Media Picks Hawks to finish 9th

L

longtimer

Well-Known Member
I know there a lot of posters who are excited about the upcoming year. As much as I enjoy basketball I am not as excited as some. We have maybe the worst non conference schedule I have seen and most predictions have us finishing 9th or lower. Of course if that is accurate we miss the tournament.
Last year we had the player of the year and 2 players now in the NBA and after getting a second seed lost in the second round to a less than great team
But who knows. Maybe we will have someone come out of nowhere to be a difference maker (hopefully a guard) and we will not only make the tournament but make that elusive sweet 16. Maybe not
 
Iowa is likely going to make the sweet 16 some year when people are least expecting it. I actually think Iowa will be as athletic as they’ve been for some time and have a lot better overall defense. Concern is scoring. This schedule does suck, but probably what a young team needs to build confidence and chemistry. You’d hope for a few morw challenges tho.
Fran has placed in the top half of the league every year but 3 and 2 of those were his first. I’ll be shocked if they drop off past 7.
Luka was great, but having him in the middle and Jordan at the top was a recipe for disaster on D.
Iowa very well could have another NBA player on their roster and IMO Patrick is a huge X factor. I also love how much faster and more athletic our guards should be as well.
Cautiously optimistic would be my take
 
I'm in football mode now, but I do look forward to the basketball season. Predicting Iowa to finish anywhere 5-10 is accurate, imo. Off the top of my head I can rattle off 4 schools that will finish ahead of Iowa. 6-7 schools, including Iowa, that are in the middle-of-the pack, where you just don't know.
 
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Given what we lost and how deep the Big Ten has been as of late, this seems like a very reasonable, maybe even generous, pick to me.

Fran has kind of entered the Ferentz zone for me in the sense that you kinda know what you're getting at this point. I don't think Fran is quite at the same level as Ferentz in terms of quality as a coach but, in the grand scheme of things, I think he's a good coach that fits the Iowa culture. I think some of the criticisms of our D (or lack thereof) over the years have some validity and I remain hopeful of seeing a "Fran 2.0" evolution at some point, but the big picture for me looks like:

- Keeps us competitive in the Big Ten. I'll just be honest, barring some kind of "2.0" evolution, we're not going to win the Big Ten under Fran, but he has us out there mixing it up at a .500 ish level. With as competitive as a league this is, I'll take it.

- He recruits good kids, it seems. Good students, good citizens, kids who represent the program and university in a positive way. There seems to be a good deal of affinity between Fran and the players, too.

- Plays an exciting style of ball. For one thing, it's entertaining even in years we're not particularly good but, more importantly, I think Iowa basketball is like Iowa football in that we need some sort of "schtick". Neither program is the sort to bring in all kinds of 4 and 5 star kids and then just see what comes together, both programs need some kind of gimmick, I think. On the football side, you've got the defensive minded, tough, conservative thing going on, on the basketball side we've got the up tempo streetball thing.

I'll be looking forward to hopefully seeing us overperform a bit this year. It's going to be very interesting to see how it all gels.

If Keegan becomes our go to guy and produces like I think he might, I think he has an outside chance of going pro after this season. That storyline alone would be enough to keep me watching.
 
I am not really paying attention. And the recruits seem to be really similar to what Fran always recruits, so it is what it is.
As for the upcoming team, I could see ceiling as round of 32 team and floor as the CBI
 
Lots of unknowns, I’ve just seen this staff work. They don’t think they’re finishing 9th. I don’t either. Probably not a ton better but I’ll go 7th. They’ll play above their skis in those early B1G games and a new scorer will emerge. We’ll press. Well be fast at guard and physical. We’ll play better D and Iowa will be decent at scoring as always. They’ll fade down the stretch like some young teams do and barely get in the dance then who knows. That’s my hope. These early games suck but we’re gonna see who can play and who can’t and not lose because of it. This is a wholesale change. I’m excited
 
Also, every year Iowa loses a all conference type player and what happens the next year? Another all conference player emerges. That player is already on campus. Maybe 2 of them. I mean, if we have the foresight/data/trend and projection of "Fran can't get to the Sweet 16" - we should also have the "Fran's gonna produce another all conference type of player like he always does" outlook as well.
 
