"Trilly Donovan" throws cold water on the Fran retiring rumors
- Thread starter HawkHoops80
- Start date
I still absolutely do not understand Fran's last contract extension (quietly announced) by Barta. Fran had everything 2 years ago. And that team couldn't finish in the Top 4 of the league and missed the Sweet 16 by a wide margin. This year will be the NIT if we're fortunate. But Fran's buyout is still too large (thanks Barta). I appreciate that he dug us out of the hole. But that was a decade+ a go. Yes we MIGHT hire another Lickliter. Or we MIGHT hire someone that improves the program. The apathy now is so sad (the women show what great basketball does to attendance).
We were coming off of a regular season in which Fran got Iowa it's second #2 seed ever. The contract extension was announced prior to the tournament even starting. And let's not forget, the last time they had gone to the tournament prior to the extension, they had just taken a #2 seed to OT and they had a pretty good team in '20 that never got to even attempt a tournament run and most prognosticators had us as a 5 or 6 seed depending on how the BTT went before everything got shut down.
The context to all of that absolutely makes sense as to why he got an extension. It's also not like he's paid that well comparatively. After Penn St hired their coach last year and Northwestern gave Collins an extension, Fran is 13th in the conference in salary. The only guy who is paid less than him is Ben Johnson.
