Short List

[longtimer]

Still hoping that Fran will get over the hump but if he doesnt have a strong finish and get into the tournament I would have to think next year would be do or die, and losing white and Gabe will make it tough. Not getting into the tournament in 6 years (playin loss doesnt count) and the fact the other big team in the state is really becoming a power will undoubtedly cost us keeping people in the seats at Carver. That's the bottom line.

The point of this is to just hypothesize who might be a good selection if we need to find another coach. I think maybe history is the key. Back in the 60s we hired a coach from Witchita State by the Name of Ralph Miller. That turned out to be a great hire. He shared a big Ten championship with Ohio State with a 6'3" Sam Williams leading the league in points and rebounds while scoring about 65 a game. In 69-70 my freshmen year he went 14-0 in the big ten averaging over 100 in conference play and beating Purdue and Rick Mount twice. If not for a strange bounce against Jacksonville in the tournament might have won it all.
Now there is another coach at Witchita State Gregg Marshall who has done a fantastic job with a mid major school over a period of time. I sure hope he is on Barta's list (if he is still here) as he would be at the top of mine

 

[1hawkeye1]

Fran is my man.

 

[damnfinn]

Im thinking Alford will be available again by next year

 

[MrEHawk]

Now there is another coach at Witchita State Gregg Marshall who has done a fantastic job with a mid major school over a period of time. I sure hope he is on Barta's list (if he is still here) as he would be at the top of mine

Isn't this guy one of the hottest coaches in the country? Why would he want to come here? How about Shaka Smart and Brad Stevens while we're at it?

 

[lightning1]

Do we really want to see Barta's short list? I've seen enough of Barta to know that anything he touches will end up in a train wreck. My guess on what Barta's "short list" would look like
James Naismith
Ralph Miller
Lettuce
Cheese
Milk
Eggs
Kirk's laundry

 

[hawk2012]

Here is Fran's work at Iowa:

1st Season: Took over garbage from Lickliter
2nd Season: NIT
3rd Season: NIT finals (should have been an NCAA tournament team minus worst hack officiating of all time in Big Ten Tourney against MSU)
4th Season: NCAA
5th Season: road win against UNC, two wins against OSU, competing for a top 4 finish in Big Ten.

On top of that, he's signed what most people consider his best class for the next two years. And he's got a top 150 recruit signed for each of the next two years (Pemsl and Connor).

It's one thing to find a coach to replace Lickliter. A lot probably thought yeah I can do better than that. But who is crazy enough to try to replace Fran? How many coaches in America could have rebuilt this program so quickly? And how many of those coaches already have jobs at better schools than Iowa?

If we fire Fran within the next two years, no decent coach will want to come anywhere near this program.

 

[chadfrey]

Fran is doing good things at Iowa. Some forget the context here, the lowly depths the program had sunk to before he took over. That written, I think it is realistic for us to expect more than one NCAA game out of Fran. Depending to the state of White, we should expect an NCAA trip this season. We also need to expect better player progression out of some of the current roster than we have seen.

To the OP's "Short list:"

Gregg Marshall isn't going anywhere. He has seven years remaining on a contract at Wichita State. Shockerville loves the guy. They are paying somewhere around $1.6 million a year, and he has told The Wichita Eagle he has no interest in being anywhere else.

Marshall will not leave just to go to a bigger school. He has watched some of his peers in the MVC do that, and then lose in P5. He has no desire to do that. It would have to be quite a honey of a deal for that to happen. I've had the opportunity to meet Marshall (work in media just 30 minutes from Wichita) and watch his teams in sold out Koch Arena. I truly doubt he would have an interest in heading to Iowa City at this stage of his career.

 

[ChosenChildren]

This is really an unfair post. Fran is paid bonus money for NIT and NCAA bids. He has earned 2 NIT bids and 1 NCAA bid.

Your "play-in" b.s. doesn't hold water. Tennessee made it to the sweet 16 last year out of the first round. NFL teams make it to the Super Bowl as Wild Cards. Either you are in the tourney or you are not. Iowa was in last year.

Iowa will be, at minimum, an NIT team this year.

Fran will be at Iowa for a long time.

This post is nothing but a trolling expedition

 

[BILLBUCKNER]

This is really an unfair post. Fran is paid bonus money for NIT and NCAA bids. He has earned 2 NIT bids and 1 NCAA bid.

Your "play-in" b.s. doesn't hold water. Tennessee made it to the sweet 16 last year out of the first round. NFL teams make it to the Super Bowl as Wild Cards. Either you are in the tourney or you are not. Iowa was in last year.

Iowa will be, at minimum, an NIT team this year.

Fran will be at Iowa for a long time.

This post is nothing but a trolling expedition

I think Fran has done a great job considering the mess he inherited. He coached our 1st NBA player since when?? He will eventually recruit the player/players that will put us in the hunt for the BIG. Hell, his sons might be the best recruits that Iowa has seen in years. Too bad him the wife didn't produce more. C'mon Fran, you can afford them.

 

[mopkins]

People are ridiculous to even talk about replacing Fran. He's done nothing short of haul this program out of the 7th level of Lickliter hell. Its pretty safe to say that after 5 years Fran has at least made Iowa a top-50 basketball program which is pretty amazing considering where they came from.

He still has some work to do but he's definitely on the right track and laying solid foundations for the future.

 

[Hawkfnntn]

Now there is a big fat asterisk waiting to be stuck on this season if White is hurt for long. They are down playing it now but that sure didn't look very good to me. This stretch of the season is rough and without him I can see the toilet start to swirl.... So if that happens and White's out I don't see Fran getting the boot weather they are NCAA bound or NIT. And if they do make the dance with White out... please he's not going anywhere and quite frankly they'd be nuts to fire him regardless. He's done pretty well considering what he inherited. Like Hawk2012 said if you let him go who the hell are you going to get to replace him? We aren't a powerhouse so to be a good job you can't dump good coaches and nobody other then Dakich would call him otherwise.

 

[RocknRollface]

Technically Iowa made the tourney, when you have to qualify something with "technically" it's usually not the same.

That being said, as slow and frustrating as this thing has been you have to give him a few more years IMO.

 

[hawkjunkie]

Sometimes, Iowa fans are just embarrassing morons....

 

[Knight78]

Now there is a big fat asterisk waiting to be stuck on this season if White is hurt for long. They are down playing it now but that sure didn't look very good to me. This stretch of the season is rough and without him I can see the toilet start to swirl.... So if that happens and White's out I don't see Fran getting the boot weather they are NCAA bound or NIT. And if they do make the dance with White out... please he's not going anywhere and quite frankly they'd be nuts to fire him regardless. He's done pretty well considering what he inherited. Like Hawk2012 said if you let him go who the hell are you going to get to replace him? We aren't a powerhouse so to be a good job you can't dump good coaches and nobody other then Dakich would call him otherwise.

I seem to recall another season where there were high expectations and the top player went down with an injury. Some of you may remember the great run in 1979 where Ronnie Lester missed 15 games and then came back in time to lead the Hawks to the Final Four. He re-injured his knee against Louisville (the eventual NCAA Champ) 8 minutes into the game. Who knows what would have happened if he had not re-injured the knee as Louisville only beat Iowa by 8.

 

[Benddontbreak]

We were a top 20 team the majority of last year and fell out of the top 25 yesterday. Reached our first tourney game in 8 years, produced an nba player, and now were talking about replacing him? Good Lord.