Is there apathy with Iowa basketball with lots of fans?

[Ree4]

How good really is the B1G? At the end of the season after it’s all said and done then we will know.

If our conference goes into the NCAA tournament and kicks ass then that will help put everything into perspectives. Then we can “Damn these were really good teams we barely lost to during the regular season. We then can feel a lot better about a loss here or a loss there.

On the other hand if our conference teams get knocked out of the tourney daily early (in the first two rounds) then we will know it was all over hyped and we were all over ranked. That would shine a whole different light on our conference and on our program.

On another point is it apathy or just losing fatigue? You’ve followed the program for a long time. You have become acquainted with a season popping up when there are high expectations, much higher than normal, and over and over again those expectations crash and burn. This is where how you feel about the competitive aspect of sports come in. People’s expectations are different.

There are those who just want to enjoy watching a sporting event and may for one reason or another associate with one team for one reason or another. They likely don’t have items in their possession that makes a statement that they are fans of a specific team. If they win great, but if they lose oh well no biggie.

Then there are other fans who identify with the team closely for one reason or another. Being a fan of a certain team has been passed on for generations. Your remember your grandfather occasionally taking your father and you to a game or watching it on TV or listening to the radio in the house or out in farms fields religiously. Come crap team or a competitive team, it’s what you did. You would the satisfaction sometime of those around you who followed other teams who went on to make it to the big game. You saw their excitement and you wanted to experience for yourself.

Your expectations weren’t overly high as you figured your day would eventually come. A season approaches where it looks like ducks are all in order, but alas the season ends just slightly above average. You think maybe in a couple of years it will happen again because some of the young players look promising,(Does this sound familiar to some of you?)

Eventually you get losing fatigue. You decide that your not going to follow another team but your tired of getting your hopes up just to be disappointed. So you start to lose the desire to waste hours of your time following a program that a long sports history dictates that greatness is not going to happen.

You may note a score when the sports news comes up while watching the regular news channel. If you see they are dominating teams and have a healthy winning record you may start wanting to watch the sports news a little closer (after all this is your team). Some times those teams sputter out and you think to yourself (oh yeah, just what I thought). This is not a good thing for any fan to go through.

I personally haven’t gotten to this point with Iowa athletics but I have with some of my favorite professional teams who have fallen into the vicious repeated cycle. I think because of the turnover in players in college sports there is always that hope that your team will put together a great team and that if the chips fall right other teams will be down (Lol, not in Iowa’s case, just the opposite seems to happen with the exception of the 2015 football season).

I almost wish I could be in the group of if we play well and have a good game and it’s entertaining to watch, then I will enjoy the game win or lose. That’s not me. After over fifty years of waiting I think my devotion deserves more reward than what I am getting. Patience grows short, you’ve seen enough to know where a program is going in the right direction for hope. If it’s not make changes.

What kills you is when the program falls into stagnation and many fans and the administration excepts it

It’s a bitter pill to swallow.

Some say just pick another program to follow. I know some that have done that but they don’t have generations of family and time invested OR they were raised by generations of family or time that belong to that first group of fans I talked about.

I guess each of us falls into one of those brackets or some where in between. I am unfortunately in the most painful bracket.

I can see that things have changed but I haven't missed a Bball or Football game in 20 years - over half my life.

 

[BigD]

No apathy for me. I am frustrated, but I am enjoying the hell out of this season. We've been in the top 10 since the start of it. We're going thru a stretch where we aren't playing very well. I do see a lot of flaws in this team and I honestly don't think they are final 4 caliber. They might be sweet 16 and we haven't been to one of those in 22 years. I think that's my floor expectation for this team. Gonna enjoy the heck out of watching them try and do it. No apathy here

Well about five games ago I was thinking great 8 and playing for the final four. Now depending our seed getting past the second round could be a real challenge unless the committee is nice to us for a change and not matching us up against a final four team.

 

[HuckFinn]

I don't see that being the issue. Seems like CJ's lackluster D allows as many or more 3s than he scores....

This is nonsense. Prove it.

 

[HuckFinn]

Well about five games ago I was thinking great 8 and playing for the final four. Now depending our seed getting past the second round could be a real challenge unless the committee is nice to us for a change and not matching us up against a final four team.

Getting past the second round requires some pretty good basketball.

 

[HawkPrdatr40]

I think Iowa is really good and no apathy from me. However I'm not afraid to say that certain Players are getting more minutes than they deserve CM being one of them and especially when CJ is out. Just my 2 cents.

 

[BigD]

I can see that things have changed but I haven't missed a Bball or Football game in 20 years - over half my life.

I am sorry you didn’t get to see Lute coach. Both excellent defenses and offenses. A complete coach.

Before some of you older guys chime in I admit I would have loved to watch Ralph Miller coach but that was a little before my time.

Lute would have taken Fran to the wood shed.

 

[BigD]

Getting past the second round requires some pretty good basketball.

