No more PTL

The 20 conf game thing is a legit scheduling problem I'm sure. That's 1 less home game again. I'm sure Iowa would still play Drake/UNI at home but there's no way UNI goes for it especially.
 
It seems strange that they cancelled the prime time league with less than a week to go. Maybe UNI pulled out of it and that's the reason they put Drake and UNI off the schedule instead of teams like Bryant. I was looking forward to seeing how much the players have physically matured from last year. They supposedly have been hitting the weights hard this off season. Kreiner looks a lot bigger and stronger.
 
I heard they couldn't fill the teams for PTL. As for the Classic, Iowa and ISU hold all the card for that event, I'll be shocked if something isn't worked out for UNI and Drake to visit IC ever other year.
 
I heard they couldn't fill the teams for PTL. As for the Classic, Iowa and ISU hold all the card for that event, I'll be shocked if something isn't worked out for UNI and Drake to visit IC ever other year.

You might be right, I should probably hold my judgement until I see if we can get UNI and Drake at home. But if we don't, and continue with the weak sauce home schedule we've had....
UNI and Drake aren't huge names but at least they draw a little interest compared to some of the teams we've been bringing in. My attitude might just be sour because I can't find a lot I'm thrilled about with this program right now.
 
I heard they couldn't fill the teams for PTL. As for the Classic, Iowa and ISU hold all the card for that event, I'll be shocked if something isn't worked out for UNI and Drake to visit IC ever other year.

They had a really hard time filling teams last year if I remember right. Sucks that we have the best recruit in forever and we don't get to see him now. Bad timing.
 
Let's just go back to playing home-and-homes with Drake and UNI. Ditch Bryant, Campbell, Savannah St, Chicago St, etc. It'll help the RPI which Fran hasn't seemed to really grasp during his tenure.
 
Still don't know why they did not make the Hy-Vee Classic a mini tournament.....so what if we play ISU on the regular schedule. We could have even added some DIII teams in the mix. Grinnell, Coe, etc.
 
Ending the PTL is good news, maybe they can learn to play defense instead of Y League street ball.

And they'll play UNI and Drake somewhere/sometime, I would be more concerned that it is a bad marketing move taking the Hawks out of the Des Moines metro area. Des Moines is getting to be 50/50 Hawk/Clown, when I grew up in the area it was closer to 90/10 Hawk......basketball anyway.
 
Still don't know why they did not make the Hy-Vee Classic a mini tournament.....so what if we play ISU on the regular schedule. We could have even added some DIII teams in the mix. Grinnell, Coe, etc.
The only thing with that is it becomes a lose-lose situation like the ISU football game. Beating any other squad aside from ISU is expected and no big thing, but lose to any of those teams and the shit hits the fan. Even worse than if we lost to some liberal arts pottery school on the west coast.
 
Perhaps I'm in the minority, but I'm definitely not mourning the loss of the PTL. I've felt for years that it was a breeding ground for poor fundamentals.

Glorified pick up games are not what our players need moving forward.
 
It’s for the best though. They can practice with coaches in the summer now and I’d rather have them doing that than playing NBA Jam.

Absolutely. Abso-damn-lutely, in fact. PTL was a glorified Nerf Bedroom League.

I'm sure, down the road, we'll there were the jokes about "What's the difference between scoring in the PTL and scoring on Vodka Samm?" Answer: "At least with Vodka Samm, SOMEone put up a fight!"
 
The only thing with that is it becomes a lose-lose situation like the ISU football game. Beating any other squad aside from ISU is expected and no big thing, but lose to any of those teams and the shit hits the fan. Even worse than if we lost to some liberal arts pottery school on the west coast.
I could definitely see that if we lost to a D3 squad. Drake probably most years. UNI can be fairly decent....really the case could be made they have been better than us in basketball over the past 10-15 years. Not every year, but a number of those years.
I would have zero problem ending the Clown football game. Although, they are not as bad as the beatings they typically took in the Hayden years....that game typically does nothing for us.
 
You might be right, I should probably hold my judgement until I see if we can get UNI and Drake at home. But if we don't, and continue with the weak sauce home schedule we've had....
UNI and Drake aren't huge names but at least they draw a little interest compared to some of the teams we've been bringing in. My attitude might just be sour because I can't find a lot I'm thrilled about with this program right now.

I get it - there's not a lot to be thrilled with the program, and I get that we need to be up in arms and upset over everything, but look at it this way. Iowa plays 31-32 games a year. There are now 20 B1G games. That leaves 11-12 dates. Iowa plays pretty much every season in an exempt tournament, where they typically get a couple built in bad teams for home games that are a little out of their control. Like the 2K Classic this season. They then get 2 to 3 games against other good programs. They also have a home and away deal with ISU. They also are part of the Gavitt Games (though they've been off the last 2 seasons, but won't be going forward). They also have the ACC/B1G challenge. That leaves only 3 or 4 games tops and they are pay games. Meaning, we have to pay teams to come in and play Iowa and they need them to be at home. I REALLY hope they continue to play UNI and Drake, and I imagine they will try - but it's tight for Iowa's scheduling now and they hold all the cards. They don't need to go to Drake or UNI. Drake and UNI need to come to IC.
 
Getting the nostalgia thoughts of their not being a PTL anymore out of my head this is a good thing. That had gotten pretty bad from all I'd heard the last handful of years. Even at it's best it was anything but a great thing. With hardly any former players coming to play and AAU gobbling up all the good HS kids it sounded like getting enough players was pretty much impossible. Especially from a competitive standpoint. You start trying to mix players that shouldn't even start on their HS teams out there against UNI and Iowa players and it just defeats the purpose. It sucks for those that live around North Liberty that enjoyed getting the great up close seats to watch them. But Fran has to be relieved.

As far as dropping the ISU UNI Drake deal in Dsm goes I'm not sure of the politics that's going into it. Is Iowa not going to go scheduling UNI/Drake for home and homes every so often going forward either? The Des Moines area folks had to enjoy what they were doing and folks say west of Dsm that would have gotten to attend that normally wouldn't make the trip to IC. So from that perspective it stinks but there's probably reasons why I/we may not know about why they are choosing to discontinue it.
 

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