Objective comparison of Fran and Lick

DBAHawkFan said:
I seriously wonder if Fran will get this turned around. Will the fans, and more importantly, the AD give him another 3-4 years from now?

You're right, this next recruiting class is huge for him. If he still cannot get quality players, we're doomed to be at the bottom of the big10.

I do think Fran is a better coach than Lick, has a better style, and seems to just be a better fit overall. But he hasn't proven he can recruit at a high level. And I don't care that he recruited Jimmy Freddrette (sp) from BYU, he still didn't get him at Siena.

Even if he does pull in a similar ranked class as Lick in his 3rd recruiting season, I'll still hold out hope that he's getting some under the radar guys, where Lick really reached with a lot of those kids.

Hard to say, but we rag on ISU and Fred, but he seems to be much better at rebuilding a program so far than Fran.
Click to expand...

Oh NO you di'int!
 
CAARHawk said:
That is recruiting class number four, which turns out to be Fran's first class.

For the people who say you need to give the already signed recruits to the last coach, I just don't agree.

Strong coaches come in and keep the guys they want, dump others and fill the extra spots with other guys they want.

Weaker coaches lose the guys they want and try to fill spots with less quality players, or leave open roster spots.

Middle of the road coaches more or less hold service.
Click to expand...

I understand your point but 50% of ther term "recruiting class" is the word recruiting. Who identified them, who decided they were worth the offer and who put in the hours (for good or bad) recruiting them? No way can you just accross the board hand over a recruiting class 100% in the lap of the new coach and say it belongs 100% to them. Especially when 9 times out of 10 the new coach takes over when recruiting season is pretty much wraped up.

Even the strongest coaches are going to have a tough time making a huge upgrade that late in the game so they do what they can to to upgrade. Then they try to hold on to the commits they inherited, knowing they need depth for their first season and the schollarship doesn't have to be renewed next year if they payer isnt a fit or can easily be recruited over.
 
Right or wrong I lost a lot of respect for McCaffrey over this deal. Really hard for me to maintain my optimism about him getting things turned around with Hubbard leaving and an Abrahamson offer back to back. I thought we were going to recruit nationally and cast a wider net than a 90 mile radius of Iowa City?

The only way to save face is for the staff to dig up another last minute juco player, but I doubt that will happen. Sad that the upcoming season went up in smoke over McCaffrey's desire to prove everybody wrong by relentlessly pursuing a kid everyone else was staying away from. I think this became some personal agenda for McCaffrey vs. a prudent move for Iowa basketball.
 
hawkIhoops said:
Right or wrong I lost a lot of respect for McCaffrey over this deal. Really hard for me to maintain my optimism about him getting things turned around with Hubbard leaving and an Abrahamson offer back to back. I thought we were going to recruit nationally and cast a wider net than a 90 mile radius of Iowa City?

The only way to save face is for the staff to dig up another last minute juco player, but I doubt that will happen. Sad that the upcoming season went up in smoke over McCaffrey's desire to prove everybody wrong by relentlessly pursuing a kid everyone else was staying away from. I think this became some personal agenda for McCaffrey vs. a prudent move for Iowa basketball.
Click to expand...

The worst part is Hubbard was not the type of player you really should be going all out for. He was being recruited by Nebraska and Penn St, it wasn't like Maryland and Georgetown were after him. He was a decent B10 level player but not a program changer, a guy who would be nice to have if he didn't have his past. To take that big of risk on him was a huge gamble with limited upside that failed miserably.

Also, I have to imagine there are a lot of higher ups in the university administration that are very upset at how this turned out. If Hubbard was a regular student there is no way he would have gotten in to Iowa.

Now if there's a Royce White type player out there in the next few years, a guy who could potentially be a program changer but also has some baggage, it's going to be much, much harder for Fran to sell the school on taking a chance on him.
 
Trainmaster: understand by strong coaches, I mean elite coaches. Those guys can come in and totally rebuild their roster. Sucks, but it's true.
 
Before we say that the sky is falling lets see how the season unfolds: As for the Lick and Fran comparison give me a break, Fran has done more to rally Hawkeye basketball in 1 yr than lick did in 3! better style, better PR skills, give it time, the program hit rock bottom under Lick and Fran and staff are working hard to improve it, go get woodbury and gessel and no one will give a crap about a 26 yr old ex felon
 
Funny how soon people forget. I went to one of the very early games of Lick 's second year with a booster. That guy was jacked. He couldn't wait for the season to start. Seriously people, at the beginning of Lick's second season, the love affair was still going strong.
 
hawkIhoops said:
Right or wrong I lost a lot of respect for McCaffrey over this deal. Really hard for me to maintain my optimism about him getting things turned around with Hubbard leaving and an Abrahamson offer back to back. I thought we were going to recruit nationally and cast a wider net than a 90 mile radius of Iowa City?

