Howe: Hawkeyes Must Bounce Back from Michigan St. Gut Punch


To be honest, Fran's response to you took me by surprise. He could have easily responded like JB did. If Fran thought they were so aggressive, he could have taken the next step and wondered where the fouls were. Instead, he went after you. Not a good look for Fran.
 
Spot on read.

The players are invested, they work hard. They hurt more than the fans (You could see that from their faces on the bench). Team gave everything, it wasn’t enough - you learn and move on.

We all know what the warts are as a team, no sense regurgitating those ad nauseum. These are great guys, easy to cheer for.

Stay with them, support them, keep yelling for them and Fran. Hawkeye basketball nation could do a hell of a lot worse by the slime pit that is college basketball.

Go Hawkeyes and gut the Golden Rodent!
 
Hawknigh said:

To be honest, Fran's response to you took me by surprise. He could have easily responded like JB did. If Fran thought they were so aggressive, he could have taken the next step and wondered where the fouls were. Instead, he went after you. Not a good look for Fran.
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Didn't have an issue with it.

I understand how it can be viewed. These coaches and players work their asses off. It's really emotional.

Not lying, it was uncomfortable. I was giving him time to collect his thoughts after an emotional game. He was staring right through me and through you guys in the camera. He did collect his thoughts and I thought handled it well.
 
RobHowe said:
Didn't have an issue with it.

I understand how it can be viewed. These coaches and players work their asses off. It's really emotional.

Not lying, it was uncomfortable. I was giving him time to collect his thoughts after an emotional game. He was staring right through me and through you guys in the camera. He did collect his thoughts and I thought handled it well.
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Yeah, I thought he was avoiding commenting on the officiating visa vi foul shot difference, which would ultimately do him no good.

You can tell Fran, and the team wanted this one bad. Really need to focus on Sunday, as Thursday was yesterday.
 
Still a big stretch coming up - at Minnesota, home to Michigan and at Indiana.

Veteran team. Need to keep pushing forward.
 
RobHowe said:
Didn't have an issue with it.

I understand how it can be viewed. These coaches and players work their asses off. It's really emotional.

Not lying, it was uncomfortable. I was giving him time to collect his thoughts after an emotional game. He was staring right through me and through you guys in the camera. He did collect his thoughts and I thought handled it well.
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Pretty unusual to be doing commentary on a press conference. I agree it felt like he was staring right through the camera. If you had to do it over again, would you have asked the question the same way?
 
SidFarkas said:
Yeah, I thought he was avoiding commenting on the officiating visa vi foul shot difference, which would ultimately do him no good.

You can tell Fran, and the team wanted this one bad. Really need to focus on Sunday, as Thursday was yesterday.
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I agree. Coaches have to be careful if they want to try and address something that can be interpreted as criticizing refs. That can cost them money.
 
Hawknigh said:
Pretty unusual to be doing commentary on a press conference. I agree it felt like he was staring right through the camera. If you had to do it over again, would you have asked the question the same way?
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I think it was fine. It's tricky to ask about the officiating without asking about the officiating, if you know what I mean.

As I said above, it's hard to understand what it's like being in that interview room with players and coaches after an emotional loss. That question was going to be asked in some form and FM was clearly upset with the officiating before I asked about it.

I adjusted my question for the players, asking if they felt there was anything they could have done different to get to the free throw line more than eight times when they were averaging more than 27 attempts per game. Or, did they feel like they did what they always do to get there.
 
I like that Fran has emotion in video....shows he cares. My take was that he wanted to say something in regards to the refs, but knows he can't. That's what I felt the stare was about. Who knows? Just hard sometimes for coaches to be real honest. Everybody picks apart every little detail in today's world. No problem with question or the answer.

Minnesota is a big game. The part in article regarding the players hurting more than us is spot on.
 
hawks23 said:
I like that Fran has emotion in video....shows he cares. My take was that he wanted to say something in regards to the refs, but knows he can't. That's what I felt the stare was about. Who knows? Just hard sometimes for coaches to be real honest. Everybody picks apart every little detail in today's world. No problem with question or the answer.

