Mens Basketball
- Thread starter Hawkman1961
- Start date
Didn't age well
Great game and another who did not see it coming. Iowa State looked like us against Duke, pitiful. Great for the team to excel without the so named star. Hope we run more balanced and less dependence on the star. I think it stunts team improvement and potential when the focus is on getting the ball to one guy. Great game Hawkeyes, much needed!
HawkGold
Well-Known Member
26th
InGoodCo
Well-Known Member
Figured it was a little higher, but still - 7-2 against a top 25 schedule, maybe I'm being too hard on this team. They are having a better start to this year than last year.
HawkGold
Well-Known Member
Some of the schedule was pretty weak. Nothing just really hard... well maybe Duke.
Iowa State really didn't show much physicality overall which will be this team's downfall...that and relying on outside shooting (without Murray).
Wisconsin will be a pretty good barometer.
InGoodCo
Well-Known Member
No lie, I'll be disappointed if they don't go undefeated at home.
Fryowa
Administrator
Still just a little early for SOS sample size.
KenPom has us at 78th SOS and Sagarin has us at 32nd SOS.
KenPom overall rank is 20, Sagarin 28.
HawkGold
Well-Known Member
The schedule seems ideal for a team trying to find itself and maturity. My main concern is the Big and getting physical.
HawkGold
Well-Known Member
Prepare to be disappointed. There are advantages to playing on the road, at least for teams that I have coached. More focus. More expecting bad things to overcome. No doubt home has advantages though.
InGoodCo
Well-Known Member
We're 3-1 in Q2
an
0-1 vs Q1
Besides a couple of scrubs which they won't lose to - the worst NET team in the B1G this season is Michigan at 90. Even Nebraska is playing well and losing to them on the road won't be a bad loss this season. I don't think NET wise, there's a bad loss potential - which should be great for the team and their potential seed in the NCAA.
InGoodCo
Well-Known Member
Oh I'm sure Iowa will lose at home, but I will still be disappointed - they lost 3 times last year to pretty good teams and I was pretty disappointed with that.
Fryowa
Administrator
I’m not arguing that we suck or don’t suck. I just think it’s too early to make any predictions beyond conjecture.
Like I mentioned a while back, Iowa’s place in the circle of life is to win some we shouldn’t and lose some we shouldn’t, make the dance and exit early. If we can do that somewhat regularly with no scandal I’m good. With recruiting in 2022 and not being a blue blood people are idiots if they expect more. This isn’t Tom Davis plucking backyard kids and going to Final Fours.
It’s the era of one and doners who are being recruited on Twitter with sex drugs and rock and roll from 8th grade on. I’m gonna say it…Fran McCafferey is a way better coach than Tom Davis ever was. He’s got every card stacked against him where Davis had everything in his favor.
InGoodCo
Well-Known Member
no argument there.
We're not as good as we looked last night, and we're not as bad as we've looked against Duke and TCU. What I am saying is, this team might be a hair ahead of where Iowa was last season at this point - which is encouraging at least.
SwirlinLingerie
Well-Known Member
I think Fran is a great coach, but I don't think you are giving a fair assessment of the Big Ten during Davis' tenure. There were plenty of sharks in those waters, too. Getting black-balled from signing Chicago area kids because young assistant Pearl turned Illinois in for cheating was a massive hurdle and one that Iowa never really recovered from, in my opinion.
Or how about going against the Fab Five, the team on a payroll up in Ann Arbor? Didn't the Hawks finish second or third to them a couple times? What if Michigan hadn't cheated? (And not exactly like they just fudged here and there on a couple small violations).
By the way, Davis also had to keep one of those Hawkeye teams together (I think one that finished just behind Michigan), when his star player died mid-season. Cards weren't stacked in Davis' favor that year in more ways than one - and the way he kept that team together and performing was admirable and impressive (and damn good coaching).
Or how about the year the Hawks were runners up to Minnesota? That was a once in a generation line-up for Minnesota...that was completely assembled and kept eligible through a massive cheating scandal. The fact Davis even had the Hawks in that position (and would have been Big Ten champs without the cheating!) was one of the most impressive coaching jobs I've ever seen. One all-big ten player in Kingsbury basically flunks out (because Iowa had standards and Davis didn't cheat) and another all-big ten player had horrific luck with a ruined back, and Davis somehow patched together a team around Woolridge that finished second (behind a team built by a corrupt athletic department).
The program had strengths and weaknesses under Davis, but in the grand scheme of things, I think he was a pretty damn good coach with high integrity who put together a winning program that followed the rules.
Other than last year's early NCAA exit, pretty hard to find games in recent history where Fran's teams "lost some we shouldn't". His teams rarely, if ever, lose to the SW Arkansas River Bottom teams at home. It's one of the differences between him and Ferentz.
Fran better than Mr. Davis? Meh. Depends on your metric, but Davis was 11-0 in first round NCAA tourney games if I remember correctly. Fran, not so much. Granted, Davis played a pressing, up-tempo style that many teams couldn't handle from an athletic standpoint -- but hey, his decision to play that style before it was 'in-style' was part of what made him a great coach.
loesshillshawk
Well-Known Member
After one game where ISU under performed. Murray still the engine that drives this team. Any team that shoots it like we did will win 99% of the time. Sanford still struggled, Patrick was tired and gets frequent breaks, Perkins played well, and Connor continues to impress.
racerhawk
Well-Known Member
How do you personally assess his mental toughness? wth
NorthKCHawk
Well-Known Member
Uhlis was just killing us. I understand why he is starting given the squad we have, but Fran better beat into his head better ball protection or he will be riding the pine. That was the only weakness I saw last night.