The only way to save face is for the staff to dig up another last minute juco player, but I doubt that will happen. Sad that the upcoming season went up in smoke over McCaffrey's desire to prove everybody wrong by relentlessly pursuing a kid everyone else was staying away from. I think this became some personal agenda for McCaffrey vs. a prudent move for Iowa basketball.
Click to expand...

You couldn't have said it better. What happened to McCaffrey's ties out east? Shoot, I go over on CF and all I read about is Fred killing it on the east coast. Why can't Fran do the same?

The same personal agenda could be said for Fran making no effort at all to keep a serviceable point guard in Payne. That loss is looking real bad right now. Ouch
 
CAARHawk said:
Funny how soon people forget. I went to one of the very early games of Lick 's second year with a booster. That guy was jacked. He couldn't wait for the season to start. Seriously people, at the beginning of Lick's second season, the love affair was still going strong.
Click to expand...

This is very true, but quickly people realized that his best players were Alford's recruits and his own players he brought in didn't measure up. Bawinkle, Brommer, his own son, just to name a few of the players that virtually didn't contribute at all, at least to a successful program. However people began to lose faith when the top players on the team continually transferred out....every year. So far Fran hasn't really had anyone transfer out under his command. I don't count Hubbard as he never played a game at Iowa.
 
HawkeyeMike23 said:
Losing Hubbard is a major loss for Fran. I'm sure he had to convince quite a few people in the administration that taking Hubbard was worth the risk. After how this turned out, I would think Fran is going to have a much harder time trying to bring in another player who is viewed as a risk in the future.
Click to expand...

Major loss??? Really. How so. A major loss is Cartwright or Basabe leaving. Boy some of you really need to put the pipe down.
 
Well get ready for a major loss when Bryce graduates this year with a first year player coming in to replace him.
 
Last edited:
There's no doubt that Fran has his work cut out for him, but we need to give the guy a chance before jumping ship.

I for one think Fran will pull it together, overachieve this year, land better recruits because of it and ramp up our wins from there on out.

Go Hawks!
 
Current roster has the following:

Lick players: Brommer,Archie,May,McCabe
SA player: Gatens
legacy players: Marble/Gatens
Fran players: Cartwright,Basabe,White,Olesani,Oglesby

No doubt that 2012 is a big recruiting class for Fran,but in every phase of the program,Fran is head and shoulders ahead of Lick. Attendance jump was one of the biggest in the country in his first year. Licks first year...it dropped,and then it dropped again in year 2 and 3. I will bet that it goes up for the second straight year this year under Fran.
If Iowa gets Woodbury and Gesell and others on the dotted line by November 15, enthusiasm for Iowa hoops will be high going into the season.
I also still think Iowa will win more next year than last year,and be over .500,which Lick never smelled.

Fran is a fighter,unlike some fair-weather fans on here...first sight of blood,run the other way.
 
I don't understand the critiszm of McCaffery. From what I've read & heard, the current Iowa staff is working their butts off recruiting. Iowa has not had this kind of recruiting effort since the days of Lute & Raveling.
 
hawkIhoops said:
Right or wrong I lost a lot of respect for McCaffrey over this deal. Really hard for me to maintain my optimism about him getting things turned around with Hubbard leaving and an Abrahamson offer back to back. I thought we were going to recruit nationally and cast a wider net than a 90 mile radius of Iowa City?

The only way to save face is for the staff to dig up another last minute juco player, but I doubt that will happen. Sad that the upcoming season went up in smoke over McCaffrey's desire to prove everybody wrong by relentlessly pursuing a kid everyone else was staying away from. I think this became some personal agenda for McCaffrey vs. a prudent move for Iowa basketball.
Click to expand...


WTF? Abrahamson is the #119 ranked player in the country on Rivals,and you are upset that Fran has offered him? We currently only have 2 top 150 players on this whole roster- Gatens and Ogelsby,and you are turning your nose up at the #119th ranked player in the country? You actually want Fran to go after non-top 150 players as long as they are outside of Iowa instead of top 150 players in Iowa? If Fran lands Woody(#50),Gesell(#89),Abrahamson(#119) on top of Oglesby(#118) in two years,that will be the best 2year top 150 haul at Iowa since Horner,Brunner followed Sommerville and Pierce.

Chill out,debbie downer.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Share this page

Top