Fran not retiring anytime soon

L

longtimer

Well-Known Member
Did not see it but apparently he revealed his intentions in some interview. He is not going to be fired so he will be coming back for at least another year. For those fans who have expressed optimism I hope you are right. I do look forward to Iowa basketball in the depth of an Iowa winter.
Really enjoy the time around the tournament but not sure who I will rout for this year. I wish I could be an Iowa State fan as they may make a run this year but I just can't bring myself to do it. Possibly Drake if they get in
 
Fran's legacy will be decided by the portal. He's got the foundation for a good team next year if everyone sticks around. Needs to upgrade at forward/center and a plug and play ball handler and defender. NIT this year and back to the NCAA's next year.
 
Fran has a great class coming in and Jack could still end up at Iowa. I think Fran's ties to Iowa now are deeper than anywhere on the east coast and the ND job isn't open. I hope he stays at Iowa for as long as he'd like. I mean, this is a down and rebuilding year and Iowa is one of 2 games from the bubble as of mid February. If this is what our down years look like, that's not so bad. This team is still a ton of fun to watch. They just couldn't close out some teams which is a trait of an inconsistent team with a lot of underclassman contributing.
 
InGoodCo said:
Fran has a great class coming in and Jack could still end up at Iowa. I think Fran's ties to Iowa now are deeper than anywhere on the east coast and the ND job isn't open. I hope he stays at Iowa for as long as he'd like. I mean, this is a down and rebuilding year and Iowa is one of 2 games from the bubble as of mid February. If this is what our down years look like, that's not so bad. This team is still a ton of fun to watch. They just couldn't close out some teams which is a trait of an inconsistent team with a lot of underclassman contributing.
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Don't follow recruiting real close Checked 247 and they have us ranked 40th. Are there some coming Maybe Portal outside of the 2 that 247 listed
 
longtimer said:
He is not going to be fired so he will be coming back for at least another year...
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Are you f'ing kidding me? GTFO with this...

There is zero reason to fire Fran.

You people thinking there's some up and coming Matt Painter, or Kalen DeBoer just waiting to come coach basketball or football here, and that the current head coaches suck have the same genetics and intelligence as nebraska fans but just happened to be born in Iowa.
 
longtimer said:
Don't follow recruiting real close Checked 247 and they have us ranked 40th. Are there some coming Maybe Portal outside of the 2 that 247 listed
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Its a relatively small class. 40 isn't that low. Every service ranks them differently as well. It looks like a very good class on paper.
 
Fryowa said:
Are you f'ing kidding me? GTFO with this...

There is zero reason to fire Fran.

You people thinking there's some up and coming Matt Painter, or Kalen DeBoer just waiting to come coach basketball or football here, and that the current head coaches suck have the same genetics and intelligence as nebraska fans but just happened to be born in Iowa.
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Any reason why you deleted my reaction?

Let's put it in writing then. Fran does not deserve to be fired, but he brings very little excitement to the program....or better stated.... much hope for anything big come post season. The fact he is sticking around is ok....but ho-hum.

Clark coming back next year would at least give us another chance for a run come March time.

Ok, maybe if we give Fran 15-20 total seasons here....maybe he can get a Sweet 16 or better. Then all the Koolaid drinkers can say I told you so to all the doubters.
 
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longtimer said:
Don't follow recruiting real close Checked 247 and they have us ranked 40th. Are there some coming Maybe Portal outside of the 2 that 247 listed
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It's only ranked there because of volume of players. Iowa only frees up 3 spots this year, and 2 of those guys could and would be welcomed back (Pat and Tony) - so, they only lose Krikke for certain. They also banked a scholly this season I believe, or gave it to Brauns for a year. So, there will be room for a portal addition. Fran did really well last year getting one of the better transfers available last season with Ben. So, I could see some addition there as well. I think you'll likely see Bowen move on, though it would be great if he didn't imo. People develop at different rates ane I haven't given up on him just yet. Just based off playing time though, I can see him leaving.

When I say good class coming in, I mean, that as in, these 2 kids are ranked higher than many of the players on our roster right now coming out of school

Koch - 68
Tadjo - 149

Dix - 162
Bowen - 174
Dembele - 186
Freeman - 159
Harding - 150
Pryce - 99
Peyton - 148
Mulvey - 231
 
HaydenHawk56 said:
Any reason why you deleted my reaction?
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You bombard threads with graphics and gifs. Sparingly is ok once in a while, but on the desktop side of things especially it gets wonky for some people when refreshing.

That's why I deleted the pics out of your signature years ago. We didn't need 78 graphics of Fran, Alford, and Lick on every game thread page.
 
HaydenHawk56 said:
Any reason why you deleted my reaction?

