ADVERTISEMENT

Fran's statement tells you everything you need to know about his mood about CJ's transfer

Connor has shown in the past that he's pretty decent. He may be a support player and not a scorer, but he clearly can be effective at a Power 5 level when healthy. You could argue about his minutes and position, perhaps, but to belittle the non-sexy stats that really do matter in basketball shows some ignorance. Iowa has had a lot of support players that fans liked who had similar stats, but people with a bone to pick with his last name seem to go out of their way to be mean spirited towards him it seems. It explains why you felt the need to add "coaches son" to your statement when it wasn't necessary. Your bias is evident.

Last year when healthy he was 3rd on the team in Win Shares, 4th in Box Plus Minus, and 3rd in Points Produced, all for a Top 25 Power 5 team. That's the opposite of "not very good". He also led the country in Assist to Turnover ratio.
When was the last time an Iowa starter averaged 3 pppg???
 
Connor has shown in the past that he's pretty decent. He may be a support player and not a scorer, but he clearly can be effective at a Power 5 level when healthy. You could argue about his minutes and position, perhaps, but to belittle the non-sexy stats that really do matter in basketball shows some ignorance. Iowa has had a lot of support players that fans liked who had similar stats, but people with a bone to pick with his last name seem to go out of their way to be mean spirited towards him it seems. It explains why you felt the need to add "coaches son" to your statement when it wasn't necessary. Your bias is evident.

Last year when healthy he was 3rd on the team in Win Shares, 4th in Box Plus Minus, and 3rd in Points Produced, all for a Top 25 Power 5 team. That's the opposite of "not very good". He also led the country in Assist to Turnover ratio.

Such garbage--his stats ay he is a bench player on any team that is decent. Two bad hips, couldn't hit an open shot, and no one had to guard him and was playing out of position and abused on defense because that is only place Fran could fit him in.

Fran rolled him out every game as a starter and played him starter minutes and didn't give younger players that were actually healthy. This is all on Fran and Fran is no hero for letting emotions win out over team well being.. Fran blew a chance for a great season, didn't give a chit about defense, and got bounced out again in round of 32 in a clown show. His son had to face whispers of nepotism because it was effing nepotism.

Fran can move on..this was the best we get in 11 years...next year he is coaching them to sub 0.500 in B1G.
 
Such garbage--his stats ay he is a bench player on any team that is decent. Two bad hips, couldn't hit an open shot, and no one had to guard him and was playing out of position and abused on defense because that is only place Fran could fit him in.

Fran rolled him out every game as a starter and played him starter minutes and didn't give younger players that were actually healthy. This is all on Fran and Fran is no hero for letting emotions win out over team well being.. Fran blew a chance for a great season, didn't give a chit about defense, and got bounced out again in round of 32 in a clown show. His son had to face whispers of nepotism because it was effing nepotism.

Fran can move on..this was the best we get in 11 years...next year he is coaching them to sub 0.500 in B1G.

I agree that this year his stats were quite poor. But you can't ignore prior year's when doing an assessment about whether a player is a bad player or not. He did have a bad year, but he isn't a bad player.
 

I agree that this year his stats were quite poor. But you can't ignore prior year's when doing an assessment about whether a player is a bad player or not. He did have a bad year, but he isn't a bad player.
Totally agree that he is not a bad player and has a productive spot on the team. Was very useful in 19/20. But last year he was not the best 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5. He probably shouldn't have been starting. Keegan, or PMac should have been starting by BIG play, and we fans have no idea how Kris compares to CMac, but maybe he should have had more minutes, too. But, make no mistake. The players know.

For next year.

Is he the best 1....No Joe T
Is he the best 2....No Perkins
Is he the best Small Forward.... Joe W or PMac
Is he the best Power Forward....Keegan
Is he the second best Power Forward (assuming Iowa plays small)......????? or is it Kris

That being said, he could be the second best player at about all positions.
 
The same time Iowa finished 3rd in Adj Offensive Eff, which means, it doesn't really matter how many points he scored.
Be careful, you are attempting to discuss how a team is constructed with many who only have video game experience to fall back on!
 
When is the last time that Iowa was 3rd in offensive efficiency (only behind Gonzaga and Baylor?)
Everyone wants to find blame with the make-up of the Iowa team because they got beat by the more "athletic" Oregon team. Wonder how the Illinois fans are feeling by having their athletes getting beaten by Loyola?
 
  • Like
Reactions: Ronman and BBHawk
Totally agree that he is not a bad player and has a productive spot on the team. Was very useful in 19/20. But last year he was not the best 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5. He probably shouldn't have been starting. Keegan, or PMac should have been starting by BIG play, and we fans have no idea how Kris compares to CMac, but maybe he should have had more minutes, too. But, make no mistake. The players know.

