Some love to Fran and coaches

Hawkeyes5

Hawkeyes5

Well-Known Member
Yes his antics have been weird, yes we have questioned why he does what he does, but Fran deserves to be put on BIG T coach of the year talks. Who saw this coming? We were predicted to finish 12th this year and with no JBO..here we are in 3rd??
 
Definitely! Coach of the year will depend on how we, PSU, Rutgers and Illinois finish out. I think Peikl or however you spell it is on the outside looking in, but Underwood and Chambers are in up there and should be.
 
Same old story- the coach is never as bad or as good as we think. It's a good year, well, Garza. I like Fran and want to have him stay but have no fascination that somehow he's doing a better job this year.
 
I think what we as fans have to realize is that Fran probably hasn’t changed much in the way that he does things. Players have to execute. I feel like most coaches that get to the Big 10 level understand basketball very well. A lot of it comes down to recruiting and getting the right players.

Look at Purdue. They wanted Painter gone. Edwards was a fall back recruit and it ended up good. North Carolina coach isn’t too bad and even has a bad year.

The team we have this year seems to fit with Frans personality. It is such a small margin of error for a good season or not. I’m enjoying this season so much because of Garza. I’ve never seen a guy so consistent in games. All while we are missing people along the way.
 
hawks23 said:
I think what we as fans have to realize is that Fran probably hasn’t changed much in the way that he does things. Players have to execute. I feel like most coaches that get to the Big 10 level understand basketball very well. A lot of it comes down to recruiting and getting the right players.

Look at Purdue. They wanted Painter gone. Edwards was a fall back recruit and it ended up good. North Carolina coach isn’t too bad and even has a bad year.

The team we have this year seems to fit with Frans personality. It is such a small margin of error for a good season or not. I’m enjoying this season so much because of Garza. I’ve never seen a guy so consistent in games. All while we are missing people along the way.
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We are winning close games that we used to lose seven out of ten times. It makes a huge difference in the standings, getting those extra two or three close wins. It's why so many of us harped on it all those years.
 
1hawkeye1 said:
He's in the running for me, but honestly, I'd have to vote for Pat Chambers a this point.
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I think he'll win it but going into the season, PSU was projected to be pretty good. But the fact that PSU is never good is probably why he gets it. That sucks, but how those awards typically work. Either the COY is the guy who wins the conference or the guy who coaches a poor program and rises them up above their level. Iowa however, was picked 12th after winning an NCAA game and considering the situation Iowa was in coming into the year a case could at least be made for Fran. Let's take a look

From last years round of 32 qualifier, they lost Cook to the NBA, Moss to KS and Baer to graduation. One of our guards, Dailey transfers. Off season was pretty much a disaster as well. Didn't get the big in state recruit we wanted for the 2nd year in a row, Jordan Bohannon, who was perceived as your best player, has hip surgery and will likely miss the up coming season. The only players coming in was Joe T, who everyone was excited about, but he was a clear fall back to Carton, and Patrick McCaffery, who was highly rated but everyone sorta expected he might RS because of his weight.

Season starts. Pemsl gets suspended. They get blasted in the 2nd game of the season by Depaul. I mean run off their own court. They lose Nunge, they lose Patrick, they lose Bohannon, they lose CJF off and on thru out the year. Cordell gets suspended again. Fran is having to rely on walk ons to fill minutes and here we are, a week from March and Iowa is 19-8, they have a Wooden Award candidate, another ALL B1G candidate, a ALL B1G freshman team candidate, a player with best assist to TO ratio in the country and is tied for the 2nd best road record in the conference.

Fran may not win it, but like I said above, it doesn't always go to the guy who really deserves it IMO.
 
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InGoodCo said:
I think he'll win it but going into the season, PSU was projected to be pretty good. But the fact that PSU is never good is probably why he gets it. That sucks, but how those awards typically work. Either the COY is the guy who wins the conference or the guy who coaches a poor program and rises them up above their level. Iowa however, was picked 12th after winning an NCAA game and considering the situation Iowa was in coming into the year a case could at least be made for Fran. Let's take a look

From last years round of 32 qualifier, they lost Cook to the NBA, Moss to KS and Baer to graduation. One of our guards, Dailey transfers. Off season was pretty much a disaster as well. Didn't get the big in state recruit we wanted for the 2nd year in a row, Jordan Bohannon, who was perceived as your best player, has hip surgery and will likely miss the up coming season. The only players coming in was Joe T, who everyone was excited about, but he was a clear fall back to Carton, and Patrick McCaffery, who was highly rated but everyone sorta expected he might RS because of his weight.

