Fran's ego

I trust Fran knows what he's doing. Clearly Michigan has more talent but that doesn't mean we don't give our best efforts at both ends for the entire game. Fran can't change the talent gap overnight but he's working on it and doing a very good job. He can control the effort side and I think that's the message he wanted to send to the team today.

He doesn't want to see this happen again. If it does, the players know what to expect. I would expect Michigan will have their hands full when they come to Carver as will any team.

How this team positions itself mentally for road games might be the real difference between NCAA tourney and improvement in the BIG vs. something less desireable.......maybe that's the message he's trying to send.
 
STILLBUSTER said:
Everyone saw, heard and understood the intent of the message. I just thought it was an emotional overreaction by a passionate coach who hates to lose and, at the very least, expects to be competitive at all times, who misinterpreted "lack of effot" for "overmatched".

My concern is that the message could just as easily be perceived as quitting on his players, "You guys are playing like crap today so you're not going to play anymore!" "I'm going to bench you out of frustration and anger that you're getting beat by better players!" "I'm going to deny you the opportunity to play through it, take your lumps and hopefully learn from it to stay motivated to get better."

The fallout might be it becomes a bit tougher sell to now come out tomorrow and say, "Dev is spectacular; Josh is a great shooter ... "

It's a double-edged sword and I'm playing devil's advocate a little bit here. Bottom line, I think Fran feels better about what he did. I think all the starters are going to blow it off as a "hot-head" move by coach and prepare for MSU on Thursday. I think the message boards and papers will continue to build a mountain to have something "important" to rehash 100 different ways over the next 4 days.

Next.
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Don't forget the talking heads on sports talk shows.
 
GhostofBTT said:
By next year, Michigan will probably have three players in the NBA. That should even things out.
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I don't know about this, a couple of their players on the bench looked pretty darn good McGary in particular. I cannot help but admire the job Beilein has done at Michigan, 3 years ago many thought he was on his way out the door. But the talent he has assembled there has me jealous, we have not seen that kind of talent at Iowa since the 86-87 season
 
ssckelley said:
I don't know about this, a couple of their players on the bench looked pretty darn good McGary in particular. I cannot help but admire the job Beilein has done at Michigan, 3 years ago many thought he was on his way out the door. But the talent he has assembled there has me jealous, we have not seen that kind of talent at Iowa since the 86-87 season
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THIS!
 
I think a lot of posters need to get out of there oversensitive skirt worlds and realize we are talking about 18-22 year old young men - quite possibly the most confident group of human beings on the planet. In addition to their natural tendency to have confidence beyond their ability, this group has a highly developed skill that only reinforces their self-perception. Getting that checked occasionally is necessary to be successful.

They can take a message without melting down - give it a rest with the idea that this is so much ego and such a big deal to anyone on the team. You realize Michigan went close to 15 minutes of game time with maybe 1 or 2 empty possessions? No doubt Michigan has a better team, but that stretch was statistically impossible unless you are playing awful D. And for those who say the effort was good and they were trying hard - this isn't the 6 year old youth soccer. By the time you are on scholarship in the best basketball conference in the country it is about execution. They didn't execute. This might be coaching, as some have stated, but that is doubtful when you honestly watch the rest of the game.

For the Nancy's on the board, take a shot of whiskey and do something with your Y-chromosomes today - you'll feel better.
 
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Winterhawk said:
I think a lot of posters need to get out of there oversensitive skirt worlds and realize we are talking about 18-22 year old young men - quite possibly the most confident group of human beings on the planet. In addition to their natural tendency to have confidence beyond their ability, this group has a highly developed skill that only reinforces their self-perception. Getting that checked occasionally is necessary to be successful.

