Howe: Big Ten Hoops Power Rankings 1-14

Fran has been at a level, overall, of slightly below average during his tenure. That is his accomplishment IMO.
 
ssckelley said:
Rebuilding the "house" (basketball program) is still accomplishing something. Iowa basketball was in the crap hole when Lick got canned. Even though Fran has not yet won a conference tournament yet (like Alford did) just getting this team back to the NCAA tournament again was HUGE. Lick left our basketball program on life support, the priest was giving it the last rites, and Fran came along and revived it. It's not where I want it to be either, I want a mini NCAA tournament run as well. I don't want to see anymore repeats of last season.
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lightning1 said:
Just not "something" to me.
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If Fran had done nothing we'd still be there "in the crap hole". I guess your definition of "something" is different than others' definition of "something".
 
skinnykilmer17 said:
Yes. Jepsen really made himself into a decent player and was a bright spot on that team. He went from averaging 4 and 5 the year before to 15 and 10 in '89/90.

James Moses really struggled that year, his sophomore season. I remember him laying brick after brick but that didn't keep him from shooting.
Out of curiousity I checked the stats. Moses took 336 shots that year. Jepsen took 249. Almost 100 more shots. James averaged 35% from the floor. 24% from 3 pt range. Think about for a moment. For his career James shot 29% from three and 39% overall.

His shooting never got much better but to his credit he was named team MVP in '91, I believe.
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Moses had a slow release. He was often getting off his shot under duress at the college level.

He also got overly fancy around the rim on occasion instead of simply laying it in, like he was Roy Marble. It drove me nuts.
 
Northside Hawk said:
Moses had a slow release. He was often getting off his shot under duress at the college level.

He also got overly fancy around the rim on occasion instead of simply laying it in, like he was Roy Marble. It drove me nuts.
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Moses is an assistant coach at Xavier now (under Ryan Luerhsman). His son, Jaylon, is a sophomore on the team.
 
What are some examples of teams who fire average coach after average coach trying to get to the "next level" and it actually works?
 
Northside Hawk said:
It's our inability to win close games, even in tournament years, that keeps landing us as a 7-10 seed and tees us up for a superior one or two seed to blow us out of the gym.

If Fran does better in close games, we will fiinish higher in the conference and improve our seeding and avoid those teams for at least one more round. Getting to Sunday, or at least Saturday, in the conference tournament wouldn't hurt either. I would bet that we are the only power conference school in the country to lose an opening round game to a double digit seed four years in a row.
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That last sentence makes me cringe. That truly is bad!!!! We really seem to struggle in the Big 10 tournament. Haven't even been able to be excited about that tournament recently either.

Very similar to reading that our last win matched our total wins for last year. Only one direction to go I guess.
 
lightning1 said:
Let me put it this way. If the previous owner of a house burned it to the ground and I came in and rebuilt it to what it was prior to the previous tenant....what did I accomplish, exactly?
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Maybe if you would have said "if I burned a house to the ground and then I rebuilt it, what would I have accomplished" it wouldn't have been so dumb. If Fran gets us back to a 10 seed over the next couple years, it wont mean much because he already had us there before he tanked us. Getting us in the tourney after what someone else did to the program was a huge accomplishment. See the difference?
 
PCHawk said:
What are some examples of teams who fire average coach after average coach trying to get to the "next level" and it actually works?
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It was only 2 coaches, but Michigan? Fired Brian Ellerbe (1997-2001) and Tommy Amaker (2001-07) and then got Beilein. This was after firing Steve Fisher due to the Ed Martin scandal.
 
PCHawk said:
What are some examples of teams who fire average coach after average coach trying to get to the "next level" and it actually works?
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Terry Holland led Virginia to Elite Eights in 1983 and 1989 and final fours in 1981 and 1984 while also coaching Ralph Sampson, one of the most celebrated college players of his time.

Since Holland they've employed Jeff Jones, Pete Gillen and Dave Leitao with steadily diminishing returns. Tony Bennett has gotten them to the next level, especially in the regular season. Now he needs to add a couple NCAA runs to his resume.
 
Northside Hawk said:
Terry Holland led Virginia to Elite Eights in 1983 and 1989 and final fours in 1981 and 1984 while also coaching Ralph Sampson, one of the most celebrated college players of his time.

Since Holland they've employed Jeff Jones, Pete Gillen and Dave Leitao with steadily diminishing returns. Tony Bennett has gotten them to the next level, especially in the regular season. Now he needs to add a couple NCAA runs to his resume.
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Bennett does have a Sweet Sixteen and an Elite Eight. He may need to add a Final Four or better to erase last season's outcome...
 
