Tough changes needed for winning...

[revkev73]

The AD needs to be fired, soon.

A new AD, with dynamic leadership skills, and someone who is creative and bold needs to be hired.

She (yes, a woman who is a die hard BB and FB fan) needs to begin plans and funding for a new venue for BB. (and many other sports)

She needs to work towards a new home...that seats about 6,700 hundred fans. It will be designed to be loud, with seating close to action, with balconies that hang over the court as close as engineering would allow. This will be a fun place to go. Tickets will be scarce. Everyone will comment on how "old and historical" place looks. It will be called, "The New Barn."

Priority seating will not be given based on $$$. It will be given based on age and enthusiasm. Sections will be set aside for groups of high school students, grade school students, and special need students to open the doors for new generations of Iowa BB fans. These tickets will be affordable and choice. These students can win such opportunities throughout the year by academic excellence, demonstrated leadership, athletic excellence, volunteering, and school attendance.

Iowa College students will also be offered the choicest of seats, at reduced rates. These seats will be close to the action, so close, opponents will begin to complain about them.

Old folks with the money will still have good seats, up higher, a nice view, but with ample opportunities for napping and fumbling with their smart phones out of view. They might threaten to cancel their season tickets, but most won't...for they will be coveted.

A new coach will be one of the first moves, perhaps a minority, African American, who is a leader, dynamic, LOVES to recruit, and is a stickler for fundamentals. He will be "stable" emotionally, and mature, yet bubbling with excitement, coveting his opportunity to coach such a large school, assuming he would never receive such a chance. He will offer prayers of thanks each evening that Iowa was such a progressive school, finding him, a diamond in the rough. He won't demand special contracts...he would do this for nothing...

The new coach will hire a diverse coaching staff, all of whom are personable and LOVE to recruit. And second to recruiting, they will be sticklers for fundamentals. Two such coaches will have a history of playing PG in high school and college.

If you build it...they will come.

 

[83Hawk]

The problem is......the University isn’t interested in any of that. Athletics are meaningless, and a necessary evil. The only thing you mentioned that will ever happen is a female AD. But it will be a female who cares even less about athletic success than Barta.

 

[hawkeyemark]

The problem is......the University isn’t interested in any of that. Athletics are meaningless, and a necessary evil. The only thing you mentioned that will ever happen is a female AD. But it will be a female who cares even less about athletic success than Barta.

I thought when the Jane Meyer situation blew up we had a culture problem in the athletic department because of having an agenda driven bitch in the deputy AD position. I thought things would begin to get better when she left the scene but all that just represented a sideshow. In many ways that whole lawsuit symbolized the overall apathy toward athletics at Iowa. Meyer represented a symptom of the overall problem and then the fact that Barta stayed on and proceeded to extend Fran without making it public brings back the reality that nothing has changed and nobody who matters has any intention of altering the comfy status quo for those raking in the $$$.

 

[revkev73]

Perhaps there is no hope...shut the doors...

 

[ClintonIAfan]

 

[eveningnewsteam]

Or they could find a coach who can recruit and also emphasize/teach defense correctly

 

[hawkeyemark]

I retire at the end of this year at 62 and have a gut feeling I will look back at the Lute era and that packed, crazy atmosphere at the Fieldhouse as the good old days without seeing Iowa move forward and feeling hope for the future. Totally different era when Iowa took sports seriously and had a competent AD and athletic department who fielded a great product and built the fan base. Too young and naive back then to realize that things don't stay the same. This picture which stirs many great memories for me and no doubt others has absolutely no relevance to today's situation.

 

[revkev73]

"The Barn" with the most cozy feel in the country...6,700...laminated wood beams for support of the roof...imitating a barn of days gone by...pillars of stone... A place no one wants to play, because of the noise, the fanatic fans, and the crushing, end to end, all game long defensive energy...

A signature structure on the campus, The Barn...a place to be identified with Iowa fortitude, never say die, toughness. Named in honor of Chris Street...

You recruit players with heart, a desire to improve fundamentally, and who love to play shut down, in your face, defense...(along with blocking out, helping out, pick and roll pivoting on the correct foot, making free throws, etc. etc.) Pride oozing out of the place every time the Hawkeyes take the court...ready to do battle.

 

[TJHawkeye]

NEED NEW ROSTER!

 

[kicker22]

Can we add to the OP that we also need the higher ups running things to flip flop the emphasis to an athletic department driven on overall performance as opposed to one focused on finances and revenue. I don't see why we can't have both.

 

[revkev73]

But if money is flowing in...finances and revenue...that leads to job security and raises for those who administer the program.

And if the team is vanilla, mediocre, pathetic, as the money flows in... Who is upset? Common fans, internet idiots, the people who call into the radio shows... They don't pay me, set my salary, send me on free trips to rub shoulders...with the fat cats who pay me and make me feel good.

The programs, the AD department, the university...all show signs of poor leadership...and selfishness...and protecting their own turf...on into new generations of family...lots of little piggies sucking off the same sow. Not a bad gig...

The system is rigged...to avoid accountability...and excellence....but greasing the lives of those who are "in."

