Task #1 for Fran and Staff

H

hawkeye12345

Well-Known Member
Schedule MTSU or Belmont in a home and home series starting next year.

Look - if all it takes is a few games against what are supposedly good teams in a conference then get it done. Go to Nashville and wipe the floor with these two teams and show them what the Big10 is all about. There shouldn't be a team in the country that Fran should fear for next year.

I understand why our schedule was vanilla this year and in all honesty I would have scheduled it the exact same way. We have a young team that needed to learn how to win. We had two starting Freshman coming into the year and Fran knew it ahead of time. Let the kids get some wins under their belt and then hopefully get a few signature wins in the Big10. Guess what? We were close on at least 5 wins in the conference had it not been for under 5 minute melt downs. Those melt downs won't happen next year.

The selection committee has spoken. Get the mid-majors on your schedule and play them away from home.
 
Yes we need to schedule a few of them and also a duke or gonzaga on the road. Even if we get waxed by 40 our rpi will go up every time they play. MTSU says hello
 
hawkeye12345 said:
Schedule MTSU or Belmont in a home and home series starting next year.

Look - if all it takes is a few games against what are supposedly good teams in a conference then get it done. Go to Nashville and wipe the floor with these two teams and show them what the Big10 is all about. There shouldn't be a team in the country that Fran should fear for next year.

I understand why our schedule was vanilla this year and in all honesty I would have scheduled it the exact same way. We have a young team that needed to learn how to win. We had two starting Freshman coming into the year and Fran knew it ahead of time. Let the kids get some wins under their belt and then hopefully get a few signature wins in the Big10. Guess what? We were close on at least 5 wins in the conference had it not been for under 5 minute melt downs. Those melt downs won't happen next year.

The selection committee has spoken. Get the mid-majors on your schedule and play them away from home.
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Why?
They knew what the league slate was going to be, why schedule half dogs in the non-con.
It made no sense whatsoever.
 
oroko said:
Why?
They knew what the league slate was going to be, why schedule half dogs in the non-con.
It made no sense whatsoever.
Click to expand...

Actually made good sense. Team was very young and inexperienced. They needed the confidence building. I'm sure you know a lot about D1 college bb, but in this case I'm gonna trust that Fran knows what he's doing.
 
I like it, good post. The weak schedule was to get our team experience and wins. Next year we are going to be pretty darn good. Step up the schedule, next year is our year. It's gonna be fun, watch and see suckas
 
Why focus on the mid-majors? The teams I have the biggest problem being in the tournament are: Cal, Colorado and Oklahoma...all are bad and had 'quality' wins in their conference, which suck, but their OOC looks good even though they lost against anyone with a pulse.
 
Personally, I don't want to see more then two 300 RPI teams or lower and none from the same conference on the schedule. That's what killed Iowa as they played five of this teams this season.
 
Herkyalert said:
I'm fine with having a cupcake or two on there to give the bench some PT, and to be able to work on somet things. Pretty much everybody does it.
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The bench gets plenty of PT, Fran played 10-11 players this year in during the Big 10 season. I am not worried about Stokes getting maybe 15 min of PT durning the pre-season.

Iowa needs to schedule more smartly. They don't have to get crazy but they need to schedule smarter.
 
We will be good enough next year to ramp up the schedule a bit. Next year we will get in and it won't be a bubble situation. Next year we good to go
 
HawkeyeMHA said:
We will be good enough next year to ramp up the schedule a bit. Next year we will get in and it won't be a bubble situation. Next year we good to go
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Yes and most people are off in analyzing the non conference schedule. Just win more conference games and your non conference schedule will only affect your seeding maybe. Iowa just didn't win enough games in conferece which was their chance to get into the dance. The non conference just added to the issue once they did not win enough conference games.
 
ICHAWK said:
Yes and most people are off in analyzing the non conference schedule. Just win more conference games and your non conference schedule will only affect your seeding maybe. Iowa just didn't win enough games in conferece which was their chance to get into the dance. The non conference just added to the issue once they did not win enough conference games.
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I would like to reiterate this point. Iowa's present condition is not a byproduct of a multitude of insignificant conquests, but rather an abject failure to perform in almost every occurrence of consequence.
 
1hawkeye1 said:
Actually made good sense. Team was very young and inexperienced. They needed the confidence building. I'm sure you know a lot about D1 college bb, but in this case I'm gonna trust that Fran knows what he's doing.
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Iowa State will be equally as young as iowa next season and from what we know of the schedule it will be fairly difficult. A lot of people said the schedule was a mistake before the season and it was.
 
Klondike53226 said:
I would like to reiterate this point. Iowa's present condition is not a byproduct of a multitude of insignificant conquests, but rather an abject failure to perform in almost every occurrence of consequence.
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This is true. The question is was the same consequence games too low to allow for the necessary success? Really it comes down to Indy, UM, MSU, and OSU. If there were 8, or 9 with BTT, games against those teams, you might be able to squeak out a win or two.
 
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How well did this philosophy work for Purdue who also had a young team? The scheduled in that 100-200 range and a few more BCS opponents and came out with a 6-6 record. After somehow finishing with an 8-10 record, the same as IL and Minny and only one game back from Iowa they not only were left out of the big dance (not even mentioned) but they did not get a bid to the NIT. They beat IL at home and Wisky away so they had a couple of nice wins. Their resume looked a lot like the Iowa resume the year before with Gatens.

So before we question the Fran strategy completely keep in mind you do have to win games when you are in a power 6 conference. It will not help entirely to schedule losses.

The real key is how the mid-major conferences are skirting the system by scheduling non D-1 opponents and being rewarded for it in RPI as pointed out by John and others. Why KenPom, BPI and other statistical metrics are not being used to give a full picture of teams is the question that media should be questioning given the loopholes and failings of the RPI.
 
I want a tougher schedule because the team will be better and the games will be more interesting. I'm not worried about the SOS. Our conference schedule should be tougher and we will likely win more games...including some important road games. While I'm not worried about SOS I do want to play better competition. This is what is supposed to happen as the program evolves/improves. I also want to start winning a few games in the ACC vs. Big Ten Challenge.

This year's non conference schedule was just what it needed to be. Everyone acts like we automatically win games this year against teams in the 50-150 range. I think early in the season we lose some of those games. See Wichita State and VT...weren't ready yet. See G-W where we had to rally late to get the win.

In the conference season we lost some close games on the road...weren't ready yet. Marble being hurt was a negative but wouldn't have mattered...if we were ready. Playing all of the tough conference teams at the front end of our schedule didn't help either.

Next year we should win a lot of games. We shouldn't be on the bubble. There aren't likely to be many 50 to 100 threads on scheduling...my best guess.
 
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