Second Four Star Recruit Badara Diakite Decommits

There is never a right time to rip the bandaid off, but off it must come. Beth did the right thing. Losing recruits and players that Fran recruited was inevitable. The portal giveth and taketh away.
 
NorthKCHawk said:
There is never a right time to rip the bandaid off, but off it must come. Beth did the right thing. Losing recruits and players that Fran recruited was inevitable. The portal giveth and taketh away.
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Time will tell. I’m on board whoever’s at the helm. Or at least along for the ride, but I like the hire.
 
ajdwhs87 said:
Earlier before with this team of which much was expected they were 7-7 during a 14 game stretch. Then they had a good run then they have that sad loss to Richmond. That up and down is certainly the rut over the Fran tenure. Don't just pick out the good stuff then question why the apathy or why knock on Fran. It is your whole resume not just cherry picking. The good times are good but can't pretend the issues weren't there.
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The "rut" is not primarily about on the court...the rut is gradually diminishing attendance, bottoming out (hopefully) with a lower attendance this season then we have seen for 60 years. You can't run that back because we have a few decent 4* recruits coming in.
 
kicker22 said:
Remind us where we were the last two years. I think based on your reminding us where we were 2 years ago and where we were at the end of the this season you'd see that rut.
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Last year we were 19-15 with one win behind Michigan State. 13-4 home record. Come on now Win the Big Ten tourney, then 19-15 and then this season. Not exactly a rut on the court as someone else posted. You can say the attendance was in a rut but one season with guys being injured all season and losing Freeman was a large reason for this seasons struggles. We all obviously would like to have seen better D over the years but injuries to Koch, Traore, Sandfort throughout the year really put a damper on the W/L columns. I heard Payton will be having surgery on both shoulders this offseason.
 
HawkeyeHypnosis said:
Last year we were 19-15 with one win behind Michigan State. 13-4 home record. Come on now Win the Big Ten tourney, then 19-15 and then this season. Not exactly a rut on the court as someone else posted. You can say the attendance was in a rut but one season with guys being injured all season and losing Freeman was a large reason for this seasons struggles. We all obviously would like to have seen better D over the years but injuries to Koch, Traore, Sandfort throughout the year really put a damper on the W/L columns. I heard Payton will be having surgery on both shoulders this offseason.
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I honestly value your opinion but I would definitely disagree with not being in a rut last season. Had we not beat Nebby the last game of the regular season we would have missed out on finishing in the top 15 in the conference and would have missed the BigTen tournament altogether. You're right that losing Freeman and others are a large reason for the struggles and I agree completely, but not having the depth behind him (them) also falls directly on Fran. 15 years into Fran's tenure defense and rebounding were still not being addressed and we ranked in the 300s in points per game allowed, which regardless of the pace at which we played and the points being put up is simply considered to many as unacceptable. There was also a good amount of upperclassmen we'd been losing to other programs (which I don't see as a fault of Fran's but rather the NIL landscape) that IMO counters or offsets the incoming recruiting class so I question how we'd be "better" next year then we were this year, even if we got the recruits on campus.

Maybe "rut" isn't the appropriate term. There'd been concern for a few seasons that Fran was on the hot seat and while we can disagree about where we saw the current state of the program or the future of the program. After 15 seasons with the program, while I may not have supported the idea of firing him I also didn't see any reason to prove it was in the best interest of the program to retain him. I just simply don't see how "bad" things would have had to get to make it clear that firing him was the "right" answer. We were seriously a loss at Nebraska away from missing the Big Ten tournament, which would have been a new low for the program. I just don't see that decline being reasonable, regardless of the circumstances, for terminating a coach in his 15th season. Things had gotten stagnant and we needed new life. We needed a change and fortunately I think we got the right guy.
 
You also can't blame Freeman on just bad luck. By all accounts, he chose to get the surgery midseason and wasn't a great locker room guy. Culture goes back to Fran.
 
