has been abysmal. Other than Jok, there isn't a guard on the roster who would get significant minutes at UNI.
Guard recuriting
- Thread starter gunnyhiway
- Start date
Uh, UNI has major guard issues too
And to think we could have listened to the Marble family and had Monte Morris the past 4 years. Has to easily be the biggest mistake of the Fran era not offering the 4star guard with the easy in.
Fran hasn't been able to close the deal on a quality PG yet. I can't fault him for Ullis. Charlie Moore would have been nice this year. Fran really needs to figure out how to close the deal with some of these guys or Iowa could be treading water for awhile. He has shown he can pull this off with Cook however he needs to be able to get 1 or 2 of these types a year and needs one bad a PG. Jok is flying solo out there now with only a true FR as a wingman. Two year guys and older are nowhere to find right now against good competition and that is showing some huge holes in recruiting.
Iowa bball needs a recruiting bagman.
who's up to the task? @hawkgasser too obvious a choice. @Ronman ?
tongue firmly in cheek
who's up to the task? @hawkgasser too obvious a choice. @Ronman ?
tongue firmly in cheek
Ellingson, Williams, Bohannon, Moss, and Dailey are not good. It's okay to have two of these guys on the roster for spot minutes but a roster full of them playing 65 min a game combined is awful. That's a lack of recruiting right there.
Fran didn't recruit guards this past year and it blew my mind.
It's just not a lack of a quality point guard, or recruiting a bunch of mid major forwards, but not recruiting someone to back up Woodbury last year is all on Fran and his inept coaching staff. Fran is an above average coach that lacks recruiting skills and game coaching. His assistances are for a lack of a better term a waste of space, in a nutshell he's prefect as the head man at Iowa.....he will never be confused with the likes of Self, coach K, or Izzo, but then again he will never be as bad as coach Groce, or little Pitino..... He's all ours and I'm afraid we'll have to bite the bullet this year until reinforcement arrive next year.
Did you think he was going to be ... Self ..Izzo coach K? If you did then you need to be finding a new team. I like Fran and the job he has done and we are lucky to have him.
Williams is a project with good size. Bohannon is better, but not much. Really need a couple driving, ballhandling guards who can shoot. Virginia, Memphis, and Providence all have them. We don't need another big guy.
Problem is these reinforcements don't include guards. Huge recruiting failure.
People bring up Ullis way to much.
Fran had Monte Morris and Wes Washpun wanting to come to Iowa and didnt identify the need.
Wes was a bit of a project but Morris should have been a no Brainer, instead he thought he was good with Gessel and Clemons. Huge mistake.
Trey was 3rd team All America.
It is on Fran any way you look at it. Either Trey wasn't talented or Fran was unable to integrate his abilities. The guy was quicker than anyone on current roster.
It would be interesting to know truth about Monte Morris and if he wanted to come to Iowa. Michigan/MSU passed on him and he was ripe for the taking and Fran blew it if he passed. Too much in love with gesell and clemmons.
Yeah, throw Washpun in the mix also. Fran offered late because Washpun wasn't qualified. I don't think it made any sense not to offer, because I think we ended up banking the schollie.
I like Moss and Dailey and think they will be really good players for the Hawks (but neither is a pg). I am surprised how bad Williams is playing considering how well he was playing as a backup at the end of last season. At this point, Iowa has nobody that can effectively manage the pg position and run the offense. This is going to be a long season, if something doesn't drastically change.
Uhl and Williams should see nothing but the bench. how Fran see's Williams as a PG has me question his ability to coach....period and yes as a former coach, the defense this team has displayed makes me grit my teeth and wonder how a B1G team could look so lost.
People tend to forget we only had one scholarship that year and we gave it to Jok. So not like we gave it to someone over Morris who was a bust. Easy to second guess now but what about Michigan schools not getting Morris. Also that year 2 other players iowa looked at were Morgan at uni but Fran never offered and EC Matthews at Rhode Island. Jok took scholly and that was it for pursing Matthews who has turned into a great player as well. In the end just poor luck having only one scholly to give out that year. That being said there is no sure thing if we offered Morris he would have even committed to Iowa. Just like ulis without Kentucky people think we have him even though he said would have gone to Sparty.
I am not sure there was much patience from Trey or the fan base to let him get into the flow of college bball at Iowa. He'd come in and make a mistake and everyone would be yelling to get him out of there! Well Fran did that and it never materialized for him. He's averaging about 10 pts/game at South Dakota. Nothing huge but his awesome quickness would really help us right about now.
The other shame is that we did not red shirt Sapp his sophomore year. That was kind of a wasted year for him. He'd really help this group this year.
Like a few others had said I am not sure why people are going crazy when we are 6 games into the season with only one proven veteran player in Jok. How realistic was it to dominate the world with this amount of inexperience and probably the toughest non con schedule in Fran's tenure.
Let's give it some time to let it play out.
We've seen it for 7 years under Fran, and I see nothing in next years recruit class. I've been saying this for years and too many fans keep making excuses for Fran. He either has a difficulty in spotting guard talent, can't close the deal, or he's not a good teacher/developer of those players. It's been Iowa's biggest Achilles heel under Fran.
I'll volunteer. I own my own business and travel quite a bit. So my schedule is extremely flexible and I'm a master of disguise. I have a lot of AAU contacts and I go to a lot of AAU events in the Midwest. I'm perfect for it.
