Is this THE year?

L

longtimer

Well-Known Member
Ive been reading the posts that seem to be optimistic albeit somewhat cautious. The "experts" everywhere I have looked has us 10th or 11th not making the tournament and with no All Big Ten Players (at least not first team) So how do I see it (i'm sure you are anxious for that)
McCaffrey after 8 years has yet to do anything that keeps me up at night with excitement. No break through recruiting years, No big surprises in teams overachieving, but maybe big surprise with teams underachieving (see last year). So what do I honestly think? McCaffrey is not a good recruiter and seems to have no one on staff that can close with top notch recruits. Most of the time I enjoy the style of play but after Lick the old 4 corners offense would look good. My take is that he just isn't a great game coach. Has he been able to take a team and make them better as a team than a sum of the individual parts? That's what great coaches do
There is some talent on this team and I expect some good basketball at times, but we really have some things to overcome. No First Team caliber player to go to in the clutch. Cook is talented but doesn't have the skills to be that guy Doesn't shoot well for one. He is going to be fun to watch primarily for his dunks Kind of reminds me of Gerry Wright from the Davis years. He's going to make some good money in Europe
Really like Garza and Bohanon is a great 3 point shooter. Moss can score 15 in 2 minutes or 0 in 2 games. We have some other interesting parts

So after all that I really think the experts might be pretty close. Maybe this will be the year McCaffrey does a coach of the year job but i doubt it. I sure hope my outlook is wrong. I don't want to go through another year like last
 
Cook, Bohannon, and Garza all have the talent to be a 1st team B1G - Iowa brings in a top 50 recruit this season. I would say that Fran's teams in 13,14 and 15 all over achieved considering none of them were picked to finish as highly as they did in the conference as they did those years. Last year, IMO was really the only season he failed to meet expectations and under achieved and he did it in epic fashion. The recruiting is there too - Iowa currently has 3 four star recruits that will probably be on the court at the same time.

I get the pessimistic look and I am in the prove mode as well, but you're off base a bit in your state of the program views IMO

Fran has not proven enough to be consider anything better than average tho - so we can agree there.
 
InGoodCo said:
Cook, Bohannon, and Garza all have the talent to be a 1st team B1G - Iowa brings in a top 50 recruit this season. I would say that Fran's teams in 13,14 and 15 all over achieved considering none of them were picked to finish as highly as they did in the conference as they did those years. Last year, IMO was really the only season he failed to meet expectations and under achieved and he did it in epic fashion. The recruiting is there too - Iowa currently has 3 four star recruits that will probably be on the court at the same time.

I get the pessimistic look and I am in the prove mode as well, but you're off base a bit in your state of the program views IMO

Fran has not proven enough to be consider anything better than average tho - so we can agree there.
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IMHO, I think it really comes down to how much the players want to excel at defense. The offense is there; Fran is an offensive coach. If the defense is going to make big strides, it's gonna have to come from within the players themselves. It's not coming from Fran.
 
I don't think he will redshirt, but I think this year for Garza will be gaining his strength back. I don't think he will be what he would of been this year with the surgery. Hopefully, I'm wrong, and Iowa has other guys that can take his place. If it is true, he should be fine next year.
 
Tierney said:
I don't think he will redshirt, but I think this year for Garza will be gaining his strength back. I don't think he will be what he would of been this year with the surgery. Hopefully, I'm wrong, and Iowa has other guys that can take his place. If it is true, he should be fine next year.
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Everything I've heard is this was planned surgery and that he's fighting to be back by game 1 - so unless there is different news I don't know about and this being something that is going to cause him to miss significant time?
 
