My answer is don't recruit 5 guys that are 6'5-6'8 and play roughly the same position. Recruit some guys who can actually make shots, create shots, finish at the rim, block shots. You can't win without better guards. If he can't find them at the high school level or needs 1-2 years to develop high school kids, then sprinkle in some juco or transfer guys. The season was what it was and Nova is an elite team, so likely no scenario in which we beat them, but am looking forward at this point.
Brandon Hutton transferring
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My answer is don't recruit 5 guys that are 6'5-6'8 and play roughly the same position. Recruit some guys who can actually make shots, create shots, finish at the rim, block shots. You can't win without better guards. If he can't find them at the high school level or needs 1-2 years to develop high school kids, then sprinkle in some juco or transfer guys. The season was what it was and Nova is an elite team, so likely no scenario in which we beat them, but am looking forward at this point.
I don't think Fran has an issue identifying talent as he has been in early on several guys that have ended up going elsewhere and being successful (Tyler Ulis anyone?), but to be honest up until minimally this year's class what did he really have to sell? A couple NIT's and an NCAA play-in game loss. Wisconsin had something like 16 straight NCAAs, numerous B1G top 4 finishes, etc., so not sure that is a fair comparison.
Some of those more highly ranked guys will pan out (Uthoff) while others won't (Ogelsby). A good share of the in-state guys he has brought in were ranked top 150 and had multiple P5 offers, so apparently other coaches missed in their evaluations as well. I think moving forward is where we will find out if Fran can reel in the talented more highly rated type players he's been after for several years now that we have some level of success/consistency to sell. Guys like Tyler Cook would appear to be a good start.
Good points and no debate with anything you say. I would say that we cannot (IMO) benchmark against MSU, Michigan, Maryland, etc., because they will out-recruit us 99% of the time. We can benchmark against Wisconsin because they face similar challenges with respect to in state talent, although their seems exponentially better than ours of late. No reason, IMO, Fran can't get a Nigel Hayes type player, a Trevan Jackson PG, a couple of shooters and a better than serviceable big. Everybody Wisconsin gets can make shots---it's the curse of Ben Brust or something. I think we will get passed up by NW, Nebraska and PSU this year, which I suspect will have people asking more questions than they are now.
Do you really believe Wisconsin was that much better than Iowa this year? They struggled like Iowa, but it was early and they improved. They had the same seed as Iowa in the tournament, and only won their 2nd game of the tourney because one guy threw in 2 late 3 pointers including one that was a shot from the corner in the last second. If that shot doesn't go in and they lose, they pretty much had the same season as Iowa (record wise and tourney wise). Remember, they got beat by Nebraska in the BTT by 12. They then lost a game they should have won in the next round by not being able to execute in the last minute. IMO, not a huge difference.
Now, overall, the past few years, yes, they have been better. Do you think it was a recruiting coup getting Kaminsky (a guard who grew 8 inches late) and Decker (a home state kid)? Trevan Jackson was a nice PG, but he wasn't someone who set the world on fire.His stats weren't that much different than Gesell's, especially per 40 minutes. However, his FT shooting improved every year and he made some clutch plays at the end of games. Nice player, but let's not get crazy.
Sorry to see Hutton leave the program. Not the guy I wanted or expected to go. Oh well, best of luck to him and next man in.
Ryan starts the season playing mainly his guys and they struggle to find an identity. Gard comes in and immediately infuses the freshman / younger guys like Happ and Iverson. Former role players like Brown emerge as go to guys and Koenig and Hayes benefit from getting more scorers on the floor. Meanwhile, Fran's squad starts out hot in the big ten and flames out mid-season because teams adjusted to Jok and Uthoff and Fran had nobody else capable of scoring. Not exactly a news flash here after 3 years, but AC, MG and AW are not good offensively.
Wisconsin had every reason to struggle early losing who they lost + later a coach. This was Fran's year to blossom with his veteran battle-tested squad. Wisconsin was very close to being in the Elite 8 again...granted Nova would have rolled them too, but my point is Fran can't win pre-season tournaments, beat Iowa State, get past round 1 of BTT or compete in second round games past the 6 minute mark of the first half. Do I think Wisconsin is way better than Iowa now and will be in the future? Yes. Does it resonate with anyone that Fran's senior-laden team was picked 9th in the Big Ten? Props for overachieving I guess, but how many senior-laden teams get picked at the bottom of their conference? Not exactly a ringing endorsement of Fran's body of work.
Better fire Fran now. We can't keep going on this downwards spiral he's got us on.
I will say this, in this day and age of college basketball, if you recruit 5 incoming freshman, and you have to red shirt 2, and the other 3 can't get off the pine, well, one has to question your recruiting abilities.
Well, one of the redshirts was for academic reasons. Two of the other freshman (Wagner and Williams) did play. Not surprisingly, they didn't get a lot of time with 4 seniors and a junior starting. Do you know how many minutes Frank Kaminsky played as a freshman? Hint: less than Ahmad Wagner. Will Wagner be better than Kaminsky? Nope, but it happens that some freshman don't play a lot.
When you have a starting lineup with 4 seniors and 1 junior, I wouldn't expect 5 freshman to get significant minutes. The Jones injury and the lack of either Ellingson or Fleming to grow into a suitable backup 2 were the biggest disappointments of the new(er) guys.
I don't believe that Fran is continuing to load up on Iowa talent. He is recruiting the Iowa talent when it is there which he did this year by giving scholarships to Bohannon, Kreiner, and Pemsl. Last year the only player from the class that was originally from Iowa was Jones. Everyone else was out of state. Marble, White, Olaseni, Clemmons, Uhl, Ellingson, and a couple that transferred out were also all out of state.
