Making it to the second round of the tourney seems a lot better than Amaker’s 0 times in the tourney, ever.
I’m not saying he’s literally the same coach. Just that his seasons follow that same general pattern - peak in January and fall apart.
Amaker sort of did us a favor by just missing the tournament a bunch of times, making his record more fireable. Iowa seems stuck in purgatory, making the tournament but never doing anything in it.
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Asking a coach about auto benching the potential POTY is a completely valid question. If Fran answered it and said he was happy to be down two at the half like you explained then no one would notice. Instead he called the question ridiculous and went after the reporter.
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The First Four being introduced after all of Amaker’s near misses is really cruel.
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Never thought of that. Imagine a timeline where the First Four is introduced while Amaker is here, he makes the tourney, takes longer to get fired, and we never get Beilein. Yikes.
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Yep, you have to think that two or three of his teams would’ve gotten a First Four nod. At a quick glance 2004, 2006, and 2007 would’ve been solid possibilities for an 11-seed in Dayton.
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well it might have turned into Jay Wright in that scenario…
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I think like a prior person said they are a middle of the pack basketball team in the conference probably never really terrible. I know McCaffrey is a clear upgrade over Lickliter and Fran has probably been better than Alford. It’s not like Iowa is going to harken back to the days of Lute/George/Tom. Maybe they could get better than Fran but I think it’s a be careful what you wish for.
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I wanna say I asked this in the off-season but now that February Fran seems to be in full effect this is unmistakably a pattern that Iowa starts off hot, slides mid-B1G season and best case scenario is limps into the tourney.
So…if your Iowa are your comfortable with this? This seems to be what your going to be for the foreseeable future as long as you are hitched to Fran. This is probably the most talented team you have had/going to have and its following the script of many others. Do you just ride this out and hope for a better year to come along at some point or look to make a switch? To me it seems Fran has the ceiling of a mid B1G team.
That being said I do think Frederick is a big loss for them. We can’t moan about Eli being out for our one loss and then gloss over Frederick being out. And I do think the point was made above that Iowa’s schedule has gotten tougher and we could be having the same conversation in a couple of weeks.
I would agree but Fran has never really been cordial with the media. It wouldn’t surprise me if he pretty much expected that type of question and didn’t want to hear it.
Is Fran cordial with anybody? That was a local media guy he went after too. Refs have targeted him, he just seems miserable on the sidelines. Could explain why his team always goes in the tank after 20 games too.
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Well, he sure seemed to like talking to JB in that BTN clip, but then again who wouldn’t?!
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Yeah, you could argue that this is what they should aim for. But it’s still odd that they can play well enough to get ranked a lot of years midseason, only to inevitably fall apart.
You need Fran to bottom out because regardless of February Fran he out kicks his coverage in regards to development. For this current roster here were the recruiting class rankings.
2016-39th only including it because Bohanon is still there
2017-57th
2018-67th with Weiskamp and Fredrick I would say this 2 man class is real good
2019-72nd
2020-60th
I guess I just don’t know what they should let him go for. Maybe they find a better coach who excels at recruiting but as far as development he seems real good at what he does.
In a way this is along the lines of Michigan football fans wanting Harbaugh gone and the talk is Matt Campbell. As I said earlier seems like a more be careful what you wish for.
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Yeah I get it, its a tough call. I would look at your recruiting and say “recruit better” but its Iowa and I think your “outkick the coverage” description is a good one. But this seems to be his ceiling and if he never really bottoms out…then what?
I really think he would do well to find a Donlon/Yaklich. They have some pieces next year where they could put together a competent defense and maybe that would change the trajectory of things.
That would probably the best thing for him. I would be interested to see if there is any correlation in regards to recruiting in power 5 conferences and the caliber of players in regards to defense. Fran obviously brings out the best in their players offensively. Are these guys just so limited defensively?? I would say Bohanon is limited due to a couple hip surgeries, height etc… I can see signs of Murray being very good defensively. I still believe in order to be a very good D you need PGs that can put ball pressure and other things can fall into place.
I think you are exactly right. Given his surly attitude I wonder if he’s a dictator coach and hasn’t been able to delegate defense to an assistant. That’s what they need. Even with the same athletes they have they could be average in defense.
I don’t think they dump him any time soon…but if they did their AD should go after Beilein hard.
Iowa’s defenses were not consistently terrible until Garza got there… just saying
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Thinking about that last play . . . . you’re down two with 1.8 seconds left, why not throw it to a guy who’s crossed the timeline and instantly call timeout? Gives you a chance to set up a halfcourt OOB play.