ADVERTISEMENT

Can we fire him now?

Kind of caught between a rock and a hard place. What coach will wanna come to a school that fires their all time winningest coach?

Don't get me wrong, I'm all for throwing a bunch of for sale signs in Fran's yard at this point. He's made a good amount of money these past 15 years, so no worries about financial security.
the real question is who would want to go to a school where they will fire you within a few years if you are a mediocre coach when you could go to Iowa and not have to make it to a sweet 16 in 14 years and still have a job making millions of dollars.
 
Kind of caught between a rock and a hard place. What coach will wanna come to a school that fires their all time winningest coach?

Don't get me wrong, I'm all for throwing a bunch of for sale signs in Fran's yard at this point. He's made a good amount of money these past 15 years, so no worries about financial security.
Check to see has the most all time losses as Iowa's coach
 
I think every fan and administrator that remembers the Lick era will need to be in heaven before Iowa makes a move.

Iowa State seems to have no patience and it works much better.

Power 5 school = 5 years you better make the sweet 16 once or have a loaded team on the rise at the end of year five or your fired.

I also think the era of never ending extensions “for recruiting” is complete BS now, players transfer like crazy for a few bucks, they likely couldn’t care less about the length of the coaches contract. It’s all about “now” and “pay me”.

Keep it simple.
 
Last edited:
He is never going to hire someone and defer to them. He has his system which can have some regular season success, but is not conducive to postseason success. As the old saying goes, he is set in his ways.
Fran is the definition of old man disease. I'm 61---I've seen it and try my best not to fall into its trap. Every human should be striving for self improvement--always. .


Fran's coaching tree is barren. HIs lack of tournament success means he's not going anywhere and neither are his lead assistants.


You can tell Fran only hires old guys that are yes men or young guys without a track record that have to defer to him.

A younger guys like Gatens will end up leaving---he's hungry and he'll leave for another job and then Fran will want to bring in Connor but Beth probably won't fall for that.
 
Kind of caught between a rock and a hard place. What coach will wanna come to a school that fires their all time winningest coach?

Don't get me wrong, I'm all for throwing a bunch of for sale signs in Fran's yard at this point. He's made a good amount of money these past 15 years, so no worries about financial security.

There are 300+ Div1 Basketball coaches. I'd guess about 250 of them make less and usually substantially less than Fran. Fran's lifetime haul at Iowa must be around $30 million with another 9 million or so yet to be paid and guaranteed. He was probably making maybe $250K/yr when he was a Sienna. Iowa has provided Fran and family life changing wealth.

Iowa is a Top20 Athletic department revenue school---we're not Sienna or Drake or Grand Canyon University in resources. Grand Canyon, btw had a pretty talented team---better than iowa.

Iowa has had two basketball coachess in Davis and Fran that were lifers and didn't want to leave on their own. The head football coach is long tenured in Big10 Football and hasn't left on his own. Iowa job has moderate expectations and Big Time wealth. There will be plenty of applicants if Fran is let go and Fran will have to take a big pay cut in his next job but will leave with a lot of guaranteed money.
 
the real question is who would want to go to a school where they will fire you within a few years if you are a mediocre coach when you could go to Iowa and not have to make it to a sweet 16 in 14 years and still have a job making millions of dollars.
This is the thing - the Iowa BB and FB jobs are arguably the "cushiest" jobs in P5. Basically, win more than you lose, sneak in a real good season every 5-6 years, get to the NCAA tourney every few years or get to a bowl game (so only 6 wins) most years, and BAM- you're set for long, long, lucrative stay as Iowa coach. Nothing more is expected here, and until the expectations rise, the product for both will remain the same.
 
Last edited:
I don’t think anything I say in this thread is going to be something that hasn’t already been said but I guess I need to vent. Fran came in at the lowest point in Iowa basketball history. The program was in shambles. In a couple of years he got us back to “respectability.” But here lies the problem….we never climbed up the ladder. It’s the same with Fran every year. Recruit kids who have length and can run the court and shoot. Every year we have 5 or 6 guys that are clones of each other. We have to shoot well to win….period. We play to “outscore” our opponents. It’s been that way every year. And that’s why we basically finish in the middle of the pack,..a few years a little higher. Fran wants shooters. The defense is atrocious; it’s basically non-existent. A lot of players have had their best offensive performances against us. And on top of that, we are usually a poor rebounding team. I believe Fran has been very complacent in recent years of how and who he recruits. Our point guard position is usually nonexistent. We’ve really had only two prototypical point guards in the last 7 years. One was Toussaint. He was run off. The other is Harding who definitely deserved more minutes, especially when Perkins didn’t want to play. So, the bottom line with Fran is past performance is a good predictor of future performance. We are going to just be very average. We won’t get to a Sweet 16. The last straw for me was we couldn’t advance to Sweet 16 with the player of the year and 2 (actually 3) NBA draft picks. But the problem is , he’s not getting fired. Maybe another year with attendance figures down may impact his future here, but don’t count on it.
 
