Yeah, it was bad enough we had to play Wichita St on their home court, but in that situation, it seemed like everyone but Lute knew we were out of TO's.
The Fran Fade
- Thread starter Grumpy Old Hawk
- Start date
Is that really an Iowa curse or most colleges other then Duke, Kansas and NC?
Hawks have been losing to almost anyone when they go to the dance in the past 20 years, even as the higher seed. Some bad luck, some bad match ups, but mostly just not performing at a high level. They need to correct that for Fran to be considered more than just a pretty good coach IMO.
Curious what games you think were Iowa not performing? Richmond last year was the only game that I flat out think we played poorly in. Others like Oregon where I don’t think we were great, but that was also a terrible matchup as well.
LOL, consider this Bucky. Since your stellar 3-0 conference start, your guys have gone 5-10 and you can't even catch Iowa in the standings.
Since Iowa's miserable 0-3 conference start, our guys have gone 11-5.
Chew on that for a bit, then tell me who's fading.
I guess you remember the horrible losses, when you expected much more like NW State and Richmond, but I think Iowa has only made out of the first round 4 times in the past 20 years. Looking back, we have had some tough match ups in second round games. Coming out of the B1G, I believe we should almost always get to the second round, and make it into the sweet 16 or better at least every few years.
Iowa has also made the second round in 4 of the last 7 NCAA tourneys.
Correct me if I’m wrong - I believe losing to Tennessee in the first four and last year were the only times we lost the first game.
Then got boatraced by Oregon, Villanova, and Gonzaga. Tennessee was a fun game even though a loss.
So if Oregon was a terrible matchup because their starting three guards dropped 63 on us and our starting three guards dropped zero, ZERO points, in the game that’s not a problem?!?!?
Northwestern State was as brutal a loss as I've experienced.
Good thing we have much more athletic guards than that year against Oregon.
No we don’t. Ulis and Perkins were on that roster. We just started a guard court, minus CJ, that wasn’t going to guard anybody. Perkins played well that game and should have been playing a lot more.
Yes, i agree very much. I defend Fran quite a bit but that game he just didn't adjust like he should have. Our guards lost that game and we didn't adjust at all. Richmond played the best game of their year against us. Northwestern State hit a corner 3 in final few seconds i believe. That one was the hardest loss on me but Oregon was the most frustrating one. Grand Canyon U was a really fun game. Hopefully we see more of those and Indiana games. I think about a 4 win streak is possible with this team but don't want to see Kentucky, Alabama, Purdue, and Louisville.
Did you not catch where I said we didn’t play well that game? As another poster mentioned, Fran made zero adjustments but Oregon was also a simply a bad matchup for us.
Anyone with a brain knew that year that teams with athletic guards gave us fits and would likely be our downfall. Most of the year, our offense was so efficient it could overcome that against most teams.
I disagree. Luka had an amazing game and Joe W had a good game. PMac always plays well in the NCAA tourney.
That’s part of the thing tho - offensively we were about the same, guards had a bad day and the defense was horrible owing to that bad matchup.
Why Fran was willing to run with a team that clearly was faster at every position instead of a half court game at all costs, I’ll never know.
Transition points are an important stat but like you said we couldn't keep up with them.
Yep, we have had better success under Fran, but in none of the previous dozen years. We need to aim a little higher than the sweet 32.
I was just tossing out 20 years, but we also lost in 2005 and 2006 to Cincinnati and NW St. Of course, we were awful in the Lick years. Second round is not a very high bar.
I have a feeling that coaches, players, and fans are. Or should be. Lol. For one this Wilson ball as the tournament ball is blowing my mind. We need to use only this ball and screw any financial incentives if there are any for using a different ball.
I haven't played in a LONG time, but as long as the ball is inflated properly and the hoop is 10 ft off the ground, you need to just play ball. It is crazy that the NCAA and the major conferences would not use the same ball.
I've had problems in practice when shooting a different ball than the Wilson that we played with and practiced with but had a few junk ones for shoot arounds and my shot was definitely affected. This was decades ago but I'm sure it's as true today as it was then. And totally agree that the conference should have all the teams play with the tournament ball. Winning is what matters and any advantage or disadvantages are huge. Especially if a player has it in his head that he doesn't shoot well with a certain ball.
I'll go to my deathbed claiming that the Oregon loss is on the coaches' decision to try to "run and gun" with Oregon. The Ducks quickly got into a rhythm and were lights out. Oregon had some really lousy shooting nights that year. Hell . . . they are kind of like Iowa's team this year. Iowa struggles if it isn't a track meet. Half court scrums are a real problem. If Iowa slowed down the pace and turned that game into a half court scrum, I like Iowa's chances with Garza dominating and Oregon forcing shots up.
Alas . . . we'll never know.
That had to be so frustrating for Luka. I mean you go 14 for 20 from the field as the national player of the year and your team gets blown off it’s hinges. I can’t remember if we played that three quarter court trapping press against Oregon. That always seems to give the other team fits.
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We couldn't guard anything that game. Half court, full court, side court, it wouldn't have mattered.
I like to refer to it as the TJ tumble. Wonder if pollard who I believe still head of committee will try and bail them out with seeding again as he gifted them the 6 lsu seed who just fired their coach.
Didn’t their guards outscore us like 60 something to 0. Frustrating part after game fran talking about injuries to connor and CJF (shocker). Which made some like me question why you’d start and play both so many minutes with JBO not helping either. Oregon was literally the worst matchup to get with style and personnel. even on cbs and espn spoke how they were better than a 7 seed. Once they hit first couple of 3s knew we were SOL and luka could only do so much.
I'm a Fran supporter and I've coached jr high girls so I'm not an expert, played div 3 before going to Iowa and i had no solution to that game but Fran needed to make some adjustments like playing Perkins and anyone more athletic to slow down those guards. We shouldn't even have played them as they advanced without playing a solid team that might have beat them or at least wore them down for our game. There shots might have been off or something. Butterfly effect on that one. I blame that loss on covid.
I was watching at work. Just told my boss i felt like I was going to throw up and left.
I was student teaching at the time, watched first half during a free period, second half while I was running back and forth. Crushing.
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