Minnesota is a big game. The part in article regarding the players hurting more than us is spot on.
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Of course he cares. I thought the stare was more of a "how dare you question whether we were aggressive enough?" Who can blame him? If he thought he was being questioned about their aggressiveness, he can't let it go.
 
Hawknigh said:
Of course he cares. I thought the stare was more of a "how dare you question whether we were aggressive enough?" Who can blame him? If he thought he was being questioned about their aggressiveness, he can't let it go.
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Iowa shot 24 threes (made 5). Meanwhile Cook and Garza we’re succeeding inside. Also very limited dribble penetration by Wieskamp, Bohannon, C Mac and Moss, who were a combined 5 of 25 from the floor. They settled for quick jumpers during MSU’s 24-2 run.

That’s why I asked if they were aggressive enough.
 
I would have liked to ask Fran what he thought about the defense employed by MSU after Cook was wearing out defender after defender where they basically took a guard and had him backing into Cook and making continuous contact with him. Cook tried to show the refs what the guy was doing by raising his arms and trying to move away from the guy, but he kept backing into Cook not allowing him to jump or move. Did anyone else feel this was illegal and dirty?
 

We win and we are 1 full game out of 3rd place (we play the 3rd place team at home) and we are on pace for 12-8 with no more games against MSU. It would also prove we can beat middle of the pack teams on the road. That would put us in a really good position.
 
RobHowe said:
Iowa shot 24 threes (made 5). Meanwhile Cook and Garza we’re succeeding inside. Also very limited dribble penetration by Wieskamp, Bohannon, C Mac and Moss, who were a combined 5 of 25 from the floor. They settled for quick jumpers during MSU’s 24-2 run.

That’s why I asked if they were aggressive enough.
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I think "aggressive enough" wasn't the right verbiage IMO. I thought your question was fine and Fran's response was fine. We clearly had more balls that literally lipped in and out than I can remember. It's MSU you're not getting hand checks or forearms you just aren't. The number of post entry's was very very high as evidence by Cook and Garza's point totals. Perhaps the question (and it's easy sitting in this chair and I don't have to do your gig for a living) could have been stated "Anytime you face MSU you're going to see hand checks and forearms trying to disrupt flow you think that had anything to do with your ability to keep things going down low with TC and Luke?"
 
I also believe Fran and his staff get lost in the game...many games our coaches sit on their hands when an opposing team is having one of those runs (and we are fragile mentally on D) instead of using TO's anytime we leave TO's in our pocket in a game like that I really question who's paying attention over there. I don't understand the OMG what do we do now...you already said it we aren't as good as MSU period. Doesn't mean we can't win every other game on our schedule. In this league this year middle of the pack is going to be good enough to get in to the NCAA bracket.
 
seepig said:
I think "aggressive enough" wasn't the right verbiage IMO. I thought your question was fine and Fran's response was fine. We clearly had more balls that literally lipped in and out than I can remember. It's MSU you're not getting hand checks or forearms you just aren't. The number of post entry's was very very high as evidence by Cook and Garza's point totals. Perhaps the question (and it's easy sitting in this chair and I don't have to do your gig for a living) could have been stated "Anytime you face MSU you're going to see hand checks and forearms trying to disrupt flow you think that had anything to do with your ability to keep things going down low with TC and Luke?"
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Maybe, but I don't think he's going to answer that because you're asking him more directly if more fouls should have been called. By asking him if his team wasn't aggressive enough, it allows him to say it was without getting him in trouble.

I've been around Fran a lot and part of the puzzle is trying to ask things in a way that I think he will answer. Yes, he was initially mad that I suggested his team wasn't aggressive enough, but he thought it through and I think understood where I was coming from and gave a great answer.

I'll ask him about it next time I see him. Maybe I'm off, but that's how I see it after giving it some thought.
 
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