The good news is Iowa is tied for 3rd in the wins column. The bad news is Iowa is tied for 10th in the losses column. I have a feeling tiebreakers are going to play a big role in Big 10 Tournament seeding.
 
Robowe said:
Moses is an assistant coach at Xavier now (under Ryan Luerhsman). His son, Jaylon, is a sophomore on the team.
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You're seeing the next generation of former Hawkeyes all over the landscape. Wyatt Lohaus, Jeremy and Marcus Morgan, Christian Barnes, Jaylon, of course Devyn Marble, numerous football players.

You know who may have the best bloodline of all? Merton and Marva Hanks. Marva, who's maiden name has escaped me, was a 6'5" post player for Stringer's Hawks. And we know how athletic Hanks is. Think there is some athleticism with those kids if they have any children?
 
I still like to come to this board occasionally, but negative people hijack most threads. This board is full of people who want Kirk gone (9-4 and ranked in the top 25). Some of these same people also want Fran gone. I understand some of their points, but crap, we are 15-3 currently and ranked in the top 25.

It's actually pretty fun to be an Iowa fan right now, isn't it? Or, am I being to positive?

I'd put Iowa at 5-6 in the power rankings right now. Just wanted to have one sentence related to the thread title :)
 
racerhawk said:
I still like to come to this board occasionally, but negative people hijack most threads. This board is full of people who want Kirk gone (9-4 and ranked in the top 25). Some of these same people also want Fran gone. I understand some of their points, but crap, we are 15-3 currently and ranked in the top 25.

It's actually pretty fun to be an Iowa fan right now, isn't it? Or, am I being to positive?

I'd put Iowa at 5-6 in the power rankings right now. Just wanted to have one sentence related to the thread title :)
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This happens on every sports blog. The half-glass-empty folks are always going to put a negative spin on things, even when the team is experiencing some success. I frequent a Cubs blog as well and it's the same thing. They win a WS after 108 years and there are still people who want Theo fired and Ricketts gone.
 
Northside Hawk said:
You're seeing the next generation of former Hawkeyes all over the landscape. Wyatt Lohaus, Jeremy and Marcus Morgan, Christian Barnes, Jaylon, of course Devyn Marble, numerous football players.

You know who may have the best bloodline of all? Merton and Marva Hanks. Marva, who's maiden name has escaped me, was a 6'5" post player for Stringer's Hawks. And we know how athletic Hanks is. Think there is some athleticism with those kids if they have any children?
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Jonathan Hayes' (Iowa TE) son is a possible lottery pick at Texas. He had a growth spurt and exploded on the AAU circuit. Here's a link.

https://247sports.com/Article/Texas-basketball-Jaxson-Hayes-NBA-127910118/
 
mopkins said:
In 2016 they lost to Nova who won the title. Nova then beat #3 seed Miami by more than they beat Iowa and then blew out #2 Oklahoma by even more than that in the final four. Sure getting blown out to Nova at the time was disappointing, but after seeing what else Nova had in store that tournament....it was no wonder Iowa got crushed

The 2015 Gonzaga loss was pretty painful. I thought Iowa had a legit chance there. Unfortunately Gonzaga shot 63% from 3 and Iowa couldn't stop Wiltjer. What sucks is had Iowa won that they would've played #11 seeded Steve Alford. How crazy would that have been. Gonzaga blew them out.

The year before that...that loss to Tennessee in the play-in after Iowa collapsed in the regular season...that was brutal.
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Not to put too fine a point on it but the Gonzaga game was essentially a home game for them
 
MisterLucky said:
Not to put too fine a point on it but the Gonzaga game was essentially a home game for them
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The 1980 final four team played basically FOUR road games to get to Indianapolis. They played Virginia Commonwealth and NC State on Tobacco Road, then played Syracuse and Georgetown in Philadelphia!

It didn't stop there, either. Their 1981 NCAA game was vs Wichita State on their home floor. In 1982, they played Idaho in the second round in Pullman, Washington, just fifteen miles from Idaho's campus.
 
Northside Hawk said:
The 1980 final four team played basically FOUR road games to get to Indianapolis. They played Virginia Commonwealth and NC State on Tobacco Road, then played Syracuse and Georgetown in Philadelphia!

It didn't stop there, either. Their 1981 NCAA game was vs Wichita State on their home floor. In 1982, they played Idaho in the second round in Pullman, Washington, just fifteen miles from Idaho's campus.
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I still have the Philadelphia Inquirer Sports Section Front Page after the Georgetown Game:

Best Team in the East: IOWA

:cool:
 
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