An argument could be made that Caitlin Clark had as much to do with Fran being fired as anyone. Her presence sucked financial resources and fan support over to the women’s side over the last 3 years that coincides with the decline on the men’s side.
Is Owen Freeman the reason Fran got fired?
- Thread starter tweeterhawk
- Start date
Kris didn’t play when Garza was here and Keegan was role player off the bench his 1 year.
Team wasn’t good Including freeman which is his job as your 5. You can complain he his teammates didn’t rebound good enough. But he didn’t either and as your starting C don’t have much room to complain. It’s like saying your pg who turned it over too much needed teammates who passed it better and took care of the ball. That’s his main responsibility. Which btw sandfort avg same amount of rebounds a game last year and .7 less than freeman this year again proving freeman was just as much the problem as anyone on the team why struggled.
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This is laughable. Clark didn’t take SWARM money and fans have wanted Fran gone since at least the abysmal 2017-18 season.
Can you believe this guy wore the same IOWA uniform as Chris Street?
Chris Street give up on a season for a little finger injury?
Heck Payton played through multiple injuries.
Not exactly a good sign for how Freeman will be dedicated to his next stop
Home games with 8 fans in attendance is the main reason Fran is gone.
Exactly. I’m happy for the women! They’re fun to watch. But I don’t think fans, as a whole, have the resources to attend both men’s and women’s games (time, money, etc), they’ve made the choice for now. We’ll see what happens over the next couple years.
I have no idea what other fans think about current "college sports" but my fandom is really taking a major hit with all this BS. I am reaching the point I reached with pro sports 10 years ago, not watching. Soon to be "I Could not care less" as it is all about overpaid athletes, coaches, no loyalty, tampering, etc. and a huge money-grab. JMO
Well let's beat the sh** out of this reliable source if it turns out to be true. That'll send a message to whoever told your reliable source that they're next and they should be watching their backs.........
Then tell them to consider it an offer of friendship.
I would imagine that the coaches that are offering him are familiar with his game.
Freeman always struck me as a phony and i found his religious talk disingenuous
Freeman came in heavier, but didn’t seem to add strength. Leads me to believe his work ethic on conditioning was lacking. That’s on him. With his size and role on the team should have been averaging near a double double.
I don't buy the "either/or" argument. Women's and Men's hoops both drew very well in the past. The student population is bigger and IC/Coralville/North Liberty is twice as big as it was 30 years ago. There are plenty of people.
Crowd shots of the women's games tell you that it's a different kind of fan who started coming out when Clark became such a phenom. They didn't just switch from men's to women's. The recent surge of the women's program didn't take away from the men, but it did provide a stark contrast.
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There is no one person at fault here….why do hunans have to “point a finger” at someone/something all the time.
Shit happens. There were no fannies in the seats this year. That will get most job performances reviewed.
It will happen again in a few years… if not here, somewhere else.
Shit happens. There were no fannies in the seats this year. That will get most job performances reviewed.
It will happen again in a few years… if not here, somewhere else.
He didn't progress the way he needed to be progressing. It is unlikely he will ever see time in the NBA so he needs to cash in on NIL now. He also doesn't have time to stick around for a new coach to get things in order, although I'm 99% convinced his transfer decision was made long before they let Fran go. I don't blame him for looking elsewhere. Unfortunately, that's college sports these days.
I went to the Wazzu game at the Mark back in November. My two biggest takeaways from that game were how easily Iowa gave up uncontested drives to the basket and how much slower Freeman was compared to last year. His decline was shocking.
Fran recruiting soft pansies like Owen Freeman is the reason Fran got fired.
I know a lot of you aren't going to like this, but I didn't have a big problem with Connor. I fell he always competed really hard. Was very good at getting the ball into the big's, and the last couple of years, his 3-point shouting improved quite a bit. I realize that he was slower on reaction time on defense and wasn't a threat at breaking down a defense to drive the lane, but his hardcore attitude and passing was something that group needed. I also believe that Patrick just never could get caught back up after his cancer. He was still decent role player. We will never no, but if his health had never taken a hit, things may have been quite different for him. Please don't come on here and say he was never going to be any good, and he only got to play because he was Frans kid. None of us will ever know at all what his body went through, through that whole process. JMO
Look at the top teams in the Big 10, and they all have strong inside games. Size and toughness that we tried matching with 6'10'' Owen and 6'8'' Payton. Laji and Brauns were to small to play center on any team that was going to compete at the top. An ok guard court, but not one that could compete at the top of the league. We could score, but that's where our advantage stopped. Like ICawkeye45 and many others have said over and over, it's bad roster management. That's on Fran.
Through out the 15 years Iowa always lack roster management issues from Fran, Iowa either didn't have a great starting lineup, lacked guards, tall centers, shooters, or competent bench players. That in a nut shell is why Frans teams never advanced past the first week of the NCAA tournament and very few of them could play defense, I'm too lazy to look up the rebounding stats for the entire 15 years, but I bet Iowa lost that battle more then 50% of the time.
Owen was a warrior for all of the year and a half he played at Iowa, almost every team Iowa played had 1 or more players taller then him and banged with them all. That in itself has to wear on you physically and mentally. Fran refused to recruit centers that could have helped Iowa narrow the rebounding gap and in the end it was his downfall. Glad the Fran McCaffery era is over.... I have nothing but respect for Owen, he came to Iowa wanting to win a championship, and just get worn out and disenchanted. It happens to lots of college players.
Worn out and disenchanted?
He quit.
That doesn't happen to the good ones, with very few exceptions.
Fran's teams over the past fifteen years were built on fast breaks with rapid scoring and only short bursts of defensive basketball, i.e. full court presses. This works well if your team shoots the ball well or have guards that can take it to the hoop. The lack of offensive rebounding really confirms the strategy of "letting it fly" and immediately racing back to the opponents half court to defend. A balanced half court offense with guards that can take it to the hoop and some big bodies that can take away easy opponents drive to the bucket would seem a better long term strategy that is both fun to watch and competitive against top tier programs.
