Fran...

[hawkforlife9]

Jack = EI

Exceptional Insight

 

[sportstalent]

Jeebus... did you even read my origipst? Notice how I said that I've supported him through and through, but that a little doubt crept up on me last night about him. Did I call for his head? Hell no. I wouldn't even say I was overly critical. Look through my post history, I've done nothing but defend Fran, so I don't know where in the hell you get that "I continually point the finger at the coaches", ya dolt. Can you honestly say that Fran's substitution patterns and lineups aren't questionable sometimes though? Seriously? Do you think that McCabe should keep playing as many minutes as he has and keep getting the green light? Would you like to keep seeing the ball in Marble's hands at the end of the game so he can keep turning it over? The guy isn't clutch, he never has been, but for some reason Fran has a crazy amount of confidence in him.

But yeah, these losses, I would definitely not put them on the coaching. The players have to execute and make their damn free throws. I don't know how you coach clutch-ness, or how you can blame a lack of it on coaching. I agree that some posters are ridiculous when blaming that on Fran. I just really hope you weren't referring directly to me, because you were totally off base.

I said this thread...not you have you read some of the stuffposted?

 

[sportstalent]

Coaches get too much credit and too much blame...they are the same coach every game...at some point the players become accountable. Meaning the same guys are missing FT's and not hitting wide open shots. Do something different to improve.

 

[UncleHawk]

Iowa should have beaten OSU in IC. I think the star players took it for granted that we were going to win because we won in Columbus. They forgot that that was a tough game and OSU would remember that loss on a national stage and be more prepared. There was also the aspect of a trap game, as MI is later this week.

Fran appears to be struggling to deal with his large rotation. How soon fans forget, big rotations do work. See Tom Davis. But in order for them to be effective, the coach has to be willing to adjust to how guys are playing. McCabe has shown a penchant for shooting 3s too fast and then missing a bunch in a row. When he starts that way, sit him and play Uthoff or JO is you want 3pt shooting on the floor. Gabe and Woody are playing better, play them and feed the post more. Their FT shooting isn't that bad. Both are currently shooting a better FT% than our starting guards. Marble is going through a bad patch. Play Gesell more. White the same- play Basabe more. I think Fran is used to deciding in preseason what his rotation is going to be and then leaning on his seniors in crunch time. It's a learning experience to have this much depth. To use it effectively, he has to change strategy and use his depth's flexibility.

 

[HawkMD2007]

How soon fans forget, big rotations do work. See Tom Davis. But in order for them to be effective, the coach has to be willing to adjust to how guys are playing.

I'm an old guy but if my memory serves me correctly, Tom Davis had a different syle of play than Fran...full court pressure was the norm. The guys played "balls out" until they were gassed. New man/men in did the same thing. When that wasn't working, Davis tried to exploit match-up situation.

Fran substitution patterns remind me more of a hockey game...changing the whole line-up (3 or 4) at one time. It appears that less thought is given to creating/exploiting mismatches.

 

[libradawg]

I'm an old guy but if my memory serves me correctly, Tom Davis had a different syle of play than Fran...full court pressure was the norm. The guys played "balls out" until they were gassed. New man/men in did the same thing. When that wasn't working, Davis tried to exploit match-up situation.

Fran substitution patterns remind me more of a hockey game...changing the whole line-up (3 or 4) at one time. It appears that less thought is given to creating/exploiting mismatches.

It was a lot of Flex Spread stuff, where if we had Michael Jordan he would catch a pass, fake one pass, then pass it to the side, and it kept on going around until we fed it to the one guy not near the perimeter down low. Obviously a cutter could leave the passing circle. He also loved to penetrate with the PG and kick out. That's really it. You're not remembering it right if you see us gassing ourselves into the bench. Davis did not use a fast paced offense. Defense sometimes, but not offense.

Fran's whole style is the mismatch. He loves to run and look at this, he has a 10-11 man rotation in which to do it with. Fran's less about exploiting mismatches and more about exploiting strengths of his players. If Oglesby and McCabe are in, they're in because Fran wants to bomb. If Olaseni and White are in, expect some lobs and expect even more power dunks.

 

[jacknicholson]

Jack = EI

Exceptional Insight

thank you, Hawkforlife9.....

 

[clicheusername3]

meaning its the coaches job to get them in position to have a wide open shot.

If we are missing wide open shots (likke OSU) that's not on the coach.

So it's the coaches job to get them in position but not his job to make sure the right player is in the right position? Seems like he's been failing at that recently.

 

[bcl20]

It seems that we're learning that it's pretty much impossible to win the BIG without a half court offense. Fran's got flaws, most coaches do, at this point though, his strengths way outweigh his flaws.

 

[bogeyman]

Honestly, this thread amazes me. When Iowa gets big wins Fran is a genius and when they lose he is not a good coach and is just a hothead who doesn't act professional.

Let's have a little persepctive here. When Fran took over the program his three best players were Jarryd Cole, Matt Gatens and Bryce Cartwright and then he had Andrew freaking Brommer playing decent and fans thinking he would be a viable player in his Sr. year.

Fast forward to today and 3/4 of that initial recruiting class is still at Iowa. Marble, McCabe and Basabe...riddle me this, which one of those was to be a star? It shows.
Year two in recruiting a lot of people had no clue why Iowa got White and Olaseni...Oglesby was part of that class as well and he seems to have righted his head. Overall pretty productive class, but who was supposed to be a star? It shows.
Year three and the big national ranked class came, the sophomores still have growing to do, but there are a couple guys who can be stars in that class and the other two, time will tell Clemmons is solid and Meyer is unproven. Add Uthoff to the sophomores and we all know he can be pretty good.
This year one guy, who needs to just go through this season, stay healthy and evolve as a player, be ready for a big role next year.