For next year.

Is he the best 1....No Joe T
Is he the best 2....No Perkins
Is he the best Small Forward.... Joe W or PMac
Is he the best Power Forward....Keegan
Is he the second best Power Forward (assuming Iowa plays small)......????? or is it Kris

That being said, he could be the second best player at about all positions.

Joe T is probably the only player who had a worse season than Connor if you look at advanced stats, but in general I agree with you. I think Connor's most likely spot to start is at PG, but right now I'd say that's a 3 way battle with it being hard to choose who would come out on top especially with Connor's surgeries. I actually think Ulis could.

If you look at stats per 100 possessions it lists Offensive Rating and Defensive Rating, and under Advanced Stats it shows Win Shares and Box Plus Minus (BPM). These are good overall ratings to remove bias when comparing players imo.

OFF RATING (higher is better - average DIV1 player is 100):
Connor 108.2
Joe T 94.2 (this is very bad - next lowest on the team was Connor)

DEF RATING (lower is better - average DIV1 player is 100):
Connor 105.3
Joe T 101.7 - solid number but not great and still worse than the DIV1 average player. Keegan was 95.5.

WIN SHARES PER 40 MIN (to equalize playing time differences):
Connor .082 - 2nd worst on the team
Joe T .077 - worst on the team

BOX PLUS MINUS:
Connor 1.9 - 2nd worst on the team
Joe T 0.2 (including a -1.5 for Offensive Box Plus Minus which is VERY bad) - worst on the team

Both of them had bad year's, but Joe T's was worse and he showed no improvement from the prior year, while Connor regressed from prior year partially due to injury.

That has me thinking Ulis may win this 3 way battle, and Connor may play a backup role at multiple positions as you mention. But if Connor is healthy, and Ulis doesn't step up, I could see Connor winning. Joe T just isn't as good defensively as people think, and the team's offensive efficiency takes a HUGE hit when he is in there. People just see his athleticism and assume a ton of things that, so far, have not shown up on the court. I hope they do.
 
Everyone wants to find blame with the make-up of the Iowa team because they got beat by the more "athletic" Oregon team. Wonder how the Illinois fans are feeling by having their athletes getting beaten by Loyola?
I mentioned this in another thread, the IL coach has never been to the Sweet 16 as a head coach.
 
When is the last time that Iowa was 3rd in offensive efficiency (only behind Gonzaga and Baylor?)
I would guess that not one other team in the sweet 16 had a starter averaging 3 ppg or less. Looking back at 19-20, Connor would have been decent numbers for a bench guy getting 15-20 mpg.
 
I mentioned this in another thread, the IL coach has never been to the Sweet 16 as a head coach.
I understand, I was more or less just saying that teams get beat. Especially in the NCAA tournament when one bad game and you're done. All of a sudden your team is awful and the coach an idiot.
 
  • Like
Reactions: BBHawk
Joe T is probably the only player who had a worse season than Connor if you look at advanced stats, but in general I agree with you. I think Connor's most likely spot to start is at PG, but right now I'd say that's a 3 way battle with it being hard to choose who would come out on top especially with Connor's surgeries. I actually think Ulis could.

If you look at stats per 100 possessions it lists Offensive Rating and Defensive Rating, and under Advanced Stats it shows Win Shares and Box Plus Minus (BPM). These are good overall ratings to remove bias when comparing players imo.

OFF RATING (higher is better - average DIV1 player is 100):
Connor 108.2
Joe T 94.2 (this is very bad - next lowest on the team was Connor)

DEF RATING (lower is better - average DIV1 player is 100):
Connor 105.3
Joe T 101.7 - solid number but not great and still worse than the DIV1 average player. Keegan was 95.5.

WIN SHARES PER 40 MIN (to equalize playing time differences):
Connor .082 - 2nd worst on the team
Joe T .077 - worst on the team

BOX PLUS MINUS:
Connor 1.9 - 2nd worst on the team
Joe T 0.2 (including a -1.5 for Offensive Box Plus Minus which is VERY bad) - worst on the team

Both of them had bad year's, but Joe T's was worse and he showed no improvement from the prior year, while Connor regressed from prior year partially due to injury.

