Fran's Grade after 5 years

Looks like we all believe in grade inflation. Fran has performed at just an acceptable level for a high level, power conference program. He would be on the C+/B- line for me. He hasn't gotten us back to the Davis years performance and we fired Tom for that.... Keep in mind that Davidson is just a few hundred students larger than Wartburg.
 
ColumbusHawk said:
B minus. Both Ralph & Lute took over two awful programs. Not as bad as the one Fran inherited, but pretty bad. By their fifth season both had a B1G championship. In their sixth season, Ralph went undefeated in the B1G & Lute went to the Final Four.
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You are comparing apples to oranges IMO. There were no one and done players in those days. This makes a huge difference because Kentucky would not have signed the top 7 or 8 guys every year...because they would only have 3 or 4 scholarships to give and the guys already on roster would be a deterrent to an incoming freshman. Ulis would have been a Hawk in that recruiting climate. Again...it's a different era of basketball now.
 
HawkMD2007 said:
Looks like we all believe in grade inflation. Fran has performed at just an acceptable level for a high level, power conference program. He would be on the C+/B- line for me. He hasn't gotten us back to the Davis years performance and we fired Tom for that.... Keep in mind that Davidson is just a few hundred students larger than Wartburg.
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I'd give Davis a C minus or D plus after his fifth season. In years four & five Davis was thirteen & twenty-three in the conference. Fran has gone twenty-one & fifteen. You can't compare Davis & Fran until their fourth season. Davis took over a program with six future NBA players. Fran didn't even have six B1G caliber players. Further, after Raveling's recruits left, Davis won only one game after the first round in seven attempts. This program is far ahead of Davis in year five.

I may lie, but numbers don't.
 
I give him an A. We have improved for the 5th straight year. And I’m very excited about next year’s recruiting class…incoming freshmen.

It’s college basketball and guys can only play 4 years. The program doesn’t automatically take a step back every time a good player leaves. Other programs in the Big 10 have proven this on a year to year basis.

Last year Marble was the star and White was the wing man. This year White was the star and Uthoff was the wing man. Next year Uthoff will likely be the star and Jok his wing man. You get the idea.

We have 4 seniors returning with tons of experience. We have a junior returning with his 1st year of real game experience. We have a sophomore that got game minutes all season and will almost certainly take a step up next year. We have a large and talented freshman class on the way. And there may very well be a 5th year senior or JUCO yet to come.
 
WindsorHawk said:
You are comparing apples to oranges IMO. There were no one and done players in those days. This makes a huge difference because Kentucky would not have signed the top 7 or 8 guys every year...because they would only have 3 or 4 scholarships to give and the guys already on roster would be a deterrent to an incoming freshman. Ulis would have been a Hawk in that recruiting climate. Again...it's a different era of basketball now.
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Ralph & Lute brought in players like Freddie Brown, John Johnson, Ronnie Lester & Sam Williams. Fran has not brought in one player of that talent. Plus, Wooden seemed to get the best players without the one & done rule. Of course, freshman ineligibility helped.
 
Forget grades. How many are happy with Fran as Iowa's coach? I know I am.

Go back 5 years. We just fired Lick. We have not named his replacement. We as fans are told there is a guy available that will pull a couple big upsets his 1st year; win an NIT game his 2nd year; make it to the finals of the NIT his 3rd year; make it to the NCAA (First 4 or Play In...not the point) his 4th year; and tie for 3rd in the Big 10 and win an NCAA game his 5th year. Do we as fans want this guy? Are these the results we're looking for over the first 5 years? For me it was and is a definite "Yes."
 
ColumbusHawk said:
Ralph & Lute brought in players like Freddie Brown, John Johnson, Ronnie Lester & Sam Williams. Fran has not brought in one player of that talent. Plus, Wooden seemed to get the best players without the one & done rule. Of course, freshman ineligibility helped.
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I'm trying to be a jerk. I'm saying we may not have gotten any of those guys if Kansas, Kentucky, UCLA, etc. each had 6 open scholarships every year and a good chance at making a Final Four run. That's some tough competition for players.
 
If Iowa would've stomped 'zaga yesterday then that would warrant an A grade, certainly an A-. Now to keep it going he needs to bring in some stud recruits. I'd love to have Raveling back as recruiting coordinator.
 
I am right there with the B+. Yes, we need better shooters; yes, we need a big or two. But, Fran's first real recruiting class just graduated this year. And, I think we are seeing his plan for the type of players he wants in the maturation stage...long, athletic guys who can shoot, drive to the hoop, rebound and play very good defense. If he finishes in the BT and goes to the Dance and wins one (or more) next year, he is an A.
 
B+

was a dumpster fire when he took over, now it is a middle-of-the pack BIG team which is progress....Imo, unless you are Northwestern 5 years is little too long to wait for your first tourney victory, but as many have pointed out that is nitpicking.
 