Kinda agree with this projection, last year I got too pumped with the hype, and as usual, got steamrolled when we got knocked out........this year, whatever happens, I am just going to sit back and enjoy a different look. Except if JBo brings the ball down, but even that's good-give me time to grab a beer................

Truth is, I expect JBo to start getting the same treatment around the league that "Grandpa" Settles got, only with his attitude, he will probably hit 3's at 60%............

It is all good folks................
 
After a vacant CHA last season, I am really excited to take advantage of my season ticket this year. Trips to IC makes the winter go faster. Team is a huge unknown. But with that label comes the possibility of a very interesting season. I expect some highs and lows, which will by definition create frustration. I just think it will be fun.
 
InGoodCo said:
Iowa is likely going to make the sweet 16 some year when people are least expecting it. I actually think Iowa will be as athletic as they’ve been for some time and have a lot better overall defense. Concern is scoring. This schedule does suck, but probably what a young team needs to build confidence and chemistry. You’d hope for a few morw challenges tho.
Fran has placed in the top half of the league every year but 3 and 2 of those were his first. I’ll be shocked if they drop off past 7.
Luka was great, but having him in the middle and Jordan at the top was a recipe for disaster on D.
Iowa very well could have another NBA player on their roster and IMO Patrick is a huge X factor. I also love how much faster and more athletic our guards should be as well.
Cautiously optimistic would be my take
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Fran mentioned the elephant in the room yesterday. Iowa has like 50 plus points between 3 guys that were penciled in for 30 plus mins a game to replace. I'm including Fredrick with this obviously. We need guys to put the ball in the hoop to play our style. Lots of new faces will be given chances to see what they can do. I'm with you I don't want to put any crazy expectations on them cause heck if I know what's fair. Lets see a few games first at least
 
Talking about CJ Frederick on SEC Network right now

Kentucky Men's Basketball Pro Day

We will miss his D which was underrated and also
His threes with time running out in the first half

But his 7 points a game will be easy to replace

I still have a strong feeling that we will be surprising a lot of folk

Lotta talent on the team and Quickness

Watch out
 
I may be dreaming, but I think the Hawks finish closer to 5th than 10th. If I had to pick 5th or better versus 10th or worse I would go with option one.

I am excited to see the young fillies with another year of growth on em. Not excited about seeing them play so many cupcakes, but that is to be expected I guess. Think Fran is selling them a little short though on the level of cupcakes they can (or need to) digest. They need to at least be challenged and taking a few lumps against upper level competition ain't all bad either. If he only would have consulted me first.

Was hoping to hear some "_____ is really tearing it up in practice" news by now! Can't wait to see the shiney new team unveiled...
 
It could be a tough season but I'm looking forward to this team quicker better defense. Enjoy this team I think we could sneak up on some teams. Goo hawkeyes
 
ssckelley said:
This is to be expected when you lose 3 starters with one of them being the POY. We could be in for a tough year.
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Ya know I can hear that and I’d expect that to be the general thought about this season heading in from most fans. I imagine most will give Fran a pass this season but honestly my floor expectations with Fran is the NCAA. I’d like to see that streak continue and see a consistent program that’s getting to the Dance and giving itself chances to advance. I expect a drop off but I expect an upper half finish.
 
Something else to add - the Big Ten is a 14 team, extremely deep league. There are fates much worse than finishing 9th.

On sports-reference.com, I went and looked at where 9th place would be every season going back to 2014-15. Obviously we all aspire to be at the top of the heap every year but, realistically, given our program history and trajectory, I don't know that I take 9th as any kind of slap to the face.
 
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