Iowa needed a "splash" hire like Iowa State

HawkeyeRyno said:
I hate to say it so early in Fran's tenure but the fact is this game cast many doubts on his pure coaching ability. Things were going to go bad the first year regardless of who was coach but that's why we needed someone to help at least improve the attendance as a starting point. After this game, attendance is going to really struggle for the foreseeable future.

Iowa State was in the same situation but Jamie Pollard took a big risk but great marketing ploy and hired a "splash" with a big name to the Cyclone loyals. It gets them excited and butts in the seat regardless of how they perform. It's turning out to be a brilliant hire now.

Barta needed to hire someone like Hoiberg. BJ Armstrong would have been our Hoiberg hire. Would have got butts in the seats and the losses wouldn't have mattered. Looking at the situation now, I'm thinking this would have provided more of a bandage. Because right now this program is on life support.
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Thank goodness these forums provide Hawkeye fans an opportunity to vent, Reno I dont agree with you but at least you allow people to vent.

Look at the Big Ten right now and tell me how many of the coaches were splash hires?

Izzo was an assistant an almost lost his job before he turned it around, couldnt get Shane Battier to stay!

Painter was an assistant in waiting, done a brilliant job

Matta was at Butler but for the most part unknown ( how did we get Lick and they got Matta?)

Ryan was around forever ( d3 and small D1) and finally the Badgers took a chance

Tubby Smith is probably as close as it gets to a splash hire but has only had mixed results and I have season tickets for the Gophers


Fran is the right guy has the right staff unfortunately it is going to take longer than we hoped. A splash hire would have cost us too much money, and then every year we would have had to worry about them leaving and then probation ala Callipari
 
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Gohawks123 said:
I don't overreact to losses...but I will react to what I see on the court. There was absolutely no reason to play zone defense the last 2 games and the coaches did it anyways. It's concerning to this poster.
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Closet Coaching. Nice. and what the h*ll is anyways? You live in northern Arkansas somewheres?
 
storminspank said:
I guess it's all on how you define "being competitive". This season, I (and I assumed most people) saw that as being in the ballgames and not being blown out. In that case, Iowa has been competitive most of this year.
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What is our avg. margin of loss? We are pretty dang close to being blown out most games. unless 19 point losses are not blow outs.
 
Our average loss is by just over ten points. We have a number of 3 to 5 point losses to round down the two blowouts of 19 and 23. So your "we are pretty dang close to being blown out most games" is not accurate.
 
SirJamaLot said:
Thank goodness these forums provide Hawkeye fans an opportunity to vent, Reno I dont agree with you but at least you allow people to vent.

Look at the Big Ten right now and tell me how many of the coaches were splash hires?

Izzo was an assistant an almost lost his job before he turned it around, couldnt get Shane Battier to stay!

Painter was an assistant in waiting, done a brilliant job

Matta was at Butler but for the most part unknown ( how did we get Lick and they got Matta?)

Ryan was around forever ( d3 and small D1) and finally the Badgers took a chance

Tubby Smith is probably as close as it gets to a splash hire but has only had mixed results and I have season tickets for the Gophers


Fran is the right guy has the right staff unfortunately it is going to take longer than we hoped. A splash hire would have cost us too much money, and then every year we would have had to worry about them leaving and then probation ala Callipari
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.

No one knows how the success of a coach at school "A " will translate to school "B". You have coaches at Purdue and Illinois that came from the MVC (I believe) that have done very well in the Big 10. Iowa had some success with an MVC coach and ISU did not have as much luck with this at all. Matta comes from Butler via Xavier and wins game after game at OSU. Iowa hires a national coach of the year from Butler and he sucks. Minnesota hires Monson from Gonzaga, a team he built into a national power and the guy fails at Minny.

When it comes to coaching everyone should subscribe to the disclaimer you often hear when making investments. "Past Performance is no guarantee of future results." Fred and Fran could be Google and Amazon, or they could be Pets.Com, too early to make the call.

Funny thing is that both Iowa and ISU dumped guys (Alford & Morgan) who actually took their team to the tournament from time to time in hopes to find something better

At least this time with the hiring of both Fred and Fran, the only way to go is up. If they fail, the schools are no worse off than before.
 
DaBears said:
What is our avg. margin of loss? We are pretty dang close to being blown out most games. unless 19 point losses are not blow outs.
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Spank isn't talking about the last 2 games, he admitted those weren't competitive, but you can't say the other 7 losses were blowouts, here are those totals that Iowa lost by:

10
13
6
3
3
10
5

This is an average of 7 points a game, that isn't a blowout.
 
