Iowa Basketball Hires Matt Gatens

Nice. I didnt read the SI article but I assume Matt has been coaching. He was a very good player and maybe has some good ideas to help Iowa's defense too even though he was known for his scoring.
 
This is a HOME RUN hire. Great person with knowledge about Iowa high school environment and Hawkeye tradition. Gatens popped into my mind the instant Speraw announced his retirement. As a life long (many many decades) Hawkeye fan I couldn't be more thrilled with this hire. Outstandiing!!
 
This is a HOME RUN hire. Great person with knowledge about Iowa high school environment and Hawkeye tradition. Gatens popped into my mind the instant Speraw announced his retirement. As a life long (many many decades) Hawkeye fan I couldn't be more thrilled with this hire. Outstandiing!!
If the winning powerball numbers pop into your head could you please private message them to me?
 

“I am thrilled and truly honored to be rejoining the Iowa men’s basketball program,” Gatens said. “I have an incredible amount of respect for what coach McCaffery, his staff and players have built in Iowa City. It’s a privilege to now work for my former coach and someone who I have looked up to since he started here 12 years ago. I’m looking forward to representing Hawkeye Nation and competing for championships in a place that I call home. I can’t wait to proudly wear the Black and Gold once again.”

:cool:
 
“I am thrilled and truly honored to be rejoining the Iowa men’s basketball program,” Gatens said. “I have an incredible amount of respect for what coach McCaffery, his staff and players have built in Iowa City. It’s a privilege to now work for my former coach and someone who I have looked up to since he started here 12 years ago. I’m looking forward to representing Hawkeye Nation and competing for championships in a place that I call home. I can’t wait to proudly wear the Black and Gold once again.”

:cool:
Could we make a him a player/coach....we have 2 scholarships available.
 
Outstanding news. I love it when good people get great opportunities. I hope his stint is relatively short and he continues to climb the ladder. Other than Connor, I thought Gatens was always the best looking coach of the future when he was a player at Iowa.
 
Not a shocker.

His name was one of the first thrown out to replace Billy Taylor, same deal when Speraw retired. I have no clue how to assess this. Just spitballing here, I am assuming in terms of recruiting, he is going to handle the in-state stuff, along with the Midwest in general.

We all know that Fran is very specific, in terms of which assistant does what in game planning and scouting each opponent. In that regard, I don't know enough to just assume Gatens will knock it out of the park.

We are 12 years into this so you trust Fran at this point.
 
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This is a HOME RUN hire. Great person with knowledge about Iowa high school environment and Hawkeye tradition. Gatens popped into my mind the instant Speraw announced his retirement. As a life long (many many decades) Hawkeye fan I couldn't be more thrilled with this hire. Outstandiing!!
I think it a great hire, maybe he can get fran on board with the transfer portal..
 
Makes all the sense in the world. He got inside Frans circle of trust as a player. He was pretty much his best player on that 1st team of his as a Licklighter hold over. When new coaching staffs take over and try to implement their systems and ways of doing things with the old players that stay on that can be a bumpy ride sometimes. But not at all with Matt. He helped get Frans tenure off on as good of a foot that it could have considering how bad it was, and that sort of thing isn't forgotten by good coaches.

As far as Matts concerned this has to be his dream gig for this point in his career. If all goes well the next 5 plus yrs or so I'd say he's in the drivers seat to be the HC for whenever Fran hangs it up. We can only hope to be this lucky. Matt is everything in a person we should want representing the program. Now he just has to work his ass off and coach :)
 
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