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I don’t question Frans chops as an X’s and O’s coach but his defensive acumen leaves a lot to be desired. The baseline dunks poor rotations and worse help side defense are an embarrassment to the sport.
Fran's legacy at Iowa?

Great offense.
Horrific defense.
Average coach (couldn't put it all together).

Average recruiter (losing in-state stars lately & too many misses, where the player eventually left).

Average, middle of the B1G (usually), results.

Never really came close to a B1G Championship in 10 plus years at Iowa.
 
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I don’t question Frans chops as an X’s and O’s coach but his defensive acumen leaves a lot to be desired. The baseline dunks poor rotations and worse help side defense are an embarrassment to the sport.

Just not athletic enough across the floor. Yes Michigan is really good and the 4th ranked team, but this exact scenario will play out against MSU, Rutgers, PSU, OSU, Purdue, Indiana, etc. Fran continues to bring knives to gun fights expecting to win. Iowa has to play lights out and the other team has to play like dog crap to have a chance to beat anyone better than middle / low in the conference. Other teams can shut Iowa down defensively with ball pressure---give Garza his 20-25 and get what they want offensively.

Going to be a lot of 95-80 games this year and not just against Michigan.
 
I’m frustrated with the defense as well, but I don’t long for the days of Lick. Our style of offense will give up more points. I too get frustrated giving up open dunks on the baseline.

The biggest holes on the defensive side came from Joe W who is sick, J Bo who is battling his hips, CJF who is learning to play in the B1G, and Luka who dropped 44 on the 4th ranked team in the nation, but is not naturally athletic.

In our case it, it’s not X’es and O’s it’s Jimmy and Joe. I don’t think there’s many on this board that want any of the above to ride the pine for long periods. Getting a bit healthier will help some. We have been better out front with Joe T and BE. I expect us to get better, but we all saw the lack of quickness from our bigs before the season started. Our back up bigs aren’t defenders. If we could get the ball off the defensive glass our D would look a lot better.
 
I’m frustrated with the defense as well, but I don’t long for the days of Lick. Our style of offense will give up more points. I too get frustrated giving up open dunks on the baseline.

The biggest holes on the defensive side came from Joe W who is sick, J Bo who is battling his hips, CJF who is learning to play in the B1G, and Luka who dropped 44 on the 4th ranked team in the nation, but is not naturally athletic.

In our case it, it’s not X’es and O’s it’s Jimmy and Joe. I don’t think there’s many on this board that want any of the above to ride the pine for long periods. Getting a bit healthier will help some. We have been better out front with Joe T and BE. I expect us to get better, but we all saw the lack of quickness from our bigs before the season started. Our back up bigs aren’t defenders. If we could get the ball off the defensive glass our D would look a lot better.
Oh you better believe there are some X’s and O’s Problems with their scheme.
 
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I believe that Michigan thought they were a pretty good defensive team and we hung 91 on them.
More like Iowa hung 80 during real meaningful game time minute. I watched Iowa get at least 5 or 6 virtually uncontested buckets in the last 1:30 of the game.
 
Fran already has 2 great defensive coaches on staff, Kirk Speraw and Sherman Dillard! Can you imagine what Iowa would be like without those 2 ? Just ask Fran, Crickets:rolleyes:
 
I believe it was Ken Trickey that Lute said about him paraphrasing, he would rather lose 85-83 than win 52-50.
 
I don’t question Frans chops as an X’s and O’s coach but his defensive acumen leaves a lot to be desired. The baseline dunks poor rotations and worse help side defense are an embarrassment to the sport.
I would agree with your comment above and they should hire a defensive consultant, at least.
 
Just not athletic enough across the floor. Yes Michigan is really good and the 4th ranked team, but this exact scenario will play out against MSU, Rutgers, PSU, OSU, Purdue, Indiana, etc. Fran continues to bring knives to gun fights expecting to win. Iowa has to play lights out and the other team has to play like dog crap to have a chance to beat anyone better than middle / low in the conference. Other teams can shut Iowa down defensively with ball pressure---give Garza his 20-25 and get what they want offensively.

Going to be a lot of 95-80 games this year and not just against Michigan.
It is not just athleticism IMO. They do not react to the ball movement and often they act completely lost on defense.
 
It is not just athleticism IMO. They do not react to the ball movement and often they act completely lost on defense.

