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Bad Timing? Andrew Francis leaving now could impact 2020 Recruiting Class

Franisdaman

HB King
Nov 3, 2012
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Heaven, Iowa
So, if the 2020 class ends up being a dud, I demand...I mean, I hope you give Fran some slack! :)

From HawkCentral.com:

Francis' loss will be especially felt on the recruiting trail. That's why it wouldn't be a surprise to see McCaffery act quickly to find a replacement.

April 26-28 marks the first official evaluation period of the year, meaning coaches can watch prospects at AAU events. It's an important time to be fully staffed, with tournaments spread throughout the country, as coaches look to cement established relationships and further evaluate potential targets. And it is well-known that Iowa has an extremely important recruiting class of 2020 to assemble.



LINK: https://www.hawkcentral.com/story/s...basketball-program-fran-mccaffery/3492096002/
 
No slack. Nut up, Fran. Iowa's MBB recruiting should not rest on its only recruiter under 50. This could be move for improvement or the beginning of the end. Take your pick. I wish Francis well but Iowa's assistant coaches have never signalled that they were trailblazers. It's gonna take a real bad year or a bad ($$$$) decision out of Barta to get Fran out and go in a new direction.
 
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They'll be ok. Much of the ground work has already been done. It is very important that they bring someone in quickly. But knowing McC and Francis, this was probably not a shocking change but something all were aware of and a replacement is probably in the works already.
 
They'll be ok. Much of the ground work has already been done. It is very important that they bring someone in quickly. But knowing McC and Francis, this was probably not a shocking change but something all were aware of and a replacement is probably in the works already.

I agree, this probably wasn't a surprise to Fran. This has probably been in the works for a while
 
The legwork has already been done, for the most part on the 2020 class. The only implication I think this would have on Suggs or Foster would be if one of them ended up going to actually play for Francis (which seems a bit of a longshot, but not impossible). None of the major factors that would bring one or both of them here has really changed.
 
The legwork has already been done, for the most part on the 2020 class. The only implication I think this would have on Suggs or Foster would be if one of them ended up going to actually play for Francis (which seems a bit of a longshot, but not impossible). None of the major factors that would bring one or both of them here has really changed.

Foster has been recruited by Sherm and Fran. Anyone have a list of the players Francis recruited to Iowa?
 
Has Francis ever brought in a high profile recruit? I don't think he has and I don't think recruiting is his forte, so I don't think it will impact recruiting.
 
Has Francis ever brought in a high profile recruit? I don't think he has and I don't think recruiting is his forte, so I don't think it will impact recruiting.

hard to say, it isn't exactly well known who was a lead recruiter for each recruit. The rivals database doesn't consistently list this info. Francis is listed as the lead recruiter for Dale Jones, Brandon Hutton, Trey Dickerson, Dom Uhl, Gabe Olaseni and Basabe. I recall early on in Fran's tenure he labeled Francis as a barracuda on the recruiting trail, still trying to make sense of that. I certainly have no direct knowledge on how much of an impact Francis made on the recruiting trail, but judging from current players social media posts, he was quite meaningful to them so it doesn't seem like you can brush this off as an insignificant development, but I also don't think you can say he isn't replaceable. Wish Andrew the best and appreciate his time and efforts at Iowa.
 
This is a huge opportunity to find a great young recruiter who knows how to coach defense. If that's Dean Oliver, great. But whoever it is, should be able to do those two things at an elite level: recruit and coach defense.

And if Fran doesn't have a very short list ready to go, then that's on him. Anyone in his position should NEVER be caught by surprise. Surely Fran's been around long enough to know that. On the other hand, his boss didn't know enough to keep personnel records, so we'll see.
 
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Like FB I assume this position will have to go through a posting process and then there would be no way to bring a replacement to be in place in time for the evaluation period.

I’m for finding an asst. coach that has a couple of recruits in there pocket .
 
Interesting that posters routinely complain about Iowa basketball recruiting and now worry about losing one of the assistants doing the recruiting over the last nine years.

If you look at the list of kids he was the lead recruiter on that he brought here....Im not worried he is leaving to put it mildly.
 
Can you name some names? Any he missed on that you can name?

Trey Dickerson
Dom Uhl
Mike Gesell
Gabe Olaseni
Dale Jones
Brandon Hutton

This is what I could find listed. Not exactly a great track record. Gesell was a decent PG that regressed. I would say Olaseni is the best on the list with the others being swings and misses.
 