They can take a message without melting down - give it a rest with the idea that this is so much ego and such a big deal to anyone on the team. You realize Michigan went close to 15 minutes of game time with maybe or 2 empty possessions? No doubt Michigan has a better team, but that stretch was statistically impossible unless you are playing awful D. And for those who say the effort was good and they were trying hard - this isn't the 6 year old youth soccer. By the time you are on scholarship in the best basketball conference in the country it is about execution. They didn't execute. This might be coaching, as some have stated, but that is doubtful when you honestly watch the rest of the game.

For the Nancy's on the board, take a shot of whiskey and do something with your Y-chromosomes today - you'll feel better.
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Overly manly man's in the house!

manlyman.PNG
 
ssckelley said:
I don't know about this, a couple of their players on the bench looked pretty darn good McGary in particular. I cannot help but admire the job Beilein has done at Michigan, 3 years ago many thought he was on his way out the door. But the talent he has assembled there has me jealous, we have not seen that kind of talent at Iowa since the 86-87 season
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Yep and he took over a program in better shape than Iowa was in when Fran was hried and Beilen had a losing record in his third season. It takes time to rebuild a program.
 
hawkfan33 said:
Yep and he took over a program in better shape than Iowa was in when Fran was hried and Beilen had a losing record in his third season. It takes time to rebuild a program.
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I was looking at that when I made that post. His 4th season did not start off that great either, they went 10-3 in an easy non conference and then started 1-6 in conference play. That awful start included a blowout loss at home against Purdue (23 points) , at Wisconsin (16 points), at Indiana (19 points), and at Northwestern (14 points). He got the team back on track and ended up in the NCAA tournament where they almost knocked off Duke in the 2nd round.

Good lesson for us. There is a lot of basketball to be played yet.
 
1hawkeye1 said:
I want to discuss this in a serious way, instead of the trolling way that another unnamed troll did in the thread he started.
I like what Fran did with the starters by sending them to the pine when they decided to quit playing D. It was a bold move. And when the margin began to balloon, many coaches would not have been able to resist the urge to put them back in to keep the score respectable.
I think this move pays off for the team down the road.
What say you?
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I got no problem with it, if it's an infrequently used coaching decision. Too much of it and the players could revolt. I don't expect this team to quit playing for him. He said in his press conference that they emphasized playing tough defense coming into the second half as the 11 point deficit was hardly insurmountable, but it took defensive stops to make it happen. In his opinion, they weren't giving the level of defensive effort he wanted out of them, so he went with a different lineup. I wasn't there, but I did see the back of a lot of Iowa jerseys as Michigan was running past them time and time again.

Clearly, Michigan had better athletes, particularly Burke, Hardaway and Robinson, but the Hawks were getting busted on nearly every possession at the end of the first half, start of the second half. No excuses for repeated failures to get back, it's fundamental basketball. Was it the coach's fault for not getting them ready, or the players not being ready, or Michigan ultimately deciding to ramp up their own effort and the Hawks didn't have the fire power to stay with them? Maybe/probably yes to any combination. Take your pick. It won't matter in the long run, as long as MSU doesn't do the same thing to them. My sense of it is that they won't.
 
The fact is nobody on this board has any clue what Fran said to his team at halftime. My guess is that he was pretty pizzed off that they allowed the lead to balloon from a 2-3 point deficit to 11 points at halftime. I would guess he got on them pretty good about their defensive effort, especially in those last few minutes and stressed a much better effort to start out the second half. My guess is just as much speculation because I don't know. Maybe Fran will shed some light on it in this week's press conference. My guess is it will come up, we'll see? If we have some good reporters in the state, we as fans should get some answers.

Anyway, back to the second half of the game. Well, we saw how that turned out. It ballooned to about a 20 point lead in the first 2 or 3 minutes of the second half. Iowa's defensive effort to start the second half was pathetic. So, Fran decided to bench his starters with a full line shift of new players. I don't think it is a big deal, they were going to get blown out either way. Hopefully it proved to be a good learning opportunity for those starters. Only time will tell as the season progresses. But, I trust Fran did the right thing and I am not too concerned about it.
 
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