Season starts. Pemsl gets suspended. They get blasted in the 2nd game of the season by Depaul. I mean run off their own court. They lose Nunge, they lose Patrick, they lose Bohannon, they lose CJF off and on thru out the year. Cordell gets suspended again. Fran is having to rely on walk ons to fill minutes and here we are, a week from March and Iowa is 19-9, they have a Wooden Award candidate, another ALL B1G candidate, a ALL B1G freshman team candidate, a player with best assist to TO ratio in the country and is tied for the 2nd best road record in the conference.

Fran may not win it, but like I said above, it doesn't always go to the guy who really deserves it IMO.
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Excellent post. My order would be Pikiell, Fran, Chambers, Underwood. And those four, in any order, should be the rock-solid top four. The other 10 shouldn't even get votes.

OTOH, if it went by sporadic blow-outs on home court over ranked teams, etch Painter's name on the trophy post-haste.

Nationally, it's a three-horse race:
Anthony Grant, Brian Dutcher, Scott Drew

The best news: Roy Williams and Jim Boeheim are nowhere to be found on that list.

In related, but not really, news: DePaul may actually turn out to be a "worse" loss than Nebby. Not that THAT makes it any easier to swallow either one, of course.
 
InGoodCo said:
I think he'll win it but going into the season, PSU was projected to be pretty good. But the fact that PSU is never good is probably why he gets it. That sucks, but how those awards typically work. Either the COY is the guy who wins the conference or the guy who coaches a poor program and rises them up above their level. Iowa however, was picked 12th after winning an NCAA game and considering the situation Iowa was in coming into the year a case could at least be made for Fran. Let's take a look

From last years round of 32 qualifier, they lost Cook to the NBA, Moss to KS and Baer to graduation. One of our guards, Dailey transfers. Off season was pretty much a disaster as well. Didn't get the big in state recruit we wanted for the 2nd year in a row, Jordan Bohannon, who was perceived as your best player, has hip surgery and will likely miss the up coming season. The only players coming in was Joe T, who everyone was excited about, but he was a clear fall back to Carton, and Patrick McCaffery, who was highly rated but everyone sorta expected he might RS because of his weight.

Season starts. Pemsl gets suspended. They get blasted in the 2nd game of the season by Depaul. I mean run off their own court. They lose Nunge, they lose Patrick, they lose Bohannon, they lose CJF off and on thru out the year. Cordell gets suspended again. Fran is having to rely on walk ons to fill minutes and here we are, a week from March and Iowa is 19-9, they have a Wooden Award candidate, another ALL B1G candidate, a ALL B1G freshman team candidate, a player with best assist to TO ratio in the country and is tied for the 2nd best road record in the conference.

Fran may not win it, but like I said above, it doesn't always go to the guy who really deserves it IMO.
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BTW, aren't we 19-8? Or are you subliminally surrendering Tuesday's game? :)
 
InGoodCo said:
I think he'll win it but going into the season, PSU was projected to be pretty good. But the fact that PSU is never good is probably why he gets it. That sucks, but how those awards typically work. Either the COY is the guy who wins the conference or the guy who coaches a poor program and rises them up above their level. Iowa however, was picked 12th after winning an NCAA game and considering the situation Iowa was in coming into the year a case could at least be made for Fran. Let's take a look

From last years round of 32 qualifier, they lost Cook to the NBA, Moss to KS and Baer to graduation. One of our guards, Dailey transfers. Off season was pretty much a disaster as well. Didn't get the big in state recruit we wanted for the 2nd year in a row, Jordan Bohannon, who was perceived as your best player, has hip surgery and will likely miss the up coming season. The only players coming in was Joe T, who everyone was excited about, but he was a clear fall back to Carton, and Patrick McCaffery, who was highly rated but everyone sorta expected he might RS because of his weight.

Season starts. Pemsl gets suspended. They get blasted in the 2nd game of the season by Depaul. I mean run off their own court. They lose Nunge, they lose Patrick, they lose Bohannon, they lose CJF off and on thru out the year. Cordell gets suspended again. Fran is having to rely on walk ons to fill minutes and here we are, a week from March and Iowa is 19-9, they have a Wooden Award candidate, another ALL B1G candidate, a ALL B1G freshman team candidate, a player with best assist to TO ratio in the country and is tied for the 2nd best road record in the conference.

