Lost Another One

Fran has pursued a bunch of top targets in the last couple of classes...2014 and 2015, but so far, have not hit on any of those top 150 targets....a dozen misses in 2014, and a bunch more for 2015. Not the end of the world, but other Big Ten schools are hitting on some top targets...even PSU, NW, Minny, Neb, and Purdue...all ahead of Iowa for 2015....not time to panic, but it has to be driving Fran crazy...he has been spinning his wheels on dozens of guys, and all that was a waste of energy and resources in the end....frustrating,....I like Fran a lot, so hope he can find a way.

That's the depressing part. Purdue I can live with to some degree having decent tradition and they are from Indiana, but there's really no excuse to being out-recruited by those other schools. PSU & NW in particular - the perennial doormats of the conference. If they are getting better recruits than Iowa is, then we've got problems.

Maybe this all just seems really bad because every decision is posted on these boards, and I'm sure you recruit a heck of a lot more players than you get commitments from, but still... I don't want to see Iowa behind the schools hilighted above. If you can't beat them, who are you going to beat? Surely not OSU, Michigan, MSU, Illinois, Indiana, etc. Would be nice to seal the deal on at least one or two of our primary targets and get to middle of the pack in recruiting rankings at least.

I'm not sure why Iowa never seems to hire coaches that are known as strong recruiters. I know Fran is working hard and coming close, but this is getting frustrating. Second place is no place when it comes to recruiting, and it's hard to win without the talent.
 
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I'm not sure why Iowa never seems to hire coaches that are known as strong recruiters. I know Fran is working hard and coming close, but this is getting frustrating. Second place is no place when it comes to recruiting, and it's hard to win without the talent.

I'm not sure it is the coaches. Alford recruited well to New Mexico and UCLA. Fran is likable, assembled a veteran staff that knows how to recruit (Francis/Dillard especially), and works hard at recruiting. I'll agree Lick was bad at it. But I think it might be Iowa. We've have a hard time recruiting for about a decade and half now. And Tom Davis was exactly lighting recruiting on fire in the 90s.
 
I think Hutton should be considered a top 150 recruit. He is the most athletic wing and probably guy overall that Fran has gotten to commit in his tenure IMO.

Here's his most recent youtube video.

[video=youtube;qMpk-9kIO-A]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qMpk-9kIO-A[/video]
 
I'm not sure it is the coaches. Alford recruited well to New Mexico and UCLA. Fran is likable, assembled a veteran staff that knows how to recruit (Francis/Dillard especially), and works hard at recruiting. I'll agree Lick was bad at it. But I think it might be Iowa. We've have a hard time recruiting for about a decade and half now. And Tom Davis was exactly lighting recruiting on fire in the 90s.

Fran will find a couple more quality recruits before its over with. He has three already. He is still in on a few guys for the early signing period. I'd rather have basketball players that have a high ceiling than to just fill out the scholarships. We have had a couple of coaches that seemed to settle. There is and are going to be a lot of quality players available.
 
I think Hutton should be considered a top 150 recruit. He is the most athletic wing and probably guy overall that Fran has gotten to commit in his tenure IMO.

Here's his most recent youtube video.

[video=youtube;qMpk-9kIO-A]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qMpk-9kIO-A[/video]

I like Hutton but there is a reason he is not rated in the top 16 of Illinois class of 2015, let along a top 150 recruit.

Cannot shoot the rock. Hopefully it will improve, but guys that cannot do that do not get ranked very high.

Iowa has pursued over 30 top 150 guys in the 2014 AND 2015 classes....only one is left uncommitted...Grimes...he is going to commit in the spring.

Calling an 0 for 30 streak in bb recruiting being a ''chicken little'' is not correct. 30 guys is a trend. And not a good trend.
We can grab a Pat Ingram type of recruit late here....no problem.
 
I like Hutton but there is a reason he is not rated in the top 16 of Illinois class of 2015, let along a top 150 recruit.

