I suppose if you are still on the fence about Fran's nepotism, you probably still believe Brian Ferentz didn't get speical treatment in his rise to OC at University of Iowa.
Not really debateable about the special treatment and nepotism if you aren't a family member or for some reason have special loyalty towards Fran's family. CMAC started ahead of NBA player Keegan Murray and PMAC started ahead of NBA player Kris Murray. Only those that live in a world of unmeasureable and unquantifiable attributes would say either of the McCaffery boys should have started and played more minutes over the Murray brothers.
The good thing about Jack going elsewhere is it will mean Fran is no longer tempted to live vicariously through the B-ball play of his boys. Whatever PT Jack earns at his destination will be largely earned on his own, though he has had benefits as a Div1 coaches son of being part of the "insider" network that other players don't have. There is no hate involved---only belief we should all compete based on merit, not DNA.
Conner would not have played for most other Bigs with the same traits he had at Iowa. PM s demotion was for other reasons.
Excuse me, I misspoke. Nepotism on the basketball team is not debatable. There has been none.
Keegan and Kris were not yet NBA caliber players in the seasons you are referring to. As a matter of fact, Kris was a bonehead play waiting to happen until halfway through his second season. They had a high arch in their development and they continue to develop as players. If you recall, they had but one offer coming out of high school.
The season Keegan didn't start Iowa was using a 4 guard lineup with Garza. Nunge didn't start either. So other than JBo, who manned the PG spot, essentially any of the other guards could have been replaced by Keegan. But nobody complains that Frederick started over Keegan. Just the coach's son. Shoot, by your logic Keegan should have started over Wieskamp and Garza, as he is clearly the better NBA player today.
But at that time, Garza and Weezy were better players than Keegan. And that team was built around Garza. Red Auerbach said the best lineup isn't necessarily the best five players, but rather the five that play the best together. Connor lead the nation in assist/TO ratio that season and was a big part of Luka's success. There wouldn't be any problem with an upperclassmen who leads the nation in assist/TO ratio starting over a freshman that's still developing, if Connor wasn't the coach's son.
The team was built differently in the following season. Subsequently Connor was no longer a starter. Kris played more minutes than Connor and comparable minutes to Pat. The way that roster was constructed required Kris to be the backup center. And it turns out that Iowa was able to get a ton of mileage out of going small with him at center. And this was part of the reason they were able to beat Purdue in the tourney title game.
Whether Connor would have had similar success at other big ten schools is irrelevant. Most would agree that he affected winning at Iowa and that's all that matters. It also doesn't matter why Pat fell out of the starting lineup. The fact that Fran has not forced him back into the starting lineup speaks to the fact that favoritism is not in play.
I would not have made Brian OC if I were Kirk because I understand the ridiculous level of oversensitivity that people have about situations that appear to be nepotism. But Brian was a qualified candidate at the time of his hire
