Even if Fran's buyout is $4.2 million, which is lower than I thought it'd be, I'd gladly help pay that cost.
Operators are busy, so please stay on the line….
Why firing Fran is not so simple. Fran's buyout is $4.2M. Devries' buyout is almost $10M
- Thread starter Franisdaman
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Operators are busy, so please stay on the line….
Just because I’m feeling salty about the whole situation, they built a statue in Ames to a guy who was way below .500 in conference play. Losers.
We can talk about Fran's "body of work", recruiting, offense, defense, March Sadness all we want. But if the arena is half full (generous), then something has to be done.
There are many coaches that would love a shot to coach at Iowa. Probably not the household names or the one's already in a power league, but young, eager guys looking to get to a conference like the B1G. Everyone here laughed when ISU hired TJ and he's done a great job,
Sure, Iowa doesn't have a good recruiting territory or NIL money. But most successful coaches have a mentality to "build" a program. Hire the right assistants, get recruiting working, energize the fans and build an NIL base.
Past time for a reboot. Pay the buyout or negotiate a lower amount. The next phase of Iowa basketball must start this Spring.
There are many coaches that would love a shot to coach at Iowa. Probably not the household names or the one's already in a power league, but young, eager guys looking to get to a conference like the B1G. Everyone here laughed when ISU hired TJ and he's done a great job,
Sure, Iowa doesn't have a good recruiting territory or NIL money. But most successful coaches have a mentality to "build" a program. Hire the right assistants, get recruiting working, energize the fans and build an NIL base.
Past time for a reboot. Pay the buyout or negotiate a lower amount. The next phase of Iowa basketball must start this Spring.
I can never understand why so many Hawk fans think so little of the University that they believe no “good” coach would ever come here. Pure nonsense.
These same fans opine about the recruiting disadvantages at Iowa. And yet, it doesn’t seem to have an adverse effect at ISU.
Couldn't agree more.
Even the paid attendance is overblown to how many actually go to the games. Can't get any reasonable about of students there from a pool of 30K. Truly an embarrassing look but I don't blame the fans at this point. Hell I have only attended 2 games in the past 2 years and they were both last year. I have only watched parts of 3 games this year. It is just the same 'ol crap. I am not putting THAT much on the players either. It starts with coaching/recruiting and the well has been dry for too long either on one side or another....sometimes both.
If we can't (or don't want to) afford about $5 million on a buyout for a coach to fix a broken program then I am not sure we are very serious about fixing it. I am not saying he is the answer....just a general observation. Sooner Beth understands a change needs to be made and she gets someone locked in, and announces this is Fran's last season, the better. The longer this sits the likelihood is the cost will go up....either to get the right coach OR another year of 5k showing up to a game.
My understanding of DeVries buyout. 15 mil contract. 12 mil remaining after this year. 37.5 % of remaining 12 mil is 4.5 mil
I don't know how many schools out there can claim to thrive in all three, but add football to the mix and I want Iowa to be like that.
If Scott, Chad and others are saying Fran has done such a great job considering the resources; why haven't other schools with better resources tried to hire Fran away? Seems like an obvious choice for a better BB school than Iowa
My guess is they are being nice because they know (or are reasonably informed) that Fran's time at Iowa is over, so they don't care to beat him up on his way out the door. Without any access at all to the program or the athletic department, I believe that Fran is not coming back next year.
As to why he didn't leave, I don't know if he was contacted by other programs, even off the record. He has had it pretty good here, so unless he was looking for a change of scenery, he really didn't have any incentive to go anywhere. He was paid well. It was a Big Ten school. Iowa City is a nice place to live, affordable (relatively speaking). He and Margaret got to raise there kids here, without having to pull them out of school and move to a new place. He got to coach two of them. Not saying any fan has to like or approve of that, but I'm sure that was a bonus for him. All in all, not a bad place for him to be for 15 years.
I agree, but I still think Scott and Chad are arguing the wrong premise. Yes, Fran is, without a doubt, one of the best offensive minds in college basketball today.....that's just not in dispute. Fran is also a very good judge of talent in that he can see what appears to be "average" talent and project things that could potentially make that player good, if not great. Again, that's not in doubt.
But again, this is a business, and the consumers have spoken. They don't like Fran or the overall product he is putting on the court. So Chad and Scott can argue until the cows come home about his record, abilities, etc. and claim that he probably doesn't deserve to get fired. But deserve's got nothing to do with it. The men's program is not healthy financially and the quickest and easiest way to reverse that is to hire a new, energetic coach that understands that defense and rebounding are just as important as offense and that athletic guards are more important than skinny wings that can shoot the 3.
Not necessarily.
Iowa media - mainstream or not - has traditionally (past 30+ years) has always treated the Hawkeye coaches, both in pressers and in articles, with the softest of kid gloves.
Can't argue with what you say but, Football is a different animal in Tailgates, Daytime games mostly, at least 1 night game. Did I mention tailgates. warmer temps. BB is dealing with a lot of late starts during the week, parking issues with long walks in the cold and snow to Carver.
Student apathy with a lot of different things going on as opposed to just 10 years ago.
Tv availability just makes it too easy to stay home and watch. If Fran leaves and Iowa gets a coach that brings a team that plays like Purdue or Michigan St, I guess we'll find out.
This is broadly true and Scott doesn't cover basketball anymore which helps but he'd been pretty harsh on men's basketball before this week and was very early in arguing that they probably need a change. Chad is generally a softie though yeah.
Their podcast this week felt like eulogy for the Fran era I think they both are of the opinion that it's likely done after this year. I don't think it's being unreasonable to point out that he won a lot of games here and generally gave the program a higher floor than most coaches are capable of, it's just run its course now. 15 years is a long time.
