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The ice underneath Fran is getting thicker and thicker...

hawkland14

HB Heisman
Feb 26, 2013
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When soybean talked about how the ISU game was a turning point he was right. When he started talking about the ice getting thin for Fran if this team went south, it might have been the dumbest comment posted on this board of all time. Notice with the hot start to the Big Ten season soybean is nowhere to be found. This isn't Steve Alford or Todd Lickliter boys. This is one of the top coaches in the country and if Barta was smart he would pay up now before Fran leaves.
 
When soybean talked about how the ISU game was a turning point he was right. When he started talking about the ice getting thin for Fran if this team went south, it might have been the dumbest comment posted on this board of all time. Notice with the hot start to the Big Ten season soybean is nowhere to be found. This isn't Steve Alford or Todd Lickliter boys. This is one of the top coaches in the country and if Barta was smart he would pay up now before Fran leaves.

We have a huge win and your first post is to call out another poster for a comment made months ago? Get over yourself.
 
We have a huge win and your first post is to call out another poster for a comment made months ago? Get over yourself.
Nope, just hate it when posters make a comment that is utterly ridiculous and love to claim the sky is falling after one loss. We have a gold mine in Fran and I think some of our posters fail to realize that. Why can't soybean come on here now and give Fran credit? One of the most negative and notorious posters needs to be called it out when it warrants it and right now is that time.
 
When soybean talked about how the ISU game was a turning point he was right. When he started talking about the ice getting thin for Fran if this team went south, it might have been the dumbest comment posted on this board of all time. Notice with the hot start to the Big Ten season soybean is nowhere to be found. This isn't Steve Alford or Todd Lickliter boys. This is one of the top coaches in the country and if Barta was smart he would pay up now before Fran leaves.
Yeah, I am pretty sure bean has had a stroke in the last yr or 2. The guy has gone off the deep end with everything from politics (he is nuts there) to imaginary people leaving items on fence posts.

Dude must have had some laced mj or a bad batch of meth.
 
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Nope, just hate it when posters make a comment that is utterly ridiculous and love to claim the sky is falling after one loss. We have a gold mine in Fran and I think some of our posters fail to realize that. Why can't soybean come on here now and give Fran credit? One of the most negative and notorious posters needs to be called it out when it warrants it and right now is that time.

You are just as bad by calling people out when we have a big win.

This team did have a turning point in the ISU game. They came back and said, NO MORE. They toughened up and beat the snot out of MSU. Great thing to see.

Oh, and Go Hawks!
 
You are just as bad by calling people out when we have a big win.

This team did have a turning point in the ISU game. They came back and said, NO MORE. They toughened up and beat the snot out of MSU. Great thing to see.

Oh, and Go Hawks!
My point is why doesn't Fran get credit for that? Bean had to point out to all us that the ISU game was a turning point(rightfully so) but then has to add the comment about the ice being thin underneath Fran if things go south. Well the opposite has happened. Fran has this team playing the best basketball since the early Tom Davis days and Bean is nowhere to be found. For whatever reason he has had a vendetta against every Iowa coach after Tom Davis was let go. Granted the first two turned out to be awful, but now we have a good one and Bean is ready to run him out(in a way only Bean can, passive aggressive comments) of town at the first sight of trouble( a December loss to the No. 2 team in the country at the time.)
 
I'm not engaging anyone in a war of words, but some years ago the MSU contingent was screaming for Izzo to be replaced after a rough stretch.

Point is, when you lose, people don't like it. And the only thing to shut them up is to win.

It's a tough business.
 
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My point is why doesn't Fran get credit for that? Bean had to point out to all us that the ISU game was a turning point(rightfully so) but then has to add the comment about the ice being thin underneath Fran if things go south. Well the opposite has happened. Fran has this team playing the best basketball since the early Tom Davis days and Bean is nowhere to be found. For whatever reason he has had a vendetta against every Iowa coach after Tom Davis was let go. Granted the first two turned out to be awful, but now we have a good one and Bean is ready to run him out(in a way only Bean can, passive aggressive comments) of town at the first sight of trouble( a December loss to the No. 2 team in the country at the time.)

I can't speak for Bean but I do know he posts quite frequently on another site I visit. I do not know why he didn't specifically post here since the MSU win, and quite frankly I don't care.

Let's focus on our championship drive and continue to enjoy the development of this team. Enough with calling people out. It's actually against the rules here, anyway. So, you may want to keep that in mind if you want to continue posting here, just a heads up.
 
I can't speak for Bean but I do know he posts quite frequently on another site I visit. I do not know why he didn't specifically post here since the MSU win, and quite frankly I don't care.

