Jon's new article

[JonDMiller]

First off not everyone on this board thought we were a tournament team before the season. Many did but some also saw the lack of quality guard play.

I can't think of any of the people I associate with that were picking Iowa to make it to the NCAA tournament. I had them winning 17 or 18.

 

[PCHawk]

ROFLMAO!!!!!!!!!!! Why do you bother????

To be fair to some of the fan base it’s not totally their fault. I have to think that what some are really saying is that the PRUDES that pull the B1G strings at Iowa really don’t want coaches that could be come bigger than they are. That become so successful that they start to dictate the terms.

They don’t want an Urban Meyer premodonna at the school. They want a nice person who blends in well with the image THEY WANT to put out to the public. Now they are set with the BTN lacing their pockets with sixty million dollars a year. They will get the sixty million whether they finish in first place or in fourteenth place and revenue won’t be factored solely by success.

Kirk had to go chastise Brian for his foul language and Fran got chastised for throwing the chair down. The PRUDES didn’t like it. Cursing in a learned behaviorism and it’s highly likely Brian has been doing it for a long time but not in public like that. It didn’t fit in with the image these nerdish, prudish, mousy people running things at Iowa want.

What struck me after Alabama won another championship was how their coach was getting all choked up after the game. People want to demonize this coach because their own athletic department falls way short of the true competitive nature of sports. So they want to make the coaches of the really successful programs look bad or thuggish because we wouldn’t want those type of coaches at Iowa. That’s the lie. Lute rubbed people in the administration the wrong way and he just got fed up with their BS and left. Some tried to claim it was the fishbowl effect of never having privacy. That was never the real reason.

I know people who personally know Bobby Knight and they say that when he steps on a basketball court his truest competitive juices come alive in him. However off court they say he is one of the softest spoken, polite, and kind people you will ever know.
I bet that would blow some people away. It did me as I thought the guy must be a total a$$h•le all the time.

It’s the prudish people in the administration that are the problem. “Were are Iowa we will always be Iowa.” This is a true statement as long as the same type of people are running the administration, but to claim that it’s the cold winters, the rural environment is just a damn lie! Yep we should be living in areas where they have successful sports programs because it’s such a paradise there. Places like Lincoln Nebraska where they had a dynasty in football for over a decade.Other places like Madison, Wisconsin, Oklahoma, KANSAS, effing Boise, Idaho who has since 1999 had a 12-6 bowl game record including a 3-0 record in the Fiesta Bowl. The “we are Iowa” stick is just getting old.

Iowa has had its days in the sun too. The thing about Wisconsin and Nebraska is it wasn't impossible to get there, it's impossible to sustain. Iowa fans are mad that we aren't good RIGHT NOW. Well we have been good before, and will be again. It's just not sustainable here. That is a fact. It will never happen.

The whole "Nebraska and Wisconsin have been good so why can't we" arguement would only work if you were saying Iowa has never been good. It doesn't work to argue why we can't be good right now.

 

[David79]

There is talent on this roster...it's just not a balance roster. And yes, Fran's flair for the hyperbole hurts him at times like this

Depends on what you mean by talent.

 

[hawkeyebob62]

I can't think of any of the people I associate with that were picking Iowa to make it to the NCAA tournament. I had them winning 17 or 18.

You aimed too high

 

[tksirius]

I can't think of any of the people I associate with that were picking Iowa to make it to the NCAA tournament. I had them winning 17 or 18.

Wait what? Why were you so jacked up before the season?

 

[PCHawk]

I can't tell a fan how to be a fan. I've been guilty of that. I try not to. But, wanting Fran gone before this year seems to be a tad excessive. I don't personally get that. Doesn't mean I'm right. It just seems unrealistic about the program when looking at it from a large scope. I definitely understand why people want him gone now.

Wanting Fran gone before this year was stupid. I'll say it. It reeked of entitlement. We heard every year since Fran got here that he reached his ceiling at Iowa. All the while he was proving them wrong every year. I guess if you say something enough, you will eventually be right.

 

[JonDMiller]

Jon, I think it's warm after THIS season... Not, like hot hot, but definitely a put up or shut up situation and if he misses next year you gotta be thinking he's in trouble. That's what you meant right?

I mean, I dont want to get into a debate on what the definition of warm is. If they don't make the tournament next year, that will be very not good...I have no idea what the fallout would be because I am not the one in charge.

 

[Joshbrown]

Depends on what you mean by talent.

Personally I feel we would have more wins with a better coach. Meaning Fran isn't maximizing the potential of what he has. In other words, Iowa is playing below their talent level right now.

 

[Hawk5656]

I can't think of any of the people I associate with that were picking Iowa to make it to the NCAA tournament. I had them winning 17 or 18.

That’s 21 wins…don’t get hung up on the who just yet…I’ll certainly want more time to dive into a few matchups and look a little closer at the timing. That’s a 10-8 Big Ten record, and with this schedule, I think they could get to 12-6 at the high end.

At any rate, it should be a very fun year for hoops in Iowa City

https://www.hawkeyenation.com/basketball/iowa-basketball-program-rank-b1g

 

[PCHawk]

I totally agree with you about how hard it is to be successful and how not all programs are going to find a coach to do it. But with that said doesn't it make the argument for taking risks that much stronger. If there truly are that few coaches out there that can take your program to the next level then why settle for one that can't. Continue to take chances hoping to find that coach if it doesn't pan out your right back where you started. While those elite coaches are hard to find average ones aren't. If you swing and miss on an elite there's a good chance there's an average one waiting for a shot and what do you have to lose.