That has me thinking Ulis may win this 3 way battle, and Connor may play a backup role at multiple positions as you mention. But if Connor is healthy, and Ulis doesn't step up, I could see Connor winning. Joe T just isn't as good defensively as people think, and the team's offensive efficiency takes a HUGE hit when he is in there. People just see his athleticism and assume a ton of things that, so far, have not shown up on the court. I hope they do.
Did you watch the positive things Joe T brought when he was in? This statement is not intended to question your statistics at all. In fact I’m in agreement with all, it’s your conclusions I have issues with. There was something electric when he was playing his best. He forced things for better and sometimes for the worse , but more PMac dunks occurred because of JoeT pushing the envelope. He needs to be much more selective going forward but when he pushes often good things happen. Who wins out I don’t care but like everyone here we all want Iowa playing the best basketball they can. From my eyes 👀 I think that will be JoeT if he can just be a bit more selective. If he can we’ll be very good, if not then Ulis, Connor Perkins or someone else will take over, competently I hope
 
Did you watch the positive things Joe T brought when he was in? This statement is not intended to question your statistics at all. In fact I’m in agreement with all, it’s your conclusions I have issues with. There was something electric when he was playing his best. He forced things for better and sometimes for the worse , but more PMac dunks occurred because of JoeT pushing the envelope. He needs to be much more selective going forward but when he pushes often good things happen. Who wins out I don’t care but like everyone here we all want Iowa playing the best basketball they can. From my eyes 👀 I think that will be JoeT if he can just be a bit more selective. If he can we’ll be very good, if not then Ulis, Connor Perkins or someone else will take over, competently I hope

No offense taken, appreciate constructive dialogue. I do agree that Joe T is CAPABLE of doing a lot of things, and I have a lot of hope for him still, but I'm not planning on it because usually if a player doesn't progress from Year 1 to Year 2 the chances of him taking a step function improvement in Year 3 aren't very good - but it does happen.

Watching him play my notes would be:

1. Wants to dribble drive every trip up the court, and the defense can speed him up to the point where he will turn the ball over.

2. When he doesn't turn it over, the ball is often not in a location where we can start the offense easily and so it impacts our ability to get into our offense early in the shot clock. Compare this to Bohannon who runs the ball up the court specifically to get us into our offense immediately. It's risk / reward, but when his drives don't result in points it costs us 10 seconds of offense. This won't be as big of a deal next year when we don't have Garza, but this year it was costing us chances at post entry.

3. When he dribble drives from the half court, one would expect a guy built like him to get a fair number of layups. But he always seems to end up jumping into a defender and trying to double pump one in, or taking really hard reverse layups, or jump stopping and pivoting into a 10 foot fade away. None of those were very efficient this year. I'd argue Bohannon made more dribble drive shots than Joe did because Bohannon learned how to use finesse shots and doesn't rely on pure athleticism.

These three things are why his Offensive Rating, which includes how the TOTAL offense does when he is in the game not just him, is a ridiculously low number.

All that being said, next year our half court offense won't be nearly as efficient, and we'll need a lot more points in transition and off dribble penetration and dump offs or kick outs. I think that team fits him better. He does get some steals and can rebound but he does some fundamental things poorly that many people seem to not notice or ignore, such as keeping your pivot foot, learning how to do post entry well, and learning different ways to finish in the paint other than what he currently has (floaters, et al).

People are enamored with his athleticism and electricity but fundamentally he has a bunch of issues, as well as decision making. These did not improve last season.

I do like the chemistry between him and Patrick and I hope it all comes together for them next season.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: KatoHawk
No offense taken, appreciate constructive dialogue. I do agree that Joe T is CAPABLE of doing a lot of things, and I have a lot of hope for him still, but I'm not planning on it because usually if a player doesn't progress from Year 1 to Year 2 the chances of him taking a step function improvement in Year 3 aren't very good - but it does happen.

Watching him play my notes would be:

1. Wants to dribble drive every trip up the court, and the defense can speed him up to the point where he will turn the ball over.

2. When he doesn't turn it over, the ball is often not in a location where we can start the offense easily and so it impacts our ability to get into our offense early in the shot clock. Compare this to Bohannon who runs the ball up the court specifically to get us into our offense immediately. It's risk / reward, but when his drives don't result in points it costs us 10 seconds of offense. This won't be as big of a deal next year when we don't have Garza, but this year it was costing us chances at post entry.

3. When he dribble drives from the half court, one would expect a guy built like him to get a fair number of layups. But he always seems to end up jumping into a defender and trying to double pump one in, or taking really hard reverse layups, or jump stopping and pivoting into a 10 foot fade away. None of those were very efficient this year. I'd argue Bohannon made more dribble drive shots than Joe did because Bohannon learned how to use finesse shots and doesn't rely on pure athleticism.

These three things are why his Offensive Rating, which includes how the TOTAL offense does when he is in the game not just him, is a ridiculously low number.

