Fran Hawk Talk
- Thread starter BigAssTurkeyLeg
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He did in the post game, something along the lines of “maybe I needed to play Josh more, and that’s on me, he did well the other night in a tough environment on the road and got valuable experience.”
If it wasn't clear by watching the game, Fran and his assistants are fed stats, so the ass kicking on the glass should not have been a surprise. What the hell are Speraw and Dillard getting paid to do if they aren't telling Fran "Dude, we are getting wrecked on the boards, put Josh in and see what he can do." Maybe they did, but Fran Knows Best won out--too bad the team didn't.
Rebraca is a nice player, but gives up too much size. Fran needs to start stretching Josh's minutes for conditioning and confidence. I would be fine if he fouls out of every game playing hard on both ends--commit 8 fouls get called for 5. The "project" label needs to come off and Fran needs to see the team for what it is, not what he thinks it is.
Perhaps a bit harsh after 3 meaningful games. I thought he played well against UVA (outside of his FT shooting), other than that he's had a significant size disadvantage. he is a 4 playing the 5, but I do agree he is definitely in the lower tier.
Hate to inform he was the Hawks leading rebounder with 8. Officials let Cockburn get way with a couple of blatant offensive fouls. More importantly they tagged Rebracca for a foul. If Rebracca can truly shoot the three as Fran says, then why was he not put on the perimeter with intent to pull Cockburn away from the basket. Opening up the lane for Keegan, Kris, Patrick, Joe and Tony would have stressed the Illinois defense in a big way. Of course Rebracca would need to hit a couple to keep Cockburn engaged on the perimeter.
Was he not our leading rebounder against Illinois?
So who's better at playing the center position? Filip or Connor? Seeing Connor guarding Kofi the other night made me throw up.....Ogundele is not ready for extended minutes no matter how many on here wants him to contribute. He's just not. He's not very quick, there's a lot of body weight to stop on a dime and I've yet to see him elevate to snag a rebound. You put him in the starting lineup you might as well throw in the towel on this season. You think JBO is a bad defender, wait until you see Josh play extended minutes. I hope at sometime he does get more playing time but when he does, don't bitch.
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And one more thing pertaining to the starting lineup, Dolphin asked Fran a question from a fan about Tony Perkins and whether he has done enough to gain a starting spot.
Fran's answer was as predictable as the sun rising and setting on the same day. He said that Joe and JBO has earned the right to be in the starting lineup and he (Fran) has no thoughts at this time of making any changes.
It doesn't take a rocket scientist to see that Iowa would be much better with Tony and Kris in the lineup instead of JBO and Patrick and Keeping his rotation to around 8 or 9. His oldest son has no business playing extended minutes against quality opponents and that's a fact!
Fran's answer was as predictable as the sun rising and setting on the same day. He said that Joe and JBO has earned the right to be in the starting lineup and he (Fran) has no thoughts at this time of making any changes.
It doesn't take a rocket scientist to see that Iowa would be much better with Tony and Kris in the lineup instead of JBO and Patrick and Keeping his rotation to around 8 or 9. His oldest son has no business playing extended minutes against quality opponents and that's a fact!
That really depends on several things as far as pulling Kofi out of the paint. When you have a legitimate shot blocker you can make defensive adjustments to assure he stays there or in the vicinity. Rebraca is OK, but he's not some offensive juggernaut that we're asking to drill 3 pointers at will. If he were that good at it I would hope that's what he would be doing. And 9 games in he's taken one 3? (I only recall seeing one, maybe it's more).
Underwood gets paid too, if Kofi is out of the paint and a layup drill starts I would hope he adjusts when he has the means to stop it (i.e. Kofi).
I could be wrong but I just don't think it's as easy as some folks make it out to be. If I'm a Coach that has a gifted shot blocker, rim protector and rebounder, I do everything I can to make sure he's near the rim at all times (and for an athletic 7 footer he can be out a bit and still get there in a hurry).
Disagree with some of your comments about Josh. For the minutes he has played his rebounding numbers are very good. He also blocked one of Kofi's shots in the brief time that he was in on Monday.
Perkins and Ulis played more minutes than Joe or JBo. That's what you want, right? I don't care who starts. I just want our best players to be in during critical periods of the game. I suspect the pendulum is swinging toward our youngers guys and the minute disparity might increase.
You’ve got a weak stomach brother
However I agree with your thoughts on Ogundele. He can log spot minutes, and made some good plays against both Illinois and Purdue. However, that five foot jumper that Illinois made on the out of bounds play because he got lost guarding Kofi (and basically ended up screening Keegan) to extend the Illinois lead to 5 with two minutes left was a top three shot that the Illini made to put Iowa away in my opinion. Critical error at an awful time
Um no. His Rebounding Per 40 Minutes and Total Rebounding % is best on the team of the regular rotation (Josh O is lower in much less minutes).
