The things that frusterates me the most in the Fran era...

[Benddontbreak]

Jok made a nice three to get us within 2 at 32-30, then comes down and tries to play 1 on 1 defense vs. Gasser. Gasser just blows by him without Jok even moving his feet for a layin and foul. He makes the free throw and gets the conventional 3 pointer. So, effectively, Jok's 3 is negated by his own really bad footwork on defense. I'm sure he'll continue to improve but he's such a liability on defense right now.

That play sort of epitomized what is wrong with this team at the moment. No one wants to move their feet, pressure the ball, or take defense as a personal challenge to get stops. We’re most effective getting easy buckets in transition off turnovers, but guess what, were not forcing any TO’s. Remember the D we played the first month of the season? Where the hell did that go? Wisc scored 32 points on their first 16 possessions..

 

[atomicblue224]

What frustated me the most is that they lost their balls to play tough game.

 

[Thawki]

I guess Im not sure why so many like Fran so much. In 5 years I cant see where he's done a great job in either facet of the game Recruiting or game coaching. When I see a guy like Jakobsen at UNI take a bunch of Iowa players that were not recruited by "Iowa Level" programs and mold them and coach them into a legit top 20 team that's great coaching. Lets quit giving him a pass because he's better than Lick and by the way Lick probably recruited as well as Fran. Marble turned out to be pretty good and Brust went to Wisconsin and played very well.
Im not a big McCaffrey fan but I think he deserves another year. If we are having this same conversation next year at this time then something has to change.

You are totally clueless if you think Lick recruited as well as Fran. You pick two players in Lick's last class and make that statement when what you actually did is cherry picked about the only two recruits Lick ever had that were legit D1 talent, and one had a dad that starred at Iowa so he had a natural in with that one already. Just about every player Fran has brought in is pretty much better than any player Lick brought in save maybe for Cole. And don't bring up Gatens, either, as he is another legacy that grew up in Iowa wanting to play at Iowa.

 

[Innovate]

I agree with benddontbrake's comments. I think Coach Fran misses the miss matches and does not emphasis enough in practice of how to get them and exploit them. As far as the offense goes please encourage your players to be creative and play more street ball style like the top 10 teams do consistantly. It is all up to the coaching as how good of team we have.

 

[chuckles33]

I just don't like the X's and O's. Their motion offense is easy to defend, they don't exploit mismatches, so teams that just switch every screen are a nightmare. When you watch the elite teams, they run so many different sets and get wide open shots off of those sets. On the defensive side I would ask that we never play zone again. We obviously have no defensive minds on the coaching staff as it may be the worst coached zone defense I have seen "at any level". I also agree with earlier posts that the fundamentals are bad. No boxing out, etc. I am scared that Fran's coaching depth is try to out run, out athletic, and out score the opponents...totally forgetting defense. That isn't going to work in the Big Ten, plus he doesn't have the athletes to do it.
I definitely think we have upgraded from the Lick years, but I am scared we are at a plateau. Next year will be interesting with the athletes we have coming in, so I am cautiously optimistic.

 

[BlindDogScooter]

For me its frustrating watching UNI be a legit 20 team with a roster full of Iowa guys and be able go 10 deep against another legit top 20 team. There are at least 3 players on Iowa roster that get significant playing time who would struggle to be in the rotation at UNI. There is just no excuse for this.

I'm with you. I like Fran. He's got a couple of Chicago's top players coming next year and down the line his own kid is ranked very highly in his class. But at some point he needs to land a PG that can lead this team. The kind of player a coach is forced to play 30+ because he just that good. Right now we just don't have that.

And everyone now complaining about this would have raised holy hell if Fran had missed on MG. And everyone now complaining about Woodbury and Oglesby would have raised holy hell if Fran had missed on either, or both, of them. Gees... if Woody had ended up at UNC you guys would have been calling for Fran's head.

 

[RocknRollface]

You are totally clueless if you think Lick recruited as well as Fran. You pick two players in Lick's last class and make that statement when what you actually did is cherry picked about the only two recruits Lick ever had that were legit D1 talent, and one had a dad that starred at Iowa so he had a natural in with that one already. Just about every player Fran has brought in is pretty much better than any player Lick brought in save maybe for Cole. And don't bring up Gatens, either, as he is another legacy that grew up in Iowa wanting to play at Iowa.

Cole and Gattens were Alford recruits.

 

[glidinghawk]

THIS. My god THIS. They are so fundamentally poor it isn't even funny. No boxing out, half assed screens, cuts offensively. Defensively getting pealed off screens, standing straight up. No boxing out, everyone watches the ball instead of finding someone to box out. A team like Wisconsin, that does all those things well, really exposes how poor fundamentally Iowa really is.