Cannot shoot the rock. Hopefully it will improve, but guys that cannot do that do not get ranked very high.

Iowa has pursued over 30 top 150 guys in the 2014 AND 2015 classes....only one is left uncommitted...Grimes...he is going to commit in the spring.

Calling an 0 for 30 streak in bb recruiting being a ''chicken little'' is not correct. 30 guys is a trend. And not a good trend.
We can grab a Pat Ingram type of recruit late here....no problem.

Hutton was working on his shot when he had an ankle injury that set him back. He is going to be a great player for Iowa. I saw a clip of Wagner catching a touchdown pass on his football team. The guy has got some speed. You can watch it on youtube. Iowa will get a couple more quality recruits, and the face of Iowa basketball is going to look a lot different in a couple of years.
 
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I'm not sure it is the coaches. Alford recruited well to New Mexico and UCLA. Fran is likable, assembled a veteran staff that knows how to recruit (Francis/Dillard especially), and works hard at recruiting. I'll agree Lick was bad at it. But I think it might be Iowa. We've have a hard time recruiting for about a decade and half now. And Tom Davis was exactly lighting recruiting on fire in the 90s.

If by "Alford recruited well to New Mexico" you mean "Alford recruited better at UNM than he did at Iowa", then that's really not true. I checked UNM's recruits going back to 2007 or so, and just going by the star rankings listed, it looked like Alford mostly got 2-3* recruits and NR's there too, with a couple of 4*'s. So honestly looks pretty identical to what he recruited at Iowa (Alford landed a few 4*'s here, too). It's not like he suddenly started reeling in 4-5* recruits left and right at UNM. UCLA is, well, UCLA. He's going to get better talent there pretty much by default.

New Mexico commit list:
http://iowa.scout.com/a.z?s=8&p=9&c=8&cfg=bb&toinid=524&sspid=-1&yr=2014

Not sure Mr. Davis was exactly known as a workaholic when it came to recruiting, but he still did manage to get guys like Ricky Davis, Chris Kingsbury, Kenyon Murray, Joey Range and Andre Woolridge to come to Iowa. Raveling was a recruiting machine. Yes, it's not easy to recruit to Iowa, but not impossible.

Lick sucked. No way to sugar coat that.

I like Fran and think he works hard, but for some reason, he's missing out on the Top 150 players he goes after unless they are local (Woodbury, Gesell, Oglesby). Seems like there's a disconnect somewhere. There apparently is interest, they come and visit..... then commit elsewhere. Not sure if the visits aren't that great or what.
 
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Guys. Fran made a 5 star recruit and he committed to Iowa. I think we have the talent to make it to the tourney for the next few years. Beyond that, it's hard to tell because we have no idea what these recruits will bring to the table. It only takes one big time recruit, like the Junior class that was ranked top 25. Fran will get it done.

Who is this 5 star?
 
Could it possibly be related to getting into his players faces and throwing down a chair while doing it. Wouldn't put it past the other schools to be showing that clip over and over and over again. "Do you want this coach humiliating you like this in front of fifteen thousand fans." I know most of the coaches (at least the good ones) get after their players. That image of him doing that may seem over the top to many players and parents.
 
“One of the things that really sold me was the academic program and the support they give the players, and the strength and conditioning program. When in comparison with Iowa, it was probably 10 times better, for me, personally, based on what I was trying to achieve in college.â€￾

Ed Morrow

I hope he was exaggerating about the diff between Iowa and Neb. Not sure that Fran believes in bulking up in conditioning, but Neb maybe does more in that area? Academics....Iowa is better.
 
I hope he was exaggerating about the diff between Iowa and Neb. Not sure that Fran believes in bulking up in conditioning, but Neb maybe does more in that area? Academics....Iowa is better.

Yeah, Iowa isn't looking to bulk guys up, that was Lick ball.
 

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