Iowa Men's Basketball Media Day (Oct 5). Josh Dix going 5 on 5 & hasn't Missed a Minute of Practice Since Sep 1

[perryhawk]

36% is the best he's shot in a season

Okay.....and that means that having an entire off season without injury (for the first time in his career) and being able to spend the entire off season working on basketball skills for the first time at Iowa makes you believe he won't be better this year? Fran indicated that he is shooting the ball much better.....and the take away on this is a negative?

 

[perryhawk]

I'm told Fran vigorously worked the portal for a Center and struck out

You're just learning that now?........this is the whole beating a dead horse, Mr. Obvious thing....like I said, negativity is something you excel at.

 

[Bro D]

Okay.....and that means that having an entire off season without injury (for the first time in his career) and being able to spend the entire off season working on basketball skills for the first time at Iowa makes you believe he won't be better this year? Fran indicated that he is shooting the ball much better.....and the take away on this is a negative?

Hopefully he shoots the ball much better... playing less than 10 minutes a game

 

[CleteyColgate]

Okay.....and that means that having an entire off season without injury (for the first time in his career) and being able to spend the entire off season working on basketball skills for the first time at Iowa makes you believe he won't be better this year? Fran indicated that he is shooting the ball much better.....and the take away on this is a negative?

I actually said he would be

 

[hooper56]

"I agree with @skydog0784 in that Josh O is ahead of Riley at the moment; Fran said when we go up against guys like Edey, Dickinson & Cliff O (the Rutgers big), we will need Josh O. He said Riley has got to get to that level of play."

I think Fran was addressing a very specific question which was about guarding some of the Bigger Posts in the B1G. Overall, I believe Riley is far ahead of Josh O, skill wise and in understanding the game. Josh is sort of a one trick pony. He is a down low banger and defender.

 

[Iafootballfan]

Looking forward to Connor to join the staff as an offensive analyst next season....

 

[skydog0784]

"I agree with @skydog0784 in that Josh O is ahead of Riley at the moment; Fran said when we go up against guys like Edey, Dickinson & Cliff O (the Rutgers big), we will need Josh O. He said Riley has got to get to that level of play."

I think Fran was addressing a very specific question which was about guarding some of the Bigger Posts in the B1G. Overall, I believe Riley is far ahead of Josh O, skill wise and in understanding the game. Josh is sort of a one trick pony. He is a down low banger and defender.

I sure hope so. I'm rooting for Riley. We need him.

He visually looks the part more so than Josh O but we've seen so little of Riley it's hard to render an assessment - unless you're in a position to observe practice.

 

[Franisdaman]

First off THANK GOD THAT we got some Basketball news going on....

I think most of what we heard was expected....but there were two area's where my main concerns are/were for this team: Point Guard and Post.

Here's what I came away with from the press conference and interviews.

1) Fran feels pretty good about the PG position..AU and DB are the two primary guys there with Tony and Connor able to provide adequate play there as well. I feel a little better about this position after what we saw/heard yesterday. That said, I did not see interviews with AU or DB.

The Dasonte interview is in post #12. He's gonna be really good.

I had forgotten about Ulis' wrist injury; as I mentioned above, Fran said it was really bothering him at the end of last season where he had a hard time finishing & shooting the ball. He's healthy now.

2) Post play....good and bad. I think Rebraca has/will take a good step forward. That is a fairly strong positive I came away with. The bad......apparently JO and RM have not REALLY stepped forward and made the significant improvement that we need. I think I heard they have both improved, but the message or lack of hype tells me that they still need to make significant progress to be where we need them. Hopefully we see something different, but I came away feeling disappointed with what I heard/saw here.

Yeah, Fran didn't use the words "sensational" or "phenomenal" when describing either JO or RM. Sounds like JO will be used before RM. What's concerning about RM is that Fran said that he has got to get to JO's level of play.

Other items that appear to be positives, a little better than what I expected, and these are assumptions or a little bit of a stretch/reach on my part. First, I think Tony is/will take even more of a step forward than he did down the stretch last year........he apparently has always been confident....but the read I get now is that he will be not only confident, but comfortable in asserting himself and being aggressive.

Fran mentions Tony as possibly making one of the All B1G teams

Second, I think in spite of all the haters we finally get to see more consistent offensive production from Connor. I think he's always played smart, physical, and been that coach on the floor. I think his lack of off season time and physical stuff related to baseball have kept him from refining his skills to the level he is capable of....and we will now see that. His importance to this team, in addition to the intangibles, will be real quality depth capable of scoring.

Instead of taking time for the batting cage, Connor is now able to get more shots up. It seems like he's always had an offseason where he was recovering from an injury. Not this offseason. Fran has mentioned that he's healthy and in great basketball shape.

When you watch the Connor interviews, you can see what a great leader he is and that he has future coach written all over him.

Some other positives....I think Dix is further along than I anticipated and assuming things continue on the right track he could/should contribute at some level this year. In addition I think Nimmers is tracking on a successful path....appears to be playing ahead of the other walk-ons and fitting well with the team....not sure if he will contribute this year, but I think the potential is immense for a walk on.

I don't think there's any question Dix is going to play and contribute. He has such a sweet looking shot.

I am guessing Nimmers is the first walkon off the bench.

 

[Franisdaman]

"I agree with @skydog0784 in that Josh O is ahead of Riley at the moment; Fran said when we go up against guys like Edey, Dickinson & Cliff O (the Rutgers big), we will need Josh O. He said Riley has got to get to that level of play."

I think Fran was addressing a very specific question which was about guarding some of the Bigger Posts in the B1G. Overall, I believe Riley is far ahead of Josh O, skill wise and in understanding the game. Josh is sort of a one trick pony. He is a down low banger and defender.

Actually, the question was more general, where it was asked how important it was to get something from JO and RM this season.

