Dembele, when he's in, where is he playing, it's not where he is supposed to be. At 6-9 240/250 whatever, Fran has him playing a wing position and not near the basket to rebound. Seems logical maybe to only Fran 
It’s pathetic that its occurring this early
- Thread starter Camhawk2012
- Start date
BirdistheWord
HB Legend
Trying to crystal ball, forecasting towards the end of the season....below is what I believe needs to happen if we want to try and max out this roster, this year
We have to stick with some heavy dose of Bowen/Harding. Hell, one of our recent games had them on the floor together and was interesting. Point is (pun intended) that we can't skip over the PG role and pretend that Perkins should fill that void. We need him off the ball. Harding is shooting 42%from 3, tops among core rotation. 35+ minutes (combined)
Luckily Freeman is now starting but he needs H E A V Y minutes. He is by far our best rim protector but will need to play smart and out of foul trouble. 23-26 minutes.
Dembele needs to play slightly more, probably 15-17 minutes. We need his rebounding and ideally some defense.
Dix needs to increase his minutes, slightly. He is our #2 3 point shooter in core rotation.
PMac needs far less minutes.
Krikke needs 4-5 less minutes.
Pryce will not be in rotation.
Starters: Bowen, Saucy, Payton, Krikke and Freeman
Key Bench: Dix, Harding, PMac and Dembele
We have to stick with some heavy dose of Bowen/Harding. Hell, one of our recent games had them on the floor together and was interesting. Point is (pun intended) that we can't skip over the PG role and pretend that Perkins should fill that void. We need him off the ball. Harding is shooting 42%from 3, tops among core rotation. 35+ minutes (combined)
Luckily Freeman is now starting but he needs H E A V Y minutes. He is by far our best rim protector but will need to play smart and out of foul trouble. 23-26 minutes.
Dembele needs to play slightly more, probably 15-17 minutes. We need his rebounding and ideally some defense.
Dix needs to increase his minutes, slightly. He is our #2 3 point shooter in core rotation.
PMac needs far less minutes.
Krikke needs 4-5 less minutes.
Pryce will not be in rotation.
Starters: Bowen, Saucy, Payton, Krikke and Freeman
Key Bench: Dix, Harding, PMac and Dembele
Yea. I agree with all of this. If we are a below .500 team at least let guys like Freeman, Harding, and Dembele mix it up for at least 20 minutes a game each.
I've said from the beginning (when people keep clamoring for either Dix or Perkins to play the point) that neither is a point guard against teams that pressure. Fran needs to ride with Bowen and Harding. Also talked earlier that I've been a little underwhelmed with Dembele. Not because I don't think he might be good. Its just that after the trip to Europe we were hearing so much about his physicality and how he was a beast on the boards. I don't know of its how Frans using him or who he's in with as far as matchups, but we've seen neither from him, and thats bad news because thats what we REALLY need right now is some physical presence. At this point he's most on the perimeter. We are SOFT with Krikke, Pmac and PS in the frontcourt.
Soft might be too kind of an adjective defensively and rebounding wise. I like Krikke. He can be a really good four in the big ten. He just isn’t a five in the big ten. We need aircraft carriers in the post like we’ve seen from Michigan, Iowa State, Creighton, and Purdue that just swallows up rebounds. We aren’t anywhere close to that.
Is there a reason why Fran can’t recruit a true PG ? Seems every year this is a glaring weakness of an Iowa team….tho this year appears there’s weakness everywhere
He hasn’t had an all around guard since he’s been at Iowa. Iowa state has had Monte Morris, Halliburton, Thomas, Kane, Long, Wigginton, Lipsey, Horton-Tucker and the list goes on. All better than any guard Iowa has had in decades. It’s actually kind of impressive at this point. I guess he had Marble but that seems ages ago at this point.
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Well if your shots aren't falling and your defense is pretty much non-existent (consistently) then you're gonna have nights like that.
Yes, guard recruiting really bad..
I like Dembele and Freeman in this class because both have the athleticism to compete in B1G, However, neither has the offense yet to compete at high level yet.
Harding to me is questionable high major prospect becuase he doesn't look to be a pure shooter. Bowen obviously has the quicks to be a B1G guard but is missing the offense, Dix looks like a solid guy but I don't see him having the shooting talent to be a star, so another complementary guard, not a stud.
Payton is dissappointing..he misses too many open 3's and takes to many contested 3's. He's got to be a 40% type 3pt shooter to make up for being defensive liablility.
IF Payton is a bust, then his Bro is probably a bust. Krikke and PMAC are too bad defensively/rebounding to be B1G players. Perkins never took the next step to become a star.
I thought 8 B1G wins but maybe 6 looks more likely at this point. I don't think we have to worry about any P5 school swooping in for Fran. No need to extend his contract any more. Firing Fran won't happen.
Hopefully Fran does move on to a Mid Major job on his own accord after Jack graduates H.S. Problem is the program is going to be a bottom feeder for next 2 years with a lame duck coach that doesn't coach defense.
That string will eventually play itself out, too.
Blunder will eventually fail as a basketball coach...and its about her turn.
Iowa's biggest problem is that we have no defensive or rebounding presence in the paint. Fran has failed to bring in through the portal a big, strong center who can rebound and play defense. And scoring doesn't have to be a priority.
Random...let’s be fair here....coaches would cut off their left nut for one of those.
Honestly we get picked in that 9-10 spot almost every year and yet Fran has had us more in the 4-7 spot for the most part so we've probably exceeded expectations. That of course was with having basically 3 straight years with the NPOTY, and a 1st team all B1G player almost every year. Unfortunately there are NO alpha dog 1st teamers on this team, and coupling that with are usually sub par defense and you have what we are watching currently. Pre season Fran said that his three veterans PS, Pmac, and TP would need to be the leaders on this team, and non of these guys is playing well consistently.....
BirdistheWord
HB Legend
Historically, Fran has always valued height/length over quickness/athleticism (not saying this is exclusive to shorter players, but some correlation). There was a point just a few years ago where you could count on one hand the number of players he brought on campus (scholarship) that were under 6'3". There have been a few more recently, but this amounts to about one every other year... (this is across 15 years, including 2024)
Cartwright
Bohannon
Clemmons
Gessell
Dickerson
Toussaint
Ulis
Harding
Cartwright
Bohannon
Clemmons
Gessell
Dickerson
Toussaint
Ulis
Harding
