I've never seen a team so caught up in the outside distractions

SpiderRico

SpiderRico

Well-Known Member
And ultimately I think that is a big part of how this year has played out. You've got Woody shushing the home crowd because of the perception outside the team that he can't dunk. You've got White who has spoken up on more than one occasion about the treatment of different players by those in the media, fans, etc. You've got McCabe busting out inappropriate comments on twitter following a bad game. And you've got the coach, who rather than dismissing an ignorant fan on a call in show, made a point to ridicule him and then bring it up again and expound upon it during his weekly press conference.

This is a heckuva team from a talent perspective, but they have obviously been distracted by forces outside the team and I keep hoping for McCaffrey or someone in the organization to put the kibash on it.....but when the head man is apparently distracted as well, then I guess it's probably too much to ask.

It's too bad really....
 
I tend to agree. If the team and coaches are getting caught up in what fans and media are saying (either good or bad), then that has to be a problem. The McCabe Twitter stuff can't have made matters any better this week, either.
 
1977Hawkeye said:
I tend to agree. If the team and coaches are getting caught up in what fans and media are saying (either good or bad), then that has to be a problem. The McCabe Twitter stuff can't have made matters any better this week, either.
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Kind of blows the whole "he's a great Senior leader" angle
 
How exactly is Fran caught up in it? By answering questions that are being posed by the media after a player lashed out? Any coach would defend his player to any one if he was getting ripped on a call in show. Didn't Fran put the kibash on it by banning twitter for the rest of the season?

not questioning what you're saying, just questions i guess.
 
Fran stuck mccabe in this situation by playing him too much. Now he is going to have to live with it for the remainder of the season.
 
Fran didn't need to tell the guy to go be a fan of a different team, and he certainly didn't need to draw up a last possession play for McCabe to make himself feel better. Very immature.
 
InGoodCo said:
How exactly is Fran caught up in it? By answering questions that are being posed by the media after a player lashed out? Any coach would defend his player to any one if he was getting ripped on a call in show. Didn't Fran put the kibash on it by banning twitter for the rest of the season?

not questioning what you're saying, just questions i guess.
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If Fran really did ban Twitter for the rest of the year, then kudos to him....I hadn't heard that.

But as it relates to the caller, there are two things he could have done. One was to ridicule the caller by questioning his fandom and making a big point about it. The other was simply to look at Dolph and say "Next caller please". Sometimes there are comments made that don't deserve a response....that was one of those times in my opinion and I think Fran made the wrong decision there.

But then when he was asked about it, he could have simply said that if callers want to call and complain about him (Fran) then he is more than willing to take those calls, but that calls critical or demeaning of players are off limits and he won't dignify those with a response. But instead, he continued to ridicule the caller and continue to call attention to it by once again questioning the caller's fandom and making it a much bigger deal than it needed to be.
 
He CAN go cheer for a different team?

The play was set up for Zach or Josh, Zach got the look and didn't make the play, you move on.

Are these just troll profiles posting this stuff? No Hawk fans really think what is coming out on this thread right?
 
InGoodCo said:
He CAN go cheer for a different team?

The play was set up for Zach or Josh, Zach got the look and didn't make the play, you move on.

Are these just troll profiles posting this stuff? No Hawk fans really think what is coming out on this thread right?
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And Zach, the man shooting 25% from three in conference play, never should have been part of that equation. Fran wanted to let him prove his doubters wrong- in the end he proved Fran wrong.

I'm sure he works hard, just like the walk-ons do, but this isn't Little League or a Disney movie, there will be no redemption for Zach and we don't all get to play.

It's time for his minutes to get cut. This isn't personal, I hope he lives a long happy life, but he isn't good enough to justify his minutes on this team.
 
I didn't hear the call, so I can't really comment on it further then I have no issue with Fran taking the stance he did. From what I read on it, I think his comments were along the line of what you just said. You can bash me and coaches but not our kids, and if you don't like our kids maybe you aren't a hawk fan. Sounds like a legit answer to me. If you don't support us GTFO... i wish more coaches had that stance.

Fran has pulled all Iowa players off of twitter.
 
InGoodCo said:
He CAN go cheer for a different team?

The play was set up for Zach or Josh, Zach got the look and didn't make the play, you move on.