Let's focus on our championship drive and continue to enjoy the development of this team. Enough with calling people out. It's actually against the rules here, anyway. So, you may want to keep that in mind if you want to continue posting here, just a heads up.
Thanks for the heads up Dad.
 
When soybean talked about how the ISU game was a turning point he was right. When he started talking about the ice getting thin for Fran if this team went south, it might have been the dumbest comment posted on this board of all time. Notice with the hot start to the Big Ten season soybean is nowhere to be found. This isn't Steve Alford or Todd Lickliter boys. This is one of the top coaches in the country and if Barta was smart he would pay up now before Fran leaves.
I'd say last night was the turning point.
 
Coach Fran will probably stay at Iowa until he retires.
He loves his job and the University of Iowa loves him.
Fran is good at rebuilding programs and has done an
excellent job for the Hawkeyes. The only ice that Fran
will see is the ice cube in his Pepsi.
 
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I am just imaging a day when higher rated recruits start singing up (tyler cook's).

We might really have something special brewing.

Final four?
 
When soybean talked about how the ISU game was a turning point he was right. When he started talking about the ice getting thin for Fran if this team went south, it might have been the dumbest comment posted on this board of all time. Notice with the hot start to the Big Ten season soybean is nowhere to be found. This isn't Steve Alford or Todd Lickliter boys. This is one of the top coaches in the country and if Barta was smart he would pay up now before Fran leaves.

Are you telling me you didn't have doubts after ISU game, that maybe Fran hadn't taken us as far as he could? That was a trend going back the last few years of horrid offense to finish out games and another huge blown lead. The offense had no direction, was dribbling out shot clocks and taking terrible shots. We had all seen it before. I was starting to wonder if McCaffrey had hit the Tom Crean ceiling of making us a lot better but maybe not being able to take us any further. No I wasn't ready for him to be fired (or say he was on thin ice) but one had to wonder if he had turned our program as far as he could. These last three weeks have been great to watch as we have really come together. Fran has been pushing the right buttons. Our offense has rarely shown signs of just motioning around for 35 seconds. It has been awesome to watch.

Huge props to Fran for calling the right shots and making the right adjustments. I love this squad and think we can play with anybody.
 
Fran still hasn't had a season where he didn't build upon the previous one. How does a coach who has done nothing but make the team better end up on the hot seat?

Sure Fran has flaws, as have some of his teams (coaching and playing down the stretch have been the biggest notable ones), but his teams have found greater and greater success
 
When soybean talked about how the ISU game was a turning point he was right. When he started talking about the ice getting thin for Fran if this team went south, it might have been the dumbest comment posted on this board of all time. Notice with the hot start to the Big Ten season soybean is nowhere to be found. This isn't Steve Alford or Todd Lickliter boys. This is one of the top coaches in the country and if Barta was smart he would pay up now before Fran leaves.

I can tell you this much about soybean. He has terrible taste in politicians and he doesn't know shit about the Iowa hoops program.

Get that deadbeat out of here and let him cheer on the Fredless Clowns.
 
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Fran still hasn't had a season where he didn't build upon the previous one. How does a coach who has done nothing but make the team better end up on the hot seat?

Sure Fran has flaws, as have some of his teams (coaching and playing down the stretch have been the biggest notable ones), but his teams have found greater and greater success

I'm not saying he was on the hot seat and I'm not defending soybeans post. But after that ISU game I was wondering if he had taken the Iowa program as far as he could.
 
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I'm not saying he was on the hot seat and I'm not defending soybeans post. But after that ISU game I was wondering if he had taken the Iowa program as far as he could.
I think a lot of people had doubts about the team after the ISU game (I sure did). I don't know if asking whether Fran has taken us as far as we can go is very fair considering we hadn't even started Big Ten play yet though. That's the kind of question you have to ask after the season ends.
 
I think a lot of people had doubts about the team after the ISU game (I sure did). I don't know if asking whether Fran has taken us as far as we can go is very fair considering we hadn't even started Big Ten play yet though. That's the kind of question you have to ask after the season ends.

Agree on seasons end but I was wondering that after last season. Those doubts were intensified after ISU.
 
I agree with Swarm. Soybean went a little overboard but there is no denying Iowa has a history under Fran of not closing out close games with the lead. Iowa fans were growing tired of it.

I'm not sure the closing out close games issue went away - in conference play, have they lost or nearly lost a lead in the last couple of minutes only to toughen up and get it back for a win? One huge comeback, two awesome spankings of Sparty and a tough 10 point win over the Fuskers don't seem to prove anything of the sort. I'm still confident the boys will find a way to lose a close game yet this year and the whiners will resurface. Personally, I am enjoying the ride right now...as I have since Fran got here!

