JonDMiller
Publisher/Founder
On ‘Miller & Deace in the Morning’ on Friday (1460 KXNO in Des Moines), my co-host Steve Deace asked me a simple question, and one that I didn’t figure I’d have to answer in reality: If UNI beats Kansas, do you reconsider your opinion on Ben Jacobson with regards to the Iowa job?
Prior to Saturday’s improbable win by the Panthers, I had been firm in my thoughts on Jacobson.
I have felt he was a fine coach, a good guy and he has put together a very salty team. His teams play wicked defense and I believe he has gotten the most out of every single player on his roster. UNI has been his program for four full seasons, and while this was the best team in UNI history, what they did this year was not a fluke.
That being said, I was not interested in Jacobson becoming Iowa’s next head coach. I have convinced myself that an uptempo brand of basketball is the right tonic for the ailing Iowa program, therefore the vice grip defensive minded Jacobson has not been someone I have given serious consideration to.
First off, it’s not like Gary Barta is asking for my opinions, nor should he. That’s his job, and it’s his paycheck. As I have repeatedly said since Todd Lickliter was fired on Monday, those of us in the media are going to put our lists together based partly on what we are hearing, in addition to our own personal bias with regards to what we think Iowa should do. Not everyone in the media does this, but I made clear from the outset that my comments and reporting on the search would certainly also contain my opinions.
That is the reason why I have not seriously considered Jacobson. Well, that and Iowa has hired two straight mid major flavors of the month, and that hasn’t worked out so well. One of those coaches (Lickliter) came in and employed a deliberate brand of basketball that has not been fun to watch. Former UNI boss and current ISU coach Greg McDermott has not done well at the high major level, and Jacobson is his protege.
So the sins of others have been visited on Jacobsen with regards to my opinion of him as it relates to the Iowa job, fair or not.
As of March 14th, the end of the season prior to the start of the NCAA tournament, UNI ranked 282 out of 334 ranked Division I teams in points per game at 63.3. Iowa averaged 60.5, which was 314 out of 335. So UNI averaged less than three points per game more than an Iowa offense that was very tough to watch. They were 307 out of 334 ranked teams in assists per game. They were 194 out of 334 in field goal percentage.
It just didn’t excite me all that much.
However, their defense has never been in question. They ranked #2 in the nation in scoring defense at 54.3 points per game which gave them the 36th best scoring margin in the nation. They were 47th in field goal percentage defense and they were also 12th in free throw percentage, while being 10th in the nation in fewest turnovers per game at 10.5.
To be honest, this resume reads a lot like that of Todd Lickliter’s last Butler team.
Lick’s last Butler team scored more points (70.1) but was 15th in the nation in scoring defense at 60.0. They were 27th in scoring margin, committed just 12.4 turnovers per game, had a top 90 field goal percentage defense, 20th in free throw percentage and won a lot of games, just like this UNI team.
Again, the sins of the past visited on a very good coach of today.
One of the biggest problems of the Lickliter era was that he was ill prepared for the Iowa job. He had never recruited with the sharks at the level you have to recruit at for a Big Ten school, and he didn’t hire anyone that was prepared to swim with the sharks. He had ‘a way’ to do things in his mind that had worked at Butler, and he tried to employ that at Iowa. It didn’t work and resulted in the worst three year period in the history of the Iowa basketball program.
McDermott had a reputation for hundreds of set plays when he came to Iowa State, and he has actually recruited fairly well, something people wondered about when he arrived. But he has been unable to keep his players there, and those sets have gotten in the way of the athletes he has brought in. Lickliter had trouble keeping players, too.
Perhaps its unfair to cast aspersions onto someone else based on what we have seen from similar predecessors, but I am just being honest here.
If Gary Barta is to give a long look at Jacobson, the first question would be ‘How are you going to recruit against Tom Izzo, Tubby Smith, Bruce Weber, Tom Crean, Matt Painter, Thad Matta and Bo Ryan?’ Heck, right about now, throw in Ed DeChellis of Penn State and Bill Carmody of Northwestern why don’t you?
Other programs have played lock down defense with very good talent and haven’t lit up the scoreboard with regularity. It can happen. It’s just tough to accomplish that at Iowa.
I realize that Ali Farokmanesh, Adam Koch, Jordan Eglseder and the entire team have come together to create one heck of a team. Their win against Kansas will be a game that I will never forget, as it felt good to root on a team I was familiar with in the greatest sporting event in this country.
Ben Jacobson’s team dictated the terms of the game to the #1 ranked team in the nation and the tournament’s top seed. That counts for something, and this team has done that all season long. When they lost Eglseder late in the year to an OWI arrest, they changed tempo and nearly hung 80 on Old Dominion, a team that nearly knocked off #3 seed Baylor on Saturday and one that beat Notre Dame on Thursday.
They are a very good team, and he is a very good coach.
I remain unconvinced that this a direction Iowa needs to go down. However, if he were to be named as Iowa’s next head coach, I’d root for him as hard as I have done every Iowa coach and every Iowa team. I would want for him to succeed, because he’d be the coach of my favorite team.
