Is this still one of Iowa's best teams in the last 30 years?

QuadCityHawkeye

QuadCityHawkeye

Well-Known Member
No and it's not close. We all drank the Kool-Aid but quality basketball teams don't **** their pants late in the season. They don't play awful basketball 4 times in a row in Feb, and they don't come out of a week off looking the same as they did in previous losses. They don't roll over at home and play stupid basketball.

This is the same thing we all saw in 2013. A team with talent who runs out of gas and stumbles to the finish. Something is seriously wrong here and I have to think part of it is staff related. No I don't want to fire Fran but there is a trend here especially in big games. Even last year in the Big Ten Tourney Iowa played like garbage in a loss to Penn State. This has been 3 years in a row now Iowa has stumbled late in the season. The Davidson win was fantastic but you can't say things have been exactly up to par late in the season under Fran. Does his yelling have some sort of affect on these guys because they haven't responded to the wrath and we've seen a lot of it lately. I love Fran's passion but it's foolish to think he might not have these kids playing tight and timid out of fear.

I don't know exactly what it is, but I can tell you right now this Iowa team isn't even a top 5 one in my lifetime and I'm 39. This level of play the last 4 games proves that. Tom Davis had teams with more focus and basketball IQ.

Hopefully Iowa gets hot and makes me look stupid but I think this team peaked in Jan.
 
It's tough to figure out. There's the team right now, or the team we saw in January. Which is the real team?

It seems the pattern of not being able to make plays during crunch time of close games is continuing, even with as many upper-classmen as we have on the floor this year. It continues to result in close losses.

I don't know what the problem is, but I still believe firmly that we might've seen a different result last night if Fran had used a timeout or two inside those last 5 minutes. Woody was half dead by the 4 minute mark. Looked like he was about to have a coronary when he went to the bench. With fresher legs, who knows. Guess that's where a productive bench would help - Wisconsin had the clear edge there.
 
Everything that went well early in the season isn't working now. The defense is horrible (especially interior), the offense is streaky, free throw shooting isn't good, and turnovers are appearing. The bench also hasn't been effective. Remember when Uhl and Baer used to knock down three's?

I have no idea what Ellingson's role is right now either. He doesn't even look like D-1 player out there. No doubt the Dale Jones injury hurts with depth but Iowa's bench has been horrible during this losing streak and even got shaky prior.

The only guys playing consistently well are Jok (even though he vanishes at times), Woodbury, and Clemmons. The rest of the team has been a let down and yes that includes Uthoff. You can't have your best player keep missing clutch shots which he has this season.
 
It is probably one of Iowa's best teams over the last 30 years but that's not saying much. Iowa has only been to the sweet 16 3 times during that stretch.
 
Xerxes said:
It is probably one of Iowa's best teams over the last 30 years but that's not saying much. Iowa has only been to the sweet 16 3 times during that stretch.
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Right now I'd say the 1986-87 and 2005-2006 team for sure is better.

I'd also put 1987-88 and 1996-1997 up against these guys.

People saying this was one of the best teams in their lifetime back in January were incorrect unless you were born in 2005.
 
1977Hawkeye said:
The 1988-89, and 1992-93 (especially with Street) teams were pretty good, too.
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Agreed. Still lots of basketball left but at this point this Iowa team is not elite when you look at school history. The Big Ten title was there for the taking and Iowa needs a big run to get it now.

Great teams in school history don't get put in this position. If they win out then I'll eat crow.
 
Given the overall record and where they will finish in the B1G........Strictly record wise, this will be one of the better teams in the last 35 years.
 
the thing about comparing current teams to teams in the 80s is the big talent disparity. the big ten was absolutely loaded in the 80s - the talent gap - is striking, imo.

for example, who has iowa really beaten this year?

i would say that there are several iowa teams in the past 30 years better than the current team - and comparing this team to the 86/87 is crazy talk. talk about loaded - that team was.
 
QuadCityHawkeye said:
No and it's not close. We all drank the Kool-Aid but quality basketball teams don't **** their pants late in the season. They don't play awful basketball 4 times in a row in Feb, and they don't come out of a week off looking the same as they did in previous losses. They don't roll over at home and play stupid basketball.

This is the same thing we all saw in 2013. A team with talent who runs out of gas and stumbles to the finish. Something is seriously wrong here and I have to think part of it is staff related. No I don't want to fire Fran but there is a trend here especially in big games. Even last year in the Big Ten Tourney Iowa played like garbage in a loss to Penn State. This has been 3 years in a row now Iowa has stumbled late in the season. The Davidson win was fantastic but you can't say things have been exactly up to par late in the season under Fran. Does his yelling have some sort of affect on these guys because they haven't responded to the wrath and we've seen a lot of it lately. I love Fran's passion but it's foolish to think he might not have these kids playing tight and timid out of fear.

I don't know exactly what it is, but I can tell you right now this Iowa team isn't even a top 5 one in my lifetime and I'm 39. This level of play the last 4 games proves that. Tom Davis had teams with more focus and basketball IQ.

Hopefully Iowa gets hot and makes me look stupid but I think this team peaked in Jan.
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You can't say winning the last 6 games in the regular season, losing one game to a bad team, destroying a pretty good Davidson team, then losing to a really good team is finishing bad. You won't look stupid tho if they win out because with all the info you have up to this point, it looks like that won't happen. If it does happen, it means something changed for the better. You can't look stupid if something changes after you said something. Just like the people a few weeks ago don't look dumb for saying we were a really good team. At the time we looked like it, then something changed.
 
No. Not really. I would take a number of Mr. Davis's teams against this team at this point in the season. So mentally weak.
 
I keep waiting for the January team to show up but they really are getting worse as the season progresses.

Fran deserves a lot of heat. No excuse for this at all. None.
 
Actually, the twenty-three conference wins the last two years are the most in consecutive seasons since Davis' first two years. So, if you think Davis' was better, you're nuts!
 
ColumbusHawk said:
Actually, the twenty-three conference wins the last two years are the most in consecutive seasons since Davis' first two years. So, if you think Davis' was better, you're nuts!
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Mr. Davis also had 23 in 95-96 and 96-97. So actually you have little basketball knowledge and should defer to those that know. I hated Tom's style of subbing but he did get it done.
 
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