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hawkeye12345

Well-Known Member
One of three B1G teams that don't have a win against a ranked opponent. Yikes.

It's been time for a change at the top for quite some time but some generally refuse to admit it because they're afraid of door #3 (Lackluster).

9 out of the 13 years that Mr. Davis was leading our program, Iowa earned a bid to the NCAAs and his teams made it out of the 1st round every...single...year. This is Fran's 14th year at Iowa, remove the Covid year and you have a fair comparison between Dr. T and Fran's tenure at Iowa.

Fran has led Iowa to the NCAAs 7 out of the 13 years and I believe it's 4 wins in the tournament total and never taking a team past the round of 32.

I'm a Fran guy. I like the fire that he brings to the court but as other threads have pointed out, there are glaring gaps in his ability to actually coach a team to victory. Lack of defense, poor clock management, etc.

It's time to circle the wagons and move in a different direction.
 
Seen it quite a bit today. Guess it is that time of year. The eleventh loss, the tough stretch to go. Fran evaluation time. :)
 
hawkeye12345 said:
One of three B1G teams that don't have a win against a ranked opponent. Yikes.

It's been time for a change at the top for quite some time but some generally refuse to admit it because they're afraid of door #3 (Lackluster).

9 out of the 13 years that Mr. Davis was leading our program, Iowa earned a bid to the NCAAs and his teams made it out of the 1st round every...single...year. This is Fran's 14th year at Iowa, remove the Covid year and you have a fair comparison between Dr. T and Fran's tenure at Iowa.

Fran has led Iowa to the NCAAs 7 out of the 13 years and I believe it's 4 wins in the tournament total and never taking a team past the round of 32.

I'm a Fran guy. I like the fire that he brings to the court but as other threads have pointed out, there are glaring gaps in his ability to actually coach a team to victory. Lack of defense, poor clock management, etc.

It's time to circle the wagons and move in a different direction.
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Iowa is 4th in conference wins in the B1G since 2020 - saying that Fran has "glaring gaps in his ability to actually coach a team to victory" coming off that stretch is kind of not fair. Losing guys early to the NBA works at schools who just reload, Iowa is much more of a developmental program and we've had success because we have a coach that can identify talent and then develop that talent into winning basketball.
 
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).
 
What if Fran was 7-4 in the NCAA instead of 4-7 or 11-9 in the BTT instead of 9-11. Or what if Fran's teams didn't get down 19 to Cincinnati in the Tourney or over 20 to Villanova and nearly 30 to Gonzaga. Or down 17 to Indiana or 20 at home to Minny or get into big deficits more than any other upper division B1G coach?? Well if we make up "what if's" then Fran is better and I don't have a leg to stand on if I say he could have done better in some areas. If he was very good instead of just good. Hey, what if Fran's teams played his "championship defense" just like in his video?
 
NorthKCHawk said:
Stop making sense!
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What r u saying? Makes no sense at all... If his close game record was flipped, there's zero chance Hawks would be 8th. - They'd be closer to #2 or #1.

Oh and this isn't about making S16. It's about consistently terrible defense, inconsistent shooting by our well advertised "shooters" and a pervasive lack of athleticism / play making beyond the "Star".

Hawks have had their share of breakout guys - albeit, very feast / famine in terms of 1 stud but not much of a supporting cast. Fran does get SOME credit for their development but I'd argue as much came from outside ... Garza's and the Murray boy's were a lot of parental work and personal commitment.

All that ... This was expected as a down year. Fran gets a pass. If all stay (Oh, please Billy, Billy, Billy let Freeman and Harding stay!) There's a strong nucleus! If Perk returns, this could be a very strong team and noticeably better. No excuse to not finish top 4, go dancing and maybe, finally get out of the 1st round!?
 
hawkeye12345 said:
One of three B1G teams that don't have a win against a ranked opponent. Yikes.

It's been time for a change at the top for quite some time but some generally refuse to admit it because they're afraid of door #3 (Lackluster).

9 out of the 13 years that Mr. Davis was leading our program, Iowa earned a bid to the NCAAs and his teams made it out of the 1st round every...single...year. This is Fran's 14th year at Iowa, remove the Covid year and you have a fair comparison between Dr. T and Fran's tenure at Iowa.

Fran has led Iowa to the NCAAs 7 out of the 13 years and I believe it's 4 wins in the tournament total and never taking a team past the round of 32.

I'm a Fran guy. I like the fire that he brings to the court but as other threads have pointed out, there are glaring gaps in his ability to actually coach a team to victory. Lack of defense, poor clock management, etc.

It's time to circle the wagons and move in a different direction.
Click to expand...
It's not 1999 anymore. Only 3 Big Ten teams had made the NCAA in the last 4 consecutive seasons. Won a Big Tournament Title-first time in 16 seasons. You would seriously risk an Alford or Lickliter, both hot coaching hires at the time, to get 1 more round in the NCAAs?
 
