Probably too soon

[lovedwatchingLester]

What were your expectations of Hawkeye basketball in the past 5 years?
Have the Hawkeyes fallen short of those, met , or exceeded your expectations in that time frame.
IMO they have exceeded them, but what's your opinion.
I will tell you my future expectations are a wee bit higher for the next 5 but we'll see.

 

[CAhawki]

1.Establish a culture of winning
2.Get back to the postseason
3. Maintain a level of sustainability

Fran has achieved the first two...Itime will tell of the collapse of 2016 will affect the progress he has made.

 

[StormHawk42]

You won't get many sane responses in here right now. But actually the team is right about where I thought they would be. The Hawks have been to the sweet 16 exactly once in my lifetime, so it's not necessarily something I expect. I thought by the time the 2012 class were seniors, we would have maybe gotten to the second weekend once. I look around at the teams that are competing and they have way more athleticism at just about every position. But we had enough matchup problems with White and Uthoff to keep us competitive.

Really my expectations for Iowa bball are NCAA tourney every three out of four years, maybe second weekend one of those. I think the future classes can keep us at that level, but we need some muscle and better guard play. I've been vocal about my belief in Hutton and Moss. I think those two and Cook and Wagner can give us good teams. Maybe not next year, but after that, I think we'll be ok.

Somewhere along the line, we need to spread out the recruiting classes. The loading up on freshmen really limits our options to capitalize on any future success IMO.

I'd also add that people take this sh!t way too seriously. Lol at firing Fran right now. GTFO with that.

 

[HawkamongstGophers]

As good or better than would have expected at hiring, overall.

That said, I admittedly thought at least one Sweet 16, by year 6.

Still, overall faster than expected, but missing that one extra post season win.

 

[icwestisthebest]

Met the expectations I could reasonably hope for. I never expected us to be a multiple time final 4 team Fran's first couple years like others appearantly do. Constant improvement, and there has been that. At the beginning of this season I was hoping for r32 since we lost several good players. My hopes changed half way through the year for a magical run, but at the end of the day this team met my expectations this year.

 

[hawkeyefanatic84]

Am I upset the way we finished this year and 2 years ago? Hell yes. But 6 years ago when Fran was hired if you gave me our end of the season records and postseason outcomes for the next 6 seasons I'd be ecstatic with the results. We've won an NCAA tourney game each of the last 2 seasons, is that an amazing accomplishment? No, but it's still pretty good. Now that Fran has solidified Iowa as an NCAA tourney team hopefully that will help in recruiting battles. Cook is a good pretty good start in the '16 class.

 

[lovedwatchingLester]

So far the responses seem to mirror my expectations and in so saying seem reasonable and well considered. So I feel ok about where we are and considering the (IMO) upgrade in athleticism my expectations will be higher going forward, like a berth in the sweet 16 , a share or the B1G soon and a better showing in the B1G tournament. At least that's where I'm leaning now but I understand youth and inexperience are against that next year but that doesn't temper my expectations for 20 and next year and a return to the tournament again. We'll see

 

[DavenportHawk8]

Well I still can remember sitting in Carver Hawkeye arena with 6,000 people and looking at all the empty seats. I remember sitting there and watching the Iowa Hawkeyes get smoked by better teams by 30-40pts at some point during the game. I remember watching them come back vs the other teams scrubs to only lose by 25 or so. It was pathetic and I remember just sitting there thinking that I could be doing something better with my time.

When Fran was hired I thought this is the guy? I was very skeptical about the hire, but I liked the fact that he was trying to go out and get the top recruits and battling for his players. I thought okay this guy is at least competitive and trying his butt off. I gave Fran the first 3 years as a pass. I though it would take at least that long to become competitive again. We started to play better and I believe we improved every year and by year 3 was in the NIT final, which was pretty crazy.

After the first 3 years I wanted to see some more improvement in terms of winning and athleticism. We got to the NCAA the past 3 years. Granted we bowed out the first weekend all 3 times, we were competitive and 2 of the years we got tough draws (gonzaga at home & Nova basically at home). The teams overall seemed to do polar opposite seasons and just makes me wonder what happened (2014 faded, 2015 finished strong, 2016 faded). Just wonder what the reason was behind both of those collapses. Wonder why they couldn't keep the high ranking.

My personal expectations for the program to be a yearly invite to the Dance (2 out of 3 years) and be competitive with in the conference. If we can finish in the top half of the conference I am okay with that.

From a recruiting stand point I want Fran to go out and take some chances. I realize he likes to get the local kids and what not, but go after some East coast players. Go after some JUCO players if needed, and for god sakes go find some good PG's. The 6-6 PG are not good and it shows vs elite guards like Nova has. They just dribble right around those guys.

Overall I am upset about the loss today, but happy overall for the program. The next 2 years will tell a lot about our coach and where the program is headed.

 

[dekhawk]

I remember watching Lute Olson coached teams when i was a student at Iowa. You felt we had chance a shot at the final four and national title run every year in Lutes last few years. That came back in Dr. Tim's first two years (with ravelings recruits). We need a coach again,

 

[hawksauce]

With the way people are posting on here, you'd be in the minority if you say anything other than having won a few NCAA titles by now.

 

[LuteHawk]

Fran has 4 straight seasons of 20 plus wins
Fran has an NIT second place and 3 NCAA bids in
4 straight seasons.