It is a sad state of affairs...sigh

 

[seepig]

Or they could find a coach who can recruit and also emphasize/teach defense correctly

For those of you that LOVE to talk smack when I bring up stats....you are what the stats say you are. This from Rob Howe:

Present season included, Iowa has finished bottom-two in the Big Ten in defense during five of McCaffery’s eight seasons: 2017-18 (in progress), 2016-17, 2013-14, 2011-12, and 2010-11 (that first season).

If this is ok to keep with the status quo then expect more of the same and less winning.

 

[eveningnewsteam]

For those of you that LOVE to talk smack when I bring up stats....you are what the stats say you are. This from Rob Howe:

Present season included, Iowa has finished bottom-two in the Big Ten in defense during five of McCaffery’s eight seasons: 2017-18 (in progress), 2016-17, 2013-14, 2011-12, and 2010-11 (that first season).

If this is ok to keep with the status quo then expect more of the same and less winning.

Yep. This is going nowhere under Fran unless he learns how to teach defense. 59 years old and still hasn’t understood or figured it out? Not gonna happen. You will not win in the Big Ten like this.

 

[MelroseHawkins]

For those of you that LOVE to talk smack when I bring up stats....you are what the stats say you are. This from Rob Howe:

Present season included, Iowa has finished bottom-two in the Big Ten in defense during five of McCaffery’s eight seasons: 2017-18 (in progress), 2016-17, 2013-14, 2011-12, and 2010-11 (that first season).

If this is ok to keep with the status quo then expect more of the same and less winning.

In pretty much any sport, ya gotta play tough defense to have success. Tough D will keep a team in pretty much most games with a chance to win. In addition, it brings consistency to a season. I. E. Look at this Iowa team that doesn't play defense well. All over the place, up and down.

Every basketball teams needs at least one lock down defending specialist. Maybe a guy you aren't expecting 10 pts out of on the offense, but a guy you can put on the opposing team's best player. Holding a 24 Pt average guy to 14 pts nets a 10 pt advantage. So like having that defensive specialist giving you an extra 10 pts.

 

[MelroseHawkins]

Yep. This is going nowhere under Fran unless he learns how to teach defense. 59 years old and still hasn’t understood or figured it out? Not gonna happen. You will not win in the Big Ten like this.

Yea, and I ask, what the F is up with the assistant coaches? Nobody on that staff know solid D? Baffling.


Here we had Lickliter teams that actually didn't play that bad of defense for the talent on the floor. Now we have Fran with a butt load of talent and can score enough pts, but teams can't play a lick of D. If only they can get that squared away!

 

[PCHawk]

For those of you that LOVE to talk smack when I bring up stats....you are what the stats say you are. This from Rob Howe:

Present season included, Iowa has finished bottom-two in the Big Ten in defense during five of McCaffery’s eight seasons: 2017-18 (in progress), 2016-17, 2013-14, 2011-12, and 2010-11 (that first season).

If this is ok to keep with the status quo then expect more of the same and less winning.

Let me guess. That's the meaningless points per game stat? I assume it was becasue we actually were ranked pretty good on defensive efficiency a fee years. If the goal is to rank good in points per game given up, we can go Licklighter slow and our terrible defense can finish middle of the pack in points per game.

 

[lightning1]

In pretty much any sport, ya gotta play tough defense to have success. Tough D will keep a team in pretty much most games with a chance to win. In addition, it brings consistency to a season. I. E. Look at this Iowa team that doesn't play defense well. All over the place, up and down.

Every basketball teams needs at least one lock down defending specialist. Maybe a guy you aren't expecting 10 pts out of on the offense, but a guy you can put on the opposing team's best player. Holding a 24 Pt average guy to 14 pts nets a 10 pt advantage. So like having that defensive specialist giving you an extra 10 pts.

I was that guy. Plus I'd get 8 to 10 points on hustle, cleaning the glass and in transition.

 

[SheagleHawk]

Yea, and I ask, what the F is up with the assistant coaches? Nobody on that staff know solid D? Baffling.


Here we had Lickliter teams that actually didn't play that bad of defense for the talent on the floor. Now we have Fran with a butt load of talent and can score enough pts, but teams can't play a lick of D. If only they can get that squared away!

What's really telling is none of these guys with their 25743753 years of experience has moved on for a head coaching role, if even at a much smaller school.

 

[lightning1]

Let me guess. That's the meaningless points per game stat? I assume it was becasue we actually were ranked pretty good on defensive efficiency a fee years. If the goal is to rank good in points per game given up, we can go Licklighter slow and our terrible defense can finish middle of the pack in points per game.

I really like box +/- stats. But they are purely stat driven and I don't always agree with how they score this on the defensive end. I have my own +/- system that I run for my kids. A +/- on the defensive side of the ball is very difficult to put together accurately, if you don't watch the game. If a 2G comes over and sets a screen on my PG, and my 2G doesn't communicate that to my PG and their PG scores off of that screen, I'm giving that - to my 2G.
I also attach +/- for hustle on the defensive end. +/- for boxing out.
There are some things that you cannot quantify by looking at stats alone. So, I always look at advanced defensive stats with more than a little skepticism. PPG allowed is about the only stat that you can attach to the entire team, so it's better than most. But it doesn't tell me much.

 

[homes]

This is all I want to see. A packed house and a competitive team. It doesn't matter to me if it's the results of a minority, man or woman, or any other slice of the pie, putting it in place.