Iowa Program is bottoming out

[InGoodCo]

IMO, the environment that Fran is trying to succeed at Iowa is leaps and bounds more difficult than what Davis did and it's like, not even close. I also think Fran is 5x the recruiter and developer. Let's face it, Tom didn't lose his best players to a bag of money every season or players that have no business entering the draft and wouldn't have even considered doing such a thing in the 80's and 90's. I mean, could you imagine how bad Tom would have been without guys who are the equivalent of a Tyler Cook or Joe Wieskamp with eligibility left leaving his program? Now, take those 2 guys and replace them with Keegan and Kris Murray? Tom had to rely on getting guys into their 3rd or 4th season before we got any sort of pay off.

Davis is half the coach Fran is imo...but he was more likeable, came to Iowa at a time when the program was adored and in amazing shape. Fran came to Iowa as dumpster fire, turned it around and people still don't care. That's a hard cold fact that's stairing the next guy in the face.

 

[trj]

Well, I don't live in a hypothetical world. What I do know is that Fran has had some good teams and never gotten past the second game of the NCAA tourney. Maybe Fran would have taken the 87 team to a Nattie, maybe some kid hits a 30-footer from the corner and he drops out in the first round. No one knows what happens in Made Up Land.

What I do know is that not only did Dr. T have one Elite 8 appearance with Iowa, he had another one with BC, and a total of 3 Sweet 16s, one of which he pulled off as a lame duck coach before being fired. Comparing Davis' record in the real world with Fran's record in the real world and there is no comparison who has had a better career, at least as measured by Tourney success. Not even a close call.

And the floor will be named after CC some day. 70% of the fanbase was not alive when Lute was here.

My bad, man. Fran is Iowa’s all-time winningest coach and yet I am suppose to believe TD is light years ahead of Fran as a coach ? Nope. I don’t live in nostalgia and I have context. You are thinking the 11 of the 13 years of TD were better than what they were …and they weren’t.

 

[Hawkfnntn]

In Fran’s defense(no pun intended) the lack of fan engagement started before Fran even got here. Dochterman in one of the pods @Hawkfnntn listened to he talked about the steady decline of ticket revenue. It was at 4 million in 2005 and it is a little over 2 million now.

There are a generation of fans that are just gone from men’s basketball and are not coming back. Yes, Fran could have did more, but how much more I am really not sure.

I don't disagree. Alford left a mess in his wake when he got out ahead of the posse. Fran steadied the ship as well as it's been since. Yet Frans lack of endearing himself to the fans of the state is a real knock on him that he didn't try to change. Not once in 15 yrs.

I think hearing criticism towards his boys probably irked him like no other. And that woulda started back when they were in HS with Connor. So he just wasn't going to put himself out there anymore then he had to.

Some of the things he coulda done wouldn't have even really involved him. Make the players more accessible. Do another Prime Time league type of thing during the summer. Fran didn't have to be around for it infact I don't think he could. Do a Senior tour kinda thing like Mr. Davis did with BJ, Roy and Ed back when they went around the state doing a charity game against local fire departments or whatever. It's probably a tougher thing to do now with NIL and all that but 10 yrs ago it wouldn't have been.

You're right there's a generation of Iowans that grew up with a huge lack of give a shit about Iowa Hoops. Had I not been born when I was and was born in the late 90s-00s tough to say where my allegiances woulda landed. But it wouldn't have been as easy as it was.

 

[Fryowa]

If Fran had inherited a roster that included 7 guys that would get drafted in the first 3 rounds of NBA draft…he would probably have two Elite 8s. You know what Fran got instead? A complete dumpster fire.

TD’s second Elite 8 was basically on the fumes of Marble,Horton and Armstrong. Two NBA first rounders, and a bad ass known for kicking a wrestler’s ass at the Old Capital Mall. TD’s second sweet 16 was Bowlsby kicking him out the door and a 150 year old Jess Settles and everyone else rallying around it.

Tom Davis isn’t a better coach than Fran. Fran is the all-time winningest coach in Iowa history. And if I were to re-name the court, it would be after Lute or Caitlan.

Any Iowa basketball court that gets named after someone should say Chris Street Court on it. No one else should even be considered including Clark.

 

[PCHawk]

Saying you can't rate a coaches resume by excluding their first year doesn't make a lot of sense. You could make a serious argument that Davis underachieved in the tourney his first couple years. The most talented team in Iowa history needed a Gamble 3 to not get knocked out even earlier.