Why can't we get athletic players?
- Thread starter IAHawkGrad2000
- Start date
Mental toughness right there.
To win on the road or in a tournament you need mental toughness. The ability to block out the noise and the new surroundings and put the ball in the basket.
I'm not saying that's easy, but this Hawk team doesn't have much.
I do. Words usage matters. It differentiates a well-thought out argument from lazy emoting.
It’s tiring for me too. But I try to do my part in all areas to improve things.
Do you think Sandfort is athletic?
Some word usage doesn't need to be clarified because people have common sense. When you're on a college basketball board and someone says a player "isn't athletic", they are obviously saying it in the context of college basketball players. Not the general population as a whole. No need to waste your time when everyone understands this.
No, Sandfort is not athletic in comparison to other college basketball players.
Here’s the biggest problem with Fran’s recruiting: When he was hired at Iowa his staff was poorly formed from a recruiting perspective.
A major shortcoming of Fran’s recruiting approach was not having enough of a focus on Midwest kids whose parents could drive to weekend games. At a school like Iowa, I think you really need an inside-out recruiting approach where you’re really strong with Midwest kids to begin with.
Andrew Francis was an East Coast guy who was being counted on to quickly develop relationships in the Midwest and also convince kids from the East Coast to go to school halfway across the country. He did neither successfully.
Kirk Speraw had strong relationships in Iowa but seemingly few other places.
It’s not an accident that Sherman Dillard is still on staff. From a recruiting perspective, he was the one smart hire on Fran’s original staff. He was instrumental in Iowa landing Garza, Cook, White and others. Without him, Fran wouldn’t be coaching at Iowa anymore.
You might wonder what the staff hires from over a decade have to do with the current recruiting, but it’s important to remember that recruiting is cumulative. If Iowa had more talented players in the past going pro, it makes it a lot easier to recruit going forward. Also, if kids see players from their grassroots program or prep school going to Iowa and having success, it’s easier to get kids from those programs to matriculate going forward.
The good news is that the staff seems to be better from a recruiting standpoint currently. But this is also a very important time in Iowa basketball. They have more to sell with the success of Garza and the Murrays, along with putting guys like Cook, Wieskamp and Uthoff into the league, albeit briefly. Now they need to capitalize on the development of those players and turn that into more recruiting wins.
This staff wants more athletic players. If you’re paying attention, you see they recruit them all the time. Now’s the time to start getting commitments.
A major shortcoming of Fran’s recruiting approach was not having enough of a focus on Midwest kids whose parents could drive to weekend games. At a school like Iowa, I think you really need an inside-out recruiting approach where you’re really strong with Midwest kids to begin with.
Andrew Francis was an East Coast guy who was being counted on to quickly develop relationships in the Midwest and also convince kids from the East Coast to go to school halfway across the country. He did neither successfully.
Kirk Speraw had strong relationships in Iowa but seemingly few other places.
It’s not an accident that Sherman Dillard is still on staff. From a recruiting perspective, he was the one smart hire on Fran’s original staff. He was instrumental in Iowa landing Garza, Cook, White and others. Without him, Fran wouldn’t be coaching at Iowa anymore.
You might wonder what the staff hires from over a decade have to do with the current recruiting, but it’s important to remember that recruiting is cumulative. If Iowa had more talented players in the past going pro, it makes it a lot easier to recruit going forward. Also, if kids see players from their grassroots program or prep school going to Iowa and having success, it’s easier to get kids from those programs to matriculate going forward.
The good news is that the staff seems to be better from a recruiting standpoint currently. But this is also a very important time in Iowa basketball. They have more to sell with the success of Garza and the Murrays, along with putting guys like Cook, Wieskamp and Uthoff into the league, albeit briefly. Now they need to capitalize on the development of those players and turn that into more recruiting wins.
This staff wants more athletic players. If you’re paying attention, you see they recruit them all the time. Now’s the time to start getting commitments.
This
The biggest void has been the inability to find a legitimate point guard . Been Iowa’s Achilles heel for too long ..
Fran is a racist, that’s why he recruits only white players. Oh wait…..that’s not true. Starting 5 white guys is a lie. Guess what? That makes you the racist !
I get it, but I think it is unfair to and disrespectful of our players when the OP posts “why can’t we get athletes”.
Also always lurking with that word is the false race tie as later brought up by many here
Don't matter the type of player if the head guy refuses to better the defense
No it does not. He had 3 nba draft picks on one team a couple years ago and it was still the same results.
So what qualifies as "athletic"?
Someone with blazing speed & a freakish vertical & mad handles? Or in other words....
See my post earlier in this thread:
“If you give me 5 white guys and 5 black guys and ask me to pick a Bball team with no knowledge of the players other than their race, I am going to pick the 5 black players. Why? Because black players dominate Bball rosters.
But that is not how anyone recruits. One does not recruit blind to all other factors about a player.
We don’t need more black players. We need more good players.”
Even the smaller schools in the tourney have better athletes that we do…..quick guys with good enough handles to get by their defenders & finish consistently. Perkins & Ulis are ok, but neither has above average quickness or handles. Bowen has potential but not strong enough yet.
This…..he’s a strong driver if he has a lane & can lower his shoulder, but not fluid enough to get by a good defender.
Are you so senile you can't remember two years ago? They started 5 white guys right on the heels of the football racial bias PR mess which was fantastic optics. It was 4 white guys and Joe T the year before. Fran needs more athletic guys regardless of race but they definitely marched out 5 white starters recently. One of those was an injured Connor who was close to worthless down the stretch in 21
Side bar but he’s been a great addition to the Warriors this year - love his defense as well. Surprisingly good offense to boot. Great motor.
That's why we have all those national championship banners hanging in Carver...............................
.....on second though, those might be for wrestling. I'd have to double check.