I totally agree and that is what concerns me.

 

[trj]

Your perception of CJ is incorrect.

The analytics tell a different story. It shows that he isn't a very good defender. I do believe Iowa would have won a game or two if he was healthy because of what he can do on the offensive end, not the defensive end. I would guess CJ's +/- stat is really, really good.

verlandj wasn't totally wrong.

 

[WindsorHawk]

The analytics tell a different story. It shows that he isn't a very good defender. I do believe Iowa would have won a game or two if he was healthy because of what he can do on the offensive end, not the defensive end. I would guess CJ's +/- stat is really, really good.

verlandj wasn't totally wrong.

I wasn’t really talking about that part of the post. I was commenting more on the 1st sentence...more or less saying CJ being out doesn’t matter.

I made a longer CJ post elsewhere. But will post this again.

ALL-FRESHMAN TEAM
KOFI COCKBURN, ILLINOIS
TRAYCE JACKSON-DAVIS, INDIANA
CJ Fredrick, Iowa
Franz Wagner, Michigan
Rocket Watts, Michigan State

None of these 5 teams are as good without their best sophomore IMO.

 

[STILLBUSTER]

How good really is the B1G? At the end of the season after it’s all said and done then we will know.

If our conference goes into the NCAA tournament and kicks ass then that will help put everything into perspectives. Then we can “Damn these were really good teams we barely lost to during the regular season. We then can feel a lot better about a loss here or a loss there.

On the other hand if our conference teams get knocked out of the tourney daily early (in the first two rounds) then we will know it was all over hyped and we were all over ranked. That would shine a whole different light on our conference and on our program.

On another point is it apathy or just losing fatigue? You’ve followed the program for a long time. You have become acquainted with a season popping up when there are high expectations, much higher than normal, and over and over again those expectations crash and burn. This is where how you feel about the competitive aspect of sports come in. People’s expectations are different.

There are those who just want to enjoy watching a sporting event and may for one reason or another associate with one team for one reason or another. They likely don’t have items in their possession that makes a statement that they are fans of a specific team. If they win great, but if they lose oh well no biggie.

Then there are other fans who identify with the team closely for one reason or another. Being a fan of a certain team has been passed on for generations. Your remember your grandfather occasionally taking your father and you to a game or watching it on TV or listening to the radio in the house or out in farms fields religiously. Come crap team or a competitive team, it’s what you did. You would the satisfaction sometime of those around you who followed other teams who went on to make it to the big game. You saw their excitement and you wanted to experience for yourself.

Your expectations weren’t overly high as you figured your day would eventually come. A season approaches where it looks like ducks are all in order, but alas the season ends just slightly above average. You think maybe in a couple of years it will happen again because some of the young players look promising,(Does this sound familiar to some of you?)

Eventually you get losing fatigue. You decide that your not going to follow another team but your tired of getting your hopes up just to be disappointed. So you start to lose the desire to waste hours of your time following a program that a long sports history dictates that greatness is not going to happen.

You may note a score when the sports news comes up while watching the regular news channel. If you see they are dominating teams and have a healthy winning record you may start wanting to watch the sports news a little closer (after all this is your team). Some times those teams sputter out and you think to yourself (oh yeah, just what I thought). This is not a good thing for any fan to go through.

I personally haven’t gotten to this point with Iowa athletics but I have with some of my favorite professional teams who have fallen into the vicious repeated cycle. I think because of the turnover in players in college sports there is always that hope that your team will put together a great team and that if the chips fall right other teams will be down (Lol, not in Iowa’s case, just the opposite seems to happen with the exception of the 2015 football season).

I almost wish I could be in the group of if we play well and have a good game and it’s entertaining to watch, then I will enjoy the game win or lose. That’s not me. After over fifty years of waiting I think my devotion deserves more reward than what I am getting. Patience grows short, you’ve seen enough to know where a program is going in the right direction for hope. If it’s not make changes.

What kills you is when the program falls into stagnation and many fans and the administration excepts it

It’s a bitter pill to swallow.

Some say just pick another program to follow. I know some that have done that but they don’t have generations of family and time invested OR they were raised by generations of family or time that belong to that first group of fans I talked about.

I guess each of us falls into one of those brackets or some where in between. I am unfortunately in the most painful bracket.

This was beautiful. A perfect account of my lifelong Hawkeye experience.
I'll never abandon completely. As u noted, I always anticipate a new season with various expectations and hopes. The 1 consistent is it's just harder and harder to finish given underachievement year after year (with once in a generation exception)

 

[smitharooney]

Definitely not apathetic here but very frustrated with the poor defense leading to constant wide open looks for our opponents. There was no excuse for how little Joe T and Perkins played last night.

In my opinion Uhlis looks better than both of them . His playing time is even more frustrating

 

[HuckFinn]

The analytics tell a different story. It shows that he isn't a very good defender. I do believe Iowa would have won a game or two if he was healthy because of what he can do on the offensive end, not the defensive end. I would guess CJ's +/- stat is really, really good.

verlandj wasn't totally wrong.

