Connor McCaffery Announces Return for 6th Season

NorthKCHawk said:
I agree the shots are not pretty for either boy, and they are both very different. Patrick is a better shooter though.

Fran never coached these two before college. They had a lot of coaches along the way that also could have corrected the shot. Select, AAU, high school, etc. Fran had a few things going on during the formative years trying to turn around dumpster fire of a program, battling cancer in his family, and helping to raise kids. Maybe he didn't have as much time in the driveway as he would have liked.

Its pretty hard to deconstruct a shot at this stage of a career. You can tweak it, but college kids have 50,000 shots of muscle memory in the books.

No matter how pure his shot could have developed, Connor may not have the stuff to be a great shooter. JT can't shoot any better. Uhlis the same. A lot of guards just are not effective outside shooters.

Sure it would be great if Connor could shoot 35% from 3. But, you cannot deny the other skills he brings to the floor, and his leadership and basketball IQ. Tournament success aside, Iowa has gotten better every year since Connor got here a decade ago.
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And thus why some fans are frustrated. Conner just looks awkward at shooting. And not confident. Patrick does a semi-push shot which is not consistently controllable as the amount of push depends on a lot of things.

I do think it wouldn't be that hard to change if there was motivation. Occasionally both of them align the stars and they have decent form and it goes in. So I would guess they know how to do it.

The shooting (only shooting and mostly PM) vaguely and I mean vaguely reminds me of.... well, I guess I can't say it. So I licked my lips and went on.
 
Both Connor and Patrick averaged 33% for the season on 3s last year. That is better than I thought for Connor, but then again he had moments where his defender would laugh and back up into the paint. Still, 33% is not bad. Anything above 35% is considered excellent. Sandford was 36 and the Murrays and JBO were in the upper 30s.

I don't think you will coach the sideways shot out of Connor. You might be able to get Patrick's release point a bit higher, but there is a chance you could do more harm than good. A better use of their time is to shoot a 1000 shots a day than care what a bunch of old dudes think of the aesthetics of their shot.
 
Dadman said:
We have enough younglings that will be looking to score. Connor will have an occasional game where he buries a few 3's, but that's a bonus. Right now, we need floor leader more than another 6'-something guard to hoist up 3 point shots. Oh, and we need a center, but that's another post...........
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I see what you did there.... ;)

But seriously, you are correct. There is a LOT more to basketball that scoring points. The offense has to flow for the good shooters to get the ball in their hands at their spots in order to BE good shooters. Every offense needs "glue" players. Players who give up their own stats in order to make the team better than the sum of the talent of the 5 players on the floor. Players who are in position on defense to give help but able to recover to their man as needed. Players who are willing to sacrifice their body for a needed play. Connor is such a player, he has demonstrated as much during his career.
 
Same People bitching about Iowa not making a sweet 16 are the same people who are happy Conor is coming back. Theres more people happy to see Conor come back then there was when JBO came back. Process that.
 
I think JBO sucked up all the "been here since the Reagan adminstration" jokes, so that part of Connor returning isn't as big of a deal.

I was thrilled with JBO returning and very happy that Connor is back. Why wouldn't we want proven, veteran leaders on the floor who have been consistently productive? If I thought that either would block younger, more talented players from emerging, I might have had issues. But, as we saw last season, this team needed JBO. We would not have hoisted that conference trophy without him.

I think Fran will continue to use Connor appropriately, while bringing along Patrick, Peyton, Tony and Kris as the emerging stars on this team.
 
Not an apples-to-apples comparison, but Connor reminds me of Doug Gotlieb . Gotlieb was a terrific player back in the late 90's; however, he couldn't shoot, he was even worse than Conner, he couldn't even make his free throws. Even though he was a brilliant point guard, there was always cloud over his head of a coach's kid that couldn't shoot.
 
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