I guess should not listen to or read any of his postgame comments if they are a source of frustration, so I admit to inflicting the pain upon myself. Once again this senior group of experienced players did not execute the game plan, had multiple blown defensive assignments and breakdowns throughout the course of the game. Fran was proud of the fight they showed to get back in the game and they had some good stuff drawn up, but didn't execute. But, he is going to rely on this group of seniors moving forward. Sorry Fran, this is garbage and not even you can believe it.
Here is the reality as I see it. Woodbury has been here 4 years and has 0 post game. Clemmons should have lost his starting job or at least major minutes 2 years ago. Gesell is a good game manager, but has never developed a mid-range game. Frequent visitors to this board have been clamoring / begging for an upgrade at the 1-2 spots for 2-3 years, but Fran keeps telling us how much every player on the team has improved. We suffered through 4 years of Oglesby, 10 minutes of Trey Dickerson and when given a big recruiting class, Fran delivered Ellingson, Williams, and Fleming. Williams was wasted until 2 weeks ago when suddenly he learned this complex offense we run. An offense that consists of throw it to Jok or Uthoff or we don't score.
Fran wants to run, shoot 3's and play up tempo, but fields a team of 3 totally inept offensive players. There is no size, ball handling, quickness, or offensive acumen on the bench. Our best bench player is a walk on and we have two shooting guards who cannot get on the floor despite a desperate need for another shot maker. Fran keeps talking about how complex the system is to learn, guys having to learn multiple positions, offensive and defensive calls, etc., being the reason these guys aren't ready. Interesting because Ethan Happ, Khalil Iverson and Davis have contributed at Wisconsin. Bryant at Indiana, Murphy at Minnesota, Swanigan at Purdue and Sanders at Rutgers (to name a few) appear able to play as freshman.
To be blunt, Fran's recruiting is more suited to his former conference when at UNC Wilmington and that might be a slight to the conference. I watched a lot of small conference ball this week and every team had guards that would be upgrades here and post players with post moves. My confidence in Fran has waivered at times, but after today's game, I have to say it is at its lowest point of his time at Iowa. Either Fran is delusional about what he and his staff can do to develop players or he really cannot get better players to come here. What is really sad is that I expected Iowa to play garbage today and they did
Here is the reality as I see it. Woodbury has been here 4 years and has 0 post game. Clemmons should have lost his starting job or at least major minutes 2 years ago. Gesell is a good game manager, but has never developed a mid-range game. Frequent visitors to this board have been clamoring / begging for an upgrade at the 1-2 spots for 2-3 years, but Fran keeps telling us how much every player on the team has improved. We suffered through 4 years of Oglesby, 10 minutes of Trey Dickerson and when given a big recruiting class, Fran delivered Ellingson, Williams, and Fleming. Williams was wasted until 2 weeks ago when suddenly he learned this complex offense we run. An offense that consists of throw it to Jok or Uthoff or we don't score.
Fran wants to run, shoot 3's and play up tempo, but fields a team of 3 totally inept offensive players. There is no size, ball handling, quickness, or offensive acumen on the bench. Our best bench player is a walk on and we have two shooting guards who cannot get on the floor despite a desperate need for another shot maker. Fran keeps talking about how complex the system is to learn, guys having to learn multiple positions, offensive and defensive calls, etc., being the reason these guys aren't ready. Interesting because Ethan Happ, Khalil Iverson and Davis have contributed at Wisconsin. Bryant at Indiana, Murphy at Minnesota, Swanigan at Purdue and Sanders at Rutgers (to name a few) appear able to play as freshman.
To be blunt, Fran's recruiting is more suited to his former conference when at UNC Wilmington and that might be a slight to the conference. I watched a lot of small conference ball this week and every team had guards that would be upgrades here and post players with post moves. My confidence in Fran has waivered at times, but after today's game, I have to say it is at its lowest point of his time at Iowa. Either Fran is delusional about what he and his staff can do to develop players or he really cannot get better players to come here. What is really sad is that I expected Iowa to play garbage today and they did