Are these just troll profiles posting this stuff? No Hawk fans really think what is coming out on this thread right?
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What are you talking about? What did I post that wasn't true? Is it not true that Woody shushed the home crowd after a dunk and then admitted the reason he did it was because he was tired of hearing from people OUTSIDE THE PROGRAM that he couldn't dunk?

Is it not true that Aaron White, on several occasions, has spoken to the media about what he thinks are unfair attacks on players by people OUTSIDE THE PROGRAM?

Is it not true that Zach McCabe, after an unfortunately bad game, took to twitter to respond to those OUTSIDE THE PROGRAM that made highly inappropriate comments?

Is it not true that the head coach of our program decided to take on a fan from OUTSIDE THE PROGRAM about comments said about McCabe on a call in show and then continued to do it at his weekly press conference?

How many times do we have to hear about players and coaches getting upset by things happening OUTSIDE THE PROGRAM? How often do quality teams continue to bring things up happening outside the program? I'll give you a hint. You don't...because they are focused on the next game and the next team....not what some loser thinks or says about them. But for whatever reason, our guys continue to harp about crap happening outside the walls of Carver that it's pretty obvious to even the casual observer that they aren't as focused as they should be. And it's a pretty reasonable explanation as to why they can't close out games because only focused teams can do that on a consistent basis.
 
"Is it not true that Aaron White, on several occasions, has spoken to the media about what he thinks are unfair attacks on players by people OUTSIDE THE PROGRAM?"

I don't remember this.
 
Funny. This is because the last time Iowa was relevant, social media wasn't as caustic as it is now. I guess it changes when your team gets to the big leagues & relevant again.
 
I don't disagree that Zach is playing pretty poorly this season, but he's earned his minutes. I've been pretty critical of his play this season as well. I'd like to see his minutes go to other spots, but Fran is our coach and I think he probably has a pulse on the team better then my couch coaching, so I'll go ahead and let the guy making the millions make that call. I support his decision as HC until the day he isn't HC. As far as Zach???Zach should get as many shots as he needs to prove his doubters wrong. He is a big part of the team. He is a senior. He is a Hawkeye.
 
Hawkstrat said:
"Is it not true that Aaron White, on several occasions, has spoken to the media about what he thinks are unfair attacks on players by people OUTSIDE THE PROGRAM?"

I don't remember this.
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Post-ISU, I believe. AW said in an interview that he motivates himself by reading comments about himself on the internet. He was upset that people were criticizing Gesell for missing the GW free throws at ISU.
 
Spider, I didn't say any of what you said wasn't true. I think the conclusion that they can't win big games because they care too much about things outside of the program is a stretch. They read and know what people are saying about them, so what? You think that's the reason they aren't winning? Every team pays attention to the outside world. Zach got upset, he's human. The coach stuck up for his player? Not a shock. Woody can dunk and thinks ya'll should shut it... I like it. The outside distractions doesn't make this team lose ball games.
 
InGoodCo said:
I don't disagree that Zach is playing pretty poorly this season, but he's earned his minutes. I've been pretty critical of his play this season as well. I'd like to see his minutes go to other spots, but Fran is our coach and I think he probably has a pulse on the team better then my couch coaching, so I'll go ahead and let the guy making the millions make that call. I support his decision as HC until the day he isn't HC. As far as Zach???Zach should get as many shots as he needs to prove his doubters wrong. He is a big part of the team. He is a senior. He is a Hawkeye.
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Oh please.
 
How many college age young adults aren't on Twitter, etc. all of the time? They could stay away from Iowa basketball stuff but that's pretty much what these guys are living and breathing every day from the time they commit until whenever...see Brunner. I'm a bit older and have never twitted, twatted or tweeted so it's easy for me. I don't know how these guys avoid seeing the garbage that's out there.
 
This is just a sign what is happening in society. Everyone is distracted by electronic media. My co-workers are surfing the net and playing on their smart phones when they probably should be working. The other thing that has changed is Iowa is getting a lot more attention than 3 years ago. If iowa statays good, in another 2 years Woody won't care at all what they are saying on twitter. If Zach was getting this much attention 2 years ago, he would not care.

another theory is because of Fran's personality or maybe because of Iowa's deep bench, many of Iowa's players are insecure about their role on the team. Maybe the competition for playing time is adding stress to the player's lives.

and finally Iowa is losing more close games than they are winning, which can result in real or imaginary finger pointing.
 
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