Where do I start. Well I've watched lots and lots of basketball games. I go back to the late 80s with Marble, Armstrong etc as to when I first got into hoops. Many of you go further back than that. Fran has been a part of many many games. I don't think this game was the chippiest one I've ever seen. Did it have it's moments towards the end sure. But I've seen way worse where everyone still went through the handshake line. When it comes to what happened at the very end I just don't see the big deal. So what? I don't think one should get upset at kids playing the whole game. I just don't. Baer could have protected the ball better or passed it too. The reason that kid went at it was because Baer was being lackadaisical with it and not paying attention. You can clearly see how the other kid was away from him but when he saw he had an opening that's when he went at it.
But that alone shouldn't have been the tipping point reason to not go through the line. Now I know they were fouling hard and doing some cheap things here and there on Jordan and Jok. Not to mention their kid flopped like Vlade Divac. No way Jordan with his left hand could shove that kid down like that. He probably had 15-20 lbs on him. That said Jordan shouldn't have done that either. Fran was smart to take Jok out after his last two free throws if he felt that something could escalate. The game was over like he said. One thing I don't know is what all was being said. If there was a lot of smack talk going on or not. That could have escalated things too.
All that being said to me the hand shake like is the perfect place for Fran to tell Jones what he thought of it all. There's no better place then that face to face. I'm not for coaches talking to other teams kids like coach K seems to think he's entitled to do so I wouldn't have been for Fran to go talk to their kid. But certainly he could have talked to Jones about it to smooth things out right then and there. Talking about it in the press conference does nothing and we all know how growly Fran can be at those and he was. Fran said he don't think Jones and his staff teaches that stuff. I think a quick convo in the handshake like would have deescalated things right there.
I think Fran was more upset that it was still a game at the end. It should have been a 20 pt win. If Iowa makes half the free throws they missed and didn't turn it over so sloppily as many times as they did they'd have had 10-14 more pts easy. Instead the last 2 or 3 mins Iowa had to play out with starters out there.
But that alone shouldn't have been the tipping point reason to not go through the line. Now I know they were fouling hard and doing some cheap things here and there on Jordan and Jok. Not to mention their kid flopped like Vlade Divac. No way Jordan with his left hand could shove that kid down like that. He probably had 15-20 lbs on him. That said Jordan shouldn't have done that either. Fran was smart to take Jok out after his last two free throws if he felt that something could escalate. The game was over like he said. One thing I don't know is what all was being said. If there was a lot of smack talk going on or not. That could have escalated things too.
All that being said to me the hand shake like is the perfect place for Fran to tell Jones what he thought of it all. There's no better place then that face to face. I'm not for coaches talking to other teams kids like coach K seems to think he's entitled to do so I wouldn't have been for Fran to go talk to their kid. But certainly he could have talked to Jones about it to smooth things out right then and there. Talking about it in the press conference does nothing and we all know how growly Fran can be at those and he was. Fran said he don't think Jones and his staff teaches that stuff. I think a quick convo in the handshake like would have deescalated things right there.
I think Fran was more upset that it was still a game at the end. It should have been a 20 pt win. If Iowa makes half the free throws they missed and didn't turn it over so sloppily as many times as they did they'd have had 10-14 more pts easy. Instead the last 2 or 3 mins Iowa had to play out with starters out there.