Let's put it in writing then. Fran does not deserve to be fired, but he brings very little excitement to the program....or better stated.... much hope for anything big come post season. The fact he is sticking around is ok....but ho-hum.

Clark coming back next year would at least give us another chance for a run come March time.

Ok, maybe if we give Fran 15-20 total seasons here....maybe he can get a Sweet 16 or better. Then all the Koolaid drinkers can say I told you so to all the doubters.
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Some people are very excited about Fran not leaving, particularly the ones that love having a good basketball coach. I hope that Fran makes a sweet 16 in the 20 years so I can tell you I told you so because that's all you have and that's the only knock on Fran that actually has a shred of weight to it in context of being ready to move on. Iowa hoops in the midst of one of their most succesful runs in their program history, let's fire the coach is a sound sound sound idea.
 
Fryowa said:
You bombard threads with graphics and gifs. Sparingly is ok once in a while, but on the desktop side of things especially it gets wonky for some people when refreshing.

That's why I deleted the pics out of your signature years ago. We didn't need 78 graphics of Fran, Alford, and Lick on every game thread page.
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But Fry, Fran looks really upset in some of those pictures and we ALL laugh really loud at them.
 
InGoodCo said:
Some people are very excited about Fran not leaving, particularly the ones that love having a good basketball coach. I hope that Fran makes a sweet 16 in the 20 years so I can tell you I told you so because that's all you have and that's the only knock on Fran that actually has a shred of weight to it in context of being ready to move on. Iowa hoops in the midst of one of their most succesful runs in their program history, let's fire the coach is a sound sound sound idea.
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InGoodCo said:
But Fry, Fran looks really upset in some of those pictures and we ALL laugh really loud at them.
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His nut-huggery of Tom Davis is perplexing. Fran has to recruit in an infinitely tougher environment both nationally and for Iowa. Tom Davis wouldn't last a split second in the age of NIL, twitter, and one and dones. All things equal, Fran and Davis are equivalent. I actually give the nod to Fran between them because he has to live in the media world with "insta-first" recruits who all think they're LeBron James

And referring to him as Mr. Davis is dumb for two reasons. 1) By doing so you're trying to be a low-rent version of the mouth breathers to the west with their "doctor" coach who started the phrase, "Mr. Davis." 2) The guy's PhD had nothing to do with anything coaching-related and all it means was he took two extra years of higher-level history classes. I don't know about you, but I'm not giving a bunch of extra undeserved reverence to a guy just because he liked to read about Napoleon or czarist Russia and he could regurgitate it for a dissertation. Sorry. I'll save that for people who perform surgery or cure cancer or invent really cool shit that makes our lives easier.
 
Fryowa said:
His nut-huggery of Tom Davis is perplexing. Fran has to recruit in an infinitely tougher environment both nationally and for Iowa. Tom Davis wouldn't last a split second in the age of NIL, twitter, and one and dones. All things equal, Fran and Davis are equivalent. I actually give the nod to Fran between them because he has to live in the media world with "insta-first" recruits who all think they're LeBron James

And referring to him as Mr. Davis is dumb for two reasons. 1) By doing so you're trying to be a low-rent version of the mouth breathers to the west with their "doctor" coach who started the phrase, "Mr. Davis." 2) The guy's PhD had nothing to do with anything coaching-related and all it means was he took two extra years of higher-level history classes. I don't know about you, but I'm not giving a bunch of extra undeserved reverence to a guy just because he liked to read about Napoleon or czarist Russia and he could regurgitate it for a dissertation. Sorry. I'll save that for people who perform surgery or cure cancer or invent really cool shit that makes our lives easier.
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I think you are a little off on some of this. Yeah, Davis would have to deal with NIL and Twitter today, but I'd argue that probably doesn't compare to dealing with the all-time cheater regimes at Michigan and Minnesota, which potentially robbed him of Big Ten titles and more Coach of the Year awards (look up the final positioning those years in both areas). And of course, Illinois might have been a tad shady then, too. He ran a pretty clean program at a time when the Big Ten basketball waters were infested with far more sharks than they are today.

Why the rant on the Mr. Davis nickname, too? It's not like he asked people to call him that. He always seemed like a very approachable guy, and a true gentleman.

Pretty sure he took more than a couple extra years of history classes. I think he maybe got his masters from Wisconsin, and then a PhD somewhere out east while he was coaching. And pretty sure it was sports related, even if based in history, because I recall announcers commenting on it back in the day.

It's neither here nor there, but I think it's interesting when coaches have something in their background that's unique from other coaches.

I like Fran in that regard, too. Between the two of them, that's a ton of NCAA appearances and fast-paced teams.
 
SwirlinLingerie said:
Why the rant on the Mr. Davis nickname, too? It's not like he asked people to call him that. He always seemed like a very approachable guy, and a true gentleman.

