Howe Column: Way Too Early to Judge This Iowa Basketball Team

Holy crap!

Someone actually not being a prisoner of the moment. No it didn’t look good last night, horrible actually, but there are few things as meaningless as a December college basketball game.

Get back to playing decent D and Iowa can win some games
 
The game yesterday was lost in the first ten minutes of the second half. Scoring 5 points in 10 minutes is going to lose you the game every time. Combine that with our at times non-existent defense and there you go. Last night wasn't a season ender, but it was certainly discouraging. Fortunately it was the first game this season where we've looked exactly like last season. Let's see what happens on Thursday. If ISU runs us out of the gym then maybe we start hoping for NIT instead of NCAA.
 
Nope, Fran Sucks, his recruiting sucks, his coaching sucks, he sucks at calling time outs, he sucks at coaching defense, he sucks at coaching offense, he sucks at subbing players, he sucks at redshirting players, his temper sucks, he sucks because he hates Dolph, he sucks because his kids suck at basketball, he sucks because Barta sucks. He sucks because Ferentz sucks. He sucks because Iowa is 6-2. He sucks because we have only beaten one ranked opponent. He sucks because that opponent appears to suck. He sucks at developing players, he sucks at hiring good assistants, he probably sucks as a husband and father. No room for positivity with this program or this year or these players because Fran sucks at everything related to life!(sarcasm).
 
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Hawkeyes need to respond to adversity, Plenty of time to do so:

LINK
You mentioned that Iowa has played two of it's toughest conference games and that's certainly true. You probably could have said the same thing if we had started Nebraska/Michigan. Or Ohio State/Purdue. Or Maryland/Indiana

And not been any less correct. Translation, the B1G is deep this year, even if not necessarily stocked with elite teams.
 
There is no doubt that Izzo will go out of his way to punish the Hawks. Alter all, Izzo's two most humiliating defeats as a head coach are to the Hawkeyes.....

Lickliter's first Hawkeye team held the Spartans to the lowest point total in Michigan State History. The Hawkeyes Spanked the Number Six Spartans 43-36. Absolutely the worst defeat for Izzo Ever.....

Fran's very first year, The Hawks defeated the Spartans 72-52, the second most humiliating defeat for future Hall of Fame Coach Tom Izzo. After the game there was some wonderful video of a wounded Spartan sitting on a bench in locker room, holding his head in his hands, with a towel draped over his head saying: I can't believe we lost to the Iowa Hawkeyes, Man.....

Both games were at Carver.....

Priceless.

That might explain why he really wants to pound the Hawkeyes. Last season we almost beat him at Iowa City losing by two points. That didn't sit very well the Izzo.....

:cool:
 
Nope, Fran Sucks, his recruiting sucks, his coaching sucks, he sucks at calling time outs, he sucks at coaching defense, he sucks at coaching offense, he sucks at subbing players, he sucks at redshirting players, his temper sucks, he sucks because he hates Dolph, he sucks because his kids suck at basketball, he sucks because Barta sucks. He sucks because Ferentz sucks. He sucks because Iowa is 6-2. He sucks because we have only beaten one ranked opponent. He sucks because that opponent appears to suck. He sucks at developing players, he sucks at hiring good assistants, he probably sucks as a husband and father. No room for positivity with this program or this year or these players because Fran sucks at everything related to life!(sarcasm).
LoL.
 
Play the games and let’s see how it all shakes out. The season is young as I said in another post, but damn it sure would have been awesome to win one or both of these last two games. At some point Fran has to do this.
 
One more thing I will add is this isn’t just about a team this is about a program.
 
