Iowa basketball needs fixed ASAP.

[kicker22]

I can't help but laugh at those blaming the fans for this. It's the teams responsibility to put a product on the court. The fan base responds to that product. The product is "fun" to watch the crowd has fun watching it and supports it. The product is lacking the crowds participation does as well.

Carver used to be a rocking place that provided a home court advantage. The problem is now the majority of the time the away team is simply better and its hard to get fired up about subpar performances. The crowd and fan support is a mirror image of the emotion and energy level of the team. This is not a fan problem.

 

[HawkGold]

Missing the tournament last year wasn't a big deal, we are gonna miss NCAA tournaments. I was ok with it, because we had the bulk of the team back, and just barely missed the NCAA as it was.

The issue is WTF is this year? Fran has a completely full roster of kids he recruited and we have a glaring lack of guard play and way too many bigs. This shouldn't be happening this year. With better coaching and better roster management this should be an NCAA year. Heck looking back to last year with Jok, we should have been a NCAA team last year as well.

The bigs he has aren't even that good. No strong fundamentals. That was obvious with Woody. This isn't a one year dip caused only by a lack of pt guards. It was more shocking to see what success he did have, but Uthoff and Jok were pretty darned good.

Outside of Cook, he has only 2 sort of bigs that are remotely athletic enough to really compete and they don't play much as they haven't developed. They are a shell of what they were as young players. Think what Garza and Nunge are going to look like.

Uthoff and Jok were the real deal and he couldn't ruin them. Tell us where outside of them he has really developed players. Marble couldn't remotely begin to go more than one direction with the ball.

JBo has developed, but in Fran's scheme he has no chance to defend.

 

[Robowe]

The bigs he has aren't even that good. No strong fundamentals. That was obvious with Woody. This isn't a one year dip caused only by a lack of pt guards. It was more shocking to see what success he did have, but Uthoff and Jok were pretty darned good.

Outside of Cook, he has only 2 sort of bigs that are remotely athletic enough to really compete and they don't play much as they haven't developed. They are a shell of what they were as young players. Think what Garza and Nunge are going to look like.

Uthoff and Jok were the real deal and he couldn't ruin them. Tell us where outside of them he has really developed players. Marble couldn't remotely begin to go more than one direction with the ball.

JBo has developed, but in Fran's scheme he has no chance to defend.

Aaron White developed while at Iowa. His offensive and defensive efficiency improved as he matured. However, I question how much the coaching staff had to do with it. And, there are too few examples of players improving while this coaching staff has been here (8 years) unchanged. The lack of fundamentals, especially on the defensive end, is truly amazing at this level of basketball.

 

[HawkGold]

Aaron White developed while at Iowa. His offensive and defensive efficiency improved as he matured. However, I question how much the coaching staff had to do with it. And, there are too few examples of players improving while this coaching staff has been here (8 years) unchanged. The lack of fundamentals, especially on the defensive end, is truly amazing at this level of basketball.

White was a marvelous player and developed quite well. You would think the process could be repeated.

 

[SingletrackGuy]

Mr. Davis should have retired from Iowa. We would have been in much better shape imho. Instead, we got three blind mice that are nowhere near consistently as good.

Agreed. Iowa got greedy thinking they could get a different coach and be Kansas all of a sudden, which lets face it, isn't likely to happen no matter who is at the helm. And the program never really recovered after that.

 

[SingletrackGuy]

Aaron White developed while at Iowa. His offensive and defensive efficiency improved as he matured. However, I question how much the coaching staff had to do with it. And, there are too few examples of players improving while this coaching staff has been here (8 years) unchanged. The lack of fundamentals, especially on the defensive end, is truly amazing at this level of basketball.

I don't think it's a matter of individuals developing. Most guys with some talent get better (at least offensively) cook and Bohannon are getting better for example. It's a matter of their being almost no leadership aside from Jok perhaps and no toughness (Uthoff was very skilled but about as tough as wet paper) and absolutely zero emphasis on defense. Doesn't matter much how good the players are individually if you don't have those things. We are young but the whole always seems to Be much less than the sum of the parts anymore.

 

[Joshbrown]

Agreed. Iowa got greedy thinking they could get a different coach and be Kansas all of a sudden, which lets face it, isn't likely to happen no matter who is at the helm. And the program never really recovered after that.

I liked Tom and felt he was pushed out unfairly.
Having said that, there has been some revisionism I disagree with.

"Iowa got greedy and so the fates have punished us for our sins."

I don't buy it. Settling is how you become irrelevant, not reaching for the brass ring. Barta wanted better than Alford and got Lick. The lesson there isn't "we should never have wanted better than Alford."
The real lesson is WE SHOULD FIRE THE IDIOT NAMED BARTA. I have a thread on here asking for the name of all his legendary hires. Guess what, it's an unimpressive list.

 

[Robowe]

I don't think it's a matter of individuals developing. Most guys with some talent get better (at least offensively) cook and Bohannon are getting better for example. It's a matter of their being almost no leadership aside from Jok perhaps and no toughness (Uthoff was very skilled but about as tough as wet paper) and absolutely zero emphasis on defense. Doesn't matter much how good the players are individually if you don't have those things. We are young but the whole always seems to Be much less than the sum of the parts anymore.

Agree with a lot of this, especially the lack of emphasis on defense. The defensive end is a team concept and there seems to be no sense of a plan or pride to keep the other team from scoring from coaches or players. Until that changes, and I don't think it will with this coaching staff, I think changes are needed.