Not many teams play as smart as Wisconsin does. One of those teams is UNI.

 

[hawkeyebob62]

When Iowa beat Virginia back in the NIT, it felt like both teams were on a solid upward trajectory but Iowa was ahead in the race. That clearly was not the case.

Uh, dude, why can't you admit Virginia got the beneficial "jump" because Maryland left ACC for B1G

 

[hawkeyebob62]

That play sort of epitomized what is wrong with this team at the moment. No one wants to move their feet, pressure the ball, or take defense as a personal challenge to get stops. We’re most effective getting easy buckets in transition off turnovers, but guess what, were not forcing any TO’s. Remember the D we played the first month of the season? Where the hell did that go? Wisc scored 32 points on their first 16 possessions..

What it boils down to is our half-court offense is weak. And when teams start to do the little things to cool off our transition game, it shows up on the scoreboard.

Last year, teams stopped crashing the offensive glass. This year--and it completely baffles me--teams are crashing the glass...BUT...winning the rebound battle WAY too often, thus (still) negating our transition game.

EDIT: in response to your D comment, have we successfully fought off a pick/screen this year without leaving someone wide open? I don't want to get "wise" or "insensitive", but did every single team member grow up with Adrian Peterson for a disciplinarian? (In other words, do ANY of them every yell, "Switch"!) Clemmons and Woody sort of "have to" be better defensively or they'd ride the Pine Eternal, but the rest seem lost way too often. I think back to Minnesota game. How do we give up an end-to-end like that? At least one basketball god was on our side that night.

 

[SnapBack2]

I think Fran is a pretty good x's and o's coach, and is at worst an average in-game coach. Iowa is always prepared schematically. The motion offense is actually very good and works when Iowa is patient. Many basketball analysts (Jay Bilas) have confirmed that.

The biggest problem is what he inherited. Had absolutely nothing to work with, but even in year 1 it was night and day better than Lick (obviously). Then he locks down top in-state recruits and stats making noise in the NIT. Then the team collapses but still make the NCAA's and some of you are calling for a new coach.

Here is how I see it....

Year 1 ('10-'11): Success - Inherited bottom 5 bball program.
Year 2 ('11-'12): Success - Winning record and made NIT
Year 3 ('12-'13): Success - .500 B1G, 25 wins, NIT Runner-up
Year 4 ('13-'14): Underperform - 1st NCAA tourney appearance in 8 years

Yeah let's fire that guy (sarcasm). I feel like this years class is full of a bunch of solid players, but no stars. Need to land some bigger recruits, which I think will happen in the '16 and '17 classes.

 

[HawkeyeMike23]

I think Fran is a pretty good x's and o's coach, and is at worst an average in-game coach. Iowa is always prepared schematically. The motion offense is actually very good and works when Iowa is patient. Many basketball analysts (Jay Bilas) have confirmed that.

The biggest problem is what he inherited. Had absolutely nothing to work with, but even in year 1 it was night and day better than Lick (obviously). Then he locks down top in-state recruits and stats making noise in the NIT. Then the team collapses but still make the NCAA's and some of you are calling for a new coach.

Here is how I see it....

Year 1 ('10-'11): Success - Inherited bottom 5 bball program.
Year 2 ('11-'12): Success - Winning record and made NIT
Year 3 ('12-'13): Success - .500 B1G, 25 wins, NIT Runner-up
Year 4 ('13-'14): Underperform - 1st NCAA tourney appearance in 8 years

Yeah let's fire that guy (sarcasm). I feel like this years class is full of a bunch of solid players, but no stars. Need to land some bigger recruits, which I think will happen in the '16 and '17 classes.

Agree with all of the above. The biggest issue for Fran right now is how much Mike Gesell has failed to live up to expectations and his close misses on EC Mathews and Tyler Ullis. Any one of those three things turn out differently and we're sitting at 17-4 or so this season on track for a second consecutive tournament bid. I think Fran has completed the turnaround phase of his tenure here, he's got us to the point where we're a middle of the pack B10 team and expect to compete for an NCAA bid every year going forward. Now comes the hard part. The coaching talent in the B10 is much, much better than what it was when Alford was here. It's a lot harder to move into that upper echelon in the conference. I think next year's class is full of the athletic wings we need to make that move, but now he needs to build on that and land some real difference makers in the next couple of years. His son may be that type of player and his younger one may be even better, that's not something to ignore. You can't go calling for a coaches head every time there is a downturn in their tenure. It's unreasonable to expect the program to just stay on an upward trajectory until we reach the top of the B10, it doesn't work that way.

 

[SnapBack2]

Well said Mike23...

The turnaround is complete, but it just isn't that easy to be in the top 4 of the B1G every year.