NorthKCHawk said:
You also can't blame Freeman on just bad luck. By all accounts, he chose to get the surgery midseason and wasn't a great locker room guy. Culture goes back to Fran.
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From what they told the media, it was surgery or could possibly end up with permanent issue. Whether that’s the case or not can be up to debate. Have you ever seen the Iowa locker room celebrations? Idk about Freeman but there was no shortage of closeness with Fran’s teams. There’s always going to be someone who may not fit.
 
kicker22 said:
I honestly value your opinion but I would definitely disagree with not being in a rut last season. Had we not beat Nebby the last game of the regular season we would have missed out on finishing in the top 15 in the conference and would have missed the BigTen tournament altogether. You're right that losing Freeman and others are a large reason for the struggles and I agree completely, but not having the depth behind him (them) also falls directly on Fran. 15 years into Fran's tenure defense and rebounding were still not being addressed and we ranked in the 300s in points per game allowed, which regardless of the pace at which we played and the points being put up is simply considered to many as unacceptable. There was also a good amount of upperclassmen we'd been losing to other programs (which I don't see as a fault of Fran's but rather the NIL landscape) that IMO counters or offsets the incoming recruiting class so I question how we'd be "better" next year then we were this year, even if we got the recruits on campus.

Maybe "rut" isn't the appropriate term. There'd been concern for a few seasons that Fran was on the hot seat and while we can disagree about where we saw the current state of the program or the future of the program. After 15 seasons with the program, while I may not have supported the idea of firing him I also didn't see any reason to prove it was in the best interest of the program to retain him. I just simply don't see how "bad" things would have had to get to make it clear that firing him was the "right" answer. We were seriously a loss at Nebraska away from missing the Big Ten tournament, which would have been a new low for the program. I just don't see that decline being reasonable, regardless of the circumstances, for terminating a coach in his 15th season. Things had gotten stagnant and we needed new life. We needed a change and fortunately I think we got the right guy.
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Thing hadnt gotten that “bad”. But I completely agree the attendance was an issue. More so than the product on the court. Missing the Big Ten Tourney would have been a new low for any team as they have never not accepted every big ten member until this season. Look at the records of teams within the tournaments left. Iowa had a winning record. It’s all moot either way, but how I looked at it, we could have saved a lot of money just hiring a defensive analyst. I believe McCollum would still have been available next year or two. But that’s just me. I can see your point of view with feeling there should have been more from the Fran era.
 
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kicker22 said:
I honestly value your opinion but I would definitely disagree with not being in a rut last season. Had we not beat Nebby the last game of the regular season we would have missed out on finishing in the top 15 in the conference and would have missed the BigTen tournament altogether. You're right that losing Freeman and others are a large reason for the struggles and I agree completely, but not having the depth behind him (them) also falls directly on Fran. 15 years into Fran's tenure defense and rebounding were still not being addressed and we ranked in the 300s in points per game allowed, which regardless of the pace at which we played and the points being put up is simply considered to many as unacceptable. There was also a good amount of upperclassmen we'd been losing to other programs (which I don't see as a fault of Fran's but rather the NIL landscape) that IMO counters or offsets the incoming recruiting class so I question how we'd be "better" next year then we were this year, even if we got the recruits on campus.

Maybe "rut" isn't the appropriate term. There'd been concern for a few seasons that Fran was on the hot seat and while we can disagree about where we saw the current state of the program or the future of the program. After 15 seasons with the program, while I may not have supported the idea of firing him I also didn't see any reason to prove it was in the best interest of the program to retain him. I just simply don't see how "bad" things would have had to get to make it clear that firing him was the "right" answer. We were seriously a loss at Nebraska away from missing the Big Ten tournament, which would have been a new low for the program. I just don't see that decline being reasonable, regardless of the circumstances, for terminating a coach in his 15th season. Things had gotten stagnant and we needed new life. We needed a change and fortunately I think we got the right guy
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Valley?
 
HawkeyeHypnosis said:
From what they told the media, it was surgery or could possibly end up with permanent issue. Whether that’s the case or not can be up to debate. Have you ever seen the Iowa locker room celebrations? Idk about Freeman but there was no shortage of closeness with Fran’s teams. There’s always going to be someone who may not fit.
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I don't know any basketball team that does not celebrate robustly in victory. Not sure that is a great measure of culture. I do believe that Fran's players, for the most part, really liked him. But, whether that culture started to deteriorated the last year or so is certainly debatable.
 
