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Emoni Bates, come on Fran

Fran tries too hard to land 5 and 4 stars where he loses out on players? Actually, no one knows how much time Fran and his staff spend on any prospect.

What we do know? Fran invested a TON of time in the 2022 PG he wanted, Dasonte Bowen, a 3 STAR, and landed him.

Fran made 27 offers for the 2022 Class. He landed two 3 stars, Dasonte Bowen and Josh Dix. Contrary to what you wrote, I don't think Frank "lost out" by landing Josh and Dasonte because we was trying too hard to land 5 and 4 star prospects.

And there was only 1 Five Star (Kyle Filipowski) who Fran offered in the 2022 Class and Fran got Kyle to officially visit. So, again, contrary to what you wrote, I would not call this "trying too hard where he lost out on other prospects."

The breakdown of the 27 offers for the 2022 Class:
1 Five Star (Kyle Filipowski, who visited Iowa)
20 Four Stars
6 Three Stars (Dix and Bowen committed)


Fran has made 23 offers for the 2023 Class. He has already landed one 3 star, Owen Freeman and likely will land a 4 star, Pryce Sandfort. Again, contrary to what you wrote, I don't think Fran has "lost out" so far with the 2023 class.

And of the 4 Five Stars Fran has offered for 2023, how can you say he has tried "too hard?" Omaha Bilew was instate, so offering him made sense but there is no longer any buzz with him. 2 other 5 stars have already committed to other schools (so obviously Fran has moved on). And the other 5 Star, Matas Buzelis? He is from Brewster Academy, the same HS as Dasonte Bowen, so it makes sense to invest some time in him. How much time? Fans can only speculate.


The breakdown of the 23 offers for the 2023 Class:
4 Five Star (Omaha Bilew, an Iowa kid, is one of them)
13 Four Stars (Pryce Sandfort)
1 Three Star (Owen Freeman has committed)
5 UNRATED
My point was there’s no evidence he’s a lazy recruiter. Quite the opposite.
 
I think a lot of posters on this board are expecting to see regular articles that read something like this:

Iowa Men's Basketball Head Coach Fran McCaffery Reaches out to "XYZ".

"XYZ" was a 5 star recruit coming out of high school and played one season for Top Program™ before entering his name into the transfer portal earlier this week. Reports indicate Fran reached out to XYZ Thursday morning, saying he feels the portal bound star could make an immediate impact for the Iowa Hawkeyes this coming season.

XYZ confirmed they are not interested.
Some say XYZ is only 6-4, but I can confirm, sort of, that he is a solid 6-5.5. 6-6 in shoes.
 
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So do you just go from the football board to the basketball board bitching about anything to do with Iowa athletics in general, the coaches or what exactly? Here's a run down on THIS years losing there all conference guy. Despite being picked to finish 9 or 10 in the league this year, losing TWO time conference player, AND NPOTY, and another 3 year starter to the NBA, and two other would be starters to transfer, Iowa finished the BIG winning 12 of 14 games, (so much for the Feb fade), Played their asses off and won the BIG tourney as the first five seed ever and winning four games in four days. They won the most games in school history I believe at 26 as well. Yes, I know they play more games now, BUT for the record playing more games doesn't mean you get more wins, now does it? For the record, NO ONE here is okay with the way we played against Richmond, but its ridiculous to say we're OK with losing or to somehow associate this as a "losing season" in any way what so ever....
But he’s a truehawkfan
 
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Fran said that he needs a front court guy from the portal.

Fran doesn't want players to leave Iowa if he brings additional guys from the portal. Fran said getting guards from the portal creates a logjam and it sends a message that you don't have any confidence in the guards you have. This explains why Fran isn't pursuing Nijel Pack and other guards.

Listen approximately 1 hour 32 minutes into the video.