I would be shocked if he gets fired. I doubt he's even on the hot seat. Dude's here as long as he wants to be.
And what makes you think he is here as long as he wants to be. Beth is not the same type of AD that Barta is. She proved that by firing the worst OC in college football history, BF.
 
I saw absolutely no inspiration from either the coaching staff nor the team this game. Fed up with the Fran package!! What more does BG need to see? Terrible guard play, terrible defense and terrible coaching!! It is past time to make a change and pump some new blood into the program. Hell, anything is better than this shit show.
McCaffery said PMAC was "terrific" in both halves and has been a great "Leader". The guy is effing delusional and his teams are defenseless.
 
Kind of caught between a rock and a hard place. What coach will wanna come to a school that fires their all time winningest coach?

Don't get me wrong, I'm all for throwing a bunch of for sale signs in Fran's yard at this point. He's made a good amount of money these past 15 years, so no worries about financial security.
I don’t know … I guess I’d feel pretty secure going to a school that allows a coach to remain in place for 14 years despite a .500 conference record and zero Sweet 16s.
 
I don’t know … I guess I’d feel pretty secure going to a school that allows a coach to remain in place for 14 years despite a .500 conference record and zero Sweet 16s.
...or there's a systemic reason for the lack of success (not my opinion, but it certainly would make prospective coaches wonder).
 
If Fran would have snuck into one Sweet 16 I wonder what the discourse would look like? Probably exactly the same but we would be saying "only one Sweet 16 on 14 years " instead of "No sweet 16s."
 
If Fran would have snuck into one Sweet 16 I wonder what the discourse would look like? Probably exactly the same but we would be saying "only one Sweet 16 on 14 years " instead of "No sweet 16s."
Probably, but it seems like Fran and Iowa has run its course. Lick was 14 years ago. Fran is odd in that he isn’t bad but hasn’t had any great seasons. He has floated around average to above average in the B10 with no S16.
This season ended with such a Meh I sense next season attendance and interest is going to crater if they aren’t competitive in the non con games against ISU and the few power conference opponents.
 
  • Like
Reactions: HawkLogic and Moral
If Fran would have snuck into one Sweet 16 I wonder what the discourse would look like? Probably exactly the same but we would be saying "only one Sweet 16 on 14 years " instead of "No sweet 16s."

There would be WAY less heat. Especially if the sweet 16 was in the last few years with Garza or Murray era.

The fact that Fran can't win more than ONE game in the tournament with multiple NBA players gives the feeling of NO HOPE that he'll ever reach the sweet 16. Anyone think that Fran will get players like the Murray's, Garza, and Weezy on the same squad again?

Round of 32 is his ceiling... and it's made of steel and concrete.
 
Beth Goetz walked past us at one of the games we attended this year. There might have been 6 to 7,000 people there. She’s not blind. Iowa Basketball is stale and the product isn’t going to change under Fran. Watching the NCAA Tournament just reinforces how unathletic we are.
 
Fran isn't, and shouldn't be, "untouchable". We're talking about a guy that has no regular season conference championships, 1 BTT championship, very few NBA players, and most importantly, no 2nd weekend appearances in the NCAA Tourney (lifetime, not just at Iowa). Yes, he's Iowa's winningest coach......simply because of a long record of mediocrity.....not because he's had juggernaut teams or juggernaut seasons. And yes, he did manage to pull us out of the wreckage left by Lickliter.....for which he's been handsomely compensated for.

But he's proven to be a below average game day coach, a horrible teacher of defense, incapable/unwilling to recruiting athletic guards, and unable to manage playing time and rosters just by the fact of how much he played his kids over more talented players.

14 years is more than enough time for him to have brought any sort of sustained success in March. If he couldn't do it with the Nat'l POY and 3 future NBA players.....then it just isn't going to happen.

With a new AD and his kids done playing for him, this is the perfect time to bring in new blood with a fresh set of eyes.
 
If Fran would have snuck into one Sweet 16 I wonder what the discourse would look like? Probably exactly the same but we would be saying "only one Sweet 16 on 14 years " instead of "No sweet 16s."

Fran is 6-12 in NCAA play for his coaching career.. If he had won a game like the Tennesse game that we lost in OT, he'd have 1 more win but he would have surely lost the next game given his teams lack of upper end talent/defense/etc. So he would be 7-12 in NCAA, play. Not a big difference.

I agree, the metric of making Sweet16 isn't the end all be all of basketball. It actually is a low bar...just requires to win 2 games in a row in the NCAA tourney. The fact that he's gone 28 years of coaching and never made it just highlights the Low Ceiling he has as a coach with his system and his stubborness to adapt/change/learn,

I would trade off things like better record in BTT, conference title, even finishing 2nd in conference for a sweet16 appearance. I would trade off the risk for losing seasons to have a coach put together a team that is actually a threat to go beyond Sweet16. I'd prefer 3 more years like Licklter if that got us 3 years of what TJ has given ISU us. That is personal choice. I don't understand the contentment with little bit above average in B1G play or the belief that Fran's best years are ahead of him.
 