I've heard that Freeman wasn't a great locker room guy, could have still played but chose to close down shop early and he and Dix did not get a long at all.

I got that mostly from Creighton guys so take it for what it's worth.
 
InGoodCo said:
I've heard that Freeman wasn't a great locker room guy, could have still played but chose to close down shop early and he and Dix did not get a long at all.

I got that mostly from Creighton guys so take it for what it's worth.
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I got that same thing from an Iowa player's family member. I was told Freeman didn't get along with anyone and it got a lot worse when he no-showed on Garza who had come to IC to work out with him over the summer. One of those locker room cancer types who's better not being in the program anyways.

And before anyone @'s me about ragging on a "college kid," these guys are getting paid millions. Sorry, they're fair game. Big boy money brings big boy expectations/criticism.
 
tweet from Joe Thornton:
Source: Portland transfer forward Austin Rapp is down to five schools (in no order):

Michigan, Wisconsin, Iowa, Clemson, Oregon

The 6-10 freshman from Australia averaged 13.8 points and 6.5 rebounds per game. Knocked down 83 threes this season, at a 35% clip.
 
HawkeyeHypnosis said:
Thing hadnt gotten that “bad”. But I completely agree the attendance was an issue. More so than the product on the court. Missing the Big Ten Tourney would have been a new low for any team as they have never not accepted every big ten member until this season. Look at the records of teams within the tournaments left. Iowa had a winning record. It’s all moot either way, but how I looked at it, we could have saved a lot of money just hiring a defensive analyst. I believe McCollum would still have been available next year or two. But that’s just me. I can see your point of view with feeling there should have been more from the Fran era.
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My problem with Fran hiring a defensive analyst is you still have to emphasize defense and recruit defenders. Fran didn't do that. It's hard to take tall slender perimeter players and get them to bang in the paint on the defensive end and really hit the glass. Fran's guys were recruited to fit into a system that focused on outscoring the opposition. His roster was not build around defense and rebounding.
 
HawkeyeHypnosis said:
...how I looked at it, we could have saved a lot of money just hiring a defensive analyst.
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1) That money saved is going to be offset to a huge degree by more butts in the seats with a new HC. Whether we agree or not that McCollum is a good coach, the fact remains that this next year is going to be a packed house out of curiosity alone.

2) Fran's roster were made up of skinny jump shooters and he's never shown interest in the kind of players you need to run a defensively oriented team. Hiring a defensive analyst wouldn't have changed anything. The only guy he ever had who could've fit in that system was Cook and he painfully underutilized him.

3) Fran isn't the type of guy who's going to capitulate to fans complaining about defense and bring someone in to run that side of things. To do so would be to admit defeat and incompetence in that phase of the game and that's not Fran's MO. He'd never do it himself, so it would be a deal where Goetz would have to force it and do you really think Fran would be cool with that?
 
It's also not football. You can't simply hire a defensive coordinator and let him do his thing with a mutually exclusive set of players. Fran's whole system is getting the ball up the court as quickly as possible and hopefully getting a shot in transition before the defense can get set. ("Best defense is a good offense."). Fran isn't going to re-think his entire philosophy at this stage.
 
kicker22 said:
My problem with Fran hiring a defensive analyst is you still have to emphasize defense and recruit defenders. Fran didn't do that. It's hard to take tall slender perimeter players and get them to bang in the paint on the defensive end and really hit the glass. Fran's guys were recruited to fit into a system that focused on outscoring the opposition. His roster was not build around defense and rebounding.
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Fran's teams could often play good d for stretches though, which makes me thinks it was a "want to" issue.
 
InGoodCo said:
I've heard that Freeman wasn't a great locker room guy, could have still played but chose to close down shop early and he and Dix did not get a long at all.

I got that mostly from Creighton guys so take it for what it's worth.
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I don't know anything about Dix, other than he seemed like a quiet, even-keeled kid who played really hard. And on the court, totally played the right way. Made the extra pass, moved the ball, bought into the team basketball concept.

Who knows.
 
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