I hate to break it to you but it, that's what happened. Sometimes our heroes prove disappointing.
Back when Fredrick first transferred, when somebody posted over on the Kentucky boards that people here on the Iowa boards were accusing UK of recruiting CJ to come, they were laughed at. The UK fans found that idea preposterous. Ludicrous. Insane. They asked why would Cal, who has always been a defense oriented coach whose teams barely shoot 3 pointers, come after a guy who averaged 7.5 PPG on one of the worst defensive teams in Power 5 basketball?
Here is where UK’s 3pt attempts per game ranks in Division I over the past 6 years:
2018: 346
2019: 345
2020: 349
2021: 272 (increased attempts, ended with record of 9-23, worst in UK history)
2022: 325
2023: 320
And here is where UK’s 3pt defense ranks (opponent’s 3PT%):
2018: 4
2019: 190
2020: 59
2021: 58
2022: 45
2023: 99
CJ’s defensive rating his last year at Iowa was 110.9. That year, the worst defensive rating among players who played significant minutes for the 9-23 UK team was 104.7. (lower is better)
And CJ’s DBPM (defensive box plus/minus) was 0.9. That is worse than any of UK’s *walk-ons* that year, and only one guy on the entire team was worse than 1.2. (higher is better)
I think CJ is a better defender than those numbers suggest, but the fact is the whole Iowa team had very weak defensive numbers because defense was never something Fran emphasized.
So yes, the idea that Cal would come after CJ truly is nuts. And yet here we are, with all the crazy conspiracy theories about Uncle Joe and dirty Cal. Pure character assassination with no actual evidence. For a coach that has consistently played his sons over better teammates the past several years.
In CJ’s final year at Iowa, Keegan Murray’s stats utterly destroyed Connor’s, and yet Connor started all 31 games and averaged almost 5 more minutes per game than Keegan. Per 40 minutes, Connor’s assists beat Keegan’s by a significant margin (6.3 vs 1.2). But Keegan got 11.3 rebounds per 40 to Connor’s 5.5, Keegan averaged 2.8 blocks per 40 to Connor’s 0.1, 1.9 steals per 40 to Connor’s 1.1, 1.4 turnovers per 40 to Connor’s 1.7, and 16.1 points per 40 to Connor’s 5.7.
Connor shot 32% to Keegan’s 51%, 59% from the foul line to Keegan’s 76%
Connor’s offensive rating was 108.2 to Keegan’s 122.1. Connor’s defensive rating (lower is better) was 105.3 to Keegan’s 95.5.
Keegan’s Offense Box Plus/Minus (OBPM) was 4.9 to Connor’s -0.6. That’s NEGATIVE 0.6, and overall BPM was 8.3 to Connor’s 1.9.
And yet Fran started Connor every game and he played 25% more minutes than Keegan. Even though, as we learned after the season, Connor was playing with 2 bad hips and needed double surgery.
And the next year we see pretty much the exact same pattern with Patrick vs. Kris. Kris’s numbers were superior in almost every category, sometimes *vastly* superior, and yet Patrick started 31 games and played 25% more minutes than Kris.
But let’s let Fran play the victim card here, and assume he’s the honest one and CJ is the POS. Makes sense.
