There's not a ton of teams that get those kids though once Duke, Kentucky, Arizona, UNC, etc are done with them.
We would have a better chance getting one in the portal than straight out of high school though IMO.
Tuesdays With Torbee: Fran Fatigue - it's real, but is it fair?
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We would have a better chance getting one in the portal than straight out of high school though IMO.
Nothing gets me (and Russ Millard and James Winters) going like a good triple threat into repeated pump fakes!
Was it Riley from Michigan who u gave the quadruple pump fake and still ate the ball?
In true pump fake style, I suppose I should make clear that unfortunately I'm not THE Mr. Wade Lookingbill. I think back in 2007 I felt I needed to keep his name alive on the message boards and/or I was drinking heavily when I created this account, hard to say. I do greatly appreciate his contributions to Iowa hoops though and his bushy eyebrows.
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Ryan Bowen has been an assistant in the NBA for some time, played here, and is from here. He has worked under some good coaches and has a ring.
He should get considered
He should get considered
Props to you for still having season tickets. I too am a basketball junkie and I live in IC, but have nearly 0 interest in attending men’s basketball games. I went to one this year on a free ticket, and may take my kids to a game because they like it, but it is not anything like the experience I remember as a kid in the late 80s and early 90s. I have been saying for the last few years that new life is badly needed. People are far too afraid of change with basketball coaches.
Wade was wide open a few times underneath the basket, pumped faked 4 or 5 times against air to let the defense arrive, then get swatted off the glass😂
Wade was solid though. Did a good job stepping into the starting lineup after Street died
Not to ruin a good story, but this narrative that they were hitting their stride going into what would have been the 2020 NCAA tournament is a bit off. They had lost 3 of their last 4 games heading into the BIG tournament. That being said, I agree that they would have been a fun team to watch in the tournament.
Leaving Settles off this… well… GTFO.
You know, mentioning Millard… I was a walk-on 1991-92. Russ was a redshirt freshman that year. Watching Owen Freeman — he reminds me of Russ that year. Nobody could keep him off the offensive boards. Not Acie, not Street, not Rodell Davis, not Winters, on down the line, including you.
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My cousin went to high school with Russ and said he was hands-down one of the worst students and frankly kind of simple-minded people he'd ever met.
Any truth to that claim?
Not wading through 4 pages of comments, but my comment is that the heart wants what it wants. Currently, it wants hawkeye football and Caitlin Clark basketball. The men's team couldn't get it done in today's watered down college basketball, while having both the murray twins and Garza. Boring and mediocre. Pass.Meant to post this yesterday, but got busy with snow bullshit.
A (fairly) rare basketball column from me:
"Fran Fatigue" is real - but is it fair?
Iowa men's basketball has a fanbase problem
TORY BRECHT
JAN 9, 2024
Friday night I will drive up to Iowa City after work, find a fantastic parking spot close to Carver-Hawkeye Arena, go to my assigned season ticket seats and then pick among thousands of better, closer seats to watch the rebuilding men’s basketball team compete against Nebraska.
There will likely be between 6,000 and 8,000 fellow fans in the cavernous, 15,000-plus capacity arena, despite it being a coveted weekend home game.
Sparse crowds are an all-too familiar sight when the men play at Carver-Hawkeye Arena these days.
The contrast with the raucous, sold-out whether at home or on the road women’s basketball program couldn’t be starker, and that’s understandable. Iowa women’s basketball is a legit national title contender led by an incandescent, generational star. The men are hovering near the bottom of the Big 10 standings, don’t look like an NCAA tournament team right now and have never managed to get past the first weekend of that tournament under Coach Fran McCaffery.
That said, the fan apathy towards Iowa basketball is neither productive nor – in my opinion – warranted. It further cements the reputation of the Iowa basketball fan base as fair weather and makes McCaffery’s recruiting sales pitch (and thus Iowa’s future potential) more difficult.
With Keegan and Kris Murray both moving on to the NBA early, this was always shaping up to be a rebuilding year. Iowa is not a blue blood, plug-and-play type program. Much like football, it is developmental. While this team’s problems may prevent it from being NCAA caliber, it does not lack in entertainment value. Like most McCaffery team, it plays a fast pace, scores a ton and produces plenty of dunks and deep three pointers.
The freshman duo of Owen Freeman and Brock Harding is intriguing, with Freeman already stacking up Freshman of the Week hardware and Harding being lauded by unbiased announcers as perhaps the purest passer in the conference already, as a frosh. Tony Perkins can be inconsistent, but as the kids today say, has that “dawg” in him and backs down to no one. Payton Sandfort can get absolutely torch-hot from three. New transfer center/forward Ben Krikke is a scoring machine, despite being undersized. They also seem like a likeable bunch, good citizens on and off the court and have affection for their coach.
Speaking of affection for the coach, this to me is the crux of the problem. Whether it’s due to his emotional outbursts on the sideline or lack of NCAA tournament success, it is increasingly apparent that many Iowa fans plain don’t like Fran McCaffery. This is particularly jarring when you realize that among basketball experts, opposing coaches and others around the game, he is far more respected and liked than among Iowa fans themselves.
