Nice Season, Fran. Now go recruit.

They fought back this year and had us in contention and won one in the Dance. A step in the right direction. Next the shots have to start going in against great teams, especially from outside the 3-point arc.

Good season Hawks!
 
Yes Iowa does need better recruits, problem is this next class we signed is bottom of the BIG, that is not going to do what we need...have to get better or else this is best we can expect.
 
I agree, Fran needs to sign another top 25 recruiting class for 2016. The Hawks should be ok next season with Woodbury, Gesell, Uthoff, and Clemmons all being seniors. These fringy players he keeps bringing in are not going to keep this team in the top half of the Big Ten and in the NCAA Tournament.
 
Nice season? No way. We made 3 FGs in the second half against Northern Iowa and shot about 25% for the game. We lost at Northwestern. Minnesota punked us on our own court. And let's not forget we got beaten by PSU in the BTT. Win those 4 and pick up an extra in the BTT and we get seeded higher, don't have to play a Gonzaga team that couldn't miss and had a 300 pound bull in a China shop down low and we'd be gearing up for a game later this week. Look, I remember how dark it got and I get that you guys are stoked to just win a game, but those inexplicable losses and only a few good wins do not make a "good" season. This guy has been here 5 years, Alford has two Sweet 16s in 2 years at UCLA. I guess if you guys are 20 years old and a foggy recollection of Alford's win against Creighton is your only memory of Hawkeye success, then I can see where you're coming from.
 
For someone with a long memory, you're sure negative. Fran has increase the quality improvements over the years since he took it from near death and yet, some aren't impressed. Go support a new team if one can't get happy for the seniors and their work to bring up the Hawks.
 
okeefe4prez said:
Nice season? No way. We made 3 FGs in the second half against Northern Iowa and shot about 25% for the game. We lost at Northwestern. Minnesota punked us on our own court. And let's not forget we got beaten by PSU in the BTT. Win those 4 and pick up an extra in the BTT and we get seeded higher, don't have to play a Gonzaga team that couldn't miss and had a 300 pound bull in a China shop down low and we'd be gearing up for a game later this week. Look, I remember how dark it got and I get that you guys are stoked to just win a game, but those inexplicable losses and only a few good wins do not make a "good" season. This guy has been here 5 years, Alford has two Sweet 16s in 2 years at UCLA. I guess if you guys are 20 years old and a foggy recollection of Alford's win against Creighton is your only memory of Hawkeye success, then I can see where you're coming from.
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I agree with most of what you say as far as Iowa is concerned,
but..
Alford had a lot of bad luck at Iowa.
He has had nothing but good luck at UCLA.

#1. He barely got a bid this year & probably should not have.
#2. He got the break of the century with the goal tending call on a shot that had 0% chance of going in to beat SMU. He should have been one and done.
#3. The 2nd biggest break of the century was getting to play, arguably, the worst team in the tourney to get to the Sweet 16. UAB sucked.

If not for all that luck, he probably would be under some heat out there.
 
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Fran simply needs to land an impact forward from Juco or transfers. If he does this team will be fine. You have two senior guards and a budding star in Uthoff. Woody will be Woody and hopefully improve that 10ft jumper to the point he can make it consistently. Uhl will have to step up obviously, and I think he can. He needs to get stronger, but he can shoot, plus handle the ball. Jok showed he can be a marksman, but he needs to do it night in and night out, and in the SECOND half.

that's a pretty damn good nucleus of players. You land one impact forward, and suddenly this team may be better than what we had on the floor this year.
 
WinOneThisCentury said:
Fran simply needs to land an impact forward from Juco or transfers. If he does this team will be fine. You have two senior guards and a budding star in Uthoff. Woody will be Woody and hopefully improve that 10ft jumper to the point he can make it consistently. Uhl will have to step up obviously, and I think he can. He needs to get stronger, but he can shoot, plus handle the ball. Jok showed he can be a marksman, but he needs to do it night in and night out, and in the SECOND half.

that's a pretty damn good nucleus of players. You land one impact forward, and suddenly this team may be better than what we had on the floor this year.
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So all we need to do is land a Big Ten ready, impact juco or transfer with immediate eligibility to play power forward and we will be fine? Well, that is a piece of cake. Man, I was worried for no reason.
 
