We're in an elite group

I also think Fran is really making a mistake not playing Harding much. He really makes things happen on offense. I think Fran needs to live with his mistakes more. He's the future with Freeman and hopefully the new guys coming next year.
 
As is often the case for Fran, his bench is too long and he is way too worried about his bigs fouling out.

I would give Bowen's minutes to Harding. He is the future and there is a lot of upside there if he can add some muscle and improve his D. His offense is going to be good if he can cut down on dumb TOs. I think he will.

Until the last week or so, I was ready to give up on Patrick, but he has come on. My kingdom for a consistent Patrick McCaffrey!!!

I would keep Freeman in the game as much as possible and if he fouls out, he fouls out. That kid needs minutes. Bigs need to learn to play with fouls.

If everyone sticks that can, I like this team to be back in the tourney next year. I hope they get into the NIT and do well. That experience is great for a young squad.
 
Pessimism for the sake of pessimism. Freeman is going to be very good. He's inconsistent now (freshman) and still he has several big games already. Have a hunch Py will be first team All Big Ten next season. Dix is a natural 2 and, while inconsistent has had some big moments and showed good skills. Pr can play some minutes at the 2 spot. Harding is going to be a star when he builds on what he's learning this year. Maybe the best point guard since Deano Ladji is a good athlete but needs some time. Two high quality freshmen coming in. Grab a guy that can play the 4 spot in the portal and Iowa will be good again next year.

This team is a transition from the teams of the last 5 years and the team for the next 3-4 seasons.

Just guessing from his age (same as mine) F McC will retire when this year's true freshmen are gone, I think. Hitting the big 70 finds most people kind of tired of working.
 
Well would you look at at that! The hawks have beaten a top 20 team and won a close game all at the same time.

Up next we go on the road to play MSU (17-9, 9-6 conf) and then back at home against the Illini (19-6, 10-4 conf). Hawks are 15-11 overall and 7-8 in conference.

Final standings? I'm guessing we close out the season with a turd and finish 16-15, 8-12 in conference in one of the weakest conferences the B1G has EVER been.
 
hawkeye12345 said:
Well would you look at at that! The hawks have beaten a top 20 team and won a close game all at the same time.

Up next we go on the road to play MSU (17-9, 9-6 conf) and then back at home against the Illini (19-6, 10-4 conf). Hawks are 15-11 overall and 7-8 in conference.

Final standings? I'm guessing we close out the season with a turd and finish 16-15, 8-12 in conference in one of the weakest conferences the B1G has EVER been.
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It was a nice win. With that, it is still time to move on from Fran, in your opinion?
 
SwirlinLingerie said:
Iowa has been one of the most consistently good teams in the Big Ten in recent years under Fran.

The best I can tell, the only legitimate complaints are the inability to make a Sweet 16.

I have no way to explain all the tourney appearances since '99 without a trip to the second weekend. Nobody does. And looking specifically at Fran's run in the past 5 years or so, there is no real explanation. We can say Iowa hasn't had good enough guards, but if you have a good enough backcourt to finish 4th in the Big Ten in total wins, then it is good enough to win a game or two against similar opponents.

There is absolutely no doubt that Iowa is far and away the best basketball program over the past 20-25 years to not make a Sweet 16. At some point, we just need to lean into that as a fan base and wear it with pride. It's a curse, or horrific luck, or bizarre...it's way more a coin flip that Iowa perpetually ends up on the wrong side of then some type of inherent, structural issue in the program that limits the team's ceiling (which is what I think you could argue with the football team's approach to offense in recent years).
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Wow, wear it with pride, you're not on my team at Y pickup game, really? How in the hell can anyone say we are leaning in to with pride of not making it past the first weekend of the Dance. Okay, everybody the high jump competition starts with the bar at 3 feet 6 inches, have at it.
 
haydensly said:
It was a nice win. With that, it is still time to move on from Fran, in your opinion?
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Gentlemen, Ladies of the court, my summation is, yes, it's time to move on unless you want to have the same conversation 365 days from now, if that's the case have at it. Please, please no one tell me, be careful with you wish for, it's in my DNA probably, but change is good, it's new and it's challenging and looking forward to getting out of the rut. Friends, Iowa athletics is in a rut. However, not women's hoops, wrestling and how about those baseball players!! Just saying.
 
Larry Legend said:
Gentlemen, Ladies of the court, my summation is, yes, it's time to move on unless you want to have the same conversation 365 days from now, if that's the case have at it. Please, please no one tell me, be careful with you wish for, it's in my DNA probably, but change is good, it's new and it's challenging and looking forward to getting out of the rut. Friends, Iowa athletics is in a rut. However, not women's hoops, wrestling and how about those baseball players!! Just saying.
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I wasn't asking you. Pretty much knew your opinion before you answered.
 
This will be the first year FM has not had a first team all conference player since 2018. He will, however, have the unanimous Big 10 freshmen of the year. Again, I get that there is a waning of interest in the program right now that started long before Fran arrived at Iowa and has been excaserbated by all the things already discussed. If you want to fire a highly successful coach to infuse some juice into the program, but fail to address any of the other fundamental shortcomings with Iowa's MBB, good luck with that approach.

But, objectively, there is no case for firing Fran on the merits of his performance. Even in a clear rebuilding year with a very young team, he is currently in the top half of the conference and still has a shot at the dance with 5 games left. Now, given the schedule, I do not expect either of those to hold, but an NIT bid is more than realistic right now, and the future is bright for this young team. I would argue this has been one of Fran's better coaching performance at Iowa.
 
