my dad.
 
Northside Hawk said:
1970, 1980, 1987, 1988. Those were very good to great years.
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OMG you guys are cracking me up.LMAO!!!

I guess now a great year at Iowa is getting knocked out of B1G tournament in the first round every year and one in ten years getting to the second round of the NCAA tournament.

In fairness to IowaLawWasRignt I think he was just trying to be fair to those fans that still support Fran because the rest of his message expresses the same frustration that a lot of us are going through.

All we can hope is that last year was just an aboration and we will bounce back. I am pretty sure if we have another year like last that the only people on here supporting Fran will be his family, neighbors, or friends from church (if he has any).

Honestly how could we possibly be worse? We WILL see improvement this upcoming season but will it be significant enough to stave off the wolves and pitchforks?
 
BigD said:
OMG you guys are cracking me up.LMAO!!!

I guess now a great year at Iowa is getting knocked out of B1G tournament in the first round every year and one in ten years getting to the second round of the NCAA tournament.

In fairness to IowaLawWasRignt I think he was just trying to be fair to those fans that still support Fran because the rest of his message expresses the same frustration that a lot of us are going through.

All we can hope is that last year was just an aboration and we will bounce back. I am pretty sure if we have another year like last that the only people on here supporting Fran will be his family, neighbors, or friends from church (if he has any).

Honestly how could we possibly be worse? We WILL see improvement this upcoming season but will it be significant enough to stave off the wolves and pitchforks?
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And Gary Barta.

It shouldn't be hard to improve on last year. For me it's NCAA Tournament or bust this season. I'm not gonna keep lowering the bar just because last year was so bad. Mr. Davis's 1989-90 team won 12 games all year, but made the dance the following year. So don't think I'm asking for anything unrealistic.
 
1977Hawkeye said:
And Gary Barta.

It shouldn't be hard to improve on last year. For me it's NCAA Tournament or bust this season. I'm not gonna keep lowering the bar just because last year was so bad. Mr. Davis's 1989-90 team won 12 games all year, but made the dance the following year. So don't think I'm asking for anything unrealistic.
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Do we as Iowa fans have any expectations at this point?
 
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Northside Hawk said:
We were set up nicely in 1989 and 1993 as well. We were so loaded on 1989 that Davis could afford to redshirt Acie Earl. But Matt Bullard, Michael Ingram, and Rodell Davis all went down with various knee issues and Ray Thompson was declared ineligible the day before the NCAA tournament.

We had a veteran team in 1993 and may have been the best defensive team in the country with Kenyon Murray and Kevin Smith on the perimeter and Earl, Street and James Winters inside. We all know what happened on January 19th. That team, like 1989, had final four potential.
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Just might have been national champs that year we played without Ray in the tournament. He could have stopped Rodney Monroe nailing those deadly threes. Ray had very long arms and was the best defender on the team.....

Alas and Alack

:cool:
 
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