This is a great assessment of Iowa's defensive misgivings!!!
I'll also add this, Iowa double teams opposing players way to often that leaves unguarded 3 point shooters uncontested shots or easy back cut layups because they can't recover quickly enough.
We saw that way too often in last nights game. Rinse and repeat!
 
I believe that Michigan thought they were a pretty good defensive team and we hung 91 on them.

MIchigan had a decent lead the entire game and chose not to double team Garza. Garza definitely had fantastic game, but none of the guards could get an open look because they couldn't beat the guy defending them.

Scoring 91 pts while losing---that sounds like what Fran's teams did in the medicore 2016-17 season and the horredouns 2017-18 season.
 
Stop playing the damn zone. Every damn time we played zone, UM either got a big on a small dude down low or a shooter matched up with either nobody or a big running at them from 15 feet away on the perimeter. And they scored at will against it, literally at will. Continually going to the zone was moronic and a failure by the coaches.
 
Defense will improve once Frans forced to play Tusant more, offense may suffer a little at first.
 
Stop playing the damn zone. Every damn time we played zone, UM either got a big on a small dude down low or a shooter matched up with either nobody or a big running at them from 15 feet away on the perimeter. And they scored at will against it, literally at will. Continually going to the zone was moronic and a failure by the coaches.
Yes Michigan has too many shooters to play an effective zone defense. But, not sure the Hawks have an effective zone.
 
MIchigan had a decent lead the entire game and chose not to double team Garza. Garza definitely had fantastic game, but none of the guards could get an open look because they couldn't beat the guy defending them.
I don't believe Steve Alford was a super quick guard, but he managed to get open and score a lot. Indiana ran multiple back screens and other stuff to get him shots. So you don't have to be a lightening bolt to get open shots. You have to run plays for the shooters.
 
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Oh you better believe there are some X’s and O’s Problems with their scheme.

I don't know if they played mostly man or zone tonight because I haven't watched it yet and lord knows Dolph isn't going to be able to tell me. Sounds like it could have been either since it didn't work at all.

I'm guessing zone since apparently we went the last 10 minutes of the game without a defensive rebound.

The problem is if you're going to play Jbo and Garza together you cant play man at all. If you do it's a joke. So we have to play zone which is always beatable unless you have super long quick athletes. Which is the opposite of what Iowa has.

I think the D will improve allot once Joe T moves into starting role.

He can fight through high screens and allow Iowa to play man without exposing Garza as much. That allows everyone else to play man, which is just so much better for allot of reasons, switching and defensive rebounding among the most obvious.
 
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Our defense was fine when we had good defensive players. It’s not really a style problem.

I think fran knows the limitations with the players he has right now. If we could play a lineup of Connor, joe, CJ, joe t, and Kriener I bet we would be pretty decent. But Jordan and Luka are horrible, and the other guys are banged up.
 
Stop playing the damn zone. Every damn time we played zone, UM either got a big on a small dude down low or a shooter matched up with either nobody or a big running at them from 15 feet away on the perimeter. And they scored at will against it, literally at will. Continually going to the zone was moronic and a failure by the coaches.

I've been trying to explain this for 3 years.

Fran is not a moron.

Iowa cannot play man defense with Bohannon and Garza on the floor together. It's just not an option.

As bad the zone is, it's the only option with that lineup.
 
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It's interesting as to what to do with Garza and Bohannon.

Garza in particular. He is truly outstanding as a classic throwback center with his post moves who is also a legit threat to hit a 3. Offensively I think he is an AA. Unfortunately on D he's a liability. You could manage that as a team if you had say a Reggie Evans to play on the front line with him( just picture that!). Iowa doesn't have anything close to that.
Then you've got JBo. Clearly one of the top pure shooters in the college game. Who is also a defensive liability.
With both of them on the floor that's a lot to try to cover for.
 
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Fran's legacy at Iowa?

Great offense.
Horrific defense.
Average coach (couldn't put it all together).

Average recruiter (losing in-state stars lately & too many misses, where the player eventually left).

Average, middle of the B1G (usually), results.

Never really came close to a B1G Championship in 10 plus years at Iowa.
Michigan - 103 vs Iowa. 43 vs Louisville!! Every team with shooting issue will want to play Iowa
 
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This is a great assessment of Iowa's defensive misgivings!!!
I'll also add this, Iowa double teams opposing players way to often that leaves unguarded 3 point shooters uncontested shots or easy back cut layups because they can't recover quickly enough.
We saw that way too often in last nights game. Rinse and repeat!
Exactly. That 1/2 court trap is mostly effective but there are many times that if we had alert ball players, some of those obvious passes could be picked off for east layups.
 
