Bowen was a mystery. It seemed he was lacking confidence or confused by what Fran's expectations of the pg position were. Did he want another Conner? Or did he want the quickness and driving ability of a Bowen (although he had trouble finishing at the rim).
I have to say I was one of the posters here who was not thrilled that Iowa offered Harding. My main beef was that Harding would be a defensive liability joining a team already seriously lacking defense. His lack of size would make him an easy mark, bigger B10 guards will abuse him.
Probably why he added Harding. Not sure who else offered Brock, but probably not many power conference teams. I'm still not sure what Fran expects from his pg's, Conner was great assist to TO ratio, but sucked at shooting. JBo was a great shooter but defensive liability and not a great ball handler. Not someone to break a press or break down defenses. BH has some ability to break down man to man defense's, but has yet to show ability to knock down three's & is also a defensive liability. Has quickness, but has not shown to be a lock down on ball defender.Bowen: A shoot first PG who isn't a good shooter ...... sounds like a problem
He actually would pass up open 3's to drive, then would try to jump into defenders and double clutch a shot. It was fairly ugly.
He never was a special passer either.
Fran has tried to add athletic guards, but they are all Top 150-200 guys and lack skill (Joe T, Bowen, Ulis, etc). Getting athletic AND skilled guards is tough because almost every one of THOSE guys is Top 75, black, and out of state. Very hard to get them to Iowa, even harder with NIL.
And yet for the last 30 years ISU has had zero problems spanning so many coaches I can't even remember them all.Bowen: A shoot first PG who isn't a good shooter ...... sounds like a problem
He actually would pass up open 3's to drive, then would try to jump into defenders and double clutch a shot. It was fairly ugly.
He never was a special passer either.
Fran has tried to add athletic guards, but they are all Top 150-200 guys and lack skill (Joe T, Bowen, Ulis, etc). Getting athletic AND skilled guards is tough because almost every one of THOSE guys is Top 75, black, and out of state. Very hard to get them to Iowa, even harder with NIL.
Joe T was also a senior and 5th year senior on those teams. Of course it stands to reason he'll perform better than he did as an underclassman. All 5 of his years were played on NCAAT teams and he never made it to the second weekend on any of his teams. Not making a Sweet 16 or having a national caliber PG isn't strictly a Fran-only problem.
Not disagreeing with your take, but Fran didn't exactly instill confidence in any of them. They were always looking over their shoulders when they'd make a mistake. They were on very short leashes. Conner never had this issue. Sure, he never made many mistakes given his TO/assist ratio. But he didn't take risks either. Was never a threat to drive the ball into the lane. He was a feed the post pg.
It sounds like starting tomorrow and in future games we will find out if your concerns about Harding is warranted, you are not the only one that has doubts about his being successful.
There is no game until Nov. 4th. Tx A&M-Commerce. The first few games are seemingly cupcakes.
I think you are partly correct, they turned out to not be great all-round PGs, but I am not sure that your take that the coaching staff did not play a role in the failure to perform is correct. Confidence plays a huge role in sports, and if anything, Fran seemed to squash their confidence. I still believe the Mike Gesell is the best all-round PG Fran has had at Iowa.
Loved Gessell, but his 3 pt shooting wasn't great & end of game free throws were atrocious. Loved it when they beat UNC with the Cedar Rapids pg. I think Gessell dunked on him.
In regards to Harding….he played limited minutes as a freshman…..so I don’t think we can know for sure what he is capable of or what he can do consistently.
Perkins and Dix played a lot of pg minutes. I'd argue Bowen didn't get much of a shot of showing what he is capable either.
Absolutely true on that one. For three years we've been hearing how he's going to contribute. Given the frontcourt talent Fran brought in, I'll be shocked if he plays 3 or 4 minutes a game in this his FOURTH season. If Fran was sold on him being a key player this season then he should have gone after another guard for the roster where we're still a little thin.
The biggest reason Fran doesn't get many good guards is he simply doesn't offer enough of them. It's a numbers game.
I get that sentiment….. but I don’t know how to resolve that with Dev Marble, Mike G, Jordan B, and Tony playing that position pretty successfully.
This is what I've been trying to tell people, he likes positionless basketball & the tweeners who can shoot the rock. And tie ball pounding point guards that hinder ball movement. I believe this in a nutshell is Brock.
Oh you don’t say! Wow, I thought he was Hawk for all three of his seasons in college!
You throw out his name, but who would you have gone to? Fran or Cal? Iowa or Kentucky. Probably another dozen or so names you could provide that Fran got over recruited by bigger/better programs. The pg from Minnesota who went to Gonzaga is one.
Yep Fran was really close to getting Tyler Ulis, but Big Blue's late offer too good to pass up.
And my point was that Fran cannot compete with the blue bloods.
