HN's Full Rundown of Fran's Presser Today
- Thread starter RobHowe
- Start date
HuckFinn
Well-Known Member
Oh for goodness sake! Why in the world would Fran not take advantage of the high projections for his team? So he beats up on some lesser teams, which fits the narrative in the media. I am fine with that. We will play a lot of really good teams through a very long season.
mopkins
King Kong
Because right now Iowa is the ONLY big ten team not involved in an exempt tournament. It's really strange.
I'm not worried about the resume or anything of the sort. It's more about the exposure for the team being in a nationally televised tournament.
NikeHawk21
Well-Known Member
Not saying I agree but maybe Fran and co see this as an opportunity to get some of the freshman who don’t redshirt some run and experience. Toy with some different lineups before the brutal conference schedule. Just a thought.
@RobHowe are we back in the gavvit games?
RobHowe
Administrator
TBD. Each B1G plays in event 4 times. Iowa has been in 3 times. 2 years left in deal. So it will be either this season or next.
BlacknGold19
Well-Known Member
I would love to see Duke return to Carver. But I’m guessing it will be Virginia
NikeHawk21
Well-Known Member
So with a good ACC opponent, hopefully a Gavitt games matchup, and Iowa State plus a 20 game conference slate the schedule should be fine.
Maybe a good opportunity to get some more minutes for the freshman who don’t end up redshirting.
Maybe a good opportunity to get some more minutes for the freshman who don’t end up redshirting.
ssckelley
Well-Known Member
I miss the old Amana Hawkeye Classic, I say bring it back. Yeah the competition sucked but at least it felt like they were playing for something in a mini tournament setting.
No, Iowa's schedule will not be 'fine'. It's non-con schedule is shaping up to be embarrassingly weak. Even IF Iowa hosts a top ACC team and IF they play a significant Gavitt Games opponent, that's two meaningful games out of what, 13? That would put Iowa's non-con SOS at what, in the 150-250 range? Posters here refer to Iowa St. as tho they are a quality opponent -- they're going to be shit show this year and will be picked for the bottom 1/3 of the B12...beating them this year means nothing to your resume. So in a year when Iowa has perhaps their best team in years (decades?), they play 11 cupcakes and POSSIBLY 2 good teams in their non-con schedule? And then wonder why nobody shows up at Carver? Please.
RobHowe
Administrator
Iowa is not done scheduling non-conference games. There's still a chance for at least one game like playing Cincy in Chicago last year. And as I mentioned, elsewhere, Georgia, Georgia Tech and Washington also do not have an exempt tournament. Tom Crean coaches at Georgia. When at Indiana, he was one of the first coaches to reach out to Fran when Patrick was diagnosed with cancer. I'm waiting until we see the actual schedule before drawing conclusions.
kicker22
Well-Known Member
I agree it looks weak on paper, but Dayton's schedule this year wasn't exactly murderer's row. If we have that good of a team and start with a solid preseason ranking and pass the eye test I don't think the schedule comes back to haunt us if we there is no hiccups along the way and we find ourselves contending for a conference title.
mopkins
King Kong
Not to keep dwelling on this Rob, but was it Fran's decision not to do an exempt tournament this year or did most of them already fill up and Iowa was left out in the cold? Just trying to understand what happened here.
This shouldn't be a bubble type team this year so who cares about strength of schedule. Win the Big 10 and we will be a 2 seed at worst if we beat all those bad non conference teams. If we aren't good enough to win it, maybe we end up with a 6 seed instead of a 5, or something like that, because of the weak schedule. Not really a big deal. I kinda want to rack up wins, build confidence, and dominate the conference this year. A weak schedule in the non conference is a good way to do that.
There are only 11 non conference games now, not 13. ISU will be bad, but won't fall into the cupcake category. There will be at least one team in our tournament that won't fall into the cupcake category. That means worst case we will have 7 cupcakes. Best case scenario we get 2 teams in our tournament that aren't cupcakes and we sign on to play one more team like Cincinnati, like Rob said, and we will be in the same boat as last year with 5 cupcakes.
With the hype around this team and the season starting not long after these dark ages of no sports, I think plenty of fans will show up to games no matter the opponent. They were a really fun team to watch last year, and they return most of the roster.
If they have the best post scorer in the nation surrounded by the 3 of the best 3 point shooters in the nation, I'm pretty sure plenty of people will show up to watch that.
