This sucks

[theboat]

We need speed and quickness on defense. JW is SG not a PG. He lacks the foot speed and quickness. JW reminds me a an Adam Haluska type; though, AH seems to have been quicker. I am not thrilled with CJ coming onboard because we need quickness and speed and he doesn't have it to the level we need.

lighting, do you always have to be an ass and make everything into a name calling bitch-fest? can't you just have a civil discussion?

That is the entire point of this thread. Iowa basketball is a round hole right now and Fran is the square peg. Some people want to pretend that Fran will morph into the round peg while others accept reality and are frustrated with the fact that he won’t and has no incentive to try to adapt.

 

[MelroseHawkins]

If we had a 2nd team all conference player at the 2 or 3 next year, it would be an entirely different team.

At this point I don't think so. It still comes down to team defense and limiting turnovers which is coaching. Well, unless that 2nd team all-conference guy is a lock-down defender, than I agree.

I guess my point is, if Iowa would have played better defense this year and the team was in the 3-5 spot of the BIG standings, they would have had a 2nd team all conference player, with the players they had on this team.

They score enough. It comes down to better team defense, regardless of the players they have.

 

[PCHawk]

After these last 2 years, I have to agree. Very disappointing really. If Fran recruits even decent in '14 and '15, this could be an entirely different last two years. He brought in 9 players over those two years and got one sort of kind of decent one in Moss. That is horrible, horrible recruiting right there.

I wonder if his personal life didn't interfere with recruiting during that stretch. I know I wouldn't have spent much time on the road if I were him. How he fills the 2019 class will tell me a lot. If he fills it with nobody's , I'm gunna give up on his recruiting. So far I've been able to make excuses for his failures at recruiting, but he also has excuses for his successes at recruiting up to this point. His recent recruiting successes have been all him tho, so that's an optimistic sign for me.

 

[PCHawk]

At this point I don't think so. It still comes down to team defense and limiting turnovers which is coaching. Well, unless that 2nd team all-conference guy is a lock-down defender, than I agree.

I guess my point is, if Iowa would have played better defense this year and the team was in the 3-5 spot of the BIG standings, they would have had a 2nd team all conference player, with the players they had on this team.

They score enough. It comes down to better team defense, regardless of the players they have.

I think if they had that guy this year, they may have won early and built momentum. They would have played better defense because of that alone. How much better is anyone's guess. But I think a huge portion of the reason for bad defense was because of how down they were due to how the season played out.

I've seen this team play with max effort at times this year. It looks completely different than it looked for most of the time. Especially Cook.

 

[theboat]

I wonder if his personal life didn't interfere with recruiting during that stretch. I know I wouldn't have spent much time on the road if I were him. How he fills the 2019 class will tell me a lot. If he fills it with nobody's , I'm gunna give up on his recruiting. So far I've been able to make excuses for his failures at recruiting, but he also has excuses for his successes at recruiting up to this point. His recent recruiting successes have been all him tho, so that's an optimistic sign for me.

Signing his son and a lifelong Hawkeye from down the road isn’t all-time anything except right place right time.

 

[MelroseHawkins]

I think if they had that guy this year, they may have won early and built momentum. They would have played better defense because of that alone. How much better is anyone's guess. But I think a huge portion of the reason for bad defense was because of how down they were due to how the season played out.

I've seen this team play with max effort at times this year. It looks completely different than it looked for most of the time. Especially Cook.

This is a good an legit point. This happens so much in basketball. Iowa never really got consistent enough early which can go back to the big rotation issue. All the good teams build momentum and it doesn't take A LOT to knock a train of course in college basketball. By the time they seemed to half ass get it going, they had to decide if it was worth playing for so late in the season.

They didn't get a good foundation under them. I think Fran does the rotation bass ackwards. He tries to play a lot of players in the beginning looking for the magic recipe or rotation. I think he should trust his judgement with his best 8-9 rotation players then sprinkle others in for more playing time as the season goes. He would have an idea of what he would have in the usual rotation and could figure out the roles of the other players, who may end up starting by the end of the season, who knows. But, I've learned in basketball you can't have too many changes going on at once or you can't have too many ingredients to try to work with, especially at the beginning.

You start with the best 8-9, and find the others playing time as they work into the flow with that rotation. Over the year, it will gradually iron itself out and you will have consistency earlier. That's just my $0.02.

 

[PCHawk]

Signing his son and a lifelong Hawkeye from down the road isn’t all-time anything except right place right time.

I agree. And those are the excuses for his good recruiting that I mentioned. Other excuses are legacy recruit, extreme diamond in the rough that is tough to duplicate, and abnormally good instate talent that you can't count on all the time.

Excuses for poor recruiting are recruiting to a tanked program (no longer applicable) and personal family issues (no longer applicable). He is out of excuses in my book. That's why the next class means so much to me. If he fills it with Carton and Locure, that's great for the team, but it will fall into the instate excuse for me. So it won't really help my opinion of what kind of recruiter he is.

 

[theboat]

I agree. And those are the excuses for his good recruiting that I mentioned. Other excuses are legacy recruit, extreme diamond in the rough that is tough to duplicate, and abnormally good instate talent that you can't count on all the time.

Excuses for poor recruiting are recruiting to a tanked program (no longer applicable) and personal family issues (no longer applicable). He is out of excuses in my book. That's why the next class means so much to me. If he fills it with Carton and Locure, that's great for the team, but it will fall into the instate excuse for me. So it won't really help my opinion of what kind of recruiter he is.

