Telling Signs
- Thread starter GOHOX69
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This is a guards' game. Wisconsin or any other program ain't winning squat with our guards.
Look around the league. Ranking teams 1-14 will track guard talent/experience/depth almost perfectly.
The 1 has been Fran's Achilles heel since he started here. Always will be, bro.
The strange part is he was a guard nicknamed White Magic.
The magic was when Fran made a shot in college. How he got an ACC schollie is a wonder.
Thankfully PMAC seems to have a little more touch than Fran and CMAC.
In recent years, Moss, Nunge, Fredrick were all upperclassmen starter level players that left. Not to mention the recruting busts like Dailey and Ellingson. Portal out losses >>> Portal In gains
Is CMAC returning?...if he does, I think we lose Perkins. Perkins is not having a good shooting season but he still is young, If JoeT is no longer starter for rest of season, he is gone. Ulis then probably would stay since he would be starter next year and CMAC probably 2G again.
JoeT has been nice injection of quickness...he plays hard, I don't know why Fran hates his game. Fran is heading back to a squad of mostlly Iowa kids or his own kids.
After losing players in the spring, we can also assume Fran will be a bust in bringing in players from the portal, We can also assume no JCs. We can also assume the Fran friends and family contingent will label next year a rebuiding year and not Fran's fault, because he lost key players.
My take all along is Fran should be more open to change and look in the mirror.
fran was a career 51% FT shooter and 37% FG%.....there is no magic in those stats.
Fran is still learning, haven't you read the other posts? I mean it's a relatively new concept that guards matter--it's only been true since the sport was started. If you can't recruit them traditionally, which clearly Fran can't, then go the transfer route to plug some holes. You put a legit guard, just 1 because I am not going to get into wild fantasies about Fran finding 2 and you have a different dynamic. Missing on guys here and there is understandable. Missing for 12 years is another matter.
How does Fran think he is going to play fast and shoot 3's when he relies solely on non-guards for scoring? My advice to Fran would be go get some guys who can score and then figure out the rest. Yes the defense is better, but if Keegan has an off night, this team is hosed. Kris has potential, but is channeling Moss with all or nothing performances. Pmac has stepped up, but all of these guys are forwards and despite Rebraca playing his ass off, we don't have an interior presence on either end.
If people want to rip Fran for not being able to get beyond the 2nd round of the tournament, that is completely fair.
But for people to say Fran is a terrible coach, or even just an average coach, is laughable. Iowa is currently projected to be a #7 seed in the tournament, which would be the 4th year in a row Iowa has had a tournament team (including 2020 even though the tournament was cancelled). Tom Davis never made the tournament 4 years in a row. Neither did Alford, and obviously Lickliter never made a single NCAA tournament.
Fran is a good coach with a lot of strengths. His teams are almost always efficient on offense. He has shown to have a pretty good eye for talent. However, he's not a great coach. His recruiting is generally average, and his teams often are not good defensively. I don't have much of a problem with people wanting to move on from Fran because he hasn't been able to take Iowa over the hump (i.e., getting to Sweet 16 or further). But you have to at least be fair with your arguments.
Since Fran's 3rd season, Iowa has been to the NCAA Tournament 75% of the time. Maybe the coach that ultimately succeeds Fran will have more success and regularly take Iowa to the Sweet 16. But if I'm placing a bet on whether whether the next coach: (A) has more success than Fran, (B) has equal success as Fran, or (C) has less success than Fran - I'd think option (C) is more likely than option (A). I don't think it's crazy for people to want to try to see if we can get an option (A) coach. Iowa tried that before with Alford replacing Davis. In hindsight that didn't work, but it wasn't a crazy thing to do.
But for people to say Fran is a terrible coach, or even just an average coach, is laughable. Iowa is currently projected to be a #7 seed in the tournament, which would be the 4th year in a row Iowa has had a tournament team (including 2020 even though the tournament was cancelled). Tom Davis never made the tournament 4 years in a row. Neither did Alford, and obviously Lickliter never made a single NCAA tournament.
Fran is a good coach with a lot of strengths. His teams are almost always efficient on offense. He has shown to have a pretty good eye for talent. However, he's not a great coach. His recruiting is generally average, and his teams often are not good defensively. I don't have much of a problem with people wanting to move on from Fran because he hasn't been able to take Iowa over the hump (i.e., getting to Sweet 16 or further). But you have to at least be fair with your arguments.
Since Fran's 3rd season, Iowa has been to the NCAA Tournament 75% of the time. Maybe the coach that ultimately succeeds Fran will have more success and regularly take Iowa to the Sweet 16. But if I'm placing a bet on whether whether the next coach: (A) has more success than Fran, (B) has equal success as Fran, or (C) has less success than Fran - I'd think option (C) is more likely than option (A). I don't think it's crazy for people to want to try to see if we can get an option (A) coach. Iowa tried that before with Alford replacing Davis. In hindsight that didn't work, but it wasn't a crazy thing to do.
If anyone can make a big leap, it's Ulis. Wouldn't bet the farm on it happening but it could happen. He definitely shows flashes.
This is a fantastic post and outlines the Fran era perfectly. Its really not even close when comparing Fran to Alford and Lickliter and an argument can be made that Fran has had better results in his career with his players than Davis ever had.
We have fans who have seen much better basketball played here and it's completely reasonable to expect it again.
I live in Texas, I say that to say I don't go to Carver. Is the arena full, 75% full, 1/2 full?
I agree it's wrong to call him a terrible coach. He definitely leaves himself (more?) open to criticism with his antics and general attitude towards tough questions. Combined that with the appearance of the union card issue, and never playing even average defense, Fran brings these criticisms on himself. The talent level of the team is his responsibility, the record, etc..
I think the biggest issue for "the move on from Fran" groups, is that they believe they have seen the peak of his success. I think most understand that Iowa isn't firing him anytime soon.
I'd rather have fans who post criticisms on these silly boards, than have a fan base that is so apathetic they don't even care.
Tickets sold for Minnesota were 14,558. Obviously, there were less than that who showed up. As pointed out many times, the schedule dates and times, haven’t been the friendliest this year. The WIU game over Christmas break on a Wed was a sellout.