This year Fran recruited and got the highest profile athlete since he has been at Iowa in Cook out of St. Louis. He has some future Iowa stars (from Iowa) already committed in Connor McCaffrey, and Joe Wieskamp. Both are highly rated players and have been ranked in the top 100 of their recruiting class.
I think that if the talent is there in Iowa then we should take it which Fran has done. In years where the talent is questionable we have recruited out of the state.
Off of our roster this year, we had 5 players (4 on scholarship) from Iowa. I think that most people wouldn't have taken scholarships away from Uthoff, Jok, or Woodbury or argued that they shouldn't have received scholarships. Jones was injured or he would have probably really helped late in the season. Baer was a pleasant surprise of the 5 Iowa players. To bad we weren't able to sign Washpun when he transferred from Tennessee.
I agree that the "look how far we have come since Lickliter" stuff is getting old. Its been 6 years and most say next year is a rebuilding year so that will make 7. In 7 years we will have not made it past the round of 32....
Nice way to cover yourself those last couple sentences. Are you really mad at Fran because of pre-season BIG rankings? What does that have to do with Fran's body of work? You're all over the ****ing place.
Iowa was a bubble team coming into the year and was anywhere from 6th-9th in projections. I know it fits your dumbass narrative to blame Fran for being picked 9th in the preseason but big picture they were still seen as a bubble team. They made the tournament, won a game, and lost to a final four team. Not too bad. Would you feel better if you were a cyclone and beat two double digit seeds just to say you made the sweet sixteen? Put things in perspective buddy.
Try being half the other teams in the big 10. (Northwestern, Illinois, Penn State, Nebraska, Rutgers, Minnesota). We have made significant improvement over the last 6 years and are starting to see it now with recruiting. The talent in the state of Iowa also helps. Consistency in getting into the NCAA tournament is also important in attracting top talent.
that is who Iowa will be next year....actually they will more than likely be below most of them
Bottom line for me was that despite knowing exactly who he had in Clemmons, Gesell, and Woodbury, Fran brought Dale Jones in. Clearly he thought Jones was the answer given all others red shirted or sat. Wagner should have been playing from day one, but at least somebody got meaningful minutes. Fran's recruiting did not help this season, nor did these kids gain experience to build for next season. So despite two guards who couldn't throw it in the ocean most nights, we had no alternatives.
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Name calling and profanity all in the same response. Well done. Now back to the classroom. Does it not concern you that with all of his guys as seniors, Fran's team was picked 9th in the big ten? Shouldn't they improve in time or is that just other programs where guys get better, coaches add talent, teams who can't finish learn to finish? Oh, those would be expectations, which are not allowed to be a 'true Iowa fan'. To be a true fan, we have to say Fran is doing the best he can, damn Kentucky for stealing Ulis, everyone we lost to late in the season was hot, if not for our draw against Nova, if only Dale Jones hadn't gotten hurt, Woody improved his rebounds per game so see, Fran can develop players and the list goes on.
The difference is that I want Iowa to make it to the Sweet 16. I want Iowa to reap the recruiting benefits of being more than a second round punching bag. To do that, Iowa has to get more than 1 kid every couple years. Cook is a great start, but we are back to ground zero with the PG position going into year 7. This from a coach who talked incessantly about the great guard play in the big ten. We endured 4 years of the Gesell-Clemmons roller coaster, which drove myself and others to pray for someone "as good" as Brody Boyd or Bryce Freaking Cartwright.
Just be glad we aren't Rutgers and that Todd Lickliter isn't the coach right? Got it. I will shut the bleep up now so you can bleeping set me straight with your insightful commentary.
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Name calling and profanity all in the same response. Well done. Now back to the classroom. Does it not concern you that with all of his guys as seniors, Fran's team was picked 9th in the big ten? Shouldn't they improve in time or is that just other programs where guys get better, coaches add talent, teams who can't finish learn to finish? Oh, those would be expectations, which are not allowed to be a 'true Iowa fan'. To be a true fan, we have to say Fran is doing the best he can, damn Kentucky for stealing Ulis, everyone we lost to late in the season was hot, if not for our draw against Nova, if only Dale Jones hadn't gotten hurt, Woody improved his rebounds per game so see, Fran can develop players and the list goes on.
The difference is that I want Iowa to make it to the Sweet 16. I want Iowa to reap the recruiting benefits of being more than a second round punching bag. To do that, Iowa has to get more than 1 kid every couple years. Cook is a great start, but we are back to ground zero with the PG position going into year 7. This from a coach who talked incessantly about the great guard play in the big ten. We endured 4 years of the Gesell-Clemmons roller coaster, which drove myself and others to pray for someone "as good" as Brody Boyd or Bryce Freaking Cartwright.
Just be glad we aren't Rutgers and that Todd Lickliter isn't the coach right? Got it. I will shut the bleep up now so you can bleeping set me straight with your insightful commentary.
You've got an imagination, Ill give you that. Happ was already a starter when Gard took over.
Wisconsin got better because they only returned two players with experience and the new guys gained experience throughout the year.
Guys like Jordan Hill, Happ and Veto Brown were on the team last year, but they didn't play because Wisconsin was loaded with upper classmen.
No body plays underclassmen over upperclassmen starters. Nobody. Why? Because the point is to win games not get new players experience.
Did Fran "infuse" Wagner, Baer and Williams?
Theres just way to many people on here who have no clue how college basketball works.
Young players get playing time if and when its available, not simply because they are on the roster.
Moss and Williams will almost certainly end up being better offensive players than Clemmons and Gesell and yet that does not mean they would have been more effective players last year.
Iowa has made it to the round of 16 or better only 8 times in over 60 years, reality check.