I just wonder, given the ‘basketball sins’ of his Iowa predecessors and mid major predecessors, if the honeymoon period at Iowa would be unfairly short for him,and therefore Gary Barta?
Prior to Saturday’s improbable win by the Panthers, I had been firm in my thoughts on Jacobson.
I have felt he was a fine coach, a good guy and he has put together a very salty team. His teams play wicked defense and I believe he has gotten the most out of every single player on his roster. UNI has been his program for four full seasons, and while this was the best team in UNI history, what they did this year was not a fluke.
That being said, I was not interested in Jacobson becoming Iowa’s next head coach. I have convinced myself that an uptempo brand of basketball is the right tonic for the ailing Iowa program, therefore the vice grip defensive minded Jacobson has not been someone I have given serious consideration to.
First off, it’s not like Gary Barta is asking for my opinions, nor should he. That’s his job, and it’s his paycheck. As I have repeatedly said since Todd Lickliter was fired on Monday, those of us in the media are going to put our lists together based partly on what we are hearing, in addition to our own personal bias with regards to what we think Iowa should do. Not everyone in the media does this, but I made clear from the outset that my comments and reporting on the search would certainly also contain my opinions.
That is the reason why I have not seriously considered Jacobson. Well, that and Iowa has hired two straight mid major flavors of the month, and that hasn’t worked out so well. One of those coaches (Lickliter) came in and employed a deliberate brand of basketball that has not been fun to watch. Former UNI boss and current ISU coach Greg McDermott has not done well at the high major level, and Jacobson is his protege.
So the sins of others have been visited on Jacobsen with regards to my opinion of him as it relates to the Iowa job, fair or not.
As of March 14th, the end of the season prior to the start of the NCAA tournament, UNI ranked 282 out of 334 ranked Division I teams in points per game at 63.3. Iowa averaged 60.5, which was 314 out of 335. So UNI averaged less than three points per game more than an Iowa offense that was very tough to watch. They were 307 out of 334 ranked teams in assists per game. They were 194 out of 334 in field goal percentage.
It just didn’t excite me all that much.
However, their defense has never been in question. They ranked #2 in the nation in scoring defense at 54.3 points per game which gave them the 36th best scoring margin in the nation. They were 47th in field goal percentage defense and they were also 12th in free throw percentage, while being 10th in the nation in fewest turnovers per game at 10.5.
To be honest, this resume reads a lot like that of Todd Lickliter’s last Butler team.
Lick’s last Butler team scored more points (70.1) but was 15th in the nation in scoring defense at 60.0. They were 27th in scoring margin, committed just 12.4 turnovers per game, had a top 90 field goal percentage defense, 20th in free throw percentage and won a lot of games, just like this UNI team.
Again, the sins of the past visited on a very good coach of today.
One of the biggest problems of the Lickliter era was that he was ill prepared for the Iowa job. He had never recruited with the sharks at the level you have to recruit at for a Big Ten school, and he didn’t hire anyone that was prepared to swim with the sharks. He had ‘a way’ to do things in his mind that had worked at Butler, and he tried to employ that at Iowa. It didn’t work and resulted in the worst three year period in the history of the Iowa basketball program.
McDermott had a reputation for hundreds of set plays when he came to Iowa State, and he has actually recruited fairly well, something people wondered about when he arrived. But he has been unable to keep his players there, and those sets have gotten in the way of the athletes he has brought in. Lickliter had trouble keeping players, too.
Perhaps its unfair to cast aspersions onto someone else based on what we have seen from similar predecessors, but I am just being honest here.
If Gary Barta is to give a long look at Jacobson, the first question would be ‘How are you going to recruit against Tom Izzo, Tubby Smith, Bruce Weber, Tom Crean, Matt Painter, Thad Matta and Bo Ryan?’ Heck, right about now, throw in Ed DeChellis of Penn State and Bill Carmody of Northwestern why don’t you?
Other programs have played lock down defense with very good talent and haven’t lit up the scoreboard with regularity. It can happen. It’s just tough to accomplish that at Iowa.
I realize that Ali Farokmanesh, Adam Koch, Jordan Eglseder and the entire team have come together to create one heck of a team. Their win against Kansas will be a game that I will never forget, as it felt good to root on a team I was familiar with in the greatest sporting event in this country.
Ben Jacobson’s team dictated the terms of the game to the #1 ranked team in the nation and the tournament’s top seed. That counts for something, and this team has done that all season long. When they lost Eglseder late in the year to an OWI arrest, they changed tempo and nearly hung 80 on Old Dominion, a team that nearly knocked off #3 seed Baylor on Saturday and one that beat Notre Dame on Thursday.
They are a very good team, and he is a very good coach.
I remain unconvinced that this a direction Iowa needs to go down. However, if he were to be named as Iowa’s next head coach, I’d root for him as hard as I have done every Iowa coach and every Iowa team. I would want for him to succeed, because he’d be the coach of my favorite team.
I just wonder, given the ‘basketball sins’ of his Iowa predecessors and mid major predecessors, if the honeymoon period at Iowa would be unfairly short for him,and therefore Gary Barta?
