Frans recruiting

[Ronman]

Wow! Normally I would say step away from the ledge, but I think a fair amount of your ought to just go ahead and take the plunge!

 

[DodgerHawki]

Not if you're a great talent evaluator. The problem is that Fran has proved to be only about slightly above average at that so far.

Fran is fine as a talent evaluator. There are a lot of times that Fran is the first P5 conference team to offer a kid (see Tyler Ulis, Tyler Cook, etc.) Fran saw something in Aaron White and Olaseni that other teams did not see. Iowa was the only big-conference offer for Clemmons, and he was a solid player. And so on. The issue is that too often that Fran hasn't landed those guys he identified really early.

Not to sound like a broken record, but Fran did take the team to the tournament 3 years in a row. That can't be just tossed aside. The overall recruiting level needs to improve, which it appears is happening with the next few classes.

 

[C/Seahawk]

Fran is fine as a talent evaluator. There are a lot of times that Fran is the first P5 conference team to offer a kid (see Tyler Ulis, Tyler Cook, etc.) Fran saw something in Aaron White and Olaseni that other teams did not see. Iowa was the only big-conference offer for Clemmons, and he was a solid player. And so on. The issue is that too often that Fran hasn't landed those guys he identified really early.

Not to sound like a broken record, but Fran did take the team to the tournament 3 years in a row. That can't be just tossed aside. The overall recruiting level needs to improve, which it appears is happening with the next few classes.

Unless you are a blue blood, you are going to have rebuilding years and we are in the middle of one. As much as we all wanted the Hawks to simply reload and again challenge for the top half of the B1G and another tourney invite, its becoming clear that was probably unrealistic. As far as the rest of the rest of the season is concerned, i'm not too worried about our record. Of course I want Iowa to win as many games as possible, but what I really do want to see is more effort, especially on the defensive end. There really is no excuse for the poor defensive play to date and that is the most disappointing aspect to the season. Perhaps our schemes on defense are too complex for the young team or we simply haven't gotten to a ponit where the team trusts each other, but the Hawks need to get rid of the mindset that they will outscore people and really place an emphasis on stopping their opponents.

As for recruiting, I think Fran has shown gradual improvement in that department, capped off with the latest class that includes Garza, Nunge and Connor. Those are three solid players to add with the existing roster in 2017/18. Hang in there hawkeyenation...almost all programs take a step back every one in a while, this is the year for the Hawks, so hopefully there will be a lot of growth between now and the end of the season.

Go Hawks

 

[unoHawkeye]

Don't agree. Not in basketball. You can make a team good in one recruiting cycle.

You can, but that doesn't typically happen unless you are a big name coach. And again, I don't see any other coach bringing in better players than the ones Iowa currently has committed.