The “failures” of Iowa’s men’s basketball are far from profound and pretty much every season McCaffery puts out an entertaining, winning product that finishes in the conference higher than sportswriters predict. His teams typically feature highly skilled (often nationally recognized) individual talents. And yet, there is dwindling support and interest from fans. I believe it must be antipathy for the coach, because objectively, Iowa fans have supported worse products better in the past, in nearly every sport.
I hate that I’m coming to this conclusion, but I’m beginning to believe we won’t see the needle move significantly on fan engagement with men’s basketball until the McCaffery era ends. I think that’s a shame because he has been a very solid builder and maintainer of the program – even if his post-season success has failed to deliver the way we’d like.
I hope this doesn’t come across as being the “fan police” – enjoy Iowa sports how you choose. I just find it frustrating because the only way Iowa will find more post-season success is by attracting better talent. Talented players want to play in front of big, enthusiastic crowds. In much of the McCaffery era, that simply hasn’t existed – even when he’s had All-Americans and teams that finished Top 4 in the Big 10.
I readily admit I’m a basketball junkie and will risk life-and-limb on icy Interstate 80 to make every home game I can. I recognize this makes me a bit of an anomaly these days.
However, if you can’t support the team you allege to be a fan of, you also can’t really expect them to improve either.
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Without revealing how/why I know . . . your cousin's comments are spot on. Let's just say that how Millard remained eligible would have likely gotten the Iowa men's basketball program in some trouble; but wouldn't get the UNC men's basketball program in trouble.
My father (may he rest in peace) always referred to him as Suede Lackingskills. Too harsh but it made me laugh.
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Objectively, though, it isn't either of those things.
Lacking post-season success? Absolutely.
Boring? No. Fast-paced and competitive.
Mediocre? No. Top 5 in the 14-team Big 10 the past two seasons, including a Big 10 Tournament championship run.
I wonder if the boring thing is in part to the lack of energy in Carver that comes thru the TV. And some sports fans aren't interested unless their team(s) are in the hunt for championship(s). I'm not one of those. I enjoy the arcs or seasons, even bad seasons. Watching players and chemistries develop. Seeing how teams/programs/culture respond to adversity. All of it is interesting to me. Scoreboards tell so little of the stories of sports.
I would never use the word boring. Hell, even when I am most frustrated with Fran's program, it's never boring. Waiting with bated breath for that 5- to 6- and sometimes up to 20-minute stretch in which the guys can't score and/or stop anybody is anticipatory excitement maybe unmatched in sports. Especially knowing that, sometimes on the other side of that is an opponent that gets, well, bored and complacent leaving the door cracked open for the Iowa guys to score like 30 points in like 90 manic seconds to close out the game.
I should qualify that I realize that my enjoyment (and critique of describing Iowa basketball under Fran as "boring") is tied to my being an all-meanings masochist, and not everyone is as such.
This has to be viewed through the lens of today's college basketball. Nowhere near as deep as the teams in the 1990s. The last few years we had college POY candidates, and those teams would have gotten the shit kicked out of them by the Dr. Tom teams of the 1980s and 1990s, and those 1990s teams could never make it past Duke or whoever they faced as an 8/9 seed in the second round. Our more recent teams still can't make it to the sweet 16 despite men's college basketball being a shell of its former self. And now we have no stars. The closest thing is Owens, who is like a poor man's cherokee parks from yesteryear. Throw in the persistent lack of defense, and this team just isn't fun to watch, and is mediocre.
Well, we do live in today's college basketball, for better or worse (worse, in my opinion).
I, too, miss college basketball of the 80s and 90s. Upperclassmen-dominated rosters. Storylines years in the making. Rivalries felt really important and consequential. Precocious underclassmen — felt like even the best of them had to pay their dues a bit. And, of course, you weren't spoiled by the ability to watch every single game on TV.
But the main reason I wanted to respond to your post? As a guy who played A LOT of basketball with Cherokee Parks, while he was an NBA player, suggesting his and Freeman's games are similar is just weird, IMO. Pretty sure there's only one Cherokee Parks, too, so I'm confident I'm not mistaken in who you're referencing.
Anyways, crack a beer and just train your eyes on Payton Sandfort. Tap into your sense of humor in doing so.
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I have never met the kid. He does have a bit of a crazed look from time to time though, lol.
Out of pure curiosity I looked up how many Sweet 16s Iowa has been to. They've made it 8 times in the history of the program. That kind of makes me chuckle a bit because people seem to use that as the measuring stick for us getting "back to where we should be" so to speak. In reality, those seasons are incredibly rare for Iowa Men's hoops and always have been. With that said, 4 of those trips were all in the 80's.
Not posting this to argue with anyone, I was just genuinely curious about how many times Iowa had been there.
Not posting this to argue with anyone, I was just genuinely curious about how many times Iowa had been there.
Then they've made it there 3 times since it expanded.
Man it would have been fun to experience Iowa hoops in the 80s. Wild times.
Dr Tom's teams got some rough draws in the NCAA's .
I did go look, Iowa has made the top 16 teams 12 times in the NCAA tournament
Not disagreeing that it's uncommon. Lute has a good chunk of those in his short tenure.
