Myth: big ten is the most physical league.
fact they lose to many styles especially guard dominated teams. Why would you not be able to win in the big ten that way? Nova, tech, Houston would fare fine in the big ten.
Interesting, fair analysis of Sweet 16 failure under Fran
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fact they lose to many styles especially guard dominated teams. Why would you not be able to win in the big ten that way? Nova, tech, Houston would fare fine in the big ten.
Ya I think we agree dude. The B1G lacks guard play. Specifically tough athletic guard play. The "physical" part of the B1G is a misguided and lacking speed and quickness IMO
Tony Perkins is in that mold for sure and Joe T would be there if he was 3 or 4 inches taller...
if they practiced with the ball Monday thru Wednesday, then Fran had plenty of time to know that his players didn’t shoot as well with it. That also means he had time to devise a new game plan, and that he shouldn’t have been a deer in headlights during the actual game’s poor shooting.
the team wasn’t prepared.
the game plan wasn’t proper
These are both the responsibility of one man, and he sucks at his job.
Have a new desktop computer after having to get by with a tablet for awhile and find the site a little glitchy at times. Have wondered if others experience that as well. Really appreciate the civil response.
I agree, even the Murray's have little to no muscle definition. The strength training for the basketball team "appears" to be lacking. Grant you, the muscle builds on the players for Arkansas, Houston, Tech and Baylor, could be evidence for PED testing.
Probably so but how do we know if Coach Raveling would have had the same success with those same players? No disrespect to Coach Raveling because he brought the talent to Iowa City but his record at USC didn’t indicate he would have taken that talent any farther in tournament.
Say what you will about T. Davis but if there’s a rerun of a game during his era I’m watching it because his teams played both ends of the court all game and they got after the ball and REBOUNDED.
TD's half court offense was the weakness. They could press and run with anyone.
Raveling had the opposite problem. He could recruit, but was a terrible bench coach.
It has come down to one simple thing in the tournament under Fran. Guard play, guard play and guard play. His guards are not good enough to both make outside shots and get into the lane on a consistent basis. Against Richmond the players listed as Guards on ESPN (Bohannon, Touissant, Perkins, Sandfort, Connor) scored 16 points on 6-23 on FGs, 2-14 3PTs with 10 Rebounds, 8 assists, 7 TOs, and 1 steal in 96 minutes of the 200 minutes of game action. That is atrocious. You are not going to win many games in the tournament with that stat line from your guards. I'm sure if we did a deep dive of every tourney loss under Fran it would look similar.
I tend to agree with your take on things but your last sentence gets a little carried away which may cause others to miss the broader point you make. Lest we forget Fran earned his stripes to get here as a turnaround specialist at smaller schools. We needed the turnaround skills but Barta even said at the time we want a coach who can make a run in the tournament on occasion.
I think just the way Fran likes to coach puts a ceiling on how far he can go at this level. The lack of emphasis on defense and rebounding hinders us when we go up against well coached teams outside the conference. He wants to get up and down the court without putting enough emphasis on doing the fundamental things that teams that play at a high level do IMO.
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We also lost first NCAA games against Toledo, Wichita St. and second round games to Idaho under Lute. Even back then we had crushing tournament losses.
Unfortunately, we all know Iowa's history of failure in the NCAA's. Even the best team in Iowa history (1969-70) lost their first NCAA game. I don't need to have it retold numerous times. I just want someone to find a remedy! I really am starting to believe we're cursed and I don't even believe in such things. If we pissed off some basketball god sometime, please let it be known and how we can fix it.
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No. Speraw had some UCF teams with pretty decent records, but never got out of the first round. Talylor took one Lehigh team to the tournament. Dillard none.
Whatever scheme this staff is putting together to prepare for the NCAA's, the record is pathetic and they should try revising it. Hell, maybe they should just go into the tournament cold and let the players figure it out like a pickup game.
I’ve come to the conclusion that Iowa is the sort of program (and there are certainly others) that needs a future-hall-of-fame level coach (Miller, Olson) to have a high level of sustained success. The trick, of course, is that coaches of that caliber don’t come along every day and for Iowa to find one would require (1) an AD who could identify coaching talent not yet identified by the blue bloods, (2) a willingness to turn over coaches every few years until you found the right guy, and (3) the resources to retain him once he had a high level of success.
Exactly my point. TD gets a bad rap because he did it with GR’s recruits but how would we reflect on their accomplishments now had GR remained coaching at Iowa? Would we have the same “What ifs” today looking back?
The guard play of the teams in the field of 32 and definitely the sweet 16 is light years beyond anything Fran has had at Iowa. Credit Jbo for all his accomplishments, but you aren't making a March run if he is your PG. Same with Connor, Joe T. and Ulis.
I read all these posts saying what a great job Fran did and telling me and others who are not Fran fans to shut the F up or "See, Fran knows what he is doing." I have to LOL at the posts and posters because the majority of my (and others) gripes with Fran over the years have been around lack of athleticism and no dribble drive threat at the guard spot. Shocking that the athleticism of Keegan/Kris and getting Perkins in the mix at PG (a guy who can dribble drive and defend) fueled the late season success. If Fran is such a genius, why did it take him 12 years to figure out Basketball 101?
Credit Fran for finding the guys he has and for being willing to adapt more this year than in past 11, but he still has no clue how to build a roster that can win a second round game. His Euro style finesse ball is entertaining and he is willing to feature star players like Garza and Keegan, but his teams are never going to come out on top in a street fight. The soft, finesse, 3-point shooting teams get exposed quickly come March and Fran just can't connect the dots apparently.