Yep, nice season and another step forward. So mission accomplished on that front.

As others have said, with White & Olaseni gone, I expect a step back next year. Regardless of next year's class, they will be freshmen, so it's going to take some time for them to develop.

Speaking of next year's class - are any of them classified as "shooters"? Fleming I believe, but not so sure about the others.

More athleticism will be nice, but Iowa still needs shooters.
 
1977Hawkeye said:
As others have said, with White & Olaseni gone, I expect a step back next year. Regardless of next year's class, they will be freshmen, so it's going to take some time for them to develop.
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No way should we expect a step back next year. Next season will be the senior year of Frans first major recruiting class (Clemmons, Uthoff, Woodbury, and Gesell). Uthoff can do everything White does and I think Uthoff is a better shooter, losing Olaseni forces Woodbury to step up and be the force he is capable of being in the middle. I was impressed with how Jok grew as a player this year and I think he will be the go to scorer next season.

But Fran does need to step up his recruiting, once next years class is gone the cupboard will be almost bare with just Jok and Uhl remaining from this years team. I know he has a big recruiting class coming in but I'm not seeing that impact talent too keep this team in the upper division of the Big Ten. I hope I am wrong and that Fran is outsmarting everyone with overlooked recruits.
 
Next year is going to be such a different team. I don't see Woody being the leader White was this yr. I hope MG is. He'll have to be.
 
ssckelley said:
No way should we expect a step back next year. Next season will be the senior year of Frans first major recruiting class (Clemmons, Uthoff, Woodbury, and Gesell). Uthoff can do everything White does and I think Uthoff is a better shooter, losing Olaseni forces Woodbury to step up and be the force he is capable of being in the middle. I was impressed with how Jok grew as a player this year and I think he will be the go to scorer next season.

But Fran does need to step up his recruiting, once next years class is gone the cupboard will be almost bare with just Jok and Uhl remaining from this years team. I know he has a big recruiting class coming in but I'm not seeing that impact talent too keep this team in the upper division of the Big Ten. I hope I am wrong and that Fran is outsmarting everyone with overlooked recruits.
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Interesting take... I agree with the previous poster that I think we take a step backwards.

Now I also said the same thing after last year so my opinion may not be a good one.
 
It's highly unlikely we will be as good at the beginning of next year as we were at the end of this year because the White in the last 7 games will be extremely hard to replace. The good new is White didn't play like that the whole year so the first 20 games of the season won't be nearly as hard to improve on. We need Wagner to have a Besabe like freshman year and 1 other freshman to have a decent year.
 
Bigtenchamp said:
Need 3 pt shooters badly.
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AGREED. The game has evolved to where this is the ultimate weapon. #1 seed Nova scored 43 percent of it's total pts from 3-pt land. UNI very similar (even though both lost in tourney). If Ogs was the shooter he apparently is in practice, he could have been that guy (like a Kyle Korver-type). Need a consistent, deadly threat from distance.
 
ibahawkeye said:
Interesting take... I agree with the previous poster that I think we take a step backwards.

Now I also said the same thing after last year so my opinion may not be a good one.
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I just don't see White as irreplaceable, he was one heck of a player for Iowa but he was never that go to player. While he was phenomenal at times others he disappeared. Honestly losing Olaseni worries me the most as now they have to lean on Woodbury.

Every team loses key players. I have not had a chance to look around too see how the league shapes up next year but if Fran cannot get this team back to the tournament next year with 80% of his starting lineup returning and his crown jewel recruiting class being seniors then he should be fired. If this team has peaked this year then it is going to be a long painful slide back into mediocrity.
 
Bronson Koenig - 3 stars
Traevon Jackson - 2 stars
Travis Trice - 3 stars
Caris LeVert - 2 stars
Aaron White - 3 stars
Shavon Shields - 2 stars
Terran Petteway - 3 stars
DJ Newbill - 3 stars

Don't go hanging your hat on the star system for college basketball.
 
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