Article from when Fran was Hired

[lightning1]

I'm usually willing to give any coach a chance. Any coach that doesn't have a long history of failure/NCAA issues, that is. All of the Hall of Fame coaches started somewhere small or as an assistant. I supported Lickliter until his own recruits started fleeing after 1 year (or was it 2).

 

[Knight78]

wow. Even better than bumping an old negative post. Nicely done

Someone should consider tweeting this link at Doxsie.

It would have been hard for him to get it more wrong ... unless he has a time machine, and did it on purpose.

What? Doxsie wrong? NEVER!!!!! (Ok, I'll stop with the sarcasm now)

 

[pekurhawk]

Right on, he's got about five

 

[WestCoastHawk]

I remember the general sentiment among my friend's and their families back home was that we had hired a dud and he wasn't going to do anything. I was extremely optimistic due to his NCAA tournament resume and hit it on the head. I did believe the Basabe hype which was definitely unwarranted. He never really panned out.

 

[PCHawk]

^^ Imagine if Iowa had hired brad stevens instead of Lick....wow. Obviously he'd still probably take the first NBA gig he could but that woulda been interesting

I remember when Fran first got hired. He wasn't the darling hire that year, he actually was the 2 years prior. When Fran was announced, his team just lost their opening round NCAA game to Purdue, but they didn't get crushed. The year before that they were an 8/9 seed and beat Ohio State in the first round and then hung with 1 seed Louisville. The year before that they were like a 13 seed and beat 4 seed...I think villanova or vandy or something like that.

I just remember thinking "Thank God" they hired a guy who liked to run and gun, go uptempo, and didn't go recruiting after the nonathletic white kids like Lickliter did. Even if Fran's Iowa teams didn't work out, at least they would be FUN TO WATCH. That's where I was at with Iowa basketball at the time. The Lickliter era was not only awful in the win column, it was hard to watch. Even when they would knock off Michigan State it would be a boring f'ing game to watch.

Every year people talk about "is this as high as Fran can take us?" and every year he proves them wrong. Now we know Fran can at least take us to #3 in the rankings and a potential 1 seed in the NCAA tournament. That aint bad fellas

Holy cow I hate "is this as high as Fran can take us" talk. Like he could never have a year where he caught all the breaks and did better. Or got lucky with a couple recruits that ended up being studs. Or had a couple sons that were so good finished higher with them. Such a stupid comment.

 

[PCHawk]

I remember the general sentiment among my friend's and their families back home was that we had hired a dud and he wasn't going to do anything. I was extremely optimistic due to his NCAA tournament resume and hit it on the head. I did believe the Basabe hype which was definitely unwarranted. He never really panned out.

Basabe wasn't hyped like he was going to be a stud. He was hyped like thank god we actually have a warm body.

 

[Hawknigh]

It's a good thing Fran has done well because Barta would be gone by now if he hadn't. I have to imagine the rope was short after the absolute disaster that was Lickliter.

Because Barta's job is all about basketball?

 

[ssckelley]

I wanted Reggie Theus at the time with Kevin Gamble as an assistant.

 

[HawkeyeStout]

I found this article and really don't remember this being the sentiment, so I was kind of shocked to read it.

McCaffery Hire is another Yawner

And now he'll be Big Ten Coach Of The Year. Wow.

 

[1977Hawkeye]

How about Lute Olson? Do you realize the uproar today if a young Lute Olson was hired. Lute's experience was thirteen years in high school, four years junior college (Long Beach City College), & one year at Long Beach State. The resumes of Alford, Lickliter & McCaffery at the time of hiring were far better than Lute's. None of the three will have anything close to Lute's final resume.

Yeah, the Lute hire would probably have been crucified just from lack of experience if that happened today. Whoever the AD was that hired Lute, he was either a genius or extremely lucky, because obviously that hire worked out, to say the least.

I remember the "Don't dismiss the BJ Armstrong talk" thread that Jon started (and the Les Jepsen talk thread, lol) when Lick got canned. A BJ hire would've been just like the Hoiberg hire - no prior coaching experience at ALL - and that obviously worked out for the clones. You never know.

I think the Alford hire is a lesson in "don't hire the flavor of the week, just because they got hot for 2 games made the Sweet 16." although he did do OK in the MVC. Illinois and John Groce comes to mind. But I guess all the experts thought at the time that Alford was a good hire. Meh.

When Lick was hired, i remembered hearing how it would be a hire with some "sizzle", and my parents called and told me that they hired Todd Lickliter. My response: "Who? Oh, the Butler coach - well I guess Butler has a decent program." Guess it was basically the same with Fran, but it's really about getting the RIGHT hire, not necessarily the splash hire.

It's easy to dismiss a hire as a bad one when it's not a proven name.

 

[1977Hawkeye]

I wanted Reggie Theus at the time with Kevin Gamble as an assistant.

Reggie Theus.. I remember talk about him. Guess he's at CS Northridge but hasn't had a lot of success yet.

Tony Barbee was another name that was brought up as a hot recruiter, etc. He got fired from Auburn a couple years ago after going 49-75 in four seasons.

Suppose it's a good thing we didn't go with any of the "prospects" that we'd heard about, because most of them didn't pan out. I was a Scott Drew guy back in 2010.. He's still turning out pretty good teams at least.

It's interesting looking back on all this.

 

[zhawk]

The thing that kills me about that article is that Doxsie compares Fran's personality and demeanor as being similar to Lickliter's. Of all the things he was laughably wrong about, that one made me laugh the hardest.

 

[eveningnewsteam]

I heard there was mutual interest with Iowa and Brian Gregory. Dayton made the NIT finals run, Iowa wasnt waiting and they moved on

 

[1977Hawkeye]

I heard there was mutual interest with Iowa and Brian Gregory. Dayton made the NIT finals run, Iowa wasnt waiting and they moved on

Brian Gregory at GT. Guess maybe they'll make the NIT this year.

Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets (Atlantic Coast Conference) (2011–present)
2011–12	Georgia Tech	11–20	4–12	11th
2012–13	Georgia Tech	16–15	6–12	9th
2013–14	Georgia Tech	16–17	6–12	11th
2014–15	Georgia Tech	12–19	3–15	14th
2015–16	Georgia Tech	17–12	7-9

 

[docholihawk]

Maybe Don Doxie should stick to covering women's competitive quilting.

 

[hawkeyebob62]

Fran wasn't the sexy pick. IIRC Bruce Pearl and Scot Drew were the names everyone were throwing out. It seems to me there was another name with Iowa ties .. an assistant coach .. that was also being mentioned, but I can't remember who it was. (Gary Close?)

Suffice to say, Fran has done a good job so far. The next few years will be telling.

GO HAWKS!!!

Kirk Speraw, former UCF HC, Grad. Asst. on the 1980 Final Four team.

He ended up being an assistant, of course