From the transcript:

Q. How important is it to get something from your two post players this year?

FRAN McCAFFERY: Well, it's going to be really important against certain teams. It won't be as important against other teams. But as you know, you look around our league, there's some pretty imposing 5 men. Not only in terms of talent but physical size. You look at Edey and Dickinson in particular, those guys, Cliff. There's just a number of guys that are a handful. I thought Josh last year when we needed him to step up in those situations produced well, whether it was against Kofi, whether it was against Edey, he was good. Riley has got to get there.

 

[Franisdaman]

I sure hope so. I'm rooting for Riley. We need him.

He visually looks the part more so than Josh O but we've seen so little of Riley it's hard to render an assessment - unless you're in a position to observe practice.

Speaking of practice, it appears that Riley's finishing move is an elbow off the top rope.

 

[Franisdaman]

I mentioned this before; Sandfort is gonna have a great year for us.

Fran/Iowa is looking to win 20 games for the 5th straight season. In his 12 completed seasons, Fran has averaged 20.2 wins/season.

Iowa won 26 games last season. Fran (currently at 242) is just 28 wins from passing Tom Davis (269) on the Iowa all time wins list.

Nice column:

 

[Franisdaman]

Here is a photo gallery:

Photos: Iowa Men’s Basketball Media Day

hawkeyesports.com

Couple observations:

* Josh, coming off that injury, not backing down against Josh

* Nimmers looks like he has some hops; as I mentioned above, I wonder if he will be the first walkon off the bench

 

[Franisdaman]

 

[Herky T Hawk]

Fran said Connor is in more basketball shape since he is now both healthy & 100% focused on one sport. Fran said that he is shooting the ball really well.

He's clearly a great leader both on and off the court.

I've heard about a lot of players over the year that "shot the ball really well" in practice from Fran. But then the game starts and they struggle. Mark me down as one that will need to see it in multiple games to believe it.

 

[hooper56]

I've heard about a lot of players over the year that "shot the ball really well" in practice from Fran. But then the game starts and they struggle. Mark me down as one that will need to see it in multiple games to believe it.

No kidding. You wouldn’t want to be labeled an optimist or be overly enthusiastic!

 

[perryhawk]

I've heard about a lot of players over the year that "shot the ball really well" in practice from Fran. But then the game starts and they struggle. Mark me down as one that will need to see it in multiple games to believe it.

Josh Oglesby is the only one I remember reading that about. Who else?

 

[Herky T Hawk]

Josh Oglesby is the only one I remember reading that about. Who else?

Ellingson was one of our sharpshooters that never averaged at or above 1 made 3pg per game for us in 3.25 seasons. Including one full season he shot less than 30% from 3.

Maybe I’m just a bit jaded by Fran’s effusive praise of so many players every preseason just to find out several of them were significantly oversold to us. I’m not saying he needs to be Ferentz and pessimistically downplay every positive thing, but Fran’s optimism mixed with a healthy dose of realism would be nice.

 

[perryhawk]

Ellingson was one of our sharpshooters that never averaged at or above 1 made 3pg per game for us in 3.25 seasons. Including one full season he shot less than 30% from 3.

Maybe I’m just a bit jaded by Fran’s effusive praise of so many players every preseason just to find out several of them were significantly oversold to us. I’m not saying he needs to be Ferentz and pessimistically downplay every positive thing, but Fran’s optimism mixed with a healthy dose of realism would be nice.

Fran is almost always effusive in his praise of his players…..I think it’s a part of his continuous effort to build confidence in his players…

That said Josh Ogelsby is really the only one Fran over sold and by all reports that’s because Josh was an incredible shooter…….but only in practice.

Ellingson was recruited as a shooter and obviously never panned out and eventually transferred.

I don’t think Fran is making anything up or feeding us a line…..but I understand how a person would take a “wait and see” approach because practice is one thing and doing it in a game is another.

 

[The Deplorable Sleeping Dog]

Fran is almost always effusive in his praise of his players…..I think it’s a part of his continuous effort to build confidence in his players…

That said Josh Ogelsby is really the only one Fran over sold and by all reports that’s because Josh was an incredible shooter…….but only in practice.

Ellingson was recruited as a shooter and obviously never panned out and eventually transferred.

I don’t think Fran is making anything up or feeding us a line…..but I understand how a person would take a “wait and see” approach because practice is one thing and doing it in a game is another.

You're just saying all that because you're rational.

 

[CookyMonster]

Nimmers is an elite walk on prospect, but Nic Baer is gonna be hard to beat.

Okey Ukah had some buzz.

Darius Stokes had some hype at the start of Fran's tenure.

Till got rotational minutes in some big ten games.

Jordan stoermer was dolph's radio player of the game against a terrible non con team.

I think Stubbs got some minutes vs Wake Forest.

 

[blhawk]

I thought Connor has been done with baseball for awhile now, when was the last time he was truly focused on it?

 

[Franisdaman]

Ulis (has yet to start a game) more than likely is the starting PG on Oct 31 (exhibition), Nov 7 (season opener) and moving forward. Dasonte might eventually win the starting job sometime during the season.

Here is one story on the "battle." As you will read, Fran said this about the PG position: "I think it's pretty soon. I mean Ahron Ulis has been really good, Dasonte (Bowen) has been really good. I've been really impressed with Ahron's professionalism and his mental approach from the end of last year until now. Dasonte is not playing like a freshman. He's very aggressive. He makes some freshman mistakes once in a while, but he can really get to the rim and create and he can score."


The FULL Story:

 

[BustingNarratives]

yep, he's done w/ baseball.

i have a feeling he has a future in coaching

Conner is going to be a GREAT coach some day.

 

[Franisdaman]

Conner is going to be a GREAT coach some day.

agreed