THIS RECRUITING STORY IS GETTING OLD

L

longtimer

Well-Known Member
Of course its tough to recruit to Iowa, but we are losing recruits to similar programs and thats giving Creighton maybe more credit than they deserve. We beat Temple for a kid and South Dakota State? Really other than the kids from Iowa/S Dakota who really were fans Fran has not had much success.
So we can build around Huff???? Fran likes having 2 scholarships open for 2015??? Im just not real sure we can afford to 'build" at this point. Will try to stay optimistic that he can have a good year and make the tournament giving him some chance to recruit some difference makers, But In any event when you keep losing players it builds doubt. Kind of like when you are buying a house that's been on the market for months with no success. Wonder whats wrong with it?
 
longtimer said:
Of course its tough to recruit to Iowa, but we are losing recruits to similar programs and thats giving Creighton maybe more credit than they deserve. We beat Temple for a kid and South Dakota State? Really other than the kids from Iowa/S Dakota who really were fans Fran has not had much success.
So we can build around Huff???? Fran likes having 2 scholarships open for 2015??? Im just not real sure we can afford to 'build" at this point. Will try to stay optimistic that he can have a good year and make the tournament giving him some chance to recruit some difference makers, But In any event when you keep losing players it builds doubt. Kind of like when you are buying a house that's been on the market for months with no success. Wonder whats wrong with it?
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Frankly, and as of right now, Creighton and Iowa are not on the same footing.
http://www.hawkeyenation.com/forum/showthread.php?t=64981&p=1300215&viewfull=1#post1300215
 
longtimer said:
Of course its tough to recruit to Iowa, but we are losing recruits to similar programs and thats giving Creighton maybe more credit than they deserve. We beat Temple for a kid and South Dakota State? Really other than the kids from Iowa/S Dakota who really were fans Fran has not had much success.
So we can build around Huff???? Fran likes having 2 scholarships open for 2015??? Im just not real sure we can afford to 'build" at this point. Will try to stay optimistic that he can have a good year and make the tournament giving him some chance to recruit some difference makers, But In any event when you keep losing players it builds doubt. Kind of like when you are buying a house that's been on the market for months with no success. Wonder whats wrong with it?
Click to expand...


Maybe that house is in a rural market with few buyers......maybe Iowa is this rural house. Maybe this rural house has a barn. Maybe that barn has some structural problems. Maybe those problems caused that barn to not get to play with the other barns in a big barn tourny. Maybe younger barns saw this on tv and are a little worried about the farm. But ya know what? Fran is the farmer on this farm and I think things are gonna be okay. Way to go Farmer Fran!!!!!!!!1
 
Fran has been at Iowa 4 years and Iowa has gotten better each year. I anticipate another step up in year 5. Our 2 most highly regarded recruits are heading into their junior season. We had Ulis until Kentucky came calling at the last minute. He has verbals from a junior and a sophomore in high school. Fran and his staff also know how to develop players. I'm not concerned at all.
 
Don't you think its always been this way. Lose more than you win. Its just that in todays world we know everything that is going on all most as soon as it happens
 
Out of a list of over 20 players that Fran sought to sign this class, this staff wasn't able to sign even one of them. Not a good record, imo. And as JM pointed out in one of his articles, Iowa is likely going to the NIT again next year, which would be step backwards in recruits' eyes and make recruitng more difficult.
 
mbchawk said:
Out of a list of over 20 players that Fran sought to sign this class, this staff wasn't able to sign even one of them. Not a good record, imo. And as JM pointed out in one of his articles, Iowa is likely going to the NIT again next year, which would be step backwards in recruits' eyes and make recruitng more difficult.
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yes, 0 for 20 is hard to sugarcoat.....something is not clicking. Must do better or risk losing the gains in the program the last two years...if we miss the Dance this year, then lose a good group of senior players, we might not be in the NIT the next year, and they we lose our best classs to grad...could get ugly.
 
I think next years team will be better than this years. Maybe not better than they were playing for a while. But a better over all body of work. Pretty hard to get a whole lot better than the Michigan game
 
longtimer said:
Of course its tough to recruit to Iowa, but we are losing recruits to similar programs and thats giving Creighton maybe more credit than they deserve. We beat Temple for a kid and South Dakota State? Really other than the kids from Iowa/S Dakota who really were fans Fran has not had much success.
So we can build around Huff???? Fran likes having 2 scholarships open for 2015??? Im just not real sure we can afford to 'build" at this point. Will try to stay optimistic that he can have a good year and make the tournament giving him some chance to recruit some difference makers, But In any event when you keep losing players it builds doubt. Kind of like when you are buying a house that's been on the market for months with no success. Wonder whats wrong with it?
Click to expand...