You can argue that Fran is doing a better job than Thad Matta this year. Iowa has beat them twice, and has half the talent. Iowa was better prepared in both games and it showed. Combine that with the players actually making shots, and they are a pretty good team (and mostly 3 star players or less).

Coaching is not the problem.

 

[HomerChampless]

THIS. My god THIS. They are so fundamentally poor it isn't even funny. No boxing out, half assed screens, cuts offensively. Defensively getting pealed off screens, standing straight up. No boxing out, everyone watches the ball instead of finding someone to box out. A team like Wisconsin, that does all those things well, really exposes how poor fundamentally Iowa really is.

Thumbs up. It makes one wonder what Fran has his team practicing. Offensive sets? Doesn't seem so. Pass the ball to the open player and let him 'create' (snicker) his own shot? Bad showing for the PG. Especially when the PG dribbles around than takes the shot. Defensive sets? ahh, no. Physicality? No. Maybe some shooting practice?? What does Fran have his team practice??

 

[SpecialKHawk]

I guess Im not sure why so many like Fran so much. In 5 years I cant see where he's done a great job in either facet of the game Recruiting or game coaching. When I see a guy like Jakobsen at UNI take a bunch of Iowa players that were not recruited by "Iowa Level" programs and mold them and coach them into a legit top 20 team that's great coaching. Lets quit giving him a pass because he's better than Lick and by the way Lick probably recruited as well as Fran. Marble turned out to be pretty good and Brust went to Wisconsin and played very well.
Im not a big McCaffrey fan but I think he deserves another year. If we are having this same conversation next year at this time then something has to change.

Concerns about Fran might be legit but can we stop with the UNI national championship posts. They play in a one bid league. Their SOS is below ours. There is a reason Ben J does not set foot in the legit basketball leagues. Yes, that's right he would get blown up. It's not an apples to apples comparison. The MVC is ridiculously horrible. This year's WSU team is no where near what it was 2 years ago but is the only other team with a pulse in the league. They will lose no more than 1-2 games the rest of the way, get a tourney bid barring an early exit from the MVC tourney and then be out by the round of 16. Good night, enjoy your parting gifts.

Was this not the same diatribe last year we heard with Nebby? How Miles was in position to dominate the universe. Yes, nice little season only to be bounced in the first round of the tourney. I see no posts this year about their glorious domination of college basketball? Now it is UNI. What next year.... Coe College?

We have a lot of work to do but salivating over an MVC team is not the answer.

 

[Knight78]

Cole and Gattens were Alford recruits.

Gatens would have played for Iowa no matter who was the coach.

 

[Knight78]

What it boils down to is our half-court offense is weak. And when teams start to do the little things to cool off our transition game, it shows up on the scoreboard.

Last year, teams stopped crashing the offensive glass. This year--and it completely baffles me--teams are crashing the glass...BUT...winning the rebound battle WAY too often, thus (still) negating our transition game.

EDIT: in response to your D comment, have we successfully fought off a pick/screen this year without leaving someone wide open? I don't want to get "wise" or "insensitive", but did every single team member grow up with Adrian Peterson for a disciplinarian? (In other words, do ANY of them every yell, "Switch"!) Clemmons and Woody sort of "have to" be better defensively or they'd ride the Pine Eternal, but the rest seem lost way too often. I think back to Minnesota game. How do we give up an end-to-end like that? At least one basketball god was on our side that night.

Our half-court offense is not weak. We get a LOT of good, open looks. The execution is there. We simply don't shoot a good enough percentage consistently. Fran's offense is fine; we need better shooters. Period.

 

[RocknRollface]

Gatens would have played for Iowa no matter who was the coach.

Probably, I was just correcting the notion that they were recruited by Lick.

 

[RocknRollface]

Our half-court offense is not weak. We get a LOT of good, open looks. The execution is there. We simply don't shoot a good enough percentage consistently. Fran's offense is fine; we need better shooters. Period.

I very much disagree. We usually don't get quality open looks very often at all.

I would guess a larger percentage of Iowa shots are contested than any one else in the conference .

 

[Knight78]

I very much disagree. We usually don't get quality open looks very often at all.

I would guess a larger percentage of Iowa shots are contested than any one else in the conference .

We get plenty of open looks. We don't have the confidence to pull the trigger. How many times does Clemmons get a pass and is plenty open enough to shoot but puts the ball over his head and allows the defense to belly up on him? Same for Oglesby. Same for pretty much every one of our "weave" players who handle the ball out front. Just because they don't shoot it doesn't mean the looks aren't there.

It would help if we penetrated more off the ball screen. Clemmons has done a better job of that lately. But no one seems to want to go into the lane off the dribble and take contact to shoot. We have a lot of guys who CAN do that but shy away from it. The only one who consistently gets into the lower lane is Gesell.