The game yesterday was lost in the first ten minutes of the second half. Scoring 5 points in 10 minutes is going to lose you the game every time. Combine that with our at times non-existent defense and there you go. Last night wasn't a season ender, but it was certainly discouraging. Fortunately it was the first game this season where we've looked exactly like last season. Let's see what happens on Thursday. If ISU runs us out of the gym then maybe we start hoping for NIT instead of NCAA.
Just throw this game out, starting with MST making everything they threw up, gutless refs not willing to make a single call be it over the back, 3 seconds, reach in fouls, or even try to clean up all the physical play. The longer this went on the worst Iowa played. It was literally like there were no referees on the court. The talent on the Michigan State team is indisputable. When they are playing well and getting all the calls at home they won't get beat by anyone. Izzo, I think, was reading poetry to the young official who was genuflecting before him all night. Izzo certainly had his ear all night. Throw this game out and forget about it. I said if Iowa goes 2 and 2 on this stretch I would be okay with it and if they beat Iowa State that will be the case. Now, if they get embarrassed by State than we got a serious problem and a long year ahead of us.
 
There is no doubt that Izzo will go out of his way to punish the Hawks. Alter all, Izzo's two most humiliating defeats as a head coach are to the Hawkeyes.....

Lickliter's first Hawkeye team held the Spartans to the lowest point total in Michigan State History. The Hawkeyes Spanked the Number Six Spartans 43-36. Absolutely the worst defeat for Izzo Ever.....

Fran's very first year, The Hawks defeated the Spartans 72-52, the second most humiliating defeat for future Hall of Fame Coach Tom Izzo. After the game there was some wonderful video of a wounded Spartan sitting on a bench in locker room, holding his head in his hands, with a towel draped over his head saying: I can't believe we lost to the Iowa Hawkeyes, Man.....

Both games were at Carver.....

Priceless.

That might explain why he really wants to pound the Hawkeyes. Last season we almost beat him at Iowa City losing by two points. That didn't sit very well the Izzo.....

:cool:
There you go, problem solved. Hire a new coach every year and we will beat Michigan State at Carver.:D

For the record, Davis in his first year pounded Heathcote and Sparty by about thirty at Carver (would have to look up exact score). Then again, Davis pounded a lot of teams his first year, and not all of them at Carver.

Alford wasn't so lucky. Sparty would go on to win the national championship thst year. I was visiting friends in the Twin Cities and don't remember that score but they gave us a beatdown on our own floor.
 
While I certainly agree that it's too early to make conclusions or write anything or anyone off, at some point we do need to start seeing improvement.

Our early "big wins" are starting to look more and more like fool's gold, with those teams struggling, and playing against typically legit conference opponents, the L's are starting to roll in.

We'll see how it shakes out, and I'm fine with that, but I can't simply operate on blind faith anymore.
 
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While I would agree it’s way too early to judge this team, I don’t know if I would say they have plenty of time to come back from adversity.

They have some OOC games to get themselves re-established but I’m not sure if they don’t have some success when they get back into the conference that they don’t think, “oh-oh, I thought last season was over with.”
 
Nope, Fran Sucks, his recruiting sucks, his coaching sucks, he sucks at calling time outs, he sucks at coaching defense, he sucks at coaching offense, he sucks at subbing players, he sucks at redshirting players, his temper sucks, he sucks because he hates Dolph, he sucks because his kids suck at basketball, he sucks because Barta sucks. He sucks because Ferentz sucks. He sucks because Iowa is 6-2. He sucks because we have only beaten one ranked opponent. He sucks because that opponent appears to suck. He sucks at developing players, he sucks at hiring good assistants, he probably sucks as a husband and father. No room for positivity with this program or this year or these players because Fran sucks at everything related to life!(sarcasm).
And his house is filthy.
 
In the interest of fairness, Wisconsin at home probably ranks as our 10th toughest B1G game.

There is a path to 10 or so conference wins, which I mapped out in another thread, but it’s certainly not going to be easy, and it will potentially include a 2-4 start.

The real issue is that we’ve seen over the last three games many of the same things that doomed this team last year.

Iowa has won one true road game in the last 400+ days, and that was a huge come from behind OT win at Illinois last year. You’d have to go back to Jok’s senior year to find a road game where Iowa didn’t trail by at least 10 points during the game.
 

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