All that being said, next year our half court offense won't be nearly as efficient, and we'll need a lot more points in transition and off dribble penetration and dump offs or kick outs. I think that team fits him better. He does get some steals and can rebound but he does some fundamental things poorly that many people seem to not notice or ignore, such as keeping your pivot foot, learning how to do post entry well, and learning different ways to finish in the paint other than what he currently has (floaters, et al).

People are enamored with his athleticism and electricity but fundamentally he has a bunch of issues, as well as decision making. These did not improve last season.

I do like the chemistry between him and Patrick and I hope it all comes together for them next season.
Your first point I agree with and that cannot happen but I think not looking over his shoulder as much may improve that, but your point is well taken. He needs to be thinking ahead instead of just going and hoping something will open up.
Your second point as you alluded to comes with the caveat that without Luka the post up entry passes may not be as big a concern, hence Connor needs to also reinvent himself somewhat. Fran I’m expecting will revamp the offense to the players strengths ( at least I hope so with more slashing style off the motion).
The third point , driving from half court, go back to the game against Gonzaga again and you’ll see his capabilities are .
Now can he play up to his abilities , some will say sure others will say no you get what you saw most of last year. For me I’m optimistic that he’s barely scratched the surface of understanding not only what he can do but what he should do. Next season will tell a lot and if he’s prepared for it, we will be in for some great basketball with back doors and dropping dimes all over the court. Then again you could be completely correct and I’ll look silly. Fun times ahead.
 
No offense taken, appreciate constructive dialogue. I do agree that Joe T is CAPABLE of doing a lot of things, and I have a lot of hope for him still, but I'm not planning on it because usually if a player doesn't progress from Year 1 to Year 2 the chances of him taking a step function improvement in Year 3 aren't very good - but it does happen.

Watching him play my notes would be:

1. Wants to dribble drive every trip up the court, and the defense can speed him up to the point where he will turn the ball over.

2. When he doesn't turn it over, the ball is often not in a location where we can start the offense easily and so it impacts our ability to get into our offense early in the shot clock. Compare this to Bohannon who runs the ball up the court specifically to get us into our offense immediately. It's risk / reward, but when his drives don't result in points it costs us 10 seconds of offense. This won't be as big of a deal next year when we don't have Garza, but this year it was costing us chances at post entry.

3. When he dribble drives from the half court, one would expect a guy built like him to get a fair number of layups. But he always seems to end up jumping into a defender and trying to double pump one in, or taking really hard reverse layups, or jump stopping and pivoting into a 10 foot fade away. None of those were very efficient this year. I'd argue Bohannon made more dribble drive shots than Joe did because Bohannon learned how to use finesse shots and doesn't rely on pure athleticism.

These three things are why his Offensive Rating, which includes how the TOTAL offense does when he is in the game not just him, is a ridiculously low number.

All that being said, next year our half court offense won't be nearly as efficient, and we'll need a lot more points in transition and off dribble penetration and dump offs or kick outs. I think that team fits him better. He does get some steals and can rebound but he does some fundamental things poorly that many people seem to not notice or ignore, such as keeping your pivot foot, learning how to do post entry well, and learning different ways to finish in the paint other than what he currently has (floaters, et al).

People are enamored with his athleticism and electricity but fundamentally he has a bunch of issues, as well as decision making. These did not improve last season.

I do like the chemistry between him and Patrick and I hope it all comes together for them next season.
No, Joe made more layups against Gonzaga than Jbo did all season.
 
Your first point I agree with and that cannot happen but I think not looking over his shoulder as much may improve that, but your point is well taken. He needs to be thinking ahead instead of just going and hoping something will open up.
Your second point as you alluded to comes with the caveat that without Luka the post up entry passes may not be as big a concern, hence Connor needs to also reinvent himself somewhat. Fran I’m expecting will revamp the offense to the players strengths ( at least I hope so with more slashing style off the motion).
The third point , driving from half court, go back to the game against Gonzaga again and you’ll see his capabilities are .
Now can he play up to his abilities , some will say sure others will say no you get what you saw most of last year. For me I’m optimistic that he’s barely scratched the surface of understanding not only what he can do but what he should do. Next season will tell a lot and if he’s prepared for it, we will be in for some great basketball with back doors and dropping dimes all over the court. Then again you could be completely correct and I’ll look silly. Fun times ahead.
I don't see it as any concern because Iowa doesn't have a post player next year.

Im looking forward to it.

I think Joe and Aron play allot together. Joe's best in transition and I think Ulis will be the better half court guy.
 
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT