If we miss the dance this year.....

[SnapBack2]

A few observations...

1. All the talk of underachieving for possibly a 3rd straight season, IMO means our sights are unreasonable and the talent we have is no where near where some think it is.

2. We're losing to tournament teams that are better then we are. Its pretty simple, but we act shocked with these results. The way we are losing is head scratching, but I hear people posting like we shouldn't be losing to programs like ISU and UNI.

3. We continue to compare ourselves to the team that showed great promise and then fizzled last year. We quickly forget that Marble was a huge part of that and that no one has replaced him. Despite the belief that his production would be made up collectively rather than by someone stepping up to replace him.

4. Our "best player" and the current face of the program is making a living at the free throw line and really struggling to get his points/looks in the half court offense. There are far bigger problems then simply coaching at this point.

1. True
2. True
3. True
4. True

That is why I give it two more years. I want to see next years recruits and see how the 2016 class ranks. The concerning thing at the moment is the in-game coaching.

 

[tm3308]

A few observations...

1. All the talk of underachieving for possibly a 3rd straight season, IMO means our sights are unreasonable and the talent we have is no where near where some think it is.

2. We're losing to tournament teams that are better then we are. Its pretty simple, but we act shocked with these results. The way we are losing is head scratching, but I hear people posting like we shouldn't be losing to programs like ISU and UNI.

3. We continue to compare ourselves to the team that showed great promise and then fizzled last year. We quickly forget that Marble was a huge part of that and that no one has replaced him. Despite the belief that his production would be made up collectively rather than by someone stepping up to replace him.

4. Our "best player" and the current face of the program is making a living at the free throw line and really struggling to get his points/looks in the half court offense. There are far bigger problems then simply coaching at this point.

1. How is that not a coaching issue? Recruiting is part of the job, and where we're at/heading as a program isn't good enough for a coach in his 5th season. It shouldn't be unreasonable to think we'd be better than this right now.

2. I haven't seen anyone acting like we shouldn't be losing to UNI and ISU right now. Getting absolutely embarrassed in both of those games is what's got people so upset right now.

3. Again, recruiting.

4. White hasn't developed a lick since arriving on campus. He started out as an energy guy who cleaned up the garbage and could excite fans with rim running dunks in transition, but wasn't a good jump shooter and struggled in the half court because of that. He's still that guy. At least part of that is on coaching.

If your wallpaper is peeling, the drapes are melting and the water's boiling, which do you fix first? None of them. The building's on fire. You're looking at the symptoms, not the root.

 

[deanvogs]

1. How is that not a coaching issue? Recruiting is part of the job, and where we're at/heading as a program isn't good enough for a coach in his 5th season. It shouldn't be unreasonable to think we'd be better than this right now.

2. I haven't seen anyone acting like we shouldn't be losing to UNI and ISU right now. Getting absolutely embarrassed in both of those games is what's got people so upset right now.

3. Again, recruiting.

4. White hasn't developed a lick since arriving on campus. He started out as an energy guy who cleaned up the garbage and could excite fans with rim running dunks in transition, but wasn't a good jump shooter and struggled in the half court because of that. He's still that guy. At least part of that is on coaching.

If your wallpaper is peeling, the drapes are melting and the water's boiling, which do you fix first? None of them. The building's on fire. You're looking at the symptoms, not the root.

A few things a glaringly obvious at this point. Recruiting and development has been poor to non existent. What players have "developed" under Fran? Marble did, but lets look at the rest:

McCabe - Bust
Basabe - Best year was Fr year
White - Been the same players for 4 years now, which is a player that TM pointed out
Ogs - Bust
Olaseni - Improved, but could have been better with more playing time and development or a RS his first year
Gesell - Best year was Fr. year
Clemmons - has done little so far
Ingram - Isn't even a mid major player let alone a B1G player
Meyer - See above
Uthoff - nice player, is developing, and could be really good
Woody - better player, has certainly developed some
Jok - Too early to tell, could be a nice developing player

I hope I am proved wrong. I hope I have egg all over my face, this team turns it around makes the NCAA and does so again next year. I'll gladly eat crow, cause I will be watching my Hawks win and play good BB. The problem is though, when you look at the results to this point, it isn't a pretty picture. Oh sure it is prettier than Lick's picture, but is that our standard now???? Just do better than Lick, and all is good?

 

[tksirius]

Nationally, Iowa ranks 275th in shooting percentage and 281st in 3-point percentage.
http://thegazette.com/subject/sports/iowa-left-searching-for-answers-20141221

The Hawks are not making the dance with those stats.

They're probably not making any kind of tourney with those stats.

 

[1977Hawkeye]

A few things a glaringly obvious at this point. Recruiting and development has been poor to non existent. What players have "developed" under Fran? Marble did, but lets look at the rest:

McCabe - Bust
Basabe - Best year was Fr year
White - Been the same players for 4 years now, which is a player that TM pointed out
Ogs - Bust
Olaseni - Improved, but could have been better with more playing time and development or a RS his first year
Gesell - Best year was Fr. year
Clemmons - has done little so far
Ingram - Isn't even a mid major player let alone a B1G player
Meyer - See above
Uthoff - nice player, is developing, and could be really good
Woody - better player, has certainly developed some
Jok - Too early to tell, could be a nice developing player

I hope I am proved wrong. I hope I have egg all over my face, this team turns it around makes the NCAA and does so again next year. I'll gladly eat crow, cause I will be watching my Hawks win and play good BB. The problem is though, when you look at the results to this point, it isn't a pretty picture. Oh sure it is prettier than Lick's picture, but is that our standard now???? Just do better than Lick, and all is good?

Honestly, I'm not sure Woodbury has even developed much, either. Marginally, maybe. His stats:

Freshman:
Pts: 4.9 ppg (.29 points per minute)
Rebs: 4.7 rpg (.28 rebs per minute)
Mins: 16.5

Junior (so far):
Pts: 8 ppg (.37 points per minute)
Rebs: 5.9 rpg (.27 rebs perminute)
Mins: 21.4

He scores a little more, but any increase in stats appears to be mainly due to simply playing more minutes, not so much because he is very much more "efficient" than he was as a freshman, judging by points/rebounds per minute played. So I would say he's a little better, but not drastically.

Jok average 4.4 points in 9.4 minutes last year, and 5.5 points in 15.7 minutes this year. If you project last year's stats out to 15.7 minutes, he should be averaging 7.3 ppg in the same amount of time this season, all things being equal.. So kind of the same deal there, too. You could almost argue he's regressed a bit.

So yeah, I'm not too impressed with the player development. Maybe the players just have low ceilings, but still.. Outside of Marble, most players have not developed, except maybe marginally, on Fran's watch.

 

[SnapBack2]

If you don't think Woodbury has improved since he got here, please go back and watch a game from 2012.

 

[clicheusername3]

If you don't think Woodbury has improved since he got here, please go back and watch a game from 2012.

Woodbury became an afterthought after Deandre Kane mentally and physically abused him publicly in Ames last year. Then he became even more irrelevant after getting packed by UNI multiple times at WFA on Saturday. Woodbury is not good and will never be good. Give Gabe a chance!

 

[kicker22]

1. How is that not a coaching issue? Recruiting is part of the job, and where we're at/heading as a program isn't good enough for a coach in his 5th season. It shouldn't be unreasonable to think we'd be better than this right now.

I'm not saying it has nothing to do with coaching. I think it has a lot more to do with ridiculous expectations. I agree with you that it isn't unreasonable to expect we'd be better. What I was referring to is, as a fan base, how can we truly expect to show improvement from last year to this year when we lost our best player, haven't recruited as well as expected, seen little improvement in terms of player development and opposition has learned to slow us down. In short maybe its not that we've underachieved but never truly had the potential/talent needed to meet such expectations in terms of what truly was achievable.

2. I haven't seen anyone acting like we shouldn't be losing to UNI and ISU right now. Getting absolutely embarrassed in both of those games is what's got people so upset right now.

I've seen a great deal of people bad mouthing ISU and UNI (more so UNI) then giving credit where its do. I think some assume that we're just not good vs. the possibility that those teams we've lost to have been better. Agreed though that its more about the way we've lost then the results.

3. Again, recruiting.

4. White hasn't developed a lick since arriving on campus. He started out as an energy guy who cleaned up the garbage and could excite fans with rim running dunks in transition, but wasn't a good jump shooter and struggled in the half court because of that. He's still that guy. At least part of that is on coaching.

In my opinion huge mistake by Fran to go out and say this is Aaron's team.

If your wallpaper is peeling, the drapes are melting and the water's boiling, which do you fix first? None of them. The building's on fire. You're looking at the symptoms, not the root.

I'm not by any means looking for or making excuses. What I was doing was pointing out multiple factors as to why we're struggling this season and why the seasons playing out the way it is. My main point is regardless of whether Fran is getting the most out of this team I simply find it difficult to believe that we were going to show that much improvement then last year if any.

 

[blubberhawk]

If you don't think Woodbury has improved since he got here, please go back and watch a game from 2012.

No thank you. I have seen quite enough already this season. I honestly feel bad for him. I was hoping that Iowa finally had a really good big man but it has not worked out that way. He could have been a pretty dominant player at Morningside.