The best I can give is a B. One NCAA win in 5 years is not deserving of an A or even a B+. Fred Hoiberg took over the last place team in the Big 12 and has made a top 10 team out of them...and they will be even better next year. I believe we may have peaked this year under Fran with our top 35ish team. Next year will be a slight step back (probably a bubble team), then the following year we lose everyone and are an NIT team again. Recruiting needs to pick up in a major way. None of our current freshmen or incoming freshmen are "impact" type players. Hopefully in two years, Pemsl will be that kind of guy.
 
trj said:
B+

was a dumpster fire when he took over, now it is a middle-of-the pack BIG team which is progress....Imo, unless you are Northwestern 5 years is little too long to wait for your first tourney victory, but as many have pointed out that is nitpicking.
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The important thing is that we got there. My real question now: Where do we go from here?

Granted, Fran developed Marble and he recruited White himself, but neither were highly recruited. Is this just fantastic player development, or did Fran luck out a little bit? In other words, can we count on that happening over and over again?

So yes, it's all about recruiting, because I think Fran can coach. It's a matter of talent.

As I've said, I do expect a drop off of some sort next year, but I can deal with that as long as we bounce back again in 2016-17 and beyond.
 
I'd give him a B. Great job getting the program off the mat. Now can he sustain the success he has had in getting the team to the NCAA tournament and winning there?

Ultimately next year's recruiting class will be huge. 5 possibly 6 player class and 2 of them have to be able to make major contributions next season with at least 2 others being part of a nucleus of the team for the next 4 years. Are they going to be White & Utoff types who you can build a team with or Gessell/Clemmons/Woodbury types who tease with ability but are not able to deliver on a B1G level consistently?
 
1977Hawkeye said:
I think I'd say B+/A- territory. I'm not sure how anyone can argue against the steady improvement. The program was a dumpster fire when Fran took over, and he's gotten us to the dance the past two years, and got to the round of 32 this year. So I'm happy with the job Fran has done.

The reason I can't give him a full A or A+ is basically because I've seen coaches take bad programs to the dance in just a couple years - and Bob Knight took a bad TT program to the dance in his very first year. But as dean said, a minor nitpick here - progress is progress, even if it's not as fast as some other programs.

The other thing is recruiting - Fran has done a good job of finding some under the radar guys (Aaron White in particular) but Iowa still lacks shooters/scorers outside of a couple players, and don't think Fran did as good a job as maybe he could have in bringing in the necessary players sooner so that Iowa doesn't miss a beat next year with White & Olaseni gone.. I expect a drop off, but maybe Fran will prove me wrong.

If Fran gets Iowa to the dance next year as well, then I may be inclined to bump his grade to the A-/A range, because I think it'll take a terrific coaching job in 2015-16 to make it 3 straight in the NCAA's. I just don't think the scoring and front court presence will be there without White & Olaseni, but would love to be proven wrong.
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^^^^ This^^^^

i however have to look at the current roster for next season and give him a B- because we should at this point have at least a sophomore or junior BIG to back up Woody and take his place the season after that. We also lack an explosive guard that commands the attention of our opponents. If we pick up a beast transfer and one of our freshmen can bring it at the guard position then we are talking an "A" grade.
 
Very amusing grades/comments so far. They seem to reflect personal expectations more than anything else. The range of grades is the intriguing part. I'm more than satisfied with where the basketball program is at. I like the style of play. I believe Fran has brought in recruits that are students that can succeed in the classroom, behave off the court, and perform at the Big Ten level. He has created an attractive choice for recruits to consider, that wasn't true six years ago. The Iowa job is not an easy one in this era of college basketball. With increased entrance requirements for freshman to play or even practice in 2016 it will be more important to recruit people that can make it in the classroom and stick around more than one year. Strategic thinking seems to be something Fran has ability to do and has demonstrated. It will become more necessary especially if freshman ineligibility would be adopted.
 
B

He's done a nice job of digging the program out. But 1 NCAA tourney win 5 years in, isn't terribly impressive. Had last year's team not crashed and burned or perhaps this team made the Sweet 16... then B+

If he gets us to the big dance next year, with what appears to be a thin team up front... he'll jump to B+ or more.
 
deanvogs said:
Since year 5 is now complete I think we should take a look at what grade you would give Fran for these 5 years. Deace gave Fran a B+ and Miller gave him a A on their podcast this week. I fall right in line with Deace, and give him a B+. We have come from an absolute joke of a program and he has improved the team each and every year. Not a small feat considering that he never really did bring in that game changing recruit (Woody was one, but hasn't preformed like one). The only reason I don't give him an A, is I feel an A should be reserved for someone who got to the NCAA in year 3, but that is just a slight nitpick, and certainly going to vary from person to person on how to grade.
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As far down as this program was when he took over, I think the first 2 years are freebies for Fran, they shouldn't even count against him. The last 3 years reflect what he's brought to the program. Based on that, I give Fran an A-.
 
iowalaw said:
Fred Hoiberg took over the last place team in the Big 12 and has made a top 10 team out of them...and they will be even better next year.
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The timing for this statement isn't the best. They got bounced by a weak team in their 1st tournament game...a team did what their previous 5 opponents all could have done. And the transfer bug bit him this time. His 2 senior transfers both went scoreless. And it's my understanding from my ISU friends that B J-D went off in the locker room at half time.
 
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