It was a real fixer-upper when Fran took it over to be fair. But, man, I didn't realize the 0 for 20 thing. Wow, that's bad. Can't sugar coat that.
 
JHHawk said:
yes, 0 for 20 is hard to sugarcoat.....something is not clicking. Must do better or risk losing the gains in the program the last two years...if we miss the Dance this year, then lose a good group of senior players, we might not be in the NIT the next year, and they we lose our best classs to grad...could get ugly.
Click to expand...

That's why I was so bothered over the late season slide, and getting bounced in the play-in game. If Iowa keeps playing well, gets a 4 seed, goes to the Sweet 16 or beyond, does Fran land Atwood/Huff, and whoever else? And hence making next year and beyond better than they likely will be, keeping momentum going? I guess we'll never know the answer to that.

I just feel Iowa missed a great chance this year to make itself a hotter commodity in the eyes of recruits by melting down on the court. But not even making it to the "second" round, I wonder if that was even any better than being in the NIT. Sure could have used a tournament run to add a little more recruiting mojo.
 
longtimer said:
Really other than the kids from Iowa/S Dakota who really were fans Fran has not had much success.
Click to expand...

Why not get the best players from Iowa to stay in Iowa and then add a few quality players from neighboring states? We have been doing this for as long as I can remember...Raveling being the exception. Now we just have to get all of the best in-state players to Iowa. Below are a few names off the top of my head.

Jok - Oglesby - Woodbury - McCabe - May - Gatens - Haluska - Henderson - Horner - Brunner - Oliver - Worley - Settles - McCausland - Street - Hansen

Edit - Bullard and Bowen
 
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mbchawk said:
Out of a list of over 20 players that Fran sought to sign this class, this staff wasn't able to sign even one of them. Not a good record, imo. And as JM pointed out in one of his articles, Iowa is likely going to the NIT again next year, which would be step backwards in recruits' eyes and make recruitng more difficult.
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If you're going to pull out the stat that he's 0 for 20 on signing kids that didn't sign then I'm going to counter with he's 3 for 3 on signing players that did sign.
 
But he more than makes up for it with passion.


mbchawk said:
Out of a list of over 20 players that Fran sought to sign this class, this staff wasn't able to sign even one of them. Not a good record, imo. And as JM pointed out in one of his articles, Iowa is likely going to the NIT again next year, which would be step backwards in recruits' eyes and make recruitng more difficult.
Click to expand...
 
JD, I believe, mentioned Creighton having such great attendance over the last few years. And that is undeniably true. They have even brought in extra bleachers to Century Link to help increase the attendance. But from my years of covering Creighton BB, I can tell you it is not all what it is cracked up to be.

The running joke is Omaha is a late arriving crowd. If a game has 17,000 for attendance, maybe 9,000 will be there for opening tip off. And of the 9,000 that are present, about 3,000 are at the beer garden on the concourse. I can't tell you how many times I have heard a director yell, "Shoot the crowd", and all the camera ops turn towards the beer garden. A CU game is more of a social event where you go to see and be seen. Not really a loud raucous crowd that really gets into the game.

Now, I am not taking anything away from McDermott, or his players. They had a good year. Some would say a great year. They were in the papers and on TV more than ever before. And I would venture to say, probably more than they ever will again. And that is due to one player, more than it is the team or the school. Some ask why Huff went there. I have no idea, but I do know he said he had seen them quite a bit on television. This year Creighton had more games broadcast nationally then ever before. I don't see them having that exposure again next year.

The recruitment of Huff took all of 6 weeks(?). No time to develop relationships. No time to overcome visuals Huff saw earlier in the year of Creighton on Sports Center all those times. He didn't even know where Creighton was. All he knew was Dougie McBuckets, and I guess that proved to be about all he needed to know.
 
I join the chorus of those tired of losing out on all of these targets. And it's not as if these are all top 100 or even top 150 players who are being highly sought by more prestige programs. They are not. We're not getting even the high-mid range targets who can help Fran continue to build the program.

At this point I am not sure Iowa basketball will ever rise above mediocrity and above the middle of the B1G under Fran. The other day Diesel took a rather sobering look at next year's schedule; if you haven't read it, you should. Not pretty.
 
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