I read all these posts saying what a great job Fran did and telling me and others who are not Fran fans to shut the F up or "See, Fran knows what he is doing." I have to LOL at the posts and posters because the majority of my (and others) gripes with Fran over the years have been around lack of athleticism and no dribble drive threat at the guard spot. Shocking that the athleticism of Keegan/Kris and getting Perkins in the mix at PG (a guy who can dribble drive and defend) fueled the late season success. If Fran is such a genius, why did it take him 12 years to figure out Basketball 101?
Credit Fran for finding the guys he has and for being willing to adapt more this year than in past 11, but he still has no clue how to build a roster that can win a second round game. His Euro style finesse ball is entertaining and he is willing to feature star players like Garza and Keegan, but his teams are never going to come out on top in a street fight. The soft, finesse, 3-point shooting teams get exposed quickly come March and Fran just can't connect the dots apparently.
It certainly is a mystery, however I will start with this. Watching the last couple rounds it's clear teams with a physical defense are more likely to advance. There has been little to no offensive flow to any of these later round games.
Now Iowa may have played a little better defensively late in the year, but watching these other teams commit to that end of the floor makes it plainly obvious that we just don't have that killer defensive mindset it takes to win this time of year.
We could score points most the year, but as you said against teams we are familiar with.
Richmond locked in defensively, frustrated our shooters all night, and when combined with tired legs, it was a perfect recipe for a loss.
Agree on Illinois futility. No excuse for them. However, Chicago is only 3 hours away from Iowa City. We could and should field a consistent yearly contender just recruiting that area alone. We have no excuses either.
Hopefully helps bring in more NBA talent. Then by year 20 we can get to the sweet sixteen.
1969/1970, there were 25 teams selected for the tourney. Iowa drew eventual National runner-up in the first round and lost on a tip in. Lute took us to the final 4. Crushing losses can be tolerated when you occassionally have great tourney wins.
Who looks a lot like Thad Motta……who I would take as coach in a heartbeat, provided his health is good.Two words ... Norman Dale.
Iowa IS my team. It wasn't a big enough stage for Lute. He left Iowa, not the reverse. And many of us who were here then were pissed about it. He ended up doing alright for himself, but I have wondered if he couldn't have done similar things at Iowa.
A heartache for sure when Lute left and I think we all had our own reactions to it but your post helps clarify yours. I would only say that Iowa in the Big Ten seemed a much bigger stage than also ran Arizona at the time. It seems most likely that a variety of factors weather, Bobbi's health and the opportunity to create something special out of nothing in a warm climate all led to his moving on along with not liking the fishbowl in Iowa City.
Same goes for our present situation not making it past the first weekend of the NCAA tournament for these last 12 years with some teams that seemed capable of at least making a little run. Have enjoyed this thread and seeing how different fans react to it. The fact of the matter doesn't change however.
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If you had an issue with why Lute left, you should have taken that up with him. I thought Iowa warranted and deserved a good coach like him. As I said, HE left Iowa, not the reverse.Allow me to rephrase.........
Iowa > your version of Iowa
Deal with it.
Bad and disappointing things happen in life and you move on. I live in the Florida panhandle and a year and a half ago during Hurricane Sally got flooded out and lost everything and have had to start fresh. In this situation Iowa in basketball hasn't really got on its feet since and responsibility for that falls squarely on our shoulders.
In that vein I would say Fran has a great situation here for as long as he wants to coach and stay. Want to see him start to assess how things have gone up to this point and put us in a position where we can effectively compete in the NCAA tournament and national scene.
This post is absolute bull. All of it.
I don't know if it is still in effect, but Lickliter burned a bunch of bridges in Chicago.
My point was that Iowa, even under a coach as great as Olson, has had their issues when they get to the NCAA's.
Lute called an unfortunate TO he didn't have at the end of that game resulting in a technical that basically sealed the deal.
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I thought this year was going to be a different result. It definitely was in the BTT, where the Hawks played great BB. Keegan Murray was arguably the best all-round Iowa player in the past 40 years (and Ronnie Lester is still my favorite all-time Hawkeye). The article was dead on. It really does boil down to expectations whether Fran should be viewed as a successful coach or a failure As pointed out, it is a mix, but performance in the dance has been unacceptable.
What do Tom Davis, Alford and Fran have in common? They didn't commit to defense. If your team doesn't commit to defense you can forget consistent deep tourney runs.
It's no mistake that Houston, UCLA, Arkansas, Texas Tech have made several deep runs over the last 3 years. Occasionally you will get the random flier like Miami in there but it's more likely the Cenedella's are defensive minded teams like Iowa St., St. Peters that hit just enough shots.
For an Iowa to advance we have to be hitting a lot of tough shots against quality defenses. Margin of error is too small.
It's no mistake that Houston, UCLA, Arkansas, Texas Tech have made several deep runs over the last 3 years. Occasionally you will get the random flier like Miami in there but it's more likely the Cenedella's are defensive minded teams like Iowa St., St. Peters that hit just enough shots.
For an Iowa to advance we have to be hitting a lot of tough shots against quality defenses. Margin of error is too small.
Anyone that thinks Perkins is a pg is fooling themselves. There’s a familiarity with the ball while seeing the whole court that Perkins doesn’t have. He’s more of your head down penetrate the paint guy not a full court pg.
Wow. That article not only cuts the nuts off it slashes off the whole bag and tosses it over its shoulder. Jesus Christ. More truth in there than I can handle in one reading. What the everlasting fvck. Damn.
Decent analysis.
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