 

[SingletrackGuy]

I liked Tom and felt he was pushed out unfairly.
Having said that, there has been some revisionism I disagree with.

"Iowa got greedy and so the fates have punished us for our sins."

I don't buy it. Settling is how you become irrelevant, not reaching for the brass ring. Barta wanted better than Alford and got Lick. The lesson there isn't "we should never have wanted better than Alford."
The real lesson is WE SHOULD FIRE THE IDIOT NAMED BARTA. I have a thread on here asking for the name of all his legendary hires. Guess what, it's an unimpressive list.

I always felt that Alford began the problems we have now. Viewed it as a stepping stone or just something to do until something better came along and subsequently left a total mess

 

[1977Hawkeye]

I always felt that Alford began the problems we have now. Viewed it as a stepping stone or just something to do until something better came along and subsequently left a total mess

Alford knocked the program down a rung on the ladder. Lickliter buried it. But yes, getting rid of Davis and hiring Alford was the start of all this.

For a while, I thought Fran basically had us back to about the Davis days, and I'd have been good with that, but after the past year and a half, it's honestly feeling more like the Alford era to me, once again. If things continue the way they've been this year, for much longer, it's gonna start feeling like the Lickliter era.. Guess it already does. Sure hope things turn around soon.

I remember when Davis was let go, Gene Keady said "A lot of people are going to miss Tom Davis". How right he was.

 

[Joshbrown]

I always felt that Alford began the problems we have now. Viewed it as a stepping stone or just something to do until something better came along and subsequently left a total mess

Dollar Bob hired Steve and it looked like the right decision at first. Steve even brought in some impressive recruits with names like Recker. But Steve's teams couldn't take advantage of the talent. Reminds me of a guy with TWO all-americans on defense who couldn't beat Purdue.

 

[MILHAWKEYE]

Bruce Pearl has turned the the perennial basketball powerhouse Auburn around quickly hasn't he?

 

[tksirius]

Dollar Bob hired Steve and it looked like the right decision at first. Steve even brought in some impressive recruits with names like Recker. But Steve's teams couldn't take advantage of the talent. Reminds me of a guy with TWO all-americans on defense who couldn't beat Purdue.

 

[tksirius]

Bruce Pearl has turned the the perennial basketball powerhouse Auburn around quickly hasn't he?

Unfortunately, Iowa fans are worried to death that Bruce might text a recruit when it's not allowed, so we'll never see him in Black & Gold again. Running a tight ship > Winning

 

[teachercoach]

Amazing to watch the difference in athleticism in Iowa guards v. Ill (new coach), Ohio St (new coach), Rutgers (2nd yr).

Hawks don't have a body that can contain any of these teams perimeter players and they are all Fr/Soph also.
Defense, especially transition, shows a lack of basketball IQ - Cook is lost more than all of them, then too late.
Getting nothing out of the 3/4 press in conf. games. Teams are prepped and put shooters in deep corners.
--------------
Early October, I believe Fran & staff thought they had 2.5 pt. gds - JBo, CWilliams, CMcC.
Now they have .5.
-------------
Lack of defense / 8th year - Fran was brought in play a style that if Iowa lost it would be 90-85, not 50-45. That has been somewhat successful/true until this year. Can't push the ball if all you do is take out after layups and dunks.

 

[Joshbrown]

I always felt that Alford began the problems we have now. Viewed it as a stepping stone or just something to do until something better came along and subsequently left a total mess

Alford and Bowlsby got under my skin with their "record number of consecutive winning seasons" and "effective conference championship" proclamations.
They both bought into their own B.S. And Barta has been doing the same thing from day one. Touting his 10th place (in conference) finish in the director's cup as an accomplishment. smh

 

[earlkoppelman]

Man, that would have been something. Still, I would take Mr. Davis back in a heartbeat (or his consistent results) compared to what we have had since then.

Different situation now.Gotta ride Storm.No choice.Like in MIDDLE of huge Swell.Results t .b.d. Yo pray for surf huh?

 

[1980HAWKFAN]

Last night was brutal to watch. Rutgers' guards just abused us. When no one on the Hawks can stop the dribble penetration, you have no chance. I think Purdue guards are watching tape and can't wait to get here Saturday. Those Edwards guards are going to slice thru us and have a slam fest on us like no tomorrow. The sad part about it is the players on the Hawks know this is coming, Fran knows its coming, and there isn't a damn thing we can do about it. I think that is why the players sometimes appear to be not hustling, dejected, whatever you want to call it. I see it as we are slow of foot and we know it. It reminds me of high school ball, sophomores against varsity at practice..we abused them just because we were faster and it was easy to do what you wanted.

 

[hawkeyebob62]

This is where I'm starting to get to. Missing the tourney last year wasn't a big deal to me. Missing this year isn't the end of the world. But there is no question we are the worst team in the conference, and frankly, I don't think it's even close. Half of that is on the talent level (which is Fran's fault) and half of that is lack of effort (which is Fran's fault).

But even missing the NCAA last year wouldn't have happened if we show up against Indiana in first round of B1G Tournament. Yes, Crean was coaching for his job (which he still lost, anyway), but it was absurd to get beat like that knowing an NCAA bid hinged on that game (and most likely the next one).

 

[Iahwk06]

I don't remember what article I read but it referred to a player that he talked to that played for Iowa and Fran for 4 years and he said we worked very very little on defense. That seems pretty obvious.

Fran expects his players to watch his dvd on defense....