When I take a look at Iowa's roster, espcially the upperclassmen, there is a lot of incompletes there. White is a good player, but he lacks something, like a shot outside of 12 ft, deadly player if he has that. Marble, lacks overall toughness, he is a good player and can take over at times, but why not when Iowa needs him the most, too often he doesn't.
Gabe is looking like the player that Herby had been talking about him being as a freshman, but he still misses loads of assignments on the defensive end. Basabe, does not get enough touches on the block. McCabe continues to struggle shooting and we all know his defense is average as best. Oglesby, too bad he started the season injured, very solid player who is emerging, when he gets to true game shape in a week or so, he could explode.

I think the more complete players are the young guys, but they lack overall maturity in all areas, not a bad thing, but there is a lot of good for the future still.

Iowa has truly gotten beat in two games. Michigan and OSU, but missed FT's have doomed them in the other losses. I am not sure how you can continually point the finger at the coaches when this team is in a position to win in EVERY GAME. Players not executing and missing shots when nobody is within 15 ft of them cannot fall back to the coach.

Proven our point, much of it comes down to coaching. Good coaching can make a difference in close games - example #1 what Izzo did to us when he came to town.

 

[bogeyman]

Coaches get too much credit and too much blame...they are the same coach every game...at some point the players become accountable. Meaning the same guys are missing FT's and not hitting wide open shots. Do something different to improve.

This too I think is what fans are pointing to the coach for. If it ain't working its his job to fix it.

 

[bcl20]

College sports fans are obsessed with blaming coaches for everything because they are the only constant in a sport where players are only around 4-5 years and most only play major roles for 1 or 2 of those years.

 

[UncleHawk]

It was a lot of Flex Spread stuff, where if we had Michael Jordan he would catch a pass, fake one pass, then pass it to the side, and it kept on going around until we fed it to the one guy not near the perimeter down low. Obviously a cutter could leave the passing circle. He also loved to penetrate with the PG and kick out. That's really it. You're not remembering it right if you see us gassing ourselves into the bench. Davis did not use a fast paced offense. Defense sometimes, but not offense.

Fran's whole style is the mismatch. He loves to run and look at this, he has a 10-11 man rotation in which to do it with. Fran's less about exploiting mismatches and more about exploiting strengths of his players. If Oglesby and McCabe are in, they're in because Fran wants to bomb. If Olaseni and White are in, expect some lobs and expect even more power dunks.

TD's style was much different but the similarity with Fran is that they both have used large rotations. TD showed that large rotations can work. But he had more experience at managing them.

Fran is about the mismatch. The problem is that he's tending to stick with the rotation he's had earlier in the year and seniors when crunch time comes rather than the mismatches that are there and the hot hands. I think that's because he's seldom had teams with this much depth so he goes back to old patterns in the big games.

 

[brozley]

I have said from the pre-season our rotation and depth is going to cause us fits down the stretch. You are seeing it happen right now before our eyes. Olaseni has no rhythm to his minutes at all, heck the announcers said tonight that Iowa is not even the same team without him on the floor. McCabe getting minutes, Ogelsby getting minutes, Jok getting minutes...too many bodies and we need to settle on a rotation of 8 to 9 tops and the rest are gravy train minutes. Until this happens we will flounder and not have an identity. When we go with Marble running the show we turn into a dribble fest, and Craft made us pay for that with strips. We are weak, and a physical style of play simply kills us. We are what we are folks!

Agreed!!, ,

 

[Tierney]

Agreed!!, ,

We are what we are today, we were what we were yesterday, and if Iowa wins four in a row we will be what we will be tomorrow. Iowa has to win four in a row first though. The hawkeyes really do have the potential to dominate, and they have the potential not to dominate, but they probably won't be dominated. They still haven't lost a game by double digits yet. I think they probably would of won three or four more games this year if they would just learn to be aggressive but relaxed in a game. Everyone knows they can hit their free throws. I don't really think the players know how good they really are, and they get tight in games. Maybe a shot of whiskey a half hour before every game would help.

 

[sportstalent]

This too I think is what fans are pointing to the coach for. If it ain't working its his job to fix it.

There are coaches out there that believe in self-correction. At some point during a game, players have to adjust, like it or not, a lot of Iowa's players don't.

 

[WindsorHawk]

I wonder if there's a thread on Wisconsin's message board with the title "Iowa fans are turning on Fran McCaffery and I mean fast!"

 

[hawkfan33]

I wonder if there's a thread on Wisconsin's message board with the title "Iowa fans are turning on Fran McCaffery and I mean fast!"

Bo Ryan has been a hugely successful B10 coach for many years. Fran is proving to be in waaayy over his head at the B10 level. Huge difference.

 

[WindsorHawk]

Bo Ryan has been a hugely successful B10 coach for many years. Fran is proving to be in waaayy over his head at the B10 level. Huge difference.

Every post you make is just as bad if not worse than the one before...regardless of thread. I would say you're a troll but you have over 5,000 posts...still could be a troll that knows how to avoid the ban hammer. Maybe you're one of the many football guys that comes over to the basketball board when football season ends and starts posting...with zero understanding of college basketball.

I do know one thing for sure. Your posts are a waste of everyone's time.

 

[bcl20]

Pretty sure hawkfan is posting in jest.