UNI

[PCHawk]

If this senior class had any amount of clutch in them, we would have 2 top 10 finishes in 3 years and Fran would be compared to Lute. This senior class is also one of the winningest classes in Iowa history so it's kinda a strange combo.

 

[PCHawk]

No way. It was just a half court shot. Think about it. UNI's guy made a long, but uncontested shot. BUT, several miracles happened on one play for Iowa. MG didn't dribble it off his knee. Didn't get the shot blocked. Woody was in position for a rebound. He caught the ball. He shot it AND made it. No one fouled. No one called timeout right before it happened. If someone had told me these two situations, I'd say, "Wow, Iowa did all of those things? Did they do them at their own basket? Really?"

Very well done.

 

[theboat]

No way. It was just a half court shot. Think about it. UNI's guy made a long, but uncontested shot. BUT, several miracles happened on one play for Iowa. MG didn't dribble it off his knee. Didn't get the shot blocked. Woody was in position for a rebound. He caught the ball. He shot it AND made it. No one fouled. No one called timeout right before it happened. If someone had told me these two situations, I'd say, "Wow, Iowa did all of those things? Did they do them at their own basket? Really?"

It is probably a higher % shot than Woody lay ups too

 

[Hawklstate]

Jacobson is a great coach but hold off on this comment until he takes 4 different teams to the NCAA. And the teams he takes must all be in a state of crappiness when he gets there. Anyone can inherent a great situation and win. See Todd Lickliter as exhibit A.

Jacobson inherited a good situation and to his credit he has continues to build it. Fran has accomplished something few coaches have ever done. Someone posted this earlier but I can't find it: the records of teams before Fran got there, their records under Fran and their records after Fran left. It's pretty incredible actually.

I have been very frustrated with Fran & this team down the stretch, but I gotta say I agree with this.

This is going to sound like a back handed compliment (and, maybe it is), but I really don't mean this with any ill-intent whatsoever (I'm a proud UNI alum) - Ben Jacobson is a great mid major coach. Yes, hoops is hoops, but there is a certain set of talents required to excel at the mid major level and a certain set it takes at the P5 level. Sometimes you can translate one set to the other, but very often you cannot.

As far as Iowa/Fran goes, the apparent late-season collapse phenomenon is my #1 concern with him, simply because we've seen it twice now. Is it a statistical aberration, or is it a flaw in the system? If it IS a flaw in the system, does Fran have the skills to correct it?

I think if you look at the big picture of the overall history of Iowa basketball as well as the recent history of the program (i.e. the pathetic state of affairs the program was in when Fran took over), it would not be a smart move to bail on Fran before giving him the chance (and I'm talking another 3-4 years) to answer those questions I posed in the previous paragraph.

What kind of talent is Fran capable of attracting when he is armed with a program that looks to be a pretty safe bet to make the tourney every year? We don't know for the simple fact that we haven't let that play out.

 

[99topdawg]

I didn't realize ISU fans were so anti-UNI. Just want to their UNI game thread and all they could talk about is how much they hate UNI, how bad the refs were, how good ISU would be if they had those refs, etc. Seriously sickening.