So Where is the Bar for Iowa Basketball

[trj]

I have mixed emotions on this. The men’s program needs to be re-energized, but I am not sure how you do it. A simple coaching change will not do it. Even if they landed the male version of CC, dude would be gone in a year. Cooper Flagg could take Iowa to the Final Four and there would still would be apathy the following year.

This debate and the variations of this debate have gone on for 25 years now. I just shrug my shoulders because I do not know what the answer is.

 

[thedukeofearl]

That was an awesome team. Tom messed up by not calling a timeout sooner and changing up his defense sooner to stave off the towel sucking coach’s come back.

That was so painful

Rodney Monroe was the one who destroyed us with his threes

 

[eyekwah]

Rob hit on the fact that Fran can be enjoyable to be around when he is in the company of others. He doesn't come across that way on television during games or the the Q and A sessions afterward. It has affected his likeability. Another problem that I heard was complaints about playing his sons. I didn't, but others did. He works hard recruiting and has a good bench staff. However, when you haven't made it to the sweet 16 as coach people are critical.

I think basketball attendance rises and wanes with the number of victories, especially in men's basketball. This is reflected in the audience for the NCAA tournament games. Those first and second round games are not always well attended. The viewership for the men's finals was less than it was for the women's finals. The NBA is also having viewership problems.

Kicking Fran to the curb isn't as easy as some think. No matter who would replace him, the new coach is faced with the same NIL and Transfer Portal issues. Fran has been willing to recruit Iowa High School players and generally he attracts decent talent. The state rarely has any 4 or 5 star players to recruit. I think it may limit his success as a coach. He is a development type of coach and with all the covid 6 year players around that has made competing harder for development teams, men vs boys.

I think next year might be a good year for him and the team. Iowa will have more juniors and seniors. His freshman class is pretty good. Hopefully Koch will get healthy.

Fran is near retirement and his family has dispersed, so I feel he should be kept on because this year's team is competitive and will be pretty good next year.

 

[thedukeofearl]

Rob hit on the fact that Fran can be enjoyable to be around when he is in the company of others. He doesn't come across that way on television during games or the the Q and A sessions afterward. It has affected his likeability. Another problem that I heard was complaints about playing his sons. I didn't, but others did. He works hard recruiting and has a good bench staff. However, when you haven't made it to the sweet 16 as coach people are critical.

I think basketball attendance rises and wanes with the number of victories, especially in men's basketball. This is reflected in the audience for the NCAA tournament games. Those first and second round games are not always well attended. The viewership for the men's finals was less than it was for the women's finals. The NBA is also having viewership problems.

Kicking Fran to the curb isn't as easy as some think. No matter who would replace him, the new coach is faced with the same NIL and Transfer Portal issues. Fran has been willing to recruit Iowa High School players and generally he attracts decent talent. The state rarely has any 4 or 5 star players to recruit. I think it may limit his success as a coach. He is a development type of coach and with all the covid 6 year players around that has made competing harder for development teams, men vs boys.

I think next year might be a good year for him and the team. Iowa will have more juniors and seniors. His freshman class is pretty good. Hopefully Koch will get healthy.

Fran is near retirement and his family has dispersed, so I feel he should be kept on because this year's team is competitive and will be pretty good next year.

Good Post...

Yeah, Fran recruits the best players in Iowa usually and that is a good thing

Patrick was a top 50 ranked player in high school

Connor was a solid point guard and fun to watch

I had no problem with his sons playing on the team

Yeah, this year's team will be even better next year playing with more experience

This year's team is really fun to watch, and I Will watch every game and enjoy every one of them

 

[BigD]

How does Iowa State put together good teams that get national attention and Iowa struggles to do it?

 

[longtimer]

How does Iowa State put together good teams that get national attention and Iowa struggles to do it?

Excellent point! Some of the posters are unsure how we can do this and maybe we should just look at the Iowa State program Hey we are both in Iowa and we are in the mighty Big Ten. If they can do it why not us?

 

[Hawkboys]

I think ISU is a basketball school with a good FB coach and UI is a FB school with a good BB coach. It's much easier to compete with ok NIL $$$ for BB than FB due to the much smaller roster sizes.

 

[BigD]

I think ISU is a basketball school with a good FB coach and UI is a FB school with a good BB coach. It's much easier to compete with ok NIL $$$ for BB than FB due to the much smaller roster sizes.

Exactly, so Iowa needs to get out their credit cards and go shopping. The NIL should help us as now we don’t have to be one of the few CLEAN programs anymore. We can buy our way in like the crooked SEC has done for decades………… and now it’s legal. There are very wealthy Iowa boosters and it’s time for them to get busy.

Go Hawks!!!

 

[STILLBUSTER]

Hmmm ... The bar for Iowa?
I prefer Riverside on State St so I can eat some Daytona Chicken nachos.
Otherwise, The Quarry - close to home and just great game atmosphere!

 

[STILLBUSTER]

Oh, you mean metaphorical "bar" of achievement? It was reached under Doc Davis ... These days - 2nd weekend is a stretch if everyone playing their best.

 

[#1DieHardHawk]

Like some have pointed out, elevating the Iowa men's basketball program is going to be a challenge on several levels.

From a head coach standpoint, pontificating whether Fran should get a new contract or be replaced probably is a moot point. My guess is that he's already decided to move on, either at the end of this season, or next. I will be very surprised if he's here beyond that.

Fran's a very good coach and has always run an admirable program that does things the right way. What he hasn't done, however, is make an effort to really endear himself to the Iowa community or even give off an enthusiastic vibe about Iowa men's basketball.