As you said, he is undersized. That is his biggest issue. He's not a bad rebounder against players like Kofi and Edey he looks like a dwarf. But he is not a bad rebounder.
Losing Nunge was a big blow. I am sure Fran thought he would have Nunge coming back to anchor the middle (and allow Josh to play limited minutes and grow). When he decided to leave, left Fran to scramble. Finding Rebraca was helpful but can't duplicate what a 7-0 experienced and talented big man like Nunge could give. Just think what Nunge could have done for this team.
Yeah, I know everyone makes mistakes but that was a really bad one at a really critical time. Fran has to weigh whether the pluses of playing Josh to have the big body are better than those type of inexperienced and lack of awareness errors.
This might be the worst take I've ever seen in someone's evaluation of a player. Josh has very quick feet for his size and is the leading rebounder per minute on the Iowa team. He led the team with 5 rebounds in 16 minutes at Purdue. His defense against both Purdue and Illinois was stellar. There is no reason he should not be playing more than he is on a team that is desperate for rebounding.
Honestly, I don't mind who's starting. Manu Ginóbili was a never starter and he will go down as one of best basketball players ever.
First, I like Rebraca, he's filling a need for us and plays great team ball. But he had 1 rebound against Purdue and 3 against Virginia. We've had some pretty good rebounding centers at Iowa in Garza, Woodbury and Cook. Can you name a center in the last 20 years that he's better than at rebounding?
I did watch him play extended minutes against Purdue and he excelled.
Yeah I don't get the complaints about Rebraca's rebounding. The whole team rebounded horribly against Illinois. Some of that was a function of the zone.
Even Keegan, arguably our best rebounder, only had 2 against Illinois.
He had 8 against the Illini, averages 6.4 per game, second to Keagan; and 12.5 per 40 minutes, second to Ogundele.
Rebounding from him is not the issue. He's just not a big post player, and that's not his fault. Fran knew his skill set when he recruited him in the transfer portal. I would like to see him get more aggressive on the offensive end of the court, though.
Start Filip with the Twins. Watch rebounding get better. I don’t think it’s that difficult. Flipipnis not a physical presence but with the Twins they will be ok and they will have shit ton of offense with those 3, Joe and Tony.
This is on Fran not the players. Fran and his staff get paid well to plug holes and have guys in the pipeline. Critical errors on Fran's part to not have a viable succession plan for Garza. You can say this was Nunge, but he had what 3 knee surgeries in his time at Iowa, so it's not like there wasn't some risk there with him as your only option. Josh should be further along at this point and Mulvey should not have reclassified to ride the pine all season. One of these guys had to be capable of doing something this year.
Against the remaining "cupcakes" before big 10, Josh & Riley need to get as much playing time as possible. One of them needs to help rebound.
Even if you don’t trust Nunge as the primary option to replace Garza, they were still likely at least counting on him to be on the team to help in some capacity. When Jack left, Fran tried plugging the big man hole first with Robbins, then with Atkinson, and ended up with Rebraca.
As you said, Josh should be further along at this point than he is, but none of us know the extent to which that is Josh’s fault versus Fran’s fault.
And I disagree on Mulvey. Continuing to play against guys his age and skill level isn’t going to get him to a point where he can come in and start playing Big Ten basketball in the near future. By coming to Iowa, he gets put on a weight training and dietary plan that can be closely overseen by the staff, he gets to practice on a day-in day-out basis against guys who are above his skill level and have played high major basketball (and even see action in a couple games), and he gets a jump start on practicing both Iowa’s offense and defense so when he is called upon in a year or two to be a major contributor, he will be much more ready than if he were just getting his feet wet in the program
I understand and agree that ultimately the responsibility for roster construction falls on Fran, but I do think that he busted his ass to try to fill those holes. I also think that the situation looks worse than it is having gone up against three of the best bigs (Edey, Williams, Cockburn) in the league in our first two games
You can play zone. Or you can allow his man to take unguarded shots.
Those are the only two options you have if you don't want your 5 to leave the paint.
I don't think Filip is much of a shooter judging by his freethrows and overall reluctance to shoot wide open 3s.
We know Connor can't shoot.
If Kofi had to defend Keegan or Kris his options are to let them shoot or come out and guard them and they go around him.
It is that simple.
Joe, Ulis, and Perkins need to play drastically more minutes than JBo and Connor.
It wasn't enough of a differential on Monday.
