Jon's new article

[mopkins]

One thing that confuses me about this is all of the talk of Big 10 finish. To me it's almost irrelevant unless you win it all. The Big 10 plays very unbalanced schedules, so who cares if you finish 3rd or 5th. I've said it a million times but the bar in college basketball is making the NCAA tournament.

Also, there are a lot of people arguing like it's championships or bust and others like this kind of year is acceptable. Again I'm an ISU fan, I just don't expect championships. I think it'd be nice but I'm certainly not going to hold my breath on it. But there is a huge chasm between expecting championships and being okay with being arguably the worst team in the league. There would be some gripers because there always are but if ISU was on it's way to an 8-10 seed in the tourney most people would be very happy with that.

I can't even remember the last time a football team from the midwest won a national title in football (I wouldn't count Ohio as the Midwest, but people do). Nebraska in 1997? Its good to know that iowa is only a head coach away from pulling it off though.

 

[DodgerHawki]

Agreed.

With the right coach, there is absolutely NO REASON why Iowa can't be competitive on a routine basis. As far as players...Lute and Raveling were able to attract pretty darn good talent. If Hoiberg at Iowa State could attract really good players, then Iowa should be able to, also.

I am sick and tired of the excuses that are constantly be given as to why Iowa can't compete. Because that is what they are: excuses.

Some folks here just cited a whole list of reasons (population, recruiting base, etc) as to why it's harder to win at Iowa and the response is "no excuses." Of course you can compete at Iowa. The school is in the Big 10, which by definition allows the school to compete. But there are literally reasons why it's harder for Iowa to compete on a routine basis. Again, it doesn't mean it's not possible. Lute and Raveling proved you could recruit good players. They also both moved on to what they thought were better jobs, likely since they were tired of battling the inherent disadvantages to coaching at Iowa.

 

[Hawk5656]

One thing that confuses me about this is all of the talk of Big 10 finish. To me it's almost irrelevant unless you win it all. The Big 10 plays very unbalanced schedules, so who cares if you finish 3rd or 5th. I've said it a million times but the bar in college basketball is making the NCAA tournament.

Also, there are a lot of people arguing like it's championships or bust and others like this kind of year is acceptable. Again I'm an ISU fan, I just don't expect championships. I think it'd be nice but I'm certainly not going to hold my breath on it. But there is a huge chasm between expecting championships and being okay with being arguably the worst team in the league. There would be some gripers because there always are but if ISU was on it's way to an 8-10 seed in the tourney most people would be very happy with that.

It's a lot easier for the Fran supporters to bring that up instead of talking about how he didn't get in the Tournament once again.

 

[Hillcrest1981]

Broadcasters always talk about Fran running a full court sprint kind of offense. I am looking very carefully and I don't see it. JBO takes the full 10 seconds at times to get the ball over mid court. I was encouraged a few times at the speed that MD had bringing the ball up. JBO is not a point guard. Unless we give MD more than a few minutes at the point nothing is going to change. This team has got to get angry. I don't see it.

 

[theboat]

Broadcasters always talk about Fran running a full court sprint kind of offense. I am looking very carefully and I don't see it. JBO takes the full 10 seconds at times to get the ball over mid court. I was encouraged a few times at the speed that MD had bringing the ball up. JBO is not a point guard. Unless we give MD more than a few minutes at the point nothing is going to change. This team has got to get angry. I don't see it.

That is probably my biggest frustration. With the way the season has gone, these guys should come out with their hair on fire in a game like Wednesday, but instead it looks as if their game got in the way of their east coast vacation. This team is backed into a corner and still has zero fight except against a god-awful Illinois team.

 

[Joshbrown]

How were the recruiting services off? Right now I'd say most of the players on the roster have met or exceeded their recruiting rankings.

I think this question is better directed at the person I was quoting.

 

[lightning1]

Which part?

This part:
The problem with some of the really negative posters, and the troll56, is they won't ever give Fran credit for anything.

For instance if a guy doesn’t improve as much as they’d like they say Fran sucks at developing players. But then when someone brings up a Marble or Olaseni they say well he just got lucky.

Same thing for recruiting. They say he’s lucky White turned out as good as he was. Once you get into that place where you can’t give Fran credit for literally anything it’s hard to have a sane conversation.

 

[ChosenChildren]

I think Fran is a good coach, but he gutted the spirit of the team this year by promising playing time to Garza, Nunge and McCaffrey. Garza and Nunge are just not ready physically and should have been red-shirted. McCaffrey wasn't ready physically either, and has been sick most of the year.

That decision caused Williams to transfer, and Pemsl, Wagner and Uhl to give up. Remember, those 4 played on a team last year that was very good. You can't convince me that losing Jok was that big of a deal. He lost his leaders by playing soft freshmen who aren't ready.

You can't play true freshmen over upperclassmen who have given 3 or 4 years to the program. You just can't do it.

Terrible job this year by Fran....he lost his team and now has no leaders at all.

 

[Joshbrown]

I think the main thing is that you have to have someone in mind prior to termination. IF it's felt that guy is out there then you make the switch. I just wish the next AD was out there.

With this post you are inadvertently referencing a different fat cat problem.
Yes Barta needs to go, that's obvious. And yes there are better ADs than Barta. But the fat cat's in charge of Barta (KF and select others) don't want him gone cuz they honestly view mediocrity as excellence, due to the fact Iowa has nothing but handicaps working against it. This all goes back to what I said about Bowlsby and Alford. When they touted Steve's record string of winning seasons, I thought they were just engaging in job-saving propaganda. But in hindsight that was the beginning of the end. Because the movers and shakers at the U have come to believe their own propaganda.
It's not about the dance; the NIT or bowl games or championships. In FB & BB you just need to have a winning season to keep your job. That's why 7 wins is the demarcation point in football for the massive buyout increase, cuz 7 wins means you had a winning season.