STILLBUSTER said:
What r u saying? Makes no sense at all... If his close game record was flipped, there's zero chance Hawks would be 8th. - They'd be closer to #2 or #1.

Oh and this isn't about making S16. It's about consistently terrible defense, inconsistent shooting by our well advertised "shooters" and a pervasive lack of athleticism / play making beyond the "Star".

Hawks have had their share of breakout guys - albeit, very feast / famine in terms of 1 stud but not much of a supporting cast. Fran does get SOME credit for their development but I'd argue as much came from outside ... Garza's and the Murray boy's were a lot of parental work and personal commitment.

All that ... This was expected as a down year. Fran gets a pass. If all stay (Oh, please Billy, Billy, Billy let Freeman and Harding stay!) There's a strong nucleus! If Perk returns, this could be a very strong team and noticeably better. No excuse to not finish top 4, go dancing and maybe, finally get out of the 1st round!?
Click to expand...

That's what I am saying, if some retention happens and maybe a piece in the portal along with two top 150's, it's not a stretch to think this team takes a huge step forward next year. I think they'll be pretty good even if Tony leaves, but they could be special if he comes back. He seems to have fun and enjoy it, so I think there's at least an outside shot.
 
The Tom Davis comparison is so dumb. He took over a top 5 team in the country and Fran took over a bottom 5 team in the country. Davis slowly made the program worse and Fran made the program better. Other than their first two years and Davis' last win at Iowa. They are basically the exact sane coach.
 
STILLBUSTER said:
What r u saying? Makes no sense at all... If his close game record was flipped, there's zero chance Hawks would be 8th. - They'd be closer to #2 or #1.

Oh and this isn't about making S16. It's about consistently terrible defense, inconsistent shooting by our well advertised "shooters" and a pervasive lack of athleticism / play making beyond the "Star".

Hawks have had their share of breakout guys - albeit, very feast / famine in terms of 1 stud but not much of a supporting cast. Fran does get SOME credit for their development but I'd argue as much came from outside ... Garza's and the Murray boy's were a lot of parental work and personal commitment.

All that ... This was expected as a down year. Fran gets a pass. If all stay (Oh, please Billy, Billy, Billy let Freeman and Harding stay!) There's a strong nucleus! If Perk returns, this could be a very strong team and noticeably better. No excuse to not finish top 4, go dancing and maybe, finally get out of the 1st round!?
Click to expand...
Fran almost always has one star and one other good player.

Gatens had Marble
Marble has White
White had Uthoff
Uthoff had Jok
Jok had Cook
Garza had Wieskamp
Murray had Bohannon

Our top two are normally the best or second best combo in the conference. It's the drop off after that thats the issue.
 
STILLBUSTER said:
What r u saying? Makes no sense at all... If his close game record was flipped, there's zero chance Hawks would be 8th. - They'd be closer to #2 or #1.
Click to expand...
Thats not necessarily true. Frans overall record (excluding his first 2 years) is pretty good with a really bad record in close games. That means he's closer to being better than he is to being worse. He's mostly winning big or losing close.

There could easily be a scenario where someone has the same overall record but has a flipped close game record because they either win close or lose big. In that scenario, the team would be closer to being worse than to being better.

If I had to pick a way to get to the record Fran has. I'd pick losing a bunch of close games. It is more frustrating for sure. But the team is more competitive with that scenario.
 
PCHawk said:
Thats not necessarily true. Frans overall record (excluding his first 2 years) is pretty good with a really bad record in close games. That means he's closer to being better than he is to being worse. He's mostly winning big or losing close.

There could easily be a scenario where someone has the same overall record but has a flipped close game record because they either win close or lose big. In that scenario, the team would be closer to being worse than to being better.

If I had to pick a way to get to the record Fran has. I'd pick losing a bunch of close games. It is more frustrating for sure. But the team is more competitive with that scenario.
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They've lacked the ability to close out teams this year, they've lost at least 3 or 4 that they lead most of the game and then shit the bed in the final few minutes. Kind of a trait a lot of younger teams have. This team is really really close to being a team that could make the dance, just probably a post player short.
 
InGoodCo said:
They've lacked the ability to close out teams this year, they've lost at least 3 or 4 that they lead most of the game and then shit the bed in the final few minutes. Kind of a trait a lot of younger teams have. This team is really really close to being a team that could make the dance, just probably a post player short.
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Krikke was a little bit of fools gold with how he started the year. Still glad we have him and he's probably about the best Fran could have done on the portal. I think Bowen is probably the one player that really hurts this team. Based on his ranking, potential, and the position of need. Dix playing so well has softened that blow a little tho.
 
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