It's interesting as to what to do with Garza and Bohannon.

Garza in particular. He is truly outstanding as a classic throwback center with his post moves who is also a legit threat to hit a 3. Offensively I think he is an AA. Unfortunately on D he's a liability. You could manage that as a team if you had say a Reggie Evans to play on the front line with him( just picture that!). Iowa doesn't have anything close to that.
Then you've got JBo. Clearly one of the top pure shooters in the college game. Who is also a defensive liability.
With both of them on the floor that's a lot to try to cover for.

Its specifically one play, the high screen in man, that isolates the two of the together that doesn't work.

Jbo is probably the worst player at getting over a screen I've ever seen. He just doesn't try half the time.

Teams will just beat it to death if you let them and the rest of your team will end up in foul trouble trying to help at the rim.

If the guy guarding the ball handler gets over the screen in time it protects Garza.

Iowa has that guy on the team. But Fran would rather have the potential to hit 3s on the other end.
 
Fran's legacy at Iowa?

Great offense.
Horrific defense.
Average coach (couldn't put it all together).

Average recruiter (losing in-state stars lately & too many misses, where the player eventually left).

Average, middle of the B1G (usually), results.

Never really came close to a B1G Championship in 10 plus years at Iowa.
You forgot the February flops and mailing it in at big ten tourney. Average recruiter is being kind, I'd put him slightly below average. An average recruiter would have gotten 1 of the big dogs like uhl/carton/foster instead of whiffing on all after years of investment. We'll never reach sweet 16 with this joke D IMO. First decade no fluke
 
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It is not just athleticism IMO. They do not react to the ball movement and often they act completely lost on defense.

I agree with this, look at uni and Wisconsin, a lot of years they are not overly athletic but they still seem to be able to play pretty good d.
 
:) He got Uhl and we all know how that turned out. He got Ulis too.......just not the best one.

Everyone misses on recruits. When you recruit against shoe money, escorts, and the general filth in the process you’re not going to win every battle. When 25 coaches across the nation identify a top kid to expect to win them all is unrealistic. We aren’t Duke. 18 year olds who see themselves as one and done aren’t always rational.

Who is that you see as the next Iowa coach who will win those recruiting wars?
 
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Everyone misses on recruits. When you recruit against shoe money, escorts, and the general filth in the process you’re not going to win every battle. When 25 coaches across the nation identify a top kid to expect to win them all is unrealistic. We aren’t Duke. 18 year olds who see themselves as one and done aren’t always rational.
A great deal truth to the above comment. It is not a level playing field.
 
Fran already has 2 great defensive coaches on staff, Kirk Speraw and Sherman Dillard! Can you imagine what Iowa would be like without those 2 ? Just ask Fran, Crickets:rolleyes:
I actually think we could use an upgrade in our assistants. Sherman struggles recruiting and Speraw seemed lost when he filled in for Kirk last year.
 
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It is not just athleticism IMO. They do not react to the ball movement and often they act completely lost on defense.

This is true. Iowa has shortcomings that would not allow them to be really good on defense, but a team like Wisconsin has had good defensive teams without just pressuring all over the floor. You can do it by playing position defense and forcing contested jumpers or contested post shots. But it has to be taught from Day 1 and it has to be ingrained in the culture. As in, guys don't play if they won't run back on defense or won't defend. That has never been the case with Fran.
 
It is not just athleticism IMO. They do not react to the ball movement and often they act completely lost on defense.
This is a great assessment of Iowa's defensive misgivings!!!
I'll also add this, Iowa double teams opposing players way to often that leaves unguarded 3 point shooters uncontested shots or easy back cut layups because they can't recover quickly enough.
We saw that way too often in last nights game. Rinse and repeat!

There is no reason Garza should leave the paint. Stick him down there and figure out another way to deal with the high ball screens. I would rather give up a perimeter shot than a dunk because Garza is 15 feet from the basket and nobody rotates over. Even if they do rotate, they have a guy bearing down on them with a full head of steam and are likely to get dunked on and commit a foul.
 
There is no reason Garza should leave the paint. Stick him down there and figure out another way to deal with the high ball screens. I would rather give up a perimeter shot than a dunk because Garza is 15 feet from the basket and nobody rotates over. Even if they do rotate, they have a guy bearing down on them with a full head of steam and are likely to get dunked on and commit a foul.

That would be called zone defense.
 
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