Iowa Hoops: Are they matching up to your expectations

JonDMiller said:
I had them being 7-4 after the Drake game...I felt they'd win two of three of the instate games, and win the season opener. So they will have to sweep the instate games to match that.

That said, its been more fun to watch for me. Last nights game was tough on the eyes, but that was par for the course last year.
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Overall the record has let me down, but my predictions were before Gatens and Payne were hurt, but they should have beat SDSU/WF/LBSU. That being said there is a lot of progress. Last night's game was this season in a nutshell.
1. Iowa proved that they can still be effective in a slower pace game, but when the opportunity presented itself, they got out in transition something they didn't do in recent seasons.
2. Iowa still cannot make free throws and that has really hurt them in some other games as well.
3. Silly turnovers are still happening, but at a much lower pace. We cannot have less than 10 turnovers in a game and half of them come from the PG.
4. The switching of defenses is going to be effective against a lot of teams and Fran will continue to do this.
5. Iowa still does not have one player that can take over a game in all facets. May is close, but his ball handling is too loose and he turns the ball over too easy on the drive. If he cleans that up, then yeah, he is that player.
6. Having a bench is HUGE, say what you will about Brommer, but he looks like a basketball player this year. If Brommer is ineffective, then Archie gets a shot, not a bad thing. Marble/McCabe coming in and doing the things they are doing, can't complain.
7. Iowa has a team this year, even with the injuries they have had, they play together and don't panic.
8. IMPROVEMENT, look no further than Basabe. Against SDSU, I thought, we have nobody better than this? The thing that stuck out in that game though about him is that he played hard, rebounded and challenged shots. Watching him last night, wow, he is Iowa's best freshman now and if he continues to improve should be All-Freshman B10, we will see in league play though.
9. Iowa needs to play within themselves, when they do that is when teams take advantage of them. The out-of-control play has decreased from Game 1 to now and they look better. The press has been a blast to watch.

There are positives and negatives to this season, but more positive than negative overall. I thought they would be close or get to 10 wins in non-conference, but with the improvement and how hard this team plays and injuries, I am by no means disappointed.

The non-conference really doesn't matter to me at this point though. I think we can all agree that we will see how far this team comes when B10 season starts. Iowa cannot afford to get blown out toward the end of the season as they did last year, it will be a setback for Fran and the fanbase. There are just not a lot of winnable games, but bad losses will not make us forget the state of the program of recent memory.

The expectation for next season is raised just by seeing what I have seen so far to date. In adding Oglesby/White and potentially two more players, that's more depth and with all the experience that will be back. Initially, I have been saying NIT for next year, but I think the BIG DANCE will be within reach and a top half finish in the B10.
 
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JonDMiller said:
I had them being 7-4 after the Drake game...I felt they'd win two of three of the instate games, and win the season opener. So they will have to sweep the instate games to match that.

That said, its been more fun to watch for me. Last nights game was tough on the eyes, but that was par for the course last year.
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Jon,

While I agree last night's game was somewhere close to watching paint dry as far as excitement was concerned, I think that had more to do with UNI wanting to dictate the pace and doing a great job getting back on defense. There were several times when I think UNI was more worried about stopping the break by getting back rather than challenging Iowa on the boards.

As far as comparing it to last year, I have to somewhat disagree. Last year we would have stayed in the same defensive alignment rather than constantly switching things up and we would have milked the clock down to 5 seconds without even looking at the rim.

At least this year we have players willing to take shots, right now they aren't falling but at least there is movement on the offensive side of the ball and shots being taken out of the offense.

And the defensive effort last night I thought was the key to the victory. I love what Fran is getting done on that end of the floor. While we are waiting for the athletes to arrive to run the offense the way Fran wants it, the effort on the defensive end of the court will win a couple extra games this year.

Right now they are about where I expected for record but my expectations for the balance of the year are a bit better. It may not happen but at least this year I am looking forward to the rest of the year rather than switching the channel at halftime (or sometimes even before).
 
There about on course of where I thought they would be. I didn't really think they would beat Alabama, but that team turned out to be awful. So swap that with the South Dakota St. loss and they are about where I thought. With that said, I have consistently reminded people that you shouldn't take to much into account the early portion of the season as this team will get much better week to week. By the mid-season, I believe you'll see a team that is going to knock off some of the top teams in the conference at Carver. Gatens' shooting is really the only thing holding back this team from scoring a lot more points. Once he gets back to old form, I really believe your going to see a marked improvement in play.
 
You know what I'm most thankful for....Not having to watch Iowa run their offense for 34 seconds, then putting up a hurried, aweful shot (if they were lucky enought to do that) at the buzzer.
 