Fran isn't, and shouldn't be, "untouchable". We're talking about a guy that has no regular season conference championships, 1 BTT championship, very few NBA players, and most importantly, no 2nd weekend appearances in the NCAA Tourney (lifetime, not just at Iowa). Yes, he's Iowa's winningest coach......simply because of a long record of mediocrity.....not because he's had juggernaut teams or juggernaut seasons. And yes, he did manage to pull us out of the wreckage left by Lickliter.....for which he's been handsomely compensated for.

But he's proven to be a below average game day coach, a horrible teacher of defense, incapable/unwilling to recruiting athletic guards, and unable to manage playing time and rosters just by the fact of how much he played his kids over more talented players.

14 years is more than enough time for him to have brought any sort of sustained success in March. If he couldn't do it with the Nat'l POY and 3 future NBA players.....then it just isn't going to happen.

With a new AD and his kids done playing for him, this is the perfect time to bring in new blood with a fresh set of eyes.
I tried to explain the same argument, was shot down and told that since Bluder made it to a sweet 16 in year 15 we need to give Fran the same chance. Can’t make it up.
 
Money talks. Beth and other admins see full houses for the women's games. They have to be thinking "Why can't we have this for the men's games?" I imagine the merch $ for women are probably a lot more than the men as well.

Might be an interesting modeling analysis to see what it would take to recoup the buyout through higher ticket and merch sales
 
  • Like
Reactions: mizzy2442
Money talks. Beth and other admins see full houses for the women's games. They have to be thinking "Why can't we have this for the men's games?" I imagine the merch $ for women are probably a lot more than the men as well.

Might be an interesting modeling analysis to see what it would take to recoup the buyout through higher ticket and merch sales
Selling out Carver (assuming another 5,000 fans per game at $20 per game for 17 home games) would generate an additional $1.7m alone.
 
  • Like
Reactions: LetsGoHawks83
Does anyone else get the feeling it's going to get messy trying to get rid of him? There's probably not a better offensive coach in the country. Unfortunately there's probably not a worse defensive coach. We've hit a bit of a wall here. Do you wait until it gets ugly? 3-4 more years of maybe barely making the tournament or not?
 
Beth Goetz walked past us at one of the games we attended this year. There might have been 6 to 7,000 people there. She’s not blind. Iowa Basketball is stale and the product isn’t going to change under Fran. Watching the NCAA Tournament just reinforces how unathletic we are.
The real question is can she afford to keep Fran? How much could they lose in ticket sales and how much could they lose in donations if the fan base loses interest in the program? She has a tough decision. But it is clear after 14 years, what Fran is. He is not Lute. He is not even up to Dr. Tom level.
 
Yes, I hope he goes but remember that Louisville is 12-52? the last two seasons and they have three NCAA titles since 1980.

It can always be worse.
 
I think every fan and administrator that remembers the Lick era will need to be in heaven before Iowa makes a move.

Iowa State seems to have no patience and it works much better.

Power 5 school = 5 years you better make the sweet 16 once or have a loaded team on the rise at the end of year five or your fired.

I also think the era of never ending extensions “for recruiting” is complete BS now, players transfer like crazy for a few bucks, they likely couldn’t care less about the length of the coaches contract. It’s all about “now” and “pay me”.

Keep it simple.
Firing Prohm was far easier than firing Fran. It was a no-brainer and not a single soul could say otherwise.
Fran will probably get 1 more year and then attendance may be Exhibit 'A'. That's assuming he doesn't overperform.
 
Starting my daily check of forums / twitter for any Fran leaving rumors. I figure twice a day checks will be enough for this week.
 
the real question is who would want to go to a school where they will fire you within a few years if you are a mediocre coach when you could go to Iowa and not have to make it to a sweet 16 in 14 years and still have a job making millions of dollars.
But at the same time, those millions of dollars puts you about 12th or 13th in the league of highest paid coaches. Then see two conference foes each hire a new coach who starts out making more money than you do after 14 years. One of those schools (PSU) has been particularly bad in basketball.
 
I hate to say this, but Fran went 'all in' on the Brothers Murray and he f'ing won the lotto and secured his job at Iowa for another 12-15 years....Everyone thought he was off his rocker when he recruited them... In some ways the Twins were both a blessing and a curse....
The twins were not that highly recruited and they went to Iowa because of their dad. Giving Fran credit for that is crazy. No way he foresaw the players they would turn into. Hell, he thought his own kid was better for awhile.
 
The twins were not that highly recruited and they went to Iowa because of their dad. Giving Fran credit for that is crazy. No way he foresaw the players they would turn into. Hell, he thought his own kid was better for awhile.
He still might. Pat was leading scorer the other night.
 
Last night I was watching the women and hearing how loud Carver was (as it has been all year with the WOMEN). The MEN, well, we all know the story there. One sellout vs Illinois. How can Carver go from a funeral atmosphere to a Rock concert? We all know the answer: it’s the product we put out. THAT, in itself should be a reason Fran should be let go. New motto: Play defense and they will come…. Lol. Expect the same next year.
 
ADVERTISEMENT

Latest posts

ADVERTISEMENT