Iowa is in much better shape now then it has been in the last decade. Iowa is the only team with two road wins over top 25 teams in the country. We knew this team would have issues shooting the ball on some nights. Losing to MSU sucks but there's a lot of B1G season left. I think Fran has a good group coming in and the future looks bright personally.
Let me throw this out there.. Our backcourt is weak, and our strength is our front court. Well, we lose White & Olaseni after this year, so we'll have to lean on Woodbury a lot next year. Who else will be able to bang in the paint? Who plays in the paint when Woody needs a rest, gets in foul trouble, or gets injured?
The group coming in next year may turn out to be solid, but looking at the class again, it's three small forwards and one shooting guard. There is literally no one coming in at point guard, and no bigs.
My concern is that next year, the back court is going to be just as shaky (unless someone steps up, which I know we can't write off) but we are losing a lot of our front court. So where will Iowa be strong in 2015-16?
What about 2016-17 when Woody, Gesell and Clemmons are gone? It's hard to look too far ahead since we don't know what recruiting will bring, but I'm less optimistic than you are about next year and beyond. I like Fran and he's done a good job of making us competitive again, but have we hit the ceiling, and about to drop back a bit again? That's my fear.
I'm not TRYING to be negative, but if I look at it objectively, this is the way I see things right now. I'm not talking about this year, just the future.