The 2022/2023 Stretch Run Synopsis

[NorthKCHawk]

IMHO your giving Iowa football too much credit and Iowa basketball not enough. Wisconsin played in a Final 4, and Iowa's been pretty high in the ratings up until tourney time.

Disagree. In the last decade, Iowa was one snap away from making the 4-team playoff. That is the equivalent of Iowa MBB basketball making the elite 8 and getting beat on a buzzer beater to miss the Final Four. Also, before a collapse two years ago, Iowa was ranked 2nd overall in the country. Even in normal years, Iowa wins 8-9 games, which is equivalent to making the NCAA tournament every year and winning a game or two. That success is comparable to Wisconsin MBB over the last decade: always pretty good and has had an elite year here and there.

I love Fran, but he cannot claim the same resume. He has won an NIT and a conference tourney. He has had some well-ranked teams and is usually in the discussion for the conference crown, but never gets there. He has produced some of the greatest individual players in program history and is putting guys in the league the last few years, but for right or wrong, MBB programs are primarily judged by NCAA tournament performance, and until Fran gets out of the first weekend, he is not close to the level of national success that KF has shown.

 

[NorthKCHawk]

I dont think Sandfort scores when he gets more minutes. I think he gets more minutes when he scores.

Ding ding ding.

CM, Kris and Flip have earned the right to be in the game in crunch time even if they are not having a great game. They are gamers. All of the other guys have had moments, but have also had long stretches this season where they can't buy a basket with an Amex card. I would LOVE to see Perkins get hot like he did last year and he could climb into that same category. But for now, I think Fran is going to have to play the hot hand amongst Perk, Uhlis, PS, Dix, and PM. I tend to agree that of that group Perk and PS are the most likely two you want in there, but they are both scorers and they both can be off on any given day. If Uhlis is hitting his shots and not turning it over, keep him in there. Same with the others.

 

[BigD]

I realize speculating and analyzing is entertaining. Maybe my work demands are so great that I don’t have the free time to worry about all of this.

Last fall I just forced myself to dedicate some time to get into analyzing football schedules enough to get involved with the football pool.

At this point with the basketball program I enjoy watching the games but my main focus is getting to the NCAA tournament and getting past the second round. That’s it. Watching the hot air leave the ballon every March is not fun. With the repeated failures comes some apathy with wanting to analyze possible seedings in the BTT or even seedings in March madness.

Until we get past round two it just seems hard to want to waste the time worrying about seedings. However I remember my younger days and how much I enjoyed doing it so I don’t blame anyone for enjoying themselves and anticipating possible out comes.

Fran you are over due. Just do it. Would be great it it finally happens this March.

 

[PCHawk]

So many years we didn't make the sweet 16 because we couldn't even get in the tournament. Then we got in but got bad seeds. Lately Fran is putting us in a great position to finally make a tournament run. If he finishes strong this year, it will be 4 straight years of having a legit chance at the sweet 16.

I don't care about what Fran did early in his career and I sure as hell don't care about what happened before he got here. I care about recent success. If Fran keeps getting us 6 seeds or better every year, we are bound to make a run . We just gotta get that damn monkey off our backs.

I know I've said this before, but after Fran's first two seasons, he's missed the tournament three times. Two of those times he was one win away from getting in. I love the hell out of watching basketball for three months during shitty winters. Fran gave us that back. The losses in the tournament are gut wrenching. But that's going to be the case regardless of how far in we make it. It's probably even more gut wrenching to lose in the later rounds.

 

[InGoodCo]

So many years we didn't make the sweet 16 because we couldn't even get in the tournament. Then we got in but got bad seeds. Lately Fran is putting us in a great position to finally make a tournament run. If he finishes strong this year, it will be 4 straight years of having a legit chance at the sweet 16.

I don't care about what Fran did early in his career and I sure as hell don't care about what happened before he got here. I care about recent success. If Fran keeps getting us 6 seeds or better every year, we are bound to make a run . We just gotta get that damn monkey off our backs.

I know I've said this before, but after Fran's first two seasons, he's missed the tournament three times. Two of those times he was one win away from getting in. I love the hell out of watching basketball for three months during shitty winters. Fran gave us that back. The losses in the tournament are gut wrenching. But that's going to be the case regardless of how far in we make it. It's probably even more gut wrenching to lose in the later rounds.