I was going to bring this up too….. he actually says in that interview “what kind of message does that send to the players on the roster if I’m looking for guys to replace them” that’s not verbatim but you get the idea

I’m ok with that ….,
 
I think if the team clearly has a hole in the rotation that Fran could fill will an OBVIOUS upgrade, especially if it was a 1 year player (so younger players still know they'll get playing time 2 seasons from now), that Fran would do that in a heartbeat and most players would support it because it is SHORT TERM and OBVIOUS. This was true of the Center position this year, but it didn't pan out due to NIL or other considerations.

If he was pulling in Transfers that weren't clear upgrades then that clearly would cause chemistry issues and turnover, especially in this era. If we had 2 sophomore SF's who didn't look like they'd ever be starting quality SF's in their last 2 years, he would likely be ok recruiting a Top 100 younger player over them. But grabbing transfers just because they are good and just because you can seems very shortsighted unless your whole strategy is based on the portal (which for some teams is true).
 
I believe this what his father wanted, didn’t matter if his son was on a winning team or a team
that played team ball just as long as his son could have the bulk of the offense on the team he landed at.. His home town school was the spot that met that criteria and that’s what’s going on. EMU had 4 wins before tonight but Emoni has had some stellar individual performances.

Yipsi Lincoln HS was in michigan High school state championship when Bates was sophomore and won I believe. The next year his father started his own academy staring Emoni and recruited some top notch kids to play with him when parents realized their kids were barely included in the offense they pulled their kids and school lasted only a year and Emoni went to Memphis didn’t live up to his billing on that team and transferred to EMU a year later.
 
I believe this what his father wanted, didn’t matter if his son was on a winning team or a team
that played team ball just as long as his son could have the bulk of the offense on the team he landed at.. His home town school was the spot that met that criteria and that’s what’s going on. EMU had 4 wins before tonight but Emoni has had some stellar individual performances.

Yipsi Lincoln HS was in michigan High school state championship when Bates was sophomore and won I believe. The next year his father started his own academy staring Emoni and recruited some top notch kids to play with him when parents realized their kids were barely included in the offense they pulled their kids and school lasted only a year and Emoni went to Memphis didn’t live up to his billing on that team and transferred to EMU a year later.
Father sounds like a winner
 
I want to see Fran land the 7 footer that currently plays for an Iowa Junior College as one of the big men to fill Iowa's needs in the post. He has talent elsewhere but no real big men to block shots, rebounds and score points in the paint. The guy is in his back yard and needs to be a priority, imo.
 
I want to see Fran land the 7 footer that currently plays for an Iowa Junior College as one of the big men to fill Iowa's needs in the post. He has talent elsewhere but no real big men to block shots, rebounds and score points in the paint. The guy is in his back yard and needs to be a priority, imo.
Are you talking about Seye from Iowa Falls? I would love to hear/read something from someone in tune with his performance this year. It's really hard to get information about his season. He is a very intriguing prospect!

I did just find this
 
I want to see Fran land the 7 footer that currently plays for an Iowa Junior College as one of the big men to fill Iowa's needs in the post. He has talent elsewhere but no real big men to block shots, rebounds and score points in the paint. The guy is in his back yard and needs to be a priority, imo.
Honestly I think he looks like a worthwhile prospect if he is willing to work.....because he has a ton of talent (athleticism and coordination)....but I think is still a project based on a VERY limited view/knowledge. He would be a great replacement for one of either Riley or Josh O if they decide to transfer out....because I think we still need a transfer big for next year.

He is just playing his first year of college basketball.....so, I think ideally (if we can take him) he would come to Iowa and redshirt for a year...hitting the weights, working on skills, learning the system, practicing etc.....unless he turns out to be much better than what I am envisioning.
 
Yes, Seye is who I am talking about. In the past, Iowa got quite a few very good players from Iowa's JC's, just like they have done in football.
 
Personally, I don't view Seye as a project. He doesn't look like one in the video above, imho.
You might be right….like I said, my view is pretty limited. I guess my hesitation is based on his only averaging about 5 points and 6 rebounds a game at Ellsworth. Maybe there’s reasons for that, which I am unaware of. But yeah, he looks like a real stud in the videos.
 
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