Season School Overall Big Ten Big Ten Standing Postseason
2010–11 Iowa 11–20 4–14 10th
2011–12 Iowa 18–17 8–10 7th NIT 2nd Round
2012–13 Iowa 25–13 9–9 6th NIT Runner-Up
2013–14 Iowa 20–13 9–9 6th NCAA Play-In Round
2014–15 Iowa 22–12 12–6 3rd(T) NCAA 2nd Round
2015–16 Iowa 22–11 12–6 3rd(T) NCAA 2nd Round
2016–17 Iowa 19–15 10–8 5th(T) NIT 2nd Round
2017–18 Iowa 14-19 4-14 11th(T)
2018–19 Iowa
Total 146-110 (.570) 64–67 (.489)

As the coach at Iowa, Fran took strides forward in each of his first 6 years as you can see above. One could argue Iowa could have been an NCAA tourney team in year 7 with a 5th place finish in conference. Last year was a step back. Iowa will most likely never be final four team year in and year out. Most teams aren't. But to be down on what Fran has done with the program just isn't very realistic. With that being said, he needs for Iowa to be an NCAA tournament team this year. As we all have said, if the defense can mildly improve, this team has the chance to be pretty good.
 
To say fran hasnt done anything exciting in his time at Iowa is a bit disingenuous. The team was improving every year, hit as high as 10th in the AP poll one year and 3rd in another year. At one point was being projected as a 1 seed in the ncaa tournament even.

Obviously none of that worked out and then Iowa quickly and brutally fell off a cliff, but to say fran has done nothing exciting at Iowa is pretty silly.
 
Fran has done a great job pulling Iowa out of the crator that was the Licklighter era. But I still expect him to be held to the same standard as every other Big 10 coach. How many years would a coach survive at other B1G programs between NCAA appearances? 3? 4? Idk. All I want to see are the fans and our administration having some semblance of standards.
 
One year doesn't make players jump higher, make them quicker, or defend harder. Experience is often overrated in basketball. Will they play team defense, will they be scrappy, will they share the ball? Gotta see Wisecamp and Conner play before I make any predictions.
 
I'll tell you...listening to Fran at the B10 media days, I still wish he would have hired a defensive minded assistant. In fact...if I were Barta, I would have required it. I don't think they have a clue what they are doing on defense. You are one of the worst defensive teams in America for a reason...and that reason is coaching.

I love the way Fran coaches on the offensive end and I think it's truly incredible how he gets his shooters open shots and what they want down low to Cook, Garza or whomever. Philosophically, trying to simply outscore your opponents is a losing strategy. You will run into great defensive teams...who can also score. You lose every time.

Defense wins championships.
 
WinOneThisCentury said:
I'll tell you...listening to Fran at the B10 media days, I still wish he would have hired a defensive minded assistant. In fact...if I were Barta, I would have required it. I don't think they have a clue what they are doing on defense. You are one of the worst defensive teams in America for a reason...and that reason is coaching.

I love the way Fran coaches on the offensive end and I think it's truly incredible how he gets his shooters open shots and what they want down low to Cook, Garza or whomever. Philosophically, trying to simply outscore your opponents is a losing strategy. You will run into great defensive teams...who can also score. You lose every time.

Defense wins championships.
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Yep, it provides teams the consistency every game they need to contend. Shooters have ups and downs, but playing good defense can be consistent and give a team a chance every game.
 
ForeverHawk said:
Season School Overall Big Ten Big Ten Standing Postseason
2010–11 Iowa 11–20 4–14 10th
2011–12 Iowa 18–17 8–10 7th NIT 2nd Round
2012–13 Iowa 25–13 9–9 6th NIT Runner-Up
2013–14 Iowa 20–13 9–9 6th NCAA Play-In Round
2014–15 Iowa 22–12 12–6 3rd(T) NCAA 2nd Round
2015–16 Iowa 22–11 12–6 3rd(T) NCAA 2nd Round
2016–17 Iowa 19–15 10–8 5th(T) NIT 2nd Round
2017–18 Iowa 14-19 4-14 11th(T)
2018–19 Iowa
Total 146-110 (.570) 64–67 (.489)

As the coach at Iowa, Fran took strides forward in each of his first 6 years as you can see above. One could argue Iowa could have been an NCAA tourney team in year 7 with a 5th place finish in conference. Last year was a step back. Iowa will most likely never be final four team year in and year out. Most teams aren't. But to be down on what Fran has done with the program just isn't very realistic. With that being said, he needs for Iowa to be an NCAA tournament team this year. As we all have said, if the defense can mildly improve, this team has the chance to be pretty good.
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I'll settle for 1 Final Four season from Fran. How long would you like to give him to accomplish this?
 
Fran is not a bad coach. He's an average coach and an average recruiter. If he/GG cheated like every other program, he might be a good coach and a great recruiter.
Watching Fran's team's fail miserably, to get defensive stops when they have to have them...is not exciting to me. And it never will be.
 
I believe Iowa will bounce back this year and we'll get something much more like we've typically seen from Fran's teams. Last year was an aberration IMO. Or at least, it better be. If this year isn't significantly improved from last year, Fran needs to go IMO but I don't get to make those decisions.

Is this year "the year"? Honestly, doubt it. I've been waiting for "the year" practically since Tom Davis left. Or you might even be able to say since BJ, Roy and Ed all graduated. Or, maybe even 1986-87. So I'll believe it when I see it. I suppose you could say maybe 2005-06 that won 25 games counts, but then NWST..

I thought we might get over the top a couple times with Fran, those two years where Iowa was Top 5-10 in January.. But then the collapses happened.

I agree it's all about the defense and I think it will improve, but I just have trouble believing it'll improve enough to get us higher than a lower-mid NCAA seed like we've seen (7-10 range or so), best case scenario.

Come on Fran and company - prove me wrong!
 
WinOneThisCentury said:
I'll tell you...listening to Fran at the B10 media days, I still wish he would have hired a defensive minded assistant. In fact...if I were Barta, I would have required it. I don't think they have a clue what they are doing on defense. You are one of the worst defensive teams in America for a reason...and that reason is coaching.

I love the way Fran coaches on the offensive end and I think it's truly incredible how he gets his shooters open shots and what they want down low to Cook, Garza or whomever. Philosophically, trying to simply outscore your opponents is a losing strategy. You will run into great defensive teams...who can also score. You lose every time.

Defense wins championships.
Click to expand...

I don't think for a second that Fran doesn't know how to coach defense. It's just that he doesn't prioritize it. To me that's about the easiest fix you can ask for.
 
This team will do very well, they exceed expectations, and he will be in strong consideration for coach of the year. The players looked very focused and ready to win at the media day. They are returning so much talent! They even have at least 1 NBA talent on the team. The incoming freshmen are outstanding. This team can do it for sure.
 
PCHawk said:
I don't think for a second that Fran doesn't know how to coach defense. It's just that he doesn't prioritize it. To me that's about the easiest fix you can ask for.
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right, he probably hasn't had to in a while, it typically comes with the package of being a good basketball player...and as long as you're winning more than you lose....which Fran's done. I think you're right, I expect a better effort this season and in turn, a much better year. We'll know right off the bat.
 
PCHawk said:
I don't think for a second that Fran doesn't know how to coach defense. It's just that he doesn't prioritize it. To me that's about the easiest fix you can ask for.
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Really...so he had an opportunity 34 times last year to make that easy fix and well, how'd that go?

Hey everyone, we are prioritizing defense this year! Fixed.

Is that how it works?
 
WinOneThisCentury said:
Really...so he had an opportunity 34 times last year to make that easy fix and well, how'd that go?
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My theory for that is a bunch of college kids got down on themselves early when they knew their season was tanked, then things spiraled from there. It happens all the time in sports. Their season started over for the Big 10 tourney and they actually looked better. The team that showed up in the tourney doesn't have to make near the leap to be good as the team that played the rest of the year. And this is coming from a guy who realizes that Michigan playing bad has a lot to do with that game being close. Iowa playing good had a lot to do with it too tho.
 
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