The three freshman have exceeded my expectations. My three leaders this year have not. Cole, Gatens, Payne, so I am very excited about our position current record given all three have been, and are injured. Hopefully we can get 2 of the 3 to 100 percent and I think we will get much better as the year goes. I think Matt is still learning how to get open in the system. Once he gets in a groove, things are really going to free up for Eric. We need Matt in a groove to spread the floor for us. It will happen soon. This will also open up one on one with Basabe. I think Mel will be close to averaging double digit scoring the rest of the season. We are going to win some games we did not expect too. I think our defense has also exceeded my expectations at this point. We just need to concentration to improve from 32 minutes to 40. Overall exceeded my expectations.
 
We have a lot of young players on this team so my expectations were not very high. They have exceeded that and more. The three freshmen are much better than I expected. I'm very disappointed that Matt got hurt. Fran said he was the most dominant player he'd coached prior to the injury or something like that. I can certainly think a healthy Gatens and Payne would have given us a couple more wins without question.

Unfortunately, the big ten is as good as it has been in awhile.
 
I really had no expectations really, except I knew they wouldn't be good. If they win against ISU and the go into the Big Ten Conference at 8-4 I'd say they've probably exceeded my expectations for sure.

I'm excited to see them go up against Big Ten competition. I want to see what they can do against the best conference in the country. It won't be pretty but there is no reason why we can't at least compete in our home games.
 
The old coach in me sees this: a team that is busting their arses and are having fun on the court. Once a team is willing to bust it for coach and coach is busting it for them...magic happens. May's interview during the UNI game says it all...coach is high energy and we can't believe how hard he is working for us...it is awesome. Folks we have us a basketball coach...no doubt about it.
 
i'm actually excited for the future of iowa basketball. right on pace or a little better with my record prediction.
the defense has really impressed me, and it seems like the kids are actually enjoying themselves.
i really think paige, gesell, woodbury, etc. have to be watching this thinking "you know, fran looks like the coach we're looking for". whether or not they end up here, i like our chances a million times better than with our last coach.
 
loesshillshawk said:
The old coach in me sees this: a team that is busting their arses and are having fun on the court. Once a team is willing to bust it for coach and coach is busting it for them...magic happens. May's interview during the UNI game says it all...coach is high energy and we can't believe how hard he is working for us...it is awesome. Folks we have us a basketball coach...no doubt about it.
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In this particular case, it will be White Magic.

Exceeded my expectations so far. Basabe is particularly a bright spot.
 
We finally have a legit Big 10 coach. If we can upgrade the facilities and McCaffrey can recruit decent players, there is no reason we can't consistently finish in the upper half of the Big 10 each year.
 
The thing I am encouraged about is I see this team making a great deal of progress as the season goes on. And with all the injury issues we have really continued to grow and get better.
 
They are exceeding my expectations (granted they were really low to begin with). Yesterday's first half was ugly, no question, but the Hawks actually played quite well in the second half. Shot 50%, attacked the rim, passed the ball well, got the hustle plays, took care of the ball, etc. The only thing ugly with Iowa's second half yesterday was the foul shooting. The ugliness of the first half is masking what I thought was a very good second half - outscoring UNI by 13 and really could have been 20 if they make 70% of the freethrows.
 
Said this in another post but if I see the kind of effort that Cole gave last night out of everyone then yes they are meeting my expectations. That is all we want to see. Recruiting will come but as another poster pointed out that kind of effort comes from the head coach. It is nice to see and that is all you can expect. We don't have close to the talent that most of the big 10 teams have but that will come. Just go balls out and we will love you and go to games...and the talent will come, hopefully.
 
I am quite pleased with the team and the coaching staff to date. I had them going 9-3 in the non-conference but with the injuries, I think 8-4 would be outstanding.
Then,all bets are off. Would love to see them shock the illini on 12/29 but do not expect it. Must beat NW the next week at CHA tho...otherwise, a long drought could gut the teams spirit...hope not.
 
JHHawk said:
I am quite pleased with the team and the coaching staff to date. I had them going 9-3 in the non-conference but with the injuries, I think 8-4 would be outstanding.
Then,all bets are off. Would love to see them shock the illini on 12/29 but do not expect it. Must beat NW the next week at CHA tho...otherwise, a long drought could gut the teams spirit...hope not.
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That might have been allowed to happen with the last guy who sat in the coaching box and just rolled his eyes. Wouldn't expect it to with Fran.
 
They have exceeded my expectations thus far. They have shown so much improvement from the first game to the UNI game. You can see the growth already in Basabe, Marble, May, Cole, heck all of them from the 1st game to now. If they continue this, they will win some games you think they shouldn't and be confident going into next year. I could care less what the record is, as long as that overall growth and improvement is evident.
 
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