We'll just move the bar when he finally breaks through and that's normal. I mean, it used to be the Fran fade... that's gone now. It used to be Fran couldn't win in the B1G tournament. That's gone now. It used to be Fran can't recruit, that should easily be gone now with 3 straight NPOY candidates with 3 different names. With Luka and Joe sticking in the NBA, Keagan being a potential All Star and Kris about to go there, that narrative will die as well. Once he hits the sweet 16, it will be that he can't get us to the Elite 8. I have little doubt Fran will take us to a sweet 16 - his program just keeps getting better.

 

[HawkGold]

Ding ding ding.

CM, Kris and Flip have earned the right to be in the game in crunch time even if they are not having a great game. They are gamers. All of the other guys have had moments, but have also had long stretches this season where they can't buy a basket with an Amex card. I would LOVE to see Perkins get hot like he did last year and he could climb into that same category. But for now, I think Fran is going to have to play the hot hand amongst Perk, Uhlis, PS, Dix, and PM. I tend to agree that of that group Perk and PS are the most likely two you want in there, but they are both scorers and they both can be off on any given day. If Uhlis is hitting his shots and not turning it over, keep him in there. Same with the others.

The last sentence I agree with. I do think Fran is a part of the issues in making guys think about if they make a mistake or miss. Also sometimes Flip and CM just don't rebound well.

 

[Northside Hawk]

Our stretch run includes some daunting tasks, but some golden opportunities as well. Could we lose four in a row? Slim possibility, but probably not with the makeup of this team. Indiana and Northwestern are golden opportunities. And we've got something on Indiana. We've beaten them two or three times in the Woodshed era when we were either physically outplayed or just flat outplayed and probably should have lost.

 

[trj]

The defensive efficiency numbers are the lowest they have been in 5 years. It is clear with this team, Fran just wants to outscore people. I'm with it, sign me up, lets see how far this can go. The +/- numbers may be good for each individual guy, but as a whole, this team sucks defensively.

Yet, this team might be the one that cracks the code and gets to the 2nd weekend of the tournament.

 

[HuckFinn]

As to Iowa’s struggles on D: There are a lot of good scorers in the Big Ten. And more importantly, those are the players who get the attention. Really, really tough to look good in the BT on D.

 

[HawksMN]

The defensive efficiency numbers are the lowest they have been in 5 years. It is clear with this team, Fran just wants to outscore people. I'm with it, sign me up, lets see how far this can go. The +/- numbers may be good for each individual guy, but as a whole, this team sucks defensively.

Yet, this team might be the one that cracks the code and gets to the 2nd weekend of the tournament.

Hell getting to the 2nd GAME of the tournament would be a decent step for Fran.

 

[HawkGold]

Our stretch run includes some daunting tasks, but some golden opportunities as well. Could we lose four in a row? Slim possibility, but probably not with the makeup of this team. Indiana and Northwestern are golden opportunities. And we've got something on Indiana. We've beaten them two or three times in the Woodshed era when we were either physically outplayed or just flat outplayed and probably should have lost.

Last time IU had a big injury. Is that the something? The guy Fry hates had a monster 2ND HALF late. He may not even see the 2nd half next time

 

[PCHawk]

Hell getting to the 2nd GAME of the tournament would be a decent step for Fran.

Are you under the impression that Fran normally loses the first game? He's made it to the 2nd game 4 out of the 6 times he's been in it.

 

[PCHawk]

The defensive efficiency numbers are the lowest they have been in 5 years. It is clear with this team, Fran just wants to outscore people. I'm with it, sign me up, lets see how far this can go. The +/- numbers may be good for each individual guy, but as a whole, this team sucks defensively.

Yet, this team might be the one that cracks the code and gets to the 2nd weekend of the tournament.

It's kinda surprising the numbers are that bad. This team plays stretches of really good defense sometimes. I'm more confident in this team getting a big stop down the stretch when needed more than most other Fran teams.

 

[HawksMN]

Are you under the impression that Fran normally loses the first game? He's made it to the 2nd game 4 out of the 6 times he's been in it.

Its the ol what have you done for me lately thing. Last trip out, Franny dropped a terd to quite frankly, a pretty bad looking high seed...not even one that was capable of making a Cinderella run. Yeesh. I honestly think outside maybe Indiana or Purdue, there isnt ANY league team gonna make the 2nd weekend. And thats not a stretch.

 

[PCHawk]

Its the ol what have you done for me lately thing. Last trip out, Franny dropped a terd to quite frankly, a pretty bad looking high seed...not even one that was capable of making a Cinderella run. Yeesh. I honestly think outside maybe Indiana or Purdue, there isnt ANY league team gonna make the 2nd weekend. And thats not a stretch.

In my opinion a "what have you done for me lately" should be reserved for things that haven't happened for more than one year. We just made it past the 1st round one year earlier.