Anyone with super-positive vibes predicting a 26-4 regular season, yet?? Only conference loss at home vs Northwestern, of the "choke a close game" variety. Lol.
 
Something I have learned over the years for both football and basketball especially given the number of games in a season is 'let the season play out' before making huge manifesto judgements.

This season has been absolutely great so far and surprising to a degree but there are a lot of games left. This is Fran's best shooting team by far but we all know shooting can go absent at any time or the time you least expect it to like a NCAA tourney game. So just enjoy the ride however far it goes. Take it in and enjoy it at every milestone but always expect some disappointments because there are no guarantees.

Also, this is a great reminder of the value of patience and the reward/payoff for having patience even after disappointments when you know you have the right coach. There were more than a few that wanted to run Fran... Looks pretty stupid now does it not?
 
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I'm not sure the closing out close games issue went away - in conference play, have they lost or nearly lost a lead in the last couple of minutes only to toughen up and get it back for a win? One huge comeback, two awesome spankings of Sparty and a tough 10 point win over the Fuskers don't seem to prove anything of the sort. I'm still confident the boys will find a way to lose a close game yet this year and the whiners will resurface. Personally, I am enjoying the ride right now...as I have since Fran got here!

Anyone with super-positive vibes predicting a 26-4 regular season, yet?? Only conference loss at home vs Northwestern, of the "choke a close game" variety. Lol.

I was going to bring that up about not closing out a close game but didn't want to be a negative nellie. In the meantime I'm just going to enjoy the ride. This could go down as the greatest combo year in football/basketball history (competing with 86-87 (#16 football, Elite 8 bball) and 58-58 (National Title Football.....10-12 record bball).
 
Yeah, maybe Bean was a bit over the top, but I was pretty upset after that ISU game too and was wondering what was going to happen the rest of the way. I've seen much worse here than what he posted. And btw, hating on someone because they don't agree with your political views is sad, and I don't even know what his are.
 
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I can tell you this much about soybean. He has terrible taste in politicians and he doesn't know shit about the Iowa hoops program.

Get that deadbeat out of here and let him cheer on the Fredless Clowns.
Most readers will remember that soybean is a long time teller of tall tales. He has been embarrassed on here many times and has virtually no credibility whatsoever. As far as I can tell he hates everything that is Iowa basketball.
 
I can tell you this much about soybean. He has terrible taste in politicians and he doesn't know shit about the Iowa hoops program.

Get that deadbeat out of here and let him cheer on the Fredless Clowns.

Most readers will remember that soybean is a long time teller of tall tales. He has been embarrassed on here many times and has virtually no credibility whatsoever. As far as I can tell he hates everything that is Iowa basketball.

Have you seen a mini sasquash lately???:D
 
On two different occasions I have told Barta to give Fran a raise. Please before it is too late.
 
We are off to a great start. I would like Fran to finish in the top 3 of the league, or win some tourney games before Barta jumps with a big contract. I like how it's looking, but the big ten season is a long war that is far from finished.
 
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I'm not saying he was on the hot seat and I'm not defending soybeans post. But after that ISU game I was wondering if he had taken the Iowa program as far as he could.

This is as ridiculous as Bean's post. We blow a big lead on the then #4 team's floor and you take it as a sign that McCaffery has hit the wall? What I took from that game was that Fran has a team full of players that he developed that were pounding the p*ss out of a team that many were touting as a Final Four team and we were doing it on their floor. I still put the onus on the players for tightening up and playing not to lose than on McCaffery for that loss.

When McCaffery was hired, he said he knew how to win and had a plan that had worked at every one of his previous stops. The difference this time is that he was trying to do it against what has arguably been the best basketball conference in the country. Plus his out of conference schedule, criticized at first, has gotten tougher and tougher and, despite all this, every single one of his teams has taken a step up from the previous year. Yeah, I'm a fan of Fran's and if you're an Iowa fan, you have to be impressed with the overall job he has done and not focus the occasional failure. We are not the finished product yet in McCaffery's eyes and I can't wait to see where he eventually takes us.
 
It was interesting to read some of McCaffery's comments after last night's game, particularly where he acknowledged making a mistake in the Iowa State game of only going 7 deep. I have a lot of respect for a head coach who will take responsibility for a perceived mistake the way he did then actually do something to correct it.

I think Iowa has a winner with Coach McCaffery. And now that he is starting to land some more high-profile recruits the sky is the limit. There will always be bumps along the road but I think McCafferey is turning Iowa into a consistent winner (as consistent as one can get at a place like Iowa) and fans should respect him and what he's doing for Iowa basketball.
 
