You need slashing guards that can score.
It's proven than Fran's system can't make it far in the NCAA's. Why won't he change?
- Thread starter JRHawk2003
- Start date
Lol......what is this contrarian take from you?
Shouldn't you be defending Fran from Beth Goetz and preparing the fanbase for the impending basketball Civil War?
The problem with Iowa running the pack line is that teams can throw the f***ing ball up from the men's restroom at Carver and it would deflect off of the soft serve stand, the score table and one of the referees trying to stick it to Fran, and then magically find its way into the net for 3 every time.
The special needs towel boy for our opponents could bounce it off Luka Garza head in the tunnel of Carver and it would find its way into the f***ing hoop.
That is how f***ing unlucky we are with teams shooting in our home arena. Every team we face receives a 28% shooting bonus to their abilities when they play Iowa and whichever hoop they shoot towards becomes 80 ft wider.
It doesn't matter what defense we run if our opponents can throw it in the ocean from a dungeon buried underneath a desert......
Interesting he's all up in Fran's grill but the firing of Brian Ferentz ? How dare Goetz do that, especially w/all the success of Brian.Lol......what is this contrarian take from you?
Shouldn't you be defending Fran from Beth Goetz and preparing the fanbase for the impending basketball Civil War?
Its interesting that you cant read, and/or feel the need to trying make up a straw man
"trying make up"?
Don't let your rage affect your writing.....
rage? I was eating at a luncheon instead of at my desk. I am on the gravy train today. lol.
You try too hard
Ohhhh.....what's really gonna bake your noodle later on is, was I really trying?
Ohhhh.....what's really gonna bake your noodle later on is, was I really trying?
You give yourself wayyyy too much credit.
Fran's defenses are no where near as bad as Kirk's offenses.
Perhaps, but by winning % and results the captain still wins. Fran has no Sweet 16s. KF won a BCS Bowl and some other good ones and won 2 regular season Big 10 titles. We don't sniff it in hoops. Since 1979 and counting.
And there is a trade off with basketball. Guys have to play both ways. You might have to sacrifice someone that can’t play defense like Bohannon because he brings stuff offensively. There is not that excuse with football. That’s how shocking the iowa football offense is.
Iowa b-ball under Fran has been a very double edged sword for me. Fran plans a more up tempo style that I want to watch. However, I personally find the NCAA tourney the pinnacle of sporting events for the year. I can tell you very little about how Iowa has finished in the league in any given season because unless they win it, I don't care all that much. How the team does in the NCAA tourney is more important. By a large margin.
I disagree with the take that the NCAA tournament is an entirely random crapshoot. It certainly has unpredictable elements given its set up. That's a big part of what makes it great. But a coach has opportunities to construct a roster, have a plan for the season and put together the best team possible to navigate the tourney. If this was year 3 or 4 of Fran's tenure and he hadn't done anything in the tourney that's not a big enough sample to judge. Cleary we are way past that. Fran's teams tourney performance at Iowa, over a relatively long time period for a D-1 coach, is bad. And it's going in the wrong direction most recently.
I disagree with the take that the NCAA tournament is an entirely random crapshoot. It certainly has unpredictable elements given its set up. That's a big part of what makes it great. But a coach has opportunities to construct a roster, have a plan for the season and put together the best team possible to navigate the tourney. If this was year 3 or 4 of Fran's tenure and he hadn't done anything in the tourney that's not a big enough sample to judge. Cleary we are way past that. Fran's teams tourney performance at Iowa, over a relatively long time period for a D-1 coach, is bad. And it's going in the wrong direction most recently.
It's because he's a chooch who doesn't know shit about basketball but likes watching his talentless sons. Reminds me of a guy named Steve Alford-Plea.
Next?
For whatever reason, and to be fair, it’s not just a Fran problem - Iowa has traditionally struggled to recruit athletic guards consistently that can attack off the dribble. Those guys are usually better defensively as well.
On paper, I THINK we have a better mix of guys that can do that and think we potentially could be solid defensively…IF our young guys can develop.
On paper, I THINK we have a better mix of guys that can do that and think we potentially could be solid defensively…IF our young guys can develop.
Without looking it up, tell me at least half or the sweet sixteen teams of the last 3 years? My guess is most can’t which illustrates making the sweet sixteen isn’t as big of a deal as most make it out to be.
So because people don’t have encyclopedic knowledge of a 68 team field, knowing the sweet sixteen isn’t a big deal? Not making it for a couple years is one thing. That Iowa hasn’t done it in 25 years is.
Fran has his faults, but unless you are a blue blood, i think the best you can hope for is a chance. Frans has given the hawks a chance most years. Some things fall on him. Other have been crap lukc or shitty draws... thinking of that Oregon game a few years back.
