Iowa has won 4 NCAA tournament games.
Is that good?
Discuss.
Is that good?
Discuss.
In 14 + seasons of Fran ball
- Thread starter RagnarLothbrok
- Start date
Not good. Iowa has yet to be within single digits at halftime of second round game.
Far from it. But at least patty Mac was used extensively.
By way of comparison, Dr. Tom won 13 NCAA tournament games in 13 seasons.
In case anyone was curious.
In case anyone was curious.
With wins over Davidson, Temple, Grand Canyon and Cincinnati.....other than Cincinnati, with was technically an upset, not a real impressive list of victories.
I don't really have anything against Fran, he got Iowa past the Lickliter years and back to respectability, but kind of feel like Iowa has leveled off and we parted ways with Davis when he had much more success than Fran has had.
6 the first 3 years with Raveling recruits.
7 the last 10 years.
That would have a coach jobless at any other power five program.
The answer is a resounding no. But I know that you already knew that.
I suspect even those on here who inexplicably still want to see Fran continue as coach would at least admit that is unimpressive.
I suspect even those on here who inexplicably still want to see Fran continue as coach would at least admit that is unimpressive.
So, if we take out Dr. Tom’s first three years, he still has 3 more NCAA tournament victories in 10 years than Fran does in 14 years.
And if we take Fran’s last 10 years he has three wins playing his kids in front of NBAers.
If Fran stays he needs to say goodbye to assistant coach Sherman Dillard, he's been with Fran for the entire time at Iowa and I'm not sure he's worth the money they pay him, of coarse we all know Fran is over paid, hire a replacement coach that can make sense of the portal and get better players of need.
Next years roster needs to be extensively altered.
No longer will Iowa have Payton Sanford, Doug Thelwell, Even Brauns, and tell Riley Mulvey to hit the road, you could also give Carter Kingsbury the hook too. That will give Iowa 5 scholarships to work with for the new assistant coach to get at least 2 - 7 footers, another point guard and a experienced 6-9 or 6-10 forward. Rebounding has to be the priority in the off season.
Fran has to change the way he coaches, no more motion offense, no more position less basketball, of course that won't happen but if Iowa is to ever regain respectability and become a player in the BIG TEN, Fran needs to change the way he coaches....yeah, that's going to happen.
OR, Beth could do the right thing and give Fran his walking papers after this season ends? That would be the actual solution, but then Beth would have to do her job and make the right hire to elevate Iowa's men's basketball program to try and match the level of the woman's team. Does she have the urgency to make that happen? Probably not, stay tuned.
I'm not against Iowa hiring a black coach, or a coach that doesn't feel like he has to recruit most of his players exclusively from Iowa, but please hire a coach that has a plan and the expertise to make Iowa a player in the Big Ten and just not a door mat or an after thought, and get fans energized and FILL CARVER ONCE AGAIN FOR IOWA MEN'S BASKETBALL.
Next years roster needs to be extensively altered.
No longer will Iowa have Payton Sanford, Doug Thelwell, Even Brauns, and tell Riley Mulvey to hit the road, you could also give Carter Kingsbury the hook too. That will give Iowa 5 scholarships to work with for the new assistant coach to get at least 2 - 7 footers, another point guard and a experienced 6-9 or 6-10 forward. Rebounding has to be the priority in the off season.
Fran has to change the way he coaches, no more motion offense, no more position less basketball, of course that won't happen but if Iowa is to ever regain respectability and become a player in the BIG TEN, Fran needs to change the way he coaches....yeah, that's going to happen.
OR, Beth could do the right thing and give Fran his walking papers after this season ends? That would be the actual solution, but then Beth would have to do her job and make the right hire to elevate Iowa's men's basketball program to try and match the level of the woman's team. Does she have the urgency to make that happen? Probably not, stay tuned.
I'm not against Iowa hiring a black coach, or a coach that doesn't feel like he has to recruit most of his players exclusively from Iowa, but please hire a coach that has a plan and the expertise to make Iowa a player in the Big Ten and just not a door mat or an after thought, and get fans energized and FILL CARVER ONCE AGAIN FOR IOWA MEN'S BASKETBALL.
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Yep. And the same amount Lute had his last 4 years.