NorthKCHawk said:
As is often the case for Fran, his bench is too long and he is way too worried about his bigs fouling out.

I would give Bowen's minutes to Harding. He is the future and there is a lot of upside there if he can add some muscle and improve his D. His offense is going to be good if he can cut down on dumb TOs. I think he will.

Until the last week or so, I was ready to give up on Patrick, but he has come on. My kingdom for a consistent Patrick McCaffrey!!!

I would keep Freeman in the game as much as possible and if he fouls out, he fouls out. That kid needs minutes. Bigs need to learn to play with fouls.

If everyone sticks that can, I like this team to be back in the tourney next year. I hope they get into the NIT and do well. That experience is great for a young squad.
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If he could get his outside shot to be consistent, that would help him tremendously. He then could drive if a defender comes out on him with the choice to go to the hoop or dish for an assist. I think his shot will get more consistent as he is young, but it changes everything with what a player can do and when managing the half court offense.

If the defender doesn't honor a player's outside shot and they can't hit them consistently, it completely changes everything when they know a player is one dimensional.
 
NorthKCHawk said:
This will be the first year FM has not had a first team all conference player since 2018. He will, however, have the unanimous Big 10 freshmen of the year. Again, I get that there is a waning of interest in the program right now that started long before Fran arrived at Iowa and has been excaserbated by all the things already discussed. If you want to fire a highly successful coach to infuse some juice into the program, but fail to address any of the other fundamental shortcomings with Iowa's MBB, good luck with that approach.

But, objectively, there is no case for firing Fran on the merits of his performance. Even in a clear rebuilding year with a very young team, he is currently in the top half of the conference and still has a shot at the dance with 5 games left. Now, given the schedule, I do not expect either of those to hold, but an NIT bid is more than realistic right now, and the future is bright for this young team. I would argue this has been one of Fran's better coaching performance at Iowa.
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Yea, I pretty much think most people at the beginning of this season thought we'd be about right where Iowa is within the standings with the roster situation. For people to be surprised now is kind of funny. For some reason, expectations have a tendency to change as the year goes on and hope goes up. People need to keep it real. Teams have down years. Look at Mich St. and Michigan.
 
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MelroseHawkins said:
Yea, I pretty much think most people at the beginning of this season thought we'd be about right where Iowa is with in the standings with the roster situation. For people to be surprised now is kind of funny. For some reason, expectations have a tendency to change as the year goes on and hope goes up. People need to keep it real. Teams have down years. Look at Mich St. and Michigan.
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Coming into the year, I was NIT and maybe far outside chance of NCAA tourney, so they are right where I thought.

Fran has built this team up such that the tourney should be expected most years, but you get a rebuilding year every 4 years or so. If we are having this same conversation next year I would be more open to the criticism of Fran, but not now.
 
NorthKCHawk said:
Coming into the year, I was NIT and maybe far outside chance of NCAA tourney, so they are right where I thought.

Fran has built this team up such that the tourney should be expected most years, but you get a rebuilding year every 4 years or so. If we are having this same conversation next year I would be more open to the criticism of Fran, but not now.
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Agree. I do feel the issue of not getting out of the first weekend of the tournament is legit so I will give people that, but I don't think it would be in the best interest for Iowa to wish a coaching change now.

Now, once he has a team with higher expectations that again would not get to at least the round of 32, then I think you seriously revisit idea of turning the page.
 
Ben Krikke vs. BJ Mack

BJ Mack was the first option and he decided he wanted to play closer to home so Fran grabbed Krikke. Everyone tells me if Mack is on this team they are a tournament team. Statistically, they are the same dude, but we all know Krikke can’t defend or rebound. Full disclosure…I do not watch a ton of South Carolina basketball so does Mack make Iowa better this season?
 
Larry Legend said:
Wow, wear it with pride, you're not on my team at Y pickup game, really? How in the hell can anyone say we are leaning in to with pride of not making it past the first weekend of the Dance. Okay, everybody the high jump competition starts with the bar at 3 feet 6 inches, have at it.
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It was partly tongue in cheek. The point is some of it can't be explained. What, like 95 teams have made the Sweet 16 since '99? Iowa has had plenty of squads better than some of those 95 teams.
 
SwirlinLingerie said:
It was partly tongue in cheek. The point is some of it can't be explained. What, like 95 teams have made the Sweet 16 since '99? Iowa has had plenty of squads better than some of those 95 teams.
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Every year we make the tournament there is article after article about the sweet 16 drought. The NCAA tournament already has enough pressure involved. I really think the added pressure that gets put on Iowa every March is just too much to overcome. At some point, a team needs to get lucky with running into a team that shits the bed so we can get the monkey off our backs and hopefully open the flood gates.
 
The fact that I have been ignoring the basketball program this year pretty much speaks for its self. No surprises on results thus far but next year should a growth of leaps and bounds season. If not we may be hearing from Beth.
 
PCHawk said:
Every year we make the tournament there is article after article about the sweet 16 drought. The NCAA tournament already has enough pressure involved. I really think the added pressure that gets put on Iowa every March is just too much to overcome. At some point, a team needs to get lucky with running into a team that shits the bed so we can get the monkey off our backs and hopefully open the flood gates.
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Hilariously, Fran's teams always seem to be the one to help the monkey off some other program's back!!

In better's parlance, Fran is overdue for a heater. Way overdue.
 
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