Pretty sure he took more than a couple extra years of history classes. I think he maybe got his masters from Wisconsin, and then a PhD somewhere out east while he was coaching. And pretty sure it was sports related, even if based in history, because I recall announcers commenting on it back in the day.
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It's nothing against they guy himself. At all.

It's making fun of the "Mr. Davis" cult of personality that guys like @HaydenHawk56 create as if his PhD in history somehow makes him a little more deserving of some abstract reverence. No different than Osbourne. The guy got a history degree and (some) people toss his "title" around like he deserves more respect than normal or that he's some sort of guru. Similar to how Eric Clapton is a knight and we call him Sir Eric Clapton like he fought dragons to save a damsel in distress.

Yeah, that's a hyperbolic example, but this is the internet, man. Point still stands...
 
SwirlinLingerie said:
I think you are a little off on some of this. Yeah, Davis would have to deal with NIL and Twitter today, but I'd argue that probably doesn't compare to dealing with the all-time cheater regimes at Michigan and Minnesota, which potentially robbed him of Big Ten titles and more Coach of the Year awards (look up the final positioning those years in both areas). And of course, Illinois might have been a tad shady then, too. He ran a pretty clean program at a time when the Big Ten basketball waters were infested with far more sharks than they are today.

Why the rant on the Mr. Davis nickname, too? It's not like he asked people to call him that. He always seemed like a very approachable guy, and a true gentleman.

Pretty sure he took more than a couple extra years of history classes. I think he maybe got his masters from Wisconsin, and then a PhD somewhere out east while he was coaching. And pretty sure it was sports related, even if based in history, because I recall announcers commenting on it back in the day.

It's neither here nor there, but I think it's interesting when coaches have something in their background that's unique from other coaches.

I like Fran in that regard, too. Between the two of them, that's a ton of NCAA appearances and fast-paced teams.
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More towards the point oif the thread, I respectfully disagree about Davis. Today there'd be zero chance he'd have landed BJ/Marble/Jones out of Detroit to begin with, nor put the rest of that team together. And no way Oliver or Koch would've stayed full term with NIL opportunities now. Those two teams removed from the equation he'd be on par or below Fran.
 
Mr. Davis is a fun nickname. I don't think anyone ever took it seriously. If my kid was ever choking in a restaurant and Tom Davis was there, I would not look to him for life saving care. Likewise, I would not invite Mr. Davis to a Mensa meeting.

PHDs, doctors, dentists, osteopaths, and chiropractors usually go by doctor and they think they sound cool, but every lawyer also has a doctorate degree and no one calls us "Dr."

As the ER Doc staid to Stu in The Hangover, "Yea, you said that, but you're not a doctor, you're a dentist."
 
Fryowa said:
More towards the point oif the thread, I respectfully disagree about Davis. Today there'd be zero chance he'd have landed BJ/Marble/Jones out of Detroit to begin with, nor put the rest of that team together. And no way Oliver or Koch would've stayed full term with NIL opportunities now. Those two teams removed from the equation he'd be on par or below Fran.
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Mr. Davis inherited talent from Raveling and he made the most of it, and parlayed that into some early recruiting successes, but after his first couple seasons, he was pretty much a slightly lesser version of Fran. I like them both and have fond memories of both. Fran is a harder worker, better recruiter, and better identifier of talent. Both were decent bench coaches. Fran is a lot more entertaining.
 
NorthKCHawk said:
Mr. Davis inherited talent from Raveling and he made the most of it, and parlayed that into some early recruiting successes, but after his first couple seasons, he was pretty much a slightly lesser version of Fran. I like them both and have fond memories of both. Fran is a harder worker, better recruiter, and better identifier of talent. Both were decent bench coaches. Fran is a lot more entertaining.
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This^^^

I have no beef with Davis, but he's a golden calf. People make him out to be better than he was because of one lightning in a bottle season and another one right at the end of his career where some Iowa fans thought he got the shaft. Being someone who supported guys during the Chris Street deal has a bearing on that as well, but when you look at it objectively from all angles, it's not really any better than Fran. Your last three sentences sum it up.
 
Tom Davis didn't have his best guards leave for blue bloods and be immediately eligible like Moss or CJ Frederick. Those guys would have slugged it out for an entire career - he also didn't lose his best JR. to the NBA a year early like Cook, Joe W, Keegan and Kris Murray. Could you imagine taking Tom Davis's equivelent of Cook, Wieskamp, Kris and Keegan off his teams every year and then seeing how well he'd do the following season? Like, I just don't see it. Iowa basketball has NEVER had a run where it lost it's best player for like 4 seasons in a row and just kept right on winning despite that. It's been all that much more impressive to me as an Iowa fan who has some context on where Iowa sits on the landscape of CBB.
 
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