Fran's system is great on offense and during the regular season. The defense is pretty awful. In the NCAA Tourny the games are less free flowing and possibly fewer possessions. Not Iowa's strength under Fran.
The defense this year is going to be an issue once again
The defense this year is going to be an issue once again
Will see. I’m a bit optimistic based on early reports of the freshmen bigs; and hopefully Bowen can take a step in year two.
It really is bizarro word in Iowa sports. In football due to the elite defense we’re just begging the offense to be competent; and in basketball we’ve been very good offensively that we just need the defense to be competent.
Tell me half of the sweet sixteen teams of last years tournament? You get my point. I can't even tell you who was in the final four last year without looking it up.
No I don’t get your point. Making the sweet 16 is a big deal in sports. Quite frankly I don’t have enough room in my head to remember everything.
If we as a fan of the program want Iowa to elevate itself, reaching the second weekend of the NCAA tournament is one of the milestones we have to measure ourselves by.
So you’re saying that Iowa needs to elevate their program to the likes of: Princeton, Florida Atlantic, St Peters, Oregon St, Oral Roberts?
My point is that it's not as important as many make it out to be as no one remembers the teams anyway. Important for Iowa fans? Sure. I'd love Fran to get further in the tournament but I also realize it's a one and done system and the best teams don't always advance.
Stop blaming Fran for Iowa's struggles in the last 2 or 3 NCAA Tourneys, it was that stupid ball the NCAA used!!
Is there some reason we can’t expect Iowa to do likewise occasionally?
The best teams do normally advance. And if I hear about our "bad matchup " against Oregon again I'm going to scream. We will probably never again be a 2 seed, and we got our asses handed to us and it wasn't even close. Go out and lose a tight one sure, it's disappointing. Go give up over 100 and then say we got screwed by the committee is BS. At some point to make the Final 4 or even the elite 8 you're going to play someone good.
I’ll disagree to an extent. Oftentimes the NCAA tournament comes down to matchups. Teams that had better overall talent but rely on big men can lose to an underdog with better guard play. Teams that shoot a lot of 3s can can go deep in the tourney if they’re shooting well…or they can lose in first game if they go cold.
it wasn’t a screw job or anything, but Oregon truly was a bad matchup for us - we’d shown numerous times that teams with quick guards were our kryptonite all year long, as it effectively neutralized Garza at times.
Fran also screwed up in that game by choosing to run with Oregon, instead of playing to our advantages in that matchup. As much as we liked to play up-tempo, offensively we were at our best playing the efficient half-court offense that allowed Garza to dominate.
No argument on being good to advance but not all good teams are able to do so in a one and done tournament, especially in basketball when teams can get hot or go cold. The best team doesn't always win.
The elite teams full of 4 and 5 star talent are the ones that normally advance but even they get beat by lesser teams.
PAC had 3 teams make the elite 8 that year... And Im pretty sure they had a top 15 pick in Duarte. Also had a collection of 4 and 5 star recruits from the two previous classes.
Yeah Oregon had a team that was probably better than their seed, but ended up with the 7 as they’d underachieved if I remember during the regular season. It was quite a contrast between their game vs us and their next game vs USC I think, who beat them soundly.
I think they were hurt most of the year and didn't get their full compliment of players till the Pac tourney... Still no excuse for some of the other head scratching losses in March.
Forget if it was docterman or morehouse that went back and looked; basically since the field expanded to 64 Iowa hasn’t played a lower seed in round 2; meaning their bracket has always been chalk when they’ve advanced.
Only first round loss that really stung for me was the loss to Richmond two years ago; when we were just ice-cold from deep and lost. One of those dreaded 5-12 games if I remember right.
McCaffery's record is remarkably similar to that of Tom Davis, who many on here bemoaned his firing and who got a terrific kickstart from Raveling's recruits. Lickliter left the cupboard pretty bare for McCaffery. Later this season, McCaffery will become the all-time leader in wins at Iowa. He's had a string of successful regular seasons that other coaches that have come and gone in the B1G would have died for. I would think that McCaffery feels that he done a pretty good job since signing on here and there are a lot of fans that would agree with him. He runs a clean program and has brought in kids we can be proud of. He runs an exciting brand of basketball that's fun to watch. All in all, I would say he's done a decent job.
Oregon won the Pac 12 regular season crown that year. I don't know what they were doing on the 7 line. Tons of quickness and tons of three point shooting. Oh well. That USC team was crazy athletic. USC absolutely annihilated Kansas in the tourney that year, IIRC. Just ran them right out of the gym.
Not to quibble because I agree with your overall points but Garza had 36 points against Oregon so we did pound it inside. I don't think our tempo when we had the ball was the problem. Rather, Oregon's tempo when they had the ball was the problem. We couldn't slow them down at all when they had the ball.
