I'll be the first to say, I wasn't excited about the hiring. His "history" told me he wouldn't be around long, especially if he was able to turn things around. And part of the reason he laid some "roots", if I had to guess, is the situation with Patrick's health back in 2013-14. And I totally get that, and am in fact glad his family was at Iowa versus a lot of other places for the sake of Patrick's treatment/recovery/overall health. I just don't know if he was using Iowa a stepping stone, or if he is still at Iowa because nothing better has come calling. Then again, that's Fran's deal, and really none of my business. It just crops up in my mind from time to time.
I actually liked the direction of the program, even with the fade that lead to being in a First Four versus getting a higher seed like we appeared to be heading into earlier that season, and the subsequent fades in 2015 and 2016 seasons. I attribute part of those fades to those stupid tours we seem to do every summer. PTL isn't really a negative in terms of court time, just that it isn't anything to gauge where a player or team is. But the tours? I think players are exhausted, physically/mentally/emotionally, by those things. It's basically an extra month to a season.
And seriously, how does playing German club teams, under international rules, prepare a team for a B1G season? Probably similar to how arena football or WWE/XFL football would prepare the football team for a B1G season, i.e., it wouldn't prepare them beyond it being better than sitting around eating smores day after day.
Again, I could compare this to a couple Mr. Davis teams that didn't do so hot back in the day. But those teams were missing guys (been rehashed here over and over), were uber-young, and were total rebuilds. I just don't see those situations applying in this case.
I didn't expect Final Four, but I DID expect a decent team. Losing Jok was certainly significant, but I'm not sure how good this team would be if he was on it. I also can't really gauge whether C. Williams would help, or if that whole situation is a by-product of the bigger overall problem.