At this point, I don’t think Beth has much choice. Attendance is just going to keep getting worse, which is sad because Carver was always rocking when I was growing up.
Dr. Tom was overall a very average coach and his recruiting was fair to poor most of the time.
But TD didn't make the NCAA in 3 of the last 5 years before being told that his contract wasn't being renewed. Didn't even make the NIT in one of those years. That's why he was shown the door. Fran should be shown the door as well if he doesn't go away on his own.
7 in 10 years including a sweet 16 is better than 4 in 14 and no sweet16.
Raveling is the unsung hero.
Does it really need to be a comparison between Davis and Fran? That's like arguing who was the best 4th place Olympic sprinter of all time. Iowa has been to one sweet sixteen since George's recruits moved on.
1979-1989 lots of fun. 4 sweet 16's. 10 NCAA tournament appearances.
Always competitive.
Thought it might Always be that way.
Raveling should have made a career out of being an assistant coach in charge of recruiting
I will quibble with this.
Dr. Tom was a good coach. He was just an average to subpar recruiter. The Chris Street tragedy was devastating and the program never really recovered.
This X 1000
Any AD with balls or bewbs should see this immediately and be done with Francis. Nepotism at its finest.
Fran has only won 2 NCAA games in the last 7 years. Its been actually 8 seasons, but I threw out the covid year since there was no tournament. It's not looking too good for this year, either, at the moment.
Alford won 1 NCAA game in 8 years. So, at least from an NCAA perspective, Fran isn't outperforming Alf by a whole lot. Let that soak in for a bit.
Fran gets to the tournament more regularly than Alford did, sure, but he's done precious little with those appearances. Those 2020 and 2021 tournaments were really squandered. A 2 and a 5 seed. 1 win.
Don't even get me started on Fran's Big 10 tournament performance. Other than the year he rode Keegan and JBo to the title, it's been atrocious.
Alford won 1 NCAA game in 8 years. So, at least from an NCAA perspective, Fran isn't outperforming Alf by a whole lot. Let that soak in for a bit.
Fran gets to the tournament more regularly than Alford did, sure, but he's done precious little with those appearances. Those 2020 and 2021 tournaments were really squandered. A 2 and a 5 seed. 1 win.
Don't even get me started on Fran's Big 10 tournament performance. Other than the year he rode Keegan and JBo to the title, it's been atrocious.
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Agree with this. We saw what Davis was able to do with better talent. He still landed some nice players, but it never got back to the level of the late 80s.
Damn lucky to beat Temple too.
Upper division finishes
High character student athletes
Ice cream
Not Todd Lickliter
Go root for Iowa State, you troll.
Did I miss anything?
If my memory isn't failing me, they didn't exactly roll past Grand Canyon either.
The fact that Fran couldn't (at the very least) reach the Sweet16 with the roster he had that season/postseason should have seen him canned for coaching malfeasance. His best shot, talent-wise and they flamed out hard in the 2nd round as a TWO SEED.
I don't think I'll ever not be ****ing ticked off about that, or the next season when the Murray twins were sophomores and went into the NCAA Tourney as arguably the hottest team in the land - coming off winning the BTT - only to fall flat on their faces and shatter their noses in that travesty vs Richmond.
Richmond was worse than losing to Oregon. That Richmond team wasn't sniffing the tournament had they not won their conference tournament.
I must agree, at least in terms of strength of opponent.
Also, I fell into the trap of euphoria from seeing a few of the national pundits pick Iowa to get to the Elite8 and even the Final4 after they rolled through the BTT. (Jay Bilas, even!)
Watching Iowa lay the biggest egg in that game was just completely soul-crushing and the last time I put any real faith and belief in a Fran McCaffery-led team.
Richmond should have been seeded around 14. Lost their next game by 28. S. Dakota St. the 13 seed in bracket was much better.
If the 4 wins were all in a single season, it would be very good. 3 in a season? Good. If even 2 were in a single season it would be ok.
Making it to the round of 32 4 times in 14 years is one of those "it could be worse" kind of accomplishments.
Bottom line: If your program doesn't have an established history of tourney success, it's hard to fire a guy that keeps getting you in.
....and so here we are.....
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