If we went that route, Iowa would be known as a coaching graveyard. The odds of destroying a program are way higher than the odds of becoming a great program.

People always point to Wisconsin (and MSU in this thread) as programs that are excellent because they didn't settle for mediocre. They are wrong. They settled for it forever until it was time for a standard coaching change, then caught lightning in a bottle. They didn't fire coach after coach because settling for average is a losers mentality. In fact, what Iowa did with Davis is way more extreme than either of those two programs did.

 

[David79]

Personally I feel we would have more wins with a better coach. Meaning Fran isn't maximizing the potential of what he has. In other words, Iowa is playing below their talent level right now.

I just don't see a lot of talent. I see a lot of mid major players.

 

[JonDMiller]

Saying this or that won't ever happen isn't based in reality. It's a defeatist attitude.

Meh, that might look cool on a coffee mug sitting on your desk next to your framed Blvd of Broken Dreams poster you are still lugging around from college that nobody thinks is cool any more, but over hneuh in the real world, I may not like that brick wall...but there ain't no amount of time available where ramming my head against it is going to knock it down.

Everybody doesn't always get a trophy....just because I want something, doesn't mean that I get something. There are real barriers to entry that exist in the high echelon of P5 athletics....and there are some programs that have decades of better success, better traditions, larger state population and recruiting bases, etc, that Iowa does not have and never will have.

Yet....but I WANT IT!

By all means, knock yourself out with that waste of time. But please pardon me when I call it for what it is, and instead choose to stay grounded on the reality of things. that doesnt mean wave the white flag..it doesn't make the losses taste like garbage...sports, when you are not a blueblood, is about hope. But hope in something just for the sake of the outcome without a reality based assessment of how the sausage is made is idolatry.

 

[tksirius]

That’s 21 wins…don’t get hung up on the who just yet…I’ll certainly want more time to dive into a few matchups and look a little closer at the timing. That’s a 10-8 Big Ten record, and with this schedule, I think they could get to 12-6 at the high end.

At any rate, it should be a very fun year for hoops in Iowa City

https://www.hawkeyenation.com/basketball/iowa-basketball-program-rank-b1g

Well, this is awkward...

 

[JonDMiller]

That's some spin right there for a team that lost in the NIT at home haha.

As I said in another thread, I don't know of anyone I associate with who had Iowa in the NCAA tournament...and everyone I associate with was very satisfied with how that team fought and played ahead of schedule.

 

[Joshbrown]

I just don't see a lot of talent. I see a lot of mid major players.

You could be right. That would mean the recruiting services were off, which is possible. But it would also mean Fran has a bad eye for talent. And that would be another argument for finding a coach with a good eye for talent.

 

[PCHawk]

You just gave the textbook definition of a homer fan. Which just about nobody here is.

You can't come to a message board like this and not expect everybody to say your point of view is ridiculous.

CyFan is a site suited to whiny homers. They'll take you in and we even have a couple members here who would sign you up and probably preempt you from the approval process waiting period.

I read his post and think he describes a real fan. It's called different points of view. It's more about optimistic people and pessimistic people. I love Iowa games more than anyone I know in my personal life. My wife thinks I'm a loser for posting here (and I tend to agree with her) but I can't help it. I love the hawks and love talking about them. But I have a life outside it and I do my best not to let it turn me into an Ahole when they suck. I'm also not under the illusions that me crying about them sucking will change anything. All it would do is turn me into a loser in my everyday life. I choose to root for Iowa and have a life outside of that. That means I don't have time to picket outside Barta's office or waste time watching something I've hated since Lute.

 

[JonDMiller]

Wait what? Why were you so jacked up before the season?

To be clear, you are asking why I was jacked before the start of last season?

1) Because I love basketball
2) Because I had little to no expectations for a team that was the youngest in Iowa history
3) Because of two, every night was likely to be an unknown, and that is a lot of fun because
4) Sane and rational people would sit back and enjoy the ride without pretense

Present company excluded, apparently.

 

[JonDMiller]

That’s 21 wins…don’t get hung up on the who just yet…I’ll certainly want more time to dive into a few matchups and look a little closer at the timing. That’s a 10-8 Big Ten record, and with this schedule, I think they could get to 12-6 at the high end.

At any rate, it should be a very fun year for hoops in Iowa City

https://www.hawkeyenation.com/basketball/iowa-basketball-program-rank-b1g

What year are we talking about? I was referring to 2016-2017

 

[tksirius]

To be clear, you are asking why I was jacked before the start of last season?

1) Because I love basketball
2) Because I had little to no expectations for a team that was the youngest in Iowa history
3) Because of two, every night was likely to be an unknown, and that is a lot of fun because
4) Sane and rational people would sit back and enjoy the ride without pretense

Present company excluded, apparently.

But you actually predicted 21 wins with a 10-8 B1G record which would put Iowa in the NCAAs.
https://www.hawkeyenation.com/basketball/miller-quick-iowa-basketball-prediction

 

[JonDMiller]

Well, this is awkward...

Sorry, for some reason, after reading through this entire thread, I thought the question was about last year....

No, for this year? This season has been a complete and total disaster to date, a huge disappointment.

Which the Iowa media did not see coming...but the national media picked Iowa 9th and 10th and 11th...they knew something we didn't. Still miffed about that