Fran may not win it, but like I said above, it doesn't always go to the guy who really deserves it IMO.
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Fran's done a great job, but I have to go with Pat Chambers too. Penn State has been a perennial afterthought, and he's just flat getting it done this year. This is the first time he'll have a winning conference record, and the first year he won't end up with double digit losses. These recruits are all his, and it the recruiting deck is ridiculously stacked against Penn State. In a lot of ways his situation was exactly like Lickliter's. Had success at a lower level and took the plunge at the B1G, but unlike Lickliter he made a fight of it and it's starting to pay off for him. When guys like Chambers and Lick come to big boy sports they either sink or swim, and Chambers is starting to tread water finally.

I like Fran, and I love his fight for his players, but I have to give Chambers the nod.
 
Damn fine coaching job this year and he has proven to have a keen eye for talent.

Iowa will never be in the mix for 5 star guys because of the shady shit you have to do to be in that mix, and frankly I’d rather be pretty good the right way.
 
Fryowa said:
Fran's done a great job, but I have to go with Pat Chambers too. Penn State has been a perennial afterthought, and he's just flat getting it done this year. This is the first time he'll have a winning conference record, and the first year he won't end up with double digit losses. These recruits are all his, and it the recruiting deck is ridiculously stacked against Penn State. In a lot of ways his situation was exactly like Lickliter's. Had success at a lower level and took the plunge at the B1G, but unlike Lickliter he made a fight of it and it's starting to pay off for him. When guys like Chambers and Lick come to big boy sports they either sink or swim, and Chambers is starting to tread water finally.

I like Fran, and I love his fight for his players, but I have to give Chambers the nod.
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I agree Fran isn't gonna get it and I also think Chambers or that dick from Rutgers is gonna get it but just as long as we agree that it's because Penn State and Rutgers suck giant donkey dong big picture and are finally good once in a millennium. Fran has been good for a while now so Iowa's rise isn't really drastic enough to create the wave of notice. That's fine, that's how it works. Both of the other coaches deserve it too, but IMO Fran has done the much better job with the circumstances he faced.
 
Rutgers is probably going to fade away down the stretch. I say if Fran only loses one more game, and its not to Penn State, he deserves it. The absolute only reason Chambers would get it is because Penn State has sucked so bad in the past. That should be irrelevant, but it won't be.
 
InGoodCo said:
I agree Fran isn't gonna get it and I also think Chambers or that dick from Rutgers is gonna get it but just as long as we agree that it's because Penn State and Rutgers suck giant donkey dong big picture and are finally good once in a millennium. Fran has been good for a while now so Iowa's rise isn't really drastic enough to create the wave of notice. That's fine, that's how it works. Both of the other coaches deserve it too, but IMO Fran has done the much better job with the circumstances he faced.
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If Penn State finishes upper third next year I'll take notice. For the record I think it could happen. What I like about what Chambers has done is that he's recruited and developed, similar to an Iowa. His hands are tied recruiting wise but his classes have been steadily improving; I don't think this is a flash in the pan. Being so bad for so long makes the recruiting that much more impressive.
 
The FireFran trolls have been very quiet, which has been nice. Fran has done a good job handling all the injuries and dealing with a short bench. He's had some help with, arguably, the best player in college basketball with Garza. I doubt he wins any coaching awards though.

This season has been nice but LET'S MAKE A RUN IN THE NCAA!!!! Sweet 16 is all I ask, I can't remember the last time Iowa won 2 games in the tournament.
 
ssckelley said:
The FireFran trolls have been very quiet, which has been nice. Fran has done a good job handling all the injuries and dealing with a short bench. He's had some help with, arguably, the best player in college basketball with Garza. I doubt he wins any coaching awards though.

This season has been nice but LET'S MAKE A RUN IN THE NCAA!!!! Sweet 16 is all I ask, I can't remember the last time Iowa won 2 games in the tournament.
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1999
 
I'm the first to admit I've been ready to part with Fran a couple years ago. Mainly because of his embarrassing behavior many times but his in game coaching left lots to be desired some times too. I can definitely give him props this year, good coaching job and his sideline demeanor has been much improved other than a few meltdowns which every coach has. I think the players have responded to it also. Shrinking the rotation down has helped IMO, but that was more out of necessity because of injuries.
Ball movement has been great this year. One thing not mentioned and I'm not sure its a big deal, but I'm wondering how the assistant that replaced Francis has affected things?? might have been a needed change there too.
 
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