Digger Phelps said that Fran was different from most coaches because of his feel for the game. Kinda the opposite of what you are saying.
I think Fran makes many gut decisions, and I too question his feel for the game a lot.
I just did a quick search of the top 3 rebounders per 40 minutes over the past 20 seasons, including this year, limiting the players to those who played a 'significant' amount of time. Obviously, a bit subjective but I tried to include only those who were starters or at least part of the regular rotation, and left out those anomalous players who averaged 15+ rebounds per 40 minutes, but only played a few minutes in a few blowout games.
Granted, this goes from Alford to Lickliter to McCaffery with all their different styles as further caveats (e.g., more possessions with Fran, fewer with Lickliter). It's far from perfect, but I thought it gave a pretty decent representation of Rebraca (thus far) compared to others over the past couple decades. Now, how will he do as the full conference season progresses, we shall see.
An aside, it brings back a lot of memories of some of these players.
| year | name | per 40 | per game |
| 2021-22 | Rebraca | 12.5 | 6.4 |
| Ke. Murrary | 12.0 | 8.0 | |
| Kr. Murray | 12.0 | 5.6 | |
| 2020-21 | Nunge | 13.4 | 5.3 |
| Ke. Murray | 11.3 | 5.1 | |
| Garza | 11.1 | 8.7 | |
| 2019-20 | Garza | 12.3 | 9.8 |
| Pemsl | 10.0 | 3.2 | |
| Kriener | 9.0 | 4.1 | |
| 2018-19 | Cook | 9.9 | 7.6 |
| N. Baer | 9.7 | 4.6 | |
| Garza | 7.6 | 4.5 | |
| 2017-18 | Garza | 11.8 | 6.4 |
| Pemsl | 11.0 | 4.5 | |
| Cook | 9.7 | 6.8 | |
| 2016-17 | Pemsl | 10.3 | 5.0 |
| N. Baer | 9.8 | 5.8 | |
| Cook | 8.6 | 5.3 | |
| 2015-16 | Woodbury | 13.1 | 8.3 |
| Uthoff | 8.2 | 6.3 | |
| Uhl | 8.0 | 3.6 | |
| 2014-15 | Olaseni | 10.3 | 4.8 |
| Woodbury | 10.1 | 5.2 | |
| White | 9.3 | 7.3 | |
| 2013-14 | Basabe | 12.8 | 5.7 |
| Olaseni | 11.8 | 4.9 | |
| Uthoff | 10.1 | 4.6 | |
| 2012-13 | Woodbury | 11.5 | 4.8 |
| Basabe | 10.9 | 5.1 | |
| Olaseni | 9.7 | 2.6 | |
| 2011-12 | Basabe | 9.6 | 4.8 |
| White | 9.5 | 5.7 | |
| McCabe | 8.6 | 4.6 | |
| 2010-13 | Basabe | 11.1 | 6.8 |
| Cole | 10.0 | 6.3 | |
| Brommer | 7.6 | 2.4 | |
| 2009-10 | Fuller | 10.1 | 6.2 |
| Cole | 8.3 | 5.2 | |
| Cougill | 8.0 | 3.0 | |
| 2008-09 | Tate | 10.4 | 5.7 |
| Cole | 6.8 | 3.0 | |
| Fuller | 6.2 | 2.7 | |
| 2007-08 | Looby | 10.1 | 4.6 |
| Tate | 9.4 | 5.4 | |
| Gorney | 8.1 | 5.2 | |
| 2006-07 | Looby | 10.0 | 4.6 |
| Tate | 8.9 | 4.4 | |
| Gorney | 7.7 | 3.8 | |
| 2005-06 | Brunner | 11.6 | 9.2 |
| Thomas | 10.5 | 4.6 | |
| Hansen | 8.2 | 4.0 | |
| 2004-05 | Thomas | 11.9 | 4.8 |
| Brunner | 10.5 | 8.3 | |
| Pierce | 6.1 | 5.2 | |
| 2003-04 | Reiner | 12.2 | 7.2 |
| Brunner | 11.4 | 8.2 | |
| Sonderleiter | 10.2 | 4.4 | |
| 2002-03 | Reiner | 12.2 | 8.3 |
| Brunner | 8.6 | 5.2 | |
| Sonderleiter | 7.5 | 4.0 | |
| 2001-02 | Evans | 13.1 | 11.1 |
| Worley | 8.1 | 4.1 | |
| Reiner | 7.2 | 2.5 |
I’ll take Vince Carter, Ray Allen, and Tracy McGrady pre-injury as well. You could argue that AI was before Ginobili’s era but there was quite a bit of overlap in their careersI will take Dwyane Wade for $200, Alex.
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