 

[lightning1]

I assume you are the CEO of a major company? Or maybe the president of the United States? You must be at the very top of whatever you do with that attitude. What's your yearly salary? It's gotta be a billion at least right? If you make less than a billion per year, you're a defeatist.

Bullshit.

 

[Joshbrown]

Good god, talk about excuses. The new article is even worse the the first one. College basketball is not the same as college football. You can turn around a program in one year with the right coach. Recruiting is about hiring the right guys and also being aggressive and not just recruiting HS players. Get the best players possible regardless if they are HS, JUCo or Transfer/grad transfers. And no one is saying that Iowa should be Michigan State.

should? maybe not

but can be? Iowa's already proven they can be because they were MSU prior to Izzo elevating them above Iowa.

It's now becoming a sin to want to be the best. How would Dan Gable respond to Jon's words?

 

[Joshbrown]

Some folks here just cited a whole list of reasons (population, recruiting base, etc) as to why it's harder to win at Iowa and the response is "no excuses." Of course you can compete at Iowa. The school is in the Big 10, which by definition allows the school to compete. But there are literally reasons why it's harder for Iowa to compete on a routine basis. Again, it doesn't mean it's not possible. Lute and Raveling proved you could recruit good players. They also both moved on to what they thought were better jobs, likely since they were tired of battling the inherent disadvantages to coaching at Iowa.

Raveling had all the advantages you could ask for at USC. How did he do? And Lute moved on to Arizona. Are you telling me that's a state loaded with super-preps? Then how come they weren't an established power until Lute arrived?
Tell us about all the natural advantages of Kansas? You know, the Kansas that would raid Iowa talent to keep them elite.
Coaches matter.

 

[GotTimDodge]

How would Dan Gable respond to Jon's words?

OH SNAP

 

[NikeHawk21]

This part:
The problem with some of the really negative posters, and the troll56, is they won't ever give Fran credit for anything.

For instance if a guy doesn’t improve as much as they’d like they say Fran sucks at developing players. But then when someone brings up a Marble or Olaseni they say well he just got lucky.

Same thing for recruiting. They say he’s lucky White turned out as good as he was. Once you get into that place where you can’t give Fran credit for literally anything it’s hard to have a sane conversation.

I can assure you that 56 is a troll.

I literally had a discussion with a guy in a recent recruiting thread and he said Fran was lucky he landed Jok because Jok wanted to be a cyclone. Fran was lucky that Aaron White was really good. It was like he couldn’t give Fran credit for anything.

 

[Joshbrown]

OH SNAP

Speaking of Dan Gable, back in the day I heard/read people say, "Of course Iowa dominates in wrestling, that state has all the high school talent."

WTF? Dan Gable willed Iowa into a dynasty. Similar to how Barry Alvarez (and his predecessor) willed Wisconsin from irrelevancy into relevancy.
Coaches matter.

 

[kicker22]

I can assure you that 56 is a troll.

I literally had a discussion with a guy in a recent recruiting thread and he said Fran was lucky he landed Jok because Jok wanted to be a cyclone. Fran was lucky that Aaron White was really good. It was like he couldn’t give Fran credit for anything.

Not 100% certain, but I think we're all lucky Jok had the injury in high school. Otherwise I don't think he stays in state.

 

[Joshbrown]

I can assure you that 56 is a troll.

I literally had a discussion with a guy in a recent recruiting thread and he said Fran was lucky he landed Jok because Jok wanted to be a cyclone. Fran was lucky that Aaron White was really good. It was like he couldn’t give Fran credit for anything.

I'm okay with this post as long as you can say that the people who never have anything bad to say about certain coaches are trolls at the opposite arc of the pendulum.

 

[PCHawk]

Bullshit.

Bullshit? Have you read his posts in this thread? All you have to do is will yourself to victory. It's that simple. And Dan Gable didn't will shit. He was the best in the business and he won because of that fact. There are 14 teams in the conference and they are all trying to will themselves to victory. Some more than others I'm sure. But the order of finish every year isn't based on the order of how hard they willed themselves. Wisconsin doesn't suck this year because they took a year off from willing themselves to victory. Fran wasn't willing his team a little more 2 years ago than he is now. I'm not saying the will to win doesn't play any factor at all. But it's not even close to the main factor. And the guy who talks about it the most on here is almost certainly not very successful in real life. Successful people don't spend so much time talking about something they hate.

 

[PCHawk]

One thing that confuses me about this is all of the talk of Big 10 finish. To me it's almost irrelevant unless you win it all. The Big 10 plays very unbalanced schedules, so who cares if you finish 3rd or 5th. I've said it a million times but the bar in college basketball is making the NCAA tournament.

Also, there are a lot of people arguing like it's championships or bust and others like this kind of year is acceptable. Again I'm an ISU fan, I just don't expect championships. I think it'd be nice but I'm certainly not going to hold my breath on it. But there is a huge chasm between expecting championships and being okay with being arguably the worst team in the league. There would be some gripers because there always are but if ISU was on it's way to an 8-10 seed in the tourney most people would be very happy with that.

No one is ok with this season by itself. Some people just understand there will be down years. But some of those people are still not ok with how down this year is.

The biggest issue I have are people were calling for Fran's head during our good years too. During the years where Fran was taking us up every single year. Those people marked themselves as people who won't be happy no matter what. Now they have no ground to stand on while saying the same shit they were saying when we were making tournaments.

 

[Kennyfromminne]

should? maybe not

but can be? Iowa's already proven they can be because they were MSU prior to Izzo elevating them above Iowa.

It's now becoming a sin to want to be the best. How would Dan Gable respond to Jon's words?

Gable was a great athlete and coach. I think we all know his attitude and drive