15 Years Of Fran: What is his crowning acheivement?

[tweeterhawk]

1) Beating NC's Roy Williams for the services of Adam Woodbury. Many of you won't remember that or what it meant.
2) Lifting Iowa out of the depths of "Lick ball."
3) 2022 BTT title.
4) Recruiting and coaching a consensus All-American four of the last nine seasons.

 

[ShawneeHawk 1]

setting the record for number of ejections? Or does RMK own that one?

 

[TampaHawkfan]

1) Beating NC's Roy Williams for the services of Adam Woodbury. Many of you won't remember that or what it meant.
2) Lifting Iowa out of the depths of "Lick ball."
3) 2022 BTT title.
4) Recruiting and coaching a consensus All-American four of the last nine seasons.

IIRC, Woodbury was the first big commit of Fran's era, trying to dig out of the Lickliter crater. To get him to commit to Iowa over UNC was huge.

Mike Gesell committed in that same class, though I don't remember which of those two committed first. Both were listed as 4* recruits, if memory serves.

I just remember this being Fran's first real recruiting class, to get things back on track.

 

[tweeterhawk]

IIRC, Woodbury was the first big commit of Fran's era, trying to dig out of the Lickliter crater. To get him to commit to Iowa over UNC was huge.

Mike Gesell committed in that same class, though I don't remember which of those two committed first. Both were listed as 4* recruits, if memory serves.

I just remember this being Fran's first real recruiting class, to get things back on track.

Exactly. I don't remember which one committed first but they were sort of a package deal.

 

[GhostAppendage]

1) Beating NC's Roy Williams for the services of Adam Woodbury. Many of you won't remember that or what it meant.
2) Lifting Iowa out of the depths of "Lick ball."
3) 2022 BTT title.
4) Recruiting and coaching a consensus All-American four of the last nine seasons.

That’s pathetic list for 15 year career at a B1G program.

 

[DutchyFunStar]

If a 20 win season is any kind of benchmark, he had two 4-year stretches of 20+ win seasons.

 

[Quintana]

Ironically, possibly also the greatest failure of the previous 30 years.

disappointment for sure. failure? meh, they didn't lose to richmond or nw st that day.

myself, i try not to think about that game, so thanks for bringing it up

 

[Max_Rebo]

IIRC, Woodbury was the first big commit of Fran's era, trying to dig out of the Lickliter crater. To get him to commit to Iowa over UNC was huge.

Mike Gesell committed in that same class, though I don't remember which of those two committed first. Both were listed as 4* recruits, if memory serves.

I just remember this being Fran's first real recruiting class, to get things back on track.

I believe that one of the imperatives Fran was given when he was hired was to stop the flow of top-rated Iowa recruits to out-of-state programs. In the years prior to McCaffery getting hired, we saw numerous home-grown Iowa kids, including Raef LaFrentz, Nick Collison, Kirk Hinrich, Jarred Uthoff, the older Bohannons, Harrison Barnes, and others all head to programs outside of Iowa. I am confident that McCaffery was told one of his top priorities was to curb that tide. So he pretty much camped out at Sioux City East for a year, and fended off a strong challenge from UNC for Adam Woodbury's services. Woodbury never became the superstar fans hoped for, but he was still a solid player, and it helped change the narrative about where top Iowa high school players would end up playing their college ball.

 

[BioHawk]

I guess the 2022 Big Ten Title.

So, 15 years of coaching our Iowa Hawkeyes. One BTT. Got to the second round of the tournament four times. Got to the sweet sixteen zero times.

That is a thin list of accomplishments for 15 years.

He made Iowa relevant in league play at least. While he was inconsistent with wins teams were usually unable to just take a night off and get an easy win.

Not exactly a huge thing, but considering the condition the program was in when he got here it's not nothing either. I wish he had accomplished more but I'm thankful for what he was able to do.

 

[eyesofhawk]

His crowning achievement was how bad he underperformed throughout the years in the post season with the talent we had.

Another narrative that gets completely overblown.

Overall, it's frustrating Iowa hasn't had a couple more tourney wins under Fran. But opponents have talent too. That's why they're in the tournament.

Iowa was an underdog in six games. Auburn, Tennessee, Cincinnati, Villanova, Gonzaga, and Tennessee (first of two vs Vols). Cincinnati was the only win.

Iowa was favored in five games. Richmond, Oregon, Grand Canyon, Temple, Davidson. With Richmond and Oregon as losses.

So in seven tournaments Iowa has lost two games they weren't supposed to lose, and won one game they weren't supposed to win.

Again, the overall lack of tourney runs in seven tourneys, and 15 years carries its frustration. But the "tourney failure" narrative is overblown. It would be more accurate to criticize the program for not having overall in 15 years been good enough to achieve better tourney seeds and more invites. Because again, the actual tourney games have only varied one game from what would have been expected (2 losses as a favorite, and 1 win as a dog)

 

[kwik44]

I greatly appreciate Fran for what he did for the Iowa program. There were quite a few special moments if you breakdown some of the big conference wins over the years.

That being said, the program needs a change & I am ready to say farewell. I wish him well in his next phase in life.

 

[eyesofhawk]

Ironically, possibly also the greatest failure of the previous 30 years.

The game vs UNLV in '87?

Lol.

Rebels were the 1 seed and ranked #1 most of the season

 

[eyesofhawk]

who is the coach with the most losses by a large margin?

That's what being good enough to stick around for 15 years gets you

 

[eyesofhawk]

2nd in the B1G to only Bobby Knight in chair throwing distance.
Most temper tantrums in career.
#1 in tolerating players who bitch, whine and moan about refs.
1st in B1G in starting sons over NBA talent.
2nd only to Big Lick in season attendance drop-off.
#1 in fan apathy.

Nepotism narrative was way overplayed with Fran

 

[hawkirugged17]