Please show me the "analytics." Thanks.

 

[trj]

Please show me the "analytics." Thanks.

You can do the homework yourself it is all out there.

 

[uihawk82]

I'm thinking if the hawks are playing in a top 10 match-up and you forget to go back to the game, you're just not an Iowa basketball fan anymore. I'm as bummed about last night's loss as I've been in a long time so no apathy here.

Still a big fan but I am tired of the below average defense which has been a Fran problem.

I am tired of not having a point guard who can penetrate, score or dish, at any time in the game.

We have all seen that JBo should most probably be at the shooting guard spot in the last 4 minutes rather than the point dribbling around late into the shot clock.

 

[HuckFinn]

You can do the homework yourself it is all out there.

Nice try.

 

[PCHawk]

Still a big fan but I am tired of the below average defense which has been a Fran problem.

I am tired of not having a point guard who can penetrate, score or dish, at any time in the game.

We have all seen that JBo should most probably be at the shooting guard spot in the last 4 minutes rather than the point dribbling around late into the shot clock.

In my opinion you can't know your favorite team is in the middle of a top 10 match-up and not care to watch it if you're a big fan. There's nothing wrong with being a casual fan and there's nothing wrong with turning into a casual fan after being a big fan for years because the product isn't good enough for you. But if you don't care to watch a top 10 match-up, you're not a big fan.

 

[uihawk82]

In my opinion you can't know your favorite team is in the middle of a top 10 match-up and not care to watch it if you're a big fan. There's nothing wrong with being a casual fan and there's nothing wrong with turning into a casual fan after being a big fan for years because the product isn't good enough for you. But if you don't care to watch a top 10 match-up, you're not a big fan.

Well maybe I will change my designation to somewhat disappointed fan, a fan who says prove it to me Fran after so many slides, a fan who says good, athletic defensive teams know how to take Fran's offense out of their game just enough to beat them especially when Fran's teams cannot consistently play really tough defense and get stops.

I mentioned in another thread before I started this one, maybe started it after the MSU win, that I think Fran has his best talent from starters to end of the bench. But it is still a team missing a really good point guard and as analysts of college BBall have said it is a point guard game for the last 20+ years.

We need more penetration to the rim to finish or bend the Dee and dish for uncontested shots. That is what most other top teams have. Imagine even Andre Woolridge or Dean Oliver on this team.

A really good point guard and point guard play would make this team really exciting to watch.

 

[ryno]

The wounds still run deep from how Mr. Davis was handled by Blowsby, and the bigtime failure of Alfraud killing the program and then Lackluster burying it.

And then Fran comes in and brings Iowa back to a competitive level.....but his best years have been average years for Mr. Davis.....and without a signature season like Mr. Davis (or Lute) thus far (zero Sweet 16s or better).

Fran's best teams have crashed and burned. This latest reincarnation is starting to go down that same path relative to expectations. I think fans lose trust and faith and are just waiting for the wheels to fall off.

TV contracts have screwed things up over the years. More people may be on twitter than message boards.

Covid and bad weather also are pretty big factor.

Although I think Carver has a great look to it....it can be a morgue with the blue-hairs and their ice-cream.

Mccaffrey's record is ZERO better than Alford's record was at Iowa. Under .500 in big 10 with chronically slow lineups. Gets old, thus not much enthusiasm. This year, however, everyone gets a pass

 

[PCHawk]

Well maybe I will change my designation to somewhat disappointed fan, a fan who says prove it to me Fran after so many slides, a fan who says good, athletic defensive teams know how to take Fran's offense out of their game just enough to beat them especially when Fran's teams cannot consistently play really tough defense and get stops.

I mentioned in another thread before I started this one, maybe started it after the MSU win, that I think Fran has his best talent from starters to end of the bench. But it is still a team missing a really good point guard and as analysts of college BBall have said it is a point guard game for the last 20+ years.

We need more penetration to the rim to finish or bend the Dee and dish for uncontested shots. That is what most other top teams have. Imagine even Andre Woolridge or Dean Oliver on this team.

A really good point guard and point guard play would make this team really exciting to watch.

If you don't care to watch a team in the top 10 until the season is over, just to make sure they don't collapse, you might miss the best iowa team in 30 years.

 

[blubberhawk]

In my opinion you can't know your favorite team is in the middle of a top 10 match-up and not care to watch it if you're a big fan. There's nothing wrong with being a casual fan and there's nothing wrong with turning into a casual fan after being a big fan for years because the product isn't good enough for you. But if you don't care to watch a top 10 match-up, you're not a big fan.

Iowa is not a legitimate top 10 team. (Fraud) Will be lucky to make the tourney. The annual "Fran Fade" is in full swing. I did not even turn the channel to the BB game today. Iowa wrestled Purdue and now OSU.