Fran has a history of rebuilding programs and is the right man for the job. Iowa could not afford to hire someone like BJ that has absolutely no experience at the college level. As far as I know the jury is still out on both hires at Iowa and ISU. ISU might look and sound pretty but they have a tough road to hoe as well as Iowa. It's not going to be easy but as a fan I'm going to cheer like hell for Fran and the kids on the team.
 
We've played 3 true road games this year. A loss against a terrible Wake Forest team, a close win against a terrible Drake team, and a blowout loss against a good Purdue team. The lack of blowouts is because we've barely had to leave our home court.
 
Perhaps we should resign ourselves to having a below average basketball program and an above average football program. The sophistication of the game (recruiting, playing, NBA early outs, transfers, multi-millionaire coaches, etc.) has changed remarkably in the last 30 years. We are trending towards a coaching dead end which no talent wants to come and play for. If FM "is" the right coach this thread is about 6 years early.
 
Not sure if anyone watched the ISU game last night, but they panned over and gave a shout to Royce White and the rest of the transfer crew. Holy ****. Big, scary looking, lots of gold. and not just White. all of them.

Not saying that it really matters. But it matters. They make our guys look like 7th graders.
 
hawkeyescott said:
Spank isn't talking about the last 2 games, he admitted those weren't competitive, but you can't say the other 7 losses were blowouts, here are those totals that Iowa lost by:

10
13
6
3
3
10
5

This is an average of 7 points a game, that isn't a blowout.
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I tend to interpret a loss by more than 10 as "You weren't in the game at the end". So if we erase those losses by double digits, and look at the teams we played close, outside of OSU, it is not very uplifting.

You can't say we are competitive when the teams we play close are Long Beach, Wake Forest, and Iowa State.

I think OSU sleepwalking through their visit to Carver has many people thinking this team is somethign they're not.
 
Iowafarmgirl said:
I tend to interpret a loss by more than 10 as "You weren't in the game at the end". So if we erase those losses by double digits, and look at the teams we played close, outside of OSU, it is not very uplifting.

You can't say we are competitive when the teams we play close are Long Beach, Wake Forest, and Iowa State.

I think OSU sleepwalking through their visit to Carver has many people thinking this team is somethign they're not.
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Ohio State is the most overrated team in the nation. They will finish no better than 3rd in the Big 10. Lackluster road performances against teams like Iowa and Michigan don't bode well for them going forward.
 
hawkdoctor said:
We needed an ISU schedule.
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No doubt ISU has had a cake schedule but let's be honest, Iowa's non conference hasn't been tough either. Iowa has lost to....

South Dakota State
Long Beach State
Wake Forest (7-10 with bad losses to teams like Presbyterian)
 
DaBears said:
What is our avg. margin of loss? We are pretty dang close to being blown out most games. unless 19 point losses are not blow outs.
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Again, I mentioned the last two games notwithstanding.
Before those two debacles (one is expected on the road vs Top 10 team), Iowa's margin of loss was 7 points per game. That's not getting blown out by any stretch of the imagination.
 
Gohawks123 said:
Ohio State is the most overrated team in the nation. They will finish no better than 3rd in the Big 10. Lackluster road performances against teams like Iowa and Michigan don't bode well for them going forward.
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Believe that both games against Iowa and Michigan were on the road for OSU. They will go far becuase they have an inside game, perimiter shooters and strong guard play. They seem to turn it on and off, if they play consistently they will be tough.
 
Cyclones17 said:
No doubt ISU has had a cake schedule but let's be honest, Iowa's non conference hasn't been tough either. Iowa has lost to....

South Dakota State
Long Beach State
Wake Forest (7-10 with bad losses to teams like Presbyterian)
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ISU's best win, per KenPom, is the win over Iowa.

ISU's non-conf SOS is 326th in the nation; Iowa's non-conf SOS is 215th.

ISU's overall SOS is 250th, Iowa's overall SOS is 37th.
 
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storminspank said:
ISU's best win, per KenPom, is the win over Iowa.
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I agree that Iowa State's schedule in non conference was very weak. I said so in the post you quoted. Also, Kenpom can say whatever they want but Creighton and Virginia were better wins than the Iowa win.

But the poster I was talking to above said that they need ISU's schedule. The only team Iowa lost to non conference (besides ISU) that had an rating of under 100 according to Kenpom was Xavier. I really don't think there was a big difference in non conference schedules for the two.
 
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