If both Garza and Bohannon are gone after this year, why is there only one recruit for next year? Is Fran expecting to look for transfers?
2021 recruiting class
- Thread starter Eternal Return
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There is a chance Wieskamp leaves as well. But I was wondering the same thing
We know that Fran likes his unbalanced classes. With 5 in the 2020 class, I could see him banking any extras in 2021 until 2022... unless he decides to go hunting for a grad transfer big man, which wouldn’t be surprising (and borderline expected)
This is probably as good if a year as any to be patient and wait until spring when the dust settles unless a player you cannot turn down wants to commit earlier.
Forget the kids name but isn’t there a big from NY that plays for an Albany club team that we were after? Not sure if he’s a 2021 or 22 recruit?
Forget the kids name but isn’t there a big from NY that plays for an Albany club team that we were after? Not sure if he’s a 2021 or 22 recruit?
Exactly. Nobody can watch most of these kids play. Kind of hard to evaluate a recruit. Even harder to try and content with them.
I heard an interesting comment from McCaffery a couple of days ago. He was talking about this season being a "free" one. He didn't mention JoeW, but he said that Luka is definitely gone, but seemed to be up in the air regarding Bohannon.
I do wonder what's out there is the transfer market. Fran doesn't go for tranfers like other BT schools but I really think a big is needed. Nunge cannot eat up all of Garza's minutes especially when we don't know Ogundele is ready to take Nunge's backup minutes. And if Nunge is hurt then Iowa will really suffer with post depth. They'll get destroyed on the boards and interior defense (they're already not great at either).
Just recently Will Baker transferred from Texas to Nevada and Paul Atkinson Jr. (Ivy League POY) transferred from Yale to Notre Dame. Both were options for Iowa, as was Liam Robbins last year but he picked Minnesota after leaving Drake. Every big in the country knows the opportunities at Iowa with Garza gone next year. I wonder how hard Fran looks at the transfer market because Iowa should not be settling for an average backup center if they can grab someone more quality. I'm pessimistic.
Just recently Will Baker transferred from Texas to Nevada and Paul Atkinson Jr. (Ivy League POY) transferred from Yale to Notre Dame. Both were options for Iowa, as was Liam Robbins last year but he picked Minnesota after leaving Drake. Every big in the country knows the opportunities at Iowa with Garza gone next year. I wonder how hard Fran looks at the transfer market because Iowa should not be settling for an average backup center if they can grab someone more quality. I'm pessimistic.
Bohannon pretty much said in his presser on Tuesday that this would be his last trip to the Kohl Center and shut the door on coming back.
I think we need to do (and we are finally doing it in football) is taking transfers. Fran has appeared to shy away from that. KF is now finally doing it. Especially in basketball where kids have actually played already at the college level Fran should take hard looks. My 2 cents.
Transfers have worked out well for Fran before ala Evelyn and Uthoff. What would be funny is if Foster transfers out of ISU and comes to Iowa.
I don’t agree that Fran has shied away from taking transfers. He brought in Dale Jones, Jarrod Uthoff, Bakari Evelyn last year, went JUCO for Trey Dickerson, were in the top 2 for Cole Huff (who ended up choosing Creighton, and I believe we had an offer out to an Arizona State big man around the same time). Based on what I saw here, we also had an offer out to Atkinson who chose Notre Dame, amongst others.
Fran has shown a willingness to utilize the transfer portal, however it seems that the type of player Fran is going after is one who can fill out the bottom of the depth chart at thin positions, and that he never recruits transfers to play over “his guys.” If you are keeping your best players in the program, this is the right approach imo
I keep hoping for Foster as well. Obviously he nearly picked us the first time and has some family ties to Iowa. And he supposedly picked ISU for their history putting people into the NBA but given they will likely have a new coaching staff for his upperclassman years you would think he might reconsider that.
Good to see I'm not the only one with this crazy thought about Foster. If Iowa State basketball turns into a complete dumpster fire then it certainly couldn't hurt Iowa's chances. Some might say it already is a dumpster fire in Ames right now. What vitriol that would add to the rivalry too. I don't expect that but I'm definitely wishing Foster was on Iowa. He has so much potential. More likely he would transfer out of state though.
Fran did address this on the Fight for Iowa Podcast this week. He said that he expects to have a lot of depth next year with the players already in the team. It sounded like there was not someone still available in the 2021 class that was a must get. He also wants to leave some extra scholarships open for 2022.
I look at JUCO's differently than transfers. Jones, Dickerson and Willie Atwood (the one from AZ) were all JUCO guys.
I wish Fran pursued transfers more often than he does. Off the top of my head the only ones he has went after were Uthoff, Evelyn, Huff, Harvey, Atkinson and the Hauser brothers.
Edit to add Liam Robbins.
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I hope you are right. I’m sure there are tons of counter-examples but in general when someone is getting married it tends to make me think that they have an eye on their future outside of college. I’ve been kind of expecting he will move on, but I hope to be wrong about that.
Ah you’re right - I forgot that Jones and Atwood were JUCO, though the concept is similar. I agree that Fran could afford to hit the portal a little harder, though when you recruit over existing players in the program, team chemistry can suffer (with so few players on a hoops team, I think this is really important)
High turnover is expected in a sport like football, where it’s really easy to get buried. However, I’m not sure it’s as healthy in basketball (or as sustainable), unless you have guys turning pro like blue bloods, or you make it work in your favor consistently like Hoiberg did at State. For the most part, I like Fran’s approach of only using the portal when necessary, or unless you’re targeting a can’t miss player (Hausers, Robbins, Uthoff)
Jones and Dickerson were JC players not transfers. Bakari is the only free agent type Fran has brought in. Yeah, Uthoff was transfer but he is from Cedar Rapids. There was JC PG Carpenter in Frans first couple years.
Bakari and Uthoff equals two in transfers in 11 years....meanwhile Dickerson, Hutton, Moss, Ellingson, Flemming, Wagner, C Williams, and a couple others have transferred out.
Those types of transfers out are fine. It's the type we had under Lickliter (Freeman, Kelly, Tucker) that gut a roster of talent
We have to get a big transfer available to play next year as I see it. We can’t go into next season with Nunge being our only viable 5. JO has a long way to go before he makes substantial contributions based on what I’ve seen.
Well the same could be said about Ulis and Perkins. They look promising, but can they score at the DI level? They still need some "getting used to" the speed and athleticism of DI. If we lose Garza, JBo and Joe W, that's 50 a night gone. That's a lot.
Obviously players graduate and/or move on, and someone has to replace them, but these 3 will be tough. Love that Ulis is so far GREAT at the Free Throw Line, that replaces JBo in that important game closer role (and last I saw Sandfort was shooting 97% from the line).
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