Pat Forde: Players Blame Fran

imported_ankle23 said:
i agree. fran wasn't being interviewed, a player was. he interjected himself.
Click to expand...


Yes, Fran butted in. But I believe he did so because he didn't want MG to break down the OB play. Could Fran have used better tact, sure. But he was trying to protect the play itself so that it would be scouted by other teams come the NCAA.
 
PCHawk said:
All these stats that point to players struggling and people want to say Fran sucks. We finished 3rd in the Big 10 with a senior class that could never close a close game in their careers. Think about it. We were 10-1 with a team that only has 2 players with the ability to score. The only way that happens is with really good coaching. I don't believe the "they figured us out" talk. But for the people who do believe it, is it really that bad? The coach took a team full of players that can't score and implemented a plan that got us to 10-1. Coaches figured out how to counter that plan and we needed to win on talent alone which we don't have enough of to do. Like I said, I don't believe that, but if it's true, that means Fran is a good coach, not a bad one.
Click to expand...


PC, I am almost with you 100% on this. I do believe the B1G scouted Iowa and figured out how to defend us. We needed to adjust, after that. But, here is where we get to why adjustments either weren't made or didn't work and why? I believe that these players are specifically talented and other teams took away everyone's strengths. JU and Jok have more than one strength, but they aren't elite at everything they do.

Ultimately, I think this falls onto the players not being able to overcome their deficiencies, which is hard to do. MG and Sapp can get to the rim fairly well, but they are below avg shooters. I saw teams sag on them and said "go ahead and shoot a jumper, you aren't getting to the rim." And that worked against us. Woody was defended as an afterthought, at times, because he is deliberate when he receives a pass and that allows time for defenders to recover. And all of this allowed JU and Jok to be defended at the 3 pnt line and double teamed on their drives. We didn't adjust.
 
ArvadaHawk said:
PC, I am almost with you 100% on this. I do believe the B1G scouted Iowa and figured out how to defend us. We needed to adjust, after that. But, here is where we get to why adjustments either weren't made or didn't work and why? I believe that these players are specifically talented and other teams took away everyone's strengths. JU and Jok have more than one strength, but they aren't elite at everything they do.

Ultimately, I think this falls onto the players not being able to overcome their deficiencies, which is hard to do. MG and Sapp can get to the rim fairly well, but they are below avg shooters. I saw teams sag on them and said "go ahead and shoot a jumper, you aren't getting to the rim." And that worked against us. Woody was defended as an afterthought, at times, because he is deliberate when he receives a pass and that allows time for defenders to recover. And all of this allowed JU and Jok to be defended at the 3 pnt line and double teamed on their drives. We didn't adjust.
Click to expand...



Im sure he tried adjustments. But every team has weaknesses and there is only so much a coach can do. Teams adjust every year. If it was a Fran problem, why wasn't it a problem the other 4 years.

I think Fran coached a bubble team to a top 5 ranking. Even with other teams adjusting, we were still losing close games while shooting terrible. And we were still losing games where we had the lead late.

If Fran's biggest knock is he can coach a bubble team into a top 5 team until other teams figure out our weeknesses, then he can't coach them up enough to still win by double digits so they have no chance to choke the game away at the end, I would say that's pretty good.
 
I look at it differently than most people I guess. We have only two consistent offensive threats on this team. We have a center who is good on defensive and gets rebounds but is underwhelming as an offensive threat thereby giving us nobody who is good around the basket. We have guards who are experienced and try their best but must get by with guile and experience because they are probably the least quick and athletic guards in the Big 10.

Yet, Fran, at least in part due to his coaching and the sheer power of his will, was able to get this program in the top 5 for five weeks. We have less talent than a lot of teams yet there we were in the top 5 that long and with ten losses all by eight points or less.

It's fair to criticize Fran for our failures at the end of games but really we wouldn't even be there to begin with if it wasn't for his leadership and ability.
 
SteveGarvey said:
I look at it differently than most people I guess. We have only two consistent offensive threats on this team. We have a center who is good on defensive and gets rebounds but is underwhelming as an offensive threat thereby giving us nobody who is good around the basket. We have guards who are experienced and try their best but must get by with guile and experience because they are probably the least quick and athletic guards in the Big 10.

Yet, Fran, at least in part due to his coaching and the sheer power of his will, was able to get this program in the top 5 for five weeks. We have less talent than a lot of teams yet there we were in the top 5 that long and with ten losses all by eight points or less.

It's fair to criticize Fran for our failures at the end of games but really we wouldn't even be there to begin with if it wasn't for his leadership and ability.
Click to expand...

A real coach adjusts and Fran can't or won't. How else do you explain these collapses? Teams see tape on Iowa and figured them out at the end of January. Even Minnesota had Iowa on their heels on the 14th of Feb and the slide started on the 11th.