Part of coaching success and building a program is cultivating a culture. I've never got the feeling that Fran is emotionally invested or interested in devoting energy to that end. That's not to say he doesn't work hard, he does, but he seems to have shunned those underappreciated nuances of being the head coach.

I'm not sure I buy the theory that fans have been unfair to his sons. Admittedly, I don't participate on social media, but the criticisms I've seen for the most part were not personal or out-of-line, and there was a tremendous outpouring of support when Patrick was diagnosed and going through thyroid cancer treatments. Fans will always express frustration for questionable play on the court, but that was never exclusive to his sons, and certainly isn't exclusive to Iowa basketball.

I personally have always liked and appreciated Fran's resurrection of the program. At the same time, I do think that there's a lot more he could have done keep the curve in an upward direction.

 

[BigD]

For as long as he has been here and having put a few players in the NBA you would have thought he would have had at least two teams that got past the first weekend in the NCAA tournament.

Defense has been his weakness and there is very little to lead anyone to believe that is going to change. He offense has been very good and above average but to go anywhere in March you have to have a good defense.

Some nights the shots aren’t going to be falling, but with a good defense you can still win close low scoring games.

Have a weak defense and go into March Madness is sure death. We have seen it before our very eyes. It sucks.

 

[BigD]

If you think it is bad now then you are not old enough to remember life before a shot clock. If Lute Olsen had a small lead against a superior opponent he would literally have his players just pass the ball around and try to run the clock out. I am not talking about in the last minute but with eight to ten minutes left in the game.

Wow, that is mind blowing to think back on it now.

 

[PCHawk]

I agree with the analysis of winning and running a clean program and being comparable to KF. Both win at about the same clip and both are great at developing individual players. Fran has had a Wooden award winner and the Murray twins of late. KF has had a player win just about every individual award short of the Heisman.

Where I disagree is not noting that KF has had some nationally relevant years where he has made BCS bowl games, which in my mind are Elite 8 type years in football. 2002, 2009, 2015. Iowa would have made the playoffs those years under the current format. KF also has had a lot of Top 25 finishes. Fran has a couple nice conference tournament runs, but right or wrong, MBB is judged by the tourney and Fran has not gotten to the second weekend. Ever. So, while Fran and KF have a lot in common from a winning perspective, KF has had years where Iowa was nationally relevant and at least in the hunt for the playoffs. Fran has not sniffed that level of success in any given year.

The 3 years you mentioned of Ferentz, 2 of them he shit the bed in the post season and the 3rd we got an extremely favorable matchup. I think both coaches are very similar in the sense that they can string together some good regular seasons but can struggle when it matters most.

 

[BigD]

The 3 years you mentioned of Ferentz, 2 of them he shit the bed in the post season and the 3rd we got an extremely favorable matchup. I think both coaches are very similar in the sense that they can string together some good regular seasons but can struggle when it matters most.

Ok, you surprised me on your last sentence . This is what has caused my biggest frustration with both programs. Good coaches but when it comes to when it really matters the most the term “pissing down their leg”’comes to my mind.

Sure every program will have its ups and downs but when it comes to really big games we fold like a lawn chair.

Still we can look over at the train reck that Nebraska is and I can see where some are coming from. No one wants to deal with a mess like that. Yet, being paralyzed in fear is not good either.

Is Indiana a fluke in college football? Our football program has for decades exceeded the level that Indiana has achieved all those years. We have had some close games with Iowa coming out on top the great majority of the time.

Kirk has been around long enough to have a lot of influence over the big boosters. He needs to really start twisting their arms to get them into donating the funds for Iowa to up their game. If he can do that, then he can stay around until he is 100 years old.

If he is just going to sit in his easy chair or leave the program on auto pilot, then we can plan on consistently having middle to upper one third conference finishes the rest of his tenure. If he isn’t going to up his game then as soon as he steps onto the field every every September as head coach, then the hope of being a part of the playoffs is just a pipe dream. This past season was just as soft as Indiana’s schedule, yet only one team is in the playoffs. It makes me vomit that it is Indiana. I would really be vomiting if Iowa State was still in the mix.

The Nebraska effect can scare people I get it, but life is too damn short to live that way.

 

[PCHawk]

Ok, you surprised me on your last sentence . This is what has caused my biggest frustration with both programs. Good coaches but when it comes to when it really matters the most the term “pissing down their leg”’comes to my mind.

Sure every program will have its ups and downs but when it comes to really big games we fold like a lawn chair.

Still we can look over at the train reck that Nebraska is and I can see where some are coming from. No one wants to deal with a mess like that. Yet, being paralyzed in fear is not good either.

Is Indiana a fluke in college football? Our football program has for decades exceeded the level that Indiana has achieved all those years. We have had some close games with Iowa coming out on top the great majority of the time.

Kirk has been around long enough to have a lot of influence over the big boosters. He needs to really start twisting their arms to get them into donating the funds for Iowa to up their game. If he can do that, then he can stay around until he is 100 years old.

If he is just going to sit in his easy chair or leave the program on auto pilot, then we can plan on consistently having middle to upper one third conference finishes the rest of his tenure. If he isn’t going to up his game then as soon as he steps onto the field every every September as head coach, then the hope of being a part of the playoffs is just a pipe dream. This past season was just as soft as Indiana’s schedule, yet only one team is in the playoffs. It makes me vomit that it is Indiana. I would really be vomiting if Iowa State was still in the mix.

The Nebraska effect can scare people I get it, but life is too damn short to live that way.

Every program is capable if putting together one dream season. It just so happens that Indiana did that this year. I'm sure as hell not going to get envious of a shit program just because they had finally had a good year. On a side note, I saw a list of top spending programs on NIL and Indiana was a long ways up on it. Close to top 10 I think. Not sure how that happened or if it's sustainable.