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Go get Dean Oliver.
Curious: Why? Dean was a great player and I know he is an assistant at Whisky ... But why do we need to go get him? Is he a tenacious defensive coach? Does he have a recruiting pipeline? I don't know the answer to these questions ... I want to see the job go to the best candidate ... Not to someone simply because he's a former Hawk (and now coach) ... There are lots of good young coaches out there ... Fran needs to land the best one he can ...
 
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Interesting that posters routinely complain about Iowa basketball recruiting and now worry about losing one of the assistants doing the recruiting over the last nine years.
Also interesting that they nag on getting a defensive coach, yet couldn't stand to watch Wisconsin when defense was their middle name.
 
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Trey Dickerson
Dom Uhl
Mike Gesell
Gabe Olaseni
Dale Jones
Brandon Hutton

This is what I could find listed. Not exactly a great track record. Gesell was a decent PG that regressed. I would say Olaseni is the best on the list with the others being swings and misses.
That is a scant few for all of the players here over the 9 years he was here. He surely was involved in recruiting others, too.
Gesell and Jones had injuries that really affected their game but when healthy, both were pretty good. That was not too often for Jones, unfortunately.
The 2 swings and misses, IMHO, were Hutton and Uhl. Iowa had competition from some pretty decent schools for both of them (Hutton - offers from Wisconsin and West Virginia, and Uhl - offers from BC, Maryland, Miami FL, MN, Northwestern, Penn State, and Temple), they just did not pan out. I can't blame him for all the issues. That would not be fair.
 
Some staff turnover is a healthy thing for any program. Fran is long overdue with his staff.
 
Trey Dickerson
Dom Uhl
Mike Gesell
Gabe Olaseni
Dale Jones
Brandon Hutton

This is what I could find listed. Not exactly a great track record. Gesell was a decent PG that regressed. I would say Olaseni is the best on the list with the others being swings and misses.
Gesell regressed? In what way?
 
Go get Dean Oliver.
Other than the fact he played for Iowa, why do you think he would be a good hire? I don’t think he has any relationship with Fran. Does he bring some specific skills you think would be better than someone else? Probably he is very capable but why do you want him?
 
Has Francis ever brought in a high profile recruit? I don't think he has and I don't think recruiting is his forte, so I don't think it will impact recruiting.

Pretty sure Joe T, coming in next year, is a Francis guy
 
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Who is the lead recruiter for Beard?

That’s who I really want that Iowa has a good shot at and a real position of need.
 
Curious: Why? Dean was a great player and I know he is an assistant at Whisky ... But why do we need to go get him? Is he a tenacious defensive coach? Does he have a recruiting pipeline? I don't know the answer to these questions ... I want to see the job go to the best candidate ... Not to someone simply because he's a former Hawk (and now coach) ... There are lots of good young coaches out there ... Fran needs to land the best one he can ...

Also if I am Dean why would I take the Iowa job as an assistant? Maybe his goal is to eventually coach at Iowa someday, the best way to do that is to move up the ranks in jobs that are outside of Iowa.

If Fran flops the next few seasons and Dean is part of the staff his shot of ever being the head coach at Iowa would take a serious blow. He needs to work his way up to a HC job at a smaller school, then move up to a mid-major then have a shot at a school like Iowa if he has success there.
 
Also if I am Dean why would I take the Iowa job as an assistant? Maybe his goal is to eventually coach at Iowa someday, the best way to do that is to move up the ranks in jobs that are outside of Iowa.

If Fran flops the next few seasons and Dean is part of the staff his shot of ever being the head coach at Iowa would take a serious blow. He needs to work his way up to a HC job at a smaller school, then move up to a mid-major then have a shot at a school like Iowa if he has success there.
Disagree. Most assistants that want to be head coaches move around so as to learn from several different coaches. Coming to Iowa for a couple of years before taking on a head coaching job would make sense and would certainly create a comfort level with the AD that outsiders wouldn't have.
 
Also interesting that they nag on getting a defensive coach, yet couldn't stand to watch Wisconsin when defense was their middle name.

Defensive ability and pace of play are two completely unrelated parts of the game. You can play uptempo and still play great defense. Duke was 20th in Tempo (333 spots ahead of VA) and 6th in AdjD (1 spot behind VA).
 
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