If he lacks recruiting skills and game coaching (and he does), then he's not an above avg coach, he's an avg coach, at best. He is. I bet you'd be hard pressed to find an AD or fan of another power 5 conference that would switch their coach with Fran.
If he was a PG he would have played PG in high school. I know he played a little PG, but if he's really good, and a true PG, you want him with the ball in his hands as much as possible and that means playing PG almost all the time. He doesn't have the quickness or the handles to play the point.
Mich/MSU has access to a lot more talent than Iowa does. Them not offering Morris is far more justifiable than Iowa not offering.
I get that but we had one scholarship to offer and we got an all conference caliber player. To bash Fran on not getting Morris is just dumb. He got a damn good player in jok and if it wasn't him it would have been another one great player in EC Matthews. People also forget Fran just brought in 2 pgs in last class before this one with gesell and Clemons one being a top 100 player. Iowa needed a shooter and a scorer and Fran did a phenomenal job in getting one in jok. I'll agree he's missed on pg since he's been here but in this scenario to criticize about passing on Morris for jok is just idiotic.
We win 3 good football games and the trashing of the coaches seems to disappear. Now we have a young inexperienced BB team and the coaching staff are bummers.
One wonders how it is that we have so many BB and FB geniuses on this board and have inept coaching. Are they not volunteering their expertise for the good of Iowa sports to the AD? Or does the AD not answer their calls? Clearly something is awry and needs to be fixed. One suspects it is easier to express this genius to participants on this site than it is to offer it to the AD so that the problems can be resolved and we all can enjoy 10-12 win football seasons and at least 25 wins in basketball.
One wonders how it is that we have so many BB and FB geniuses on this board and have inept coaching. Are they not volunteering their expertise for the good of Iowa sports to the AD? Or does the AD not answer their calls? Clearly something is awry and needs to be fixed. One suspects it is easier to express this genius to participants on this site than it is to offer it to the AD so that the problems can be resolved and we all can enjoy 10-12 win football seasons and at least 25 wins in basketball.
Fran could've been using the transfer market a lot more like his peers do. All we see is how impactful transfers have been for other schools and it sickens me when Fran could've gotten them had he tried. Instead he uses scholarships on guys who are projects or guys who will never see the court because he stacks the classes so much instead of balancing them out with transfers.
I see it exactly the other way around. Yes, he has struggled getting guards but he retained Marble, got Gesell (4 star) and did pull in Dickerson (4 star). The problem is he wasn't able to make them into the pg that we needed. I think his coaching style leaves a lot to be desired but I generally like his recruiting.
Uhl (when playing hard) is pretty solid and our only guy who can drive the rim because he is usually matched up on a slower player. He needs to get even more aggressive. He can drive and dish and shoot decently. Fran is infatuated with length. He talks about it all the time. Thats what he see's in Williams--length. I would much rather have a drive and dish guy (like Cartright from Priovidence--assume he is related to Bryce since same number and same hometown--he was terrific) who can assist and score. Williams can get to the rim--just can't finish, and can't seem to shoot. He is a project, and may be good in 1-2 years. But he is long, and that is what Fran loves. He wants potential versatility, but I want guys who can play. As for Dickerson, he was a fallback for us and no one else good really wanted him. We missed on about 5 point guards before him, so its not like Fran really wanted him either. I know we signed some good guys this year, but the lack of quality guards really makes me think Fran not only thinks his son can contribute right away, but that he can be a ballhandling guard. I also wonder if he didn't want to recruit against him. I know Conor is good, but we need him to really contribute (hard for any freshman guard) and also need other help at guard for us to be more than decent.
I disagree, as I think Fran is a pretty good coach except for end of halves and end of games. Maybe not a huge defensive mind, but a very solid coach. I greatly dislike when he goes absolutely bonkers on his players during games, but he is a very solid coach. His recruiting effort is good, the closing of the deal is not good. Really need to get better players. Coaching/development is important, but players come in so much more experienced and advanced than 10-15 years ago, that you have to get players. They have all played top competition, had multiple good coaches. Have to get those players, and recruiting guards have been his weakness. Really does need to close the deal on some ballhandling, scoring guards. Needs better recruiting on his staff.
Totally agree he needs some better recruiting, but what team doesn't? Overall, I think he does a pretty good recruiting job for us. I would love a great recruiting assistant coach, enough said. Coaching decisions at the end of halves and the end of games seems to me to be very telling and not to put words in your mouth but, not that good. The way he goes off during games is a huge turn off for me and would be for a player or a recruit, I would think. You can win a lot of games with offense, but you win championships with defense, IMHO.
Connor is going to be our PG for the next 4 years. So get used to it. Dailey won't see much playing time and will likely transfer, IMO. Williams and JBo are playing ahead of Dailey and Connor is probably going to get the most minutes at PG next year. That means JBo and Ellingson at the 2. Then Weiscamp will be here the following year. He'll get plenty of minutes at the 2/3 spots.
Connor will struggle to defend D-1 guards in the BIG. But I don't think Fran really cares about that.
Not sure you are right, but am pretty sure that every guard that we have tried to recruit the last couple of years has heard that from other schools.
I've heard it from sources closer to the program. That's not a 100% guarantee either but if you look at what we have playing PG now and what we have committed for the near future, it sure makes sense that Connor is playing PG here.
