The extension was weird. I'm having little doubts that Fran's system can be that successful in high level college basketball. The running and steals are great when we're successful at it but our half court game is brutal, we seem to lack strength and our defense has a tendency to collapse.
I'd love to find a way to combine our style with some strength and girth.
To be honest, I'm not sure how much of it is a problem with the system as much as it is needing better players on the court. Watching Texas, they were just blowing right by our guys getting into the paint in the second half, and their big guys were totally dominating ours. We have some height and length, but not a lot of strength in the paint, and our guard play...
Sure, you still have to be able to coach the talent, but it all starts with recruiting IMO.
I like Fran and he's done a good job, and hope that recruiting can keep moving in the positive direction, but I think the jury is still very much out as to whether he can make Iowa more than a fringe bubble team. What is the ceiling?
All of that said, we're still just 3 games into the season, so I guess it's a little premature to have the "how far can Fran take us" discussions. If Iowa ends up in the NIT this year, then I'm going to start to question things. This is year 5, and we see coaches like Fred Hoiberg and Tim Miles take programs that were in just about as bad of shape as Iowa was when they took over, and getting them to the NCAA Tournament in year 2.
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