Is Fran a good basketball coach?

TheLorax said:
Alford made the tourney more than once,Fran has gotten us to the play in game.
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The program was also not completely in the crapper yet either. Alford was still living off of Mr. Davis's reputation as Iowa being a Top 25 competitive program. Fran inherited a program in much, much, worse shape.

That said, I don't think, thus far, Fran is leaps and bounds better than Alford....in particular how the team looks in the half-court offense. They press a bit more (but I was hoping to see more full-court pressing) and play more zone than Alford's teams on defense. Fran's team's are certainly more dymanic than Lickliter's Xs and Os. I think he is a moderate upgrade from Alford and certainly an upgrade from Lick. But, he has not certainly surpased Mr. Davis.
 
DDThompson said:
Some have.
Nobody would be saying anything about developement if the guards would put the ball in the hole. During a game. They can't.

Iowa State has players that shoot the ball. I am sure that Fred knows how to coach a jump shot and Fran is clueless on how to coach a jump shot. It's not a coach-em-up problem.

You want to call it a recruiting problem? Sure, I'll agree with you.
But Fred recruits guys that can shoot and gets his balls busted for doing it.

Jok can shoot but he's not getting minutes because he can't play defense (allegedly). Defense you can coach up. You can't coach somebody to have confidence/scrotum to shoot the ball in the hole. Jok showed tonight why he should be playing; Iowa's half-court offense sucks. He would relieve some of that suckiness. The bigs can make up for any faults he has on defense until he can get up to speed.

Fran's fault is he keeps relying on MG and JO to come around. They won't. At best, sporadicly.
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If you are paying attention Jok showed why he's not playing more.

for every tough shot he makes he gives up lay ups on the other end.
 
SpecialKHawk said:
I disagree as X and O's matter when you have the players.

Fran has his best recruiting class coming with 2 Chicago guys and one playing at Oak Hill. Not saying this is all world but we need more like this.

I agree that the jury is still out on Fran but what many fail to fully grasp is how far we have sunk as a program on a national level after Licklighter. Alford has gone onto to have some success but we tanked so nationally who came out looking like the idiot?

Here is what has had to happen. Fran has needed to win with less overall until we can do enough to rebuild our image nationally to get better players. He got us close the last 2 seasons, but not quite there. With some minor success now we pulled in 4 more players that are better in general than what we could before. That's how you build it over time. Now these four have to help us move forward another notch.

You cannot look at Ames for a blue print. That is a one in a million deal. No one else they could have hired would have these results. Look across the landscape of the nation against programs in similar shape to Iowa and you will find many failures.

We need some more patience and support. The worst thing in bball right now is to turn over another coach. Then we are officially labeled a graveyard program and good luck getting anybody. Then you are down to luck. How good do you feel about out chances of getting lucky?
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I have no problem with your assessment however if your a very good x and o guy it can counter the talent and we see it every year when it matters most during March Madness. They way Iowa has lost these games against ranked teams has come down X and 0's, especially in last nights game at home..
 
RocknRollface said:
If you are paying attention Jok showed why he's not playing more.

for every tough shot he makes he gives up lay ups on the other end.
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But Jok is playing more. He was 1st off the bench the last 3 games and played a ton last night. I think he has turned the corner and the light is finally coming on...the only thing is, the light is on a dimmer switch so it is slowly getting brighter.
 
Sometimes it seems like he just says f it in the second half. Last year I was wondering if he thinks players learn from losses and takes a positive from that. I think I just puked in my mouth.
 
This season: Beat everyone you were supposed to beat + #12 North Carolina on the road. Lost to #10, #23 and #14, all teams better than us. I don't know what you guys' expectations were for this team, but i was at 10-3, 10-8 for a 20-11 record and that gets us in the tourney as a 9 seed. I'll take that all day long. Basketball is a long season. Patience is key.
 
GVhawk10 said:
This season: Beat everyone you were supposed to beat + #12 North Carolina on the road. Lost to #10, #23 and #14, all teams better than us. I don't know what you guys' expectations were for this team, but i was at 10-3, 10-8 for a 20-11 record and that gets us in the tourney as a 9 seed. I'll take that all day long. Basketball is a long season. Patience is key.
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I expect them to look better doing it and no damn way I'll take what I'm seeing all day long. This team has to improve or your right they are in for a long season.
 
HawkPrdatr40 said:
I expect them to look better doing it and no damn way I'll take what I'm seeing all day long. This team has to improve or your right they are in for a long season.
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Ill take a 9 seed right now and sign my name to it. This team is decent, not great. What are your expectations for this season?
 
GVhawk10 said:
Ill take a 9 seed right now and sign my name to it. This team is decent, not great. What are your expectations for this season?
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I expected them to look better than they have and Iowa does has time to improve. As things stand right now I see Iowa as a bubble team.
 
I have hope for this season still based on Gesell starting to find his shot and Jok uping his game enough to move into 6th man roll. If Gesell's shooting woes are truely behind him and Jok keeps improving enough to take Clemmon's starting spot, we still can be good this year. Winning close games is a must though this year.
 
TheLorax said:
Yes they are barely a play in team but more likely an NIT team at this point.
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As average as we are this year, Michigan, MSU, and Nebraska all look pretty average too. Really the only 2 teams that are noticeably better than us are Wisconsin and OSU. That's only 3 games against way better talent.
 
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