Gotcha. You meant upcoming hopeful recruit successes, not already on the books. Yeah, if he can somehow show more , then we will see but I won’t hold my breath.

 

[PCHawk]

Not really. If we still don't play D, and we lose Cook, a 2nd team all conference player won't matter at all.

Clearly if we lose Cook it won't matter. I think (hope) the lesson from this year will be the kick in the ass this team needs to get after it on defense. Hopefully Bohannon's foot will be better too.

 

[PCHawk]

Gotcha. You meant upcoming hopeful recruit successes, not already on the books. Yeah, if he can somehow show more , then we will see but I won’t hold my breath.

I think Cook, Garza, and probably Nunge fall into past success. But I need to see more of that for sure.

 

[theboat]

I think Cook, Garza, and probably Nunge fall into past success. But I need to see more of that for sure.

A lot TBD with that group

 

[Hawk5656]

I was referring to the guy who originally brought him up. He wasn't comparing the two coaches at all. He simply said he hopes his patience gets rewarded like it did for Villinova fans.

You didn't answer it the first time so I'll ask it again. How were Villanova fans patient?

 

[lightning1]

We need speed and quickness on defense. JW is SG not a PG. He lacks the foot speed and quickness. JW reminds me a an Adam Haluska type; though, AH seems to have been quicker. I am not thrilled with CJ coming onboard because we need quickness and speed and he doesn't have it to the level we need.

lighting, do you always have to be an ass and make everything into a name calling bitch-fest? can't you just have a civil discussion?

Sorry. It's just my frustration coming through with the current state of Iowa basketball. I should walk away from it entirely, until Gutless Gary is gone.

As for JW, his game is nothing like Haluska's. He's a better basketball player. Haluska was a better athlete. Connor, CJ and JW are not the answer to the lack of quickness and athleticism that we have on the perimeter.

 

[N8theGr8]

Sorry. It's just my frustration coming through with the current state of Iowa basketball. I should walk away from it entirely, until Gutless Gary is gone.

As for JW, his game is nothing like Haluska's. He's a better basketball player. Haluska was a better athlete. Connor, CJ and JW are not the answer to the lack of quickness and athleticism that we have on the perimeter.

Spot on assessment of Wieskamp vs Haluska although I think Wieskamp is a better athlete than he gets credit for. That said, Haluska shares the state all time record in the 100 meter dash with Tim Dwight. But Wieskamp is such a pure shooter and prolific scorer and you can tell he has an incredible feel for the game watching highlights of his blocks, rebounds, and putbacks.

 

[sioux34]

Fran also should hire a defensive assistant ala Michigan, let go of his ego and give up the ropes.

Coaching improvement needed on d, taking charges, defending the ball, blocking out, winning 50-50 balls.

I agree with this except for the taking charges part. I want no part of a team flopping for charges like a bunch of pussies. God I hate that part of the modern game.

 

[SCHawkeye2]

I just see it as they get marginally better next year and 2 years from now they are really good. Imo, if they do something special in 19-20 then the last 2 years would have been worth it. Odds are that it will not play out that way and it is just wishful thinking on my part.

I hope this will be true.
However, the reality is that Fran has been here 8 years.
We just finished one step out of last place in the B10 with a quick out in the tourney
I, for one, have grown tired of hearing excuses for the present state of the program and that success is always two years away.

 

[NoBeer]

Signing his son and a lifelong Hawkeye from down the road isn’t all-time anything except right place right time.

We don't care why Fran missed on some guys and don't take excuses so I'm not sure we can excuse away why he DID get who he got. It goes both ways. Just win some damn games and get back to the NCAAs.

 

[N8theGr8]

We don't care why Fran missed on some guys and don't take excuses so I'm not sure we can excuse away why he DID get who he got. It goes both ways. Just win some damn games and get back to the NCAAs.

Exactly. No one cares how the team ended up being the way it is so long as it was all kosher. We just want to see wins. Most importantly, wins at the end of the year. Michigan won the big ten tournament this year. I'm not much for moral victories, but we almost pulled that game out. That makes me think we did have an outside shot at winning the damn thing this year with this group of guys. The same guys that will be a year older next season and make the leap from "youngish team" to "experienced team". Add Connor and Wieskamp to that mix and mark me down as a believer.

 

[PCHawk]

Sorry. It's just my frustration coming through with the current state of Iowa basketball. I should walk away from it entirely, until Gutless Gary is gone.

As for JW, his game is nothing like Haluska's. He's a better basketball player. Haluska was a better athlete. Connor, CJ and JW are not the answer to the lack of quickness and athleticism that we have on the perimeter.

Smart guys who try on defense can be almost as good of an answer tho. I'm not saying those guys for sure bring that. But plenty of slower guys have been at least average defenders before. That and it was such an extreme issue this year that I would like to think it will become a focal point.

 

[PCHawk]

We don't care why Fran missed on some guys and don't take excuses so I'm not sure we can excuse away why he DID get who he got. It goes both ways. Just win some damn games and get back to the NCAAs.

I care in the sense of trying to evaluate whether he's a good enough recruiter or not. Getting a stud Iowa kid who was going to be a Hawkeye no matter what isn't a checkmark for a positive as far as I'm concerned. On the flip side, how he recruited when we sucked as a program isn't a negative checkmark either. Again, that's just for my own evaluations for whether or not I want to keep him.

I also think he's having trouble getting good guards because of Connor. But I'll still hold that against him since he made his own bed there. I do still recognize it as a possible path to him recruiting better guards down the road tho. If he makes it that far.