Kudos to Bean. He called it. It's looking more and more like the ISU game was the turning point of the season. Forget the wins/losses prior to that game, look at the performance level of the team since then and the team is playing much better, and with a lot more confidence. Add in the fact that Iowa hasn't wilted down the stretch in these games, even when opponents have made a run and we are seeing a much more mentally tough team than we've seen under previous Fran teams. The ISU game is looking like a watershed moment to me. I'd love to get Fran in a private conversation to ask him if he thinks the ISU game was the turning point.
 
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On two different occasions I have told Barta to give Fran a raise. Please before it is too late.
Too late for what? It's not like this is a Hoiberg situation where Fran is a young, up and coming coach, looking to make it big. He's got two sons playing basketball at Iowa City West and Hawkeye commits, and he's turned Iowa into what appears to be (or what I expect to be) a team that makes the NCAAs on a consistent basis. I don't see him jumping ship for another NCAA team, and I personally don't think it makes much sense to go to the NBA.

I do agree he's earned everything he's making and more though
 
Let's enjoy this one fellas. Next year will probably be more of a struggle without all this experience we have on the floor and we probably shouldn't doubt Fran then. He's a hell of a coach and we shouldn't take the last few years for granted. My first year at Iowa (as a student) was Todd Lickliter's first year at Iowa. Let's not forget.
 
It was interesting to read some of McCaffery's comments after last night's game, particularly where he acknowledged making a mistake in the Iowa State game of only going 7 deep. I have a lot of respect for a head coach who will take responsibility for a perceived mistake the way he did then actually do something to correct it.

I think Iowa has a winner with Coach McCaffery. And now that he is starting to land some more high-profile recruits the sky is the limit. There will always be bumps along the road but I think McCafferey is turning Iowa into a consistent winner (as consistent as one can get at a place like Iowa) and fans should respect him and what he's doing for Iowa basketball.

I really like this post JZ. "As consistent as one can get at a place like Iowa." Exactly. I love my home state. From the Loess Hills to the Paleozoic Plateau! But there are a few things which will always be a challenge. Finding good surfing is one. And competing to have easy home state recruiting when we're a small state up against places like Ohio isn't easy either.

But with the right coach we can do pretty well. We've got one of that kind of coach. Time to relax and root for victory without worrying about what we can't do perfectly.
 
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Kudos to Bean. He called it. It's looking more and more like the ISU game was the turning point of the season. Forget the wins/losses prior to that game, look at the performance level of the team since then and the team is playing much better, and with a lot more confidence. Add in the fact that Iowa hasn't wilted down the stretch in these games, even when opponents have made a run and we are seeing a much more mentally tough team than we've seen under previous Fran teams. The ISU game is looking like a watershed moment to me. I'd love to get Fran in a private conversation to ask him if he thinks the ISU game was the turning point.

You and others might be right but I am not buying it. I think the ISU game was a great learning experience on the dangers of not closing out a game. What everyone is losing track of is Utoff was quoted around the start of the season saying 'this team will be better than last year'. I think we all thought ok he's just trying to show confidence but let's see. That said though he and others on the team knew what they might be capable of.

Keep in mind they played a pretty darn good non con schedule with 5-6 quality opponents. We took some losses early most of which were in the closing minutes but they served as great experiences to get ready for B1G play. Is there a tougher place to play than Hilton? Breslin probably seemed like a walk in the park. This team also needed some time to develop players 6-9, like Uhl, Baer, Wagner, Ellensom, Jones (hurt), Williams, Fleming and for everyone to define their roles which we see now.

By they way I really hope Fran continues to schedule a non con like these past 2 years even if we take some losses. It gets his team mentally and physically prepared for B1G play. I would also like to go to Hilton every year to play ISU win or lose because that simulates a tough B1G road atmosphere.
 
Sad it took so long to finally replace Lute. Loved Dr Tom but he clearly had limits. Fran is the guy that appears to be able to take us to the top at last.
Barta should be looking at a 10 year deal. Frankly he gave deals to Ferrentz he did not deserve - so he needs to be even handed and give Fran a great one as well.

When I think back to the nadir that was Lick and look around now its like a different dimension. Alternative Universe or something like that. I was in Iowa when we had those great teams that found ways to somehow lose games at the last minute in the late 70's and early 80's. Then we had that magical year that ended when Lohaus could not quite get that lob- talk about a couple of inches. Since that game I have not felt like Iowa was really there. For the first time since then I think we just might be.
 
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