The 1 is very hard to get a Top 100 player at as I think there are only like 3 white guys in the Top 100 under 6’5” - meaning almost every PG is out of state and many are heavy urban areas hard to get to Iowa.
This is why I cringe when I hear people calling him lazy or having bad eating habits when they don't really know what he's dealing with.
Wow is right. I don't know how you came up with that at all. I certainly am NOT a Fran hater. Please tell me how Cook or Woodbury got significantly better after their freshman years? Cook never developed any kind of consistent shot outside 6-8 ft. He shot a decent % because of all the rim wreckers, but he was hardly skilled offensively. Any other improvement would have been fairly normal for a good college player after 3 years. Woodbury was a solid defensive center when he got to Iowa. Average rebounder which he got marginally better at. Not skilled offensively and only got marginally better over four years in that end. Small hands with little touch really held him back. I just din't see where either of them developed a great deal beyond what should be expected from freshman to junior year. Remember Woody was a top 50-70 player coming out of high school with a KU and UNC offer, and Cook was a four star with plenty of offers. Both were very good players in high school at what they were good at. Just don't see where they really improved drastically at those weak area's.
Someone has their panties on a little too tight tonight.
Free balling actually like to keep things aerated ….. maybe you’re just an asshole?
I'd take Adam Woodbury over Rebraca, Ogundule, Mulvey all day. He was tougher than nails. Maybe he didn't score. But, defensively, he would've loved to play against The Traveler and Dickinson.
“He’s making a list, checking it twice…gonna find out who’s naughty or nice…”
I would say Woodbury maxed out his ability by the time he left Iowa. He was a fantastic defensive player - not a shot-blocker because of shorter arms and limited athletic ability - but just a great positional defender and communicator as the leader of the defense (which was a huge reason why those Iowa teams were by far the best Fran has had at Iowa). He became a very good Rebounder by his Senior year. Offensively, I don't think he would have ever been anymore than what he was no matter where he went. He is just limited - for some of the reasons you listed above - but was valuable in many other ways.
Not as terrible as this post. Psst ... your lack of knowledge is showing.
I for one would be happy if he didn't spend one minute working on his stroke from the three. His value to this team will be to guard and clog the paint, bang with other bigs, and to grab a few rebounds. His offensive practice should be to improve his footwork and scoring around the basket. If he could score inside, the outside will open up for actual shooters.
Stick to the football board, you don't know anything about basketball.
You weren’t paying attention or don’t know much about basketball ball if you don’t think Cook improved while at Iowa. Most likely Woodbury as well but I don’t recall.
the fire Fran for losing a basketball game crowd will soon dominate this board..
oh I’m making up my lists….. Christmas is coming….. stocking up on coal for all you little turds
collegehoopstoday.com
While I agree some of that is true, I am not sure the positives outweighed the negatives with the approach they took.
Iowa’s defense wasn’t the issue last year against Richmond
His teams were 2-2 in the tourney. Their best chance was wiped out by the pandemic. But you know that, don't you?
Okay, I don't know much about basketball. Had two sons play in college, one had D1 offers early on, and spent MANY summers in Des Moines and Iowa city at the invite only camps with him. His first year at Mullens Superstar camp at Drake was the last year Horner and Bruner were there and he got to play against both of them. I've been through the recruiting and meat market scene where there were 200 kids at these camps and I've followed Iowa basketball pre Lute. Do think what you want though. You might also read again what I said. Yes, he improved, but I would have expected that level of improvement from a 4 star player in his three years at Iowa. Yes Fran gets some credit for their improvement to a degree.
I'd say a lot more have thrived under Fran's tutelage than not. Gatens, Marble, White, Jok and Uthoff are all first team All Big guys that I think Fran got the most out of. Who do you think he was supposed to have "reigned in"?
But it is not significant we beat 4 teams in 4 days to defeat Purdue to win the B1G tournament? Come on. I think Fran is as good as anyone at developing players. He has to, as he can't just go out and get a stable full of 5 stars.
Agree on all what you said about Fran. Confidence being the big one.
Man that's fun to watch again. Gonna miss JBO.
I'm not saying Fran gets no credit for developing players. My main point was the two players that were brought up originally. I still think as a 4 star Cook improved marginally. I would expect a player with is athletisism to improve over his college career. He did, just don't think his skill level really got that much better. The other was Woodbury. Again Woody was a top 50 recruit with major offers. He was always a really good defensive post, although due to his physical limitation not a rim protector, but solid on defense. His offense was limited, and didn't really get much better over 4 years, again considering a player at that level should certainly improve some over his career.
Of course the BIG tourney run was great. The players took it upon themselves, and certainly Fran gets some credit for that. We got major performances up and down the roster. Keegan, PMac, JBO, TP, hell PS off the bench with some clutch shots. Do you feel like Fan did a great job coaching in the game against Richmond? OR Oregon the year before?
Well I don't know about Richmond but there were some very impactful health situations on the team which caused the Oregon loss. Don't want to really get into it here as it would just sound like making excuses which I don't want to do. Probably should not even mention it.
Unfortunately it was in 2021 (Fran's best team) when Iowa was a 2 seed and couldn't get stops vs 7 seed Oregon.