Fran is a poor in game coach.
 
I don't know what to think.. Iowa's got two offensive weapons. That's it. Crispin tried talking up MG like he's some kind of sniper that just never shoots... Well we all know better. To me Sapp and Woody were who lost that game. They missed so many open shots that D1 players should be able to make at a high percentage. That defensive effort and rebounding really wasn't good either. They had too many 2nd chances. Not to mention some of our dumb turnovers and fouls. If Jok didn't get himself fouled out that may have changed things a lot too. They just don't play very smart. At times they look great. That play where the ball was swung around the horn to Jok in the corner was as pretty as it gets. But for much of the game it just looked like they didn't know what to do if Jok or Uthoff weren't able to get a look.
 
QuadCityHawkeye said:
A real coach adjusts and Fran can't or won't. How else do you explain these collapses? Teams see tape on Iowa and figured them out at the end of January. Even Minnesota had Iowa on their heels on the 14th of Feb and the slide started on the 11th.

Fran is a poor in game coach.
Click to expand...

How else do you explain these collapses? The same players were on both teams. Players that can't handle pressure are responsible for a lot more loses than coaches that can't handle pressure. We all know the players can't handle it. Some people think the coach can't handle it. It doesn't have to be both. It's very possible it's just one. How else can you explain Fran never having issues before these players came along? How can you explain Fran finishing 4 seasons strong at iowa (after teams "figured us out"). These players didn't feel the pressure last year because there was no pressure on them.
 
If Fran is a poor in game coach, how did he come up with a game plan that got us to a top 5 ranking? Fran is extremely good at thinking of one plan but horrendous at thinking of a backup plan? Is that even possible for a coach to have that trait?
 
I kind of like that a few dolts on here are going to have to bear Fran being here as the coach. They can keep screaming all they want but logic, reason, and Barta just ain't gonna listen.

Fran ain't perfect, but only the truly delusional and ignorant would seriously want him fired at this time.
 
QuadCityHawkeye said:
A real coach adjusts and Fran can't or won't. How else do you explain these collapses? Teams see tape on Iowa and figured them out at the end of January. Even Minnesota had Iowa on their heels on the 14th of Feb and the slide started on the 11th.

Fran is a poor in game coach.
Click to expand...

Remember when we used to win this tournament. Finish third in the big ten with four starters back. Not good enough for ultimatum Barta. He should be fired!
 
13-14 was a meltdown at the end. 14-15 was not much different record-wise, we lost our opener in the Big Ten tourney and won 1...that's 1..game in the NCAA tourney and then got clobbered. And this year... no excuse. Senior-loaded team in Coach's 5th year.

There's a pattern and it's not a good one. His temperment, poor end-of-game coaching, and late season/late game fades. Fran is starting to lose people. If there had been no Lick dumpster fire after Alford, the concensus would already be, we didn't get the right guy.
 
hawkdrummer1 said:
If there had been no Lick dumpster fire after Alford, the concensus would already be, we didn't get the right guy.
Click to expand...

True. Fran gets a little more leeway, in that Alford practically had a bare cupboard.
Lickliter burned the cupboard to the ground.
 
hawkdrummer1 said:
13-14 was a meltdown at the end. 14-15 was not much different record-wise, we lost our opener in the Big Ten tourney and won 1...that's 1..game in the NCAA tourney and then got clobbered. And this year... no excuse. Senior-loaded team in Coach's 5th year.

There's a pattern and it's not a good one. His temperment, poor end-of-game coaching, and late season/late game fades. Fran is starting to lose people. If there had been no Lick dumpster fire after Alford, the concensus would already be, we didn't get the right guy.
Click to expand...

Half of the people on here don't even remember what Fran was doing 4 weeks ago. What Lick did 6 years ago sure doesn't matter to them.
 
HuckFinn said:
Fran made a comment in a press conference about Uthoff and his "slump." Fran said, "you would have to ask Uthoff."
Click to expand...
Wrong.

The question was about Uthoff passing up shots. Which anybody watching games during the Fade2 could see. So my take is that there had been conversations in practice about it and nothing changed so Fran answered that way.

Since about that time, Ute not passing up shots like previous few games.
 
Fran's temperment is not the problem; he has calmed way down the last couple of seasons. Stop buckling to the iowa stereo-type of passive-aggressive whinning about alpha-types.

Huggins' players don't wilt under his temper.

Izzo has made a career of yelling at players and singling them out on the floor. They're not shrinking violets st the end of games, B1G tourneys or March Madness.

Man up.
 
I saw Forde in the locker room and even was involved in the same interviews. This column, at best, is a stretch. Players advising media to ask the coach does not equal the players blaming Fran. That's ridiculous.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Share this page

Top