John Sears wants IA to start giving out “freebies” again at embarassing Carver
- Thread starter JP4CY
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Didn’t take long after their great season just a year ago.
Iowa had a player chose Iowa over Ohio State recently. Why isn’t Sears asking him to flip to Ohio State 57 times, Murphy and Andy say that’s what good journalists have to do.
Speaking of irritating media, after Iowa got killed by Wisconsin, leistikow wrote a fluff piece saying how it’s so sad that these teams only play once this year. You know it was an epic battle where Wisconsin was leading the entire way.
after we blew an 11 point lead, Randy wrote that it wasn’t just the fouls that cost us.
randy is right but it would be nice if the Iowa reporter at the register wasn’t a good damned fan.
after we blew an 11 point lead, Randy wrote that it wasn’t just the fouls that cost us.
randy is right but it would be nice if the Iowa reporter at the register wasn’t a good damned fan.
It's hard to articulate and quantify. But the product under Fran is simply not visually appealing. Sure, they've had some great players. Sure, they consistently score a lot of points. But I think the latter serves more as an excuse to gloss over the ugly way they do it, simply from an eye-test standpoint rather than truly represent an exciting brand of basketball.
Ironically, Tyler Cook was probably their most watchable player from a casual observer standpoint. Then maybe a pillow fight between Joe Wisekamp, Jarrod Uthoff, and Luka Garza who all have their physical limitations despite the fact that they all can technically dunk, which I think also glosses over their shortcomings.
Yes, Keegan Murray is good, but you can tell he's a late bloomer whose skill set is sketchily playing catch-up with his recent athletic surge. He's all arms and legs with an average handle, and he roughly rattles home a lot of his makes, a trait rarely found in most similar players of his acclaim. It would take an Anthony Bennett type class to justify taking him in the lottery right now. He's not realistically an early impact guy, more of a intriguing project with a lot of potential as long as he can continue to make substantial uncharted leaps every single year in his game (which he has so far to his credit).
For comparison, I think Keegan Murray is a less polished Craig Brackins. More guard ability, but less shooting ability. More raw athleticism, but much less time fine-tuning his skillset against high level competition. The game IS different now, which probably will help Murray in that regard as opposed to Brackins.
Iowa has maybe 5 NBA fans in the whole state, so this point is probably lost on most. Iowa could average 100/gm, with this current roster, or even their last roster, nothing they do on the court will move the needle visually for the modern casual basketball connoisseur. It would be like Chinese water torture to primarily consume Iowa basketball, slowly whittling away one's taste for the game.
The same can't be said for many past Hoks like Ricky Davis, Reggie Evans, BJ Armstrong even a monster dunker Doug Thomas or pure PG like Dean Oliver. Etc... Even your "token Iowa guys" like Greg Brunner and Jeff Horner were fun watches that made you think, "Not quite NBA guys but maybe only a few inches or a step or two off."
This is the true culprit at the heart of the problem for Iowa basketball. You won't hear it. Firstly, because their media coverage is shamelessly biased. But secondly, from a basketball standpoint they probably don't fully understand and appreciate this is a primary reason apathy has crept in and continues to settle. Wins are only a treatment for it, but will never be the cure.
Ironically, Tyler Cook was probably their most watchable player from a casual observer standpoint. Then maybe a pillow fight between Joe Wisekamp, Jarrod Uthoff, and Luka Garza who all have their physical limitations despite the fact that they all can technically dunk, which I think also glosses over their shortcomings.
Yes, Keegan Murray is good, but you can tell he's a late bloomer whose skill set is sketchily playing catch-up with his recent athletic surge. He's all arms and legs with an average handle, and he roughly rattles home a lot of his makes, a trait rarely found in most similar players of his acclaim. It would take an Anthony Bennett type class to justify taking him in the lottery right now. He's not realistically an early impact guy, more of a intriguing project with a lot of potential as long as he can continue to make substantial uncharted leaps every single year in his game (which he has so far to his credit).
For comparison, I think Keegan Murray is a less polished Craig Brackins. More guard ability, but less shooting ability. More raw athleticism, but much less time fine-tuning his skillset against high level competition. The game IS different now, which probably will help Murray in that regard as opposed to Brackins.
Iowa has maybe 5 NBA fans in the whole state, so this point is probably lost on most. Iowa could average 100/gm, with this current roster, or even their last roster, nothing they do on the court will move the needle visually for the modern casual basketball connoisseur. It would be like Chinese water torture to primarily consume Iowa basketball, slowly whittling away one's taste for the game.
The same can't be said for many past Hoks like Ricky Davis, Reggie Evans, BJ Armstrong even a monster dunker Doug Thomas or pure PG like Dean Oliver. Etc... Even your "token Iowa guys" like Greg Brunner and Jeff Horner were fun watches that made you think, "Not quite NBA guys but maybe only a few inches or a step or two off."
This is the true culprit at the heart of the problem for Iowa basketball. You won't hear it. Firstly, because their media coverage is shamelessly biased. But secondly, from a basketball standpoint they probably don't fully understand and appreciate this is a primary reason apathy has crept in and continues to settle. Wins are only a treatment for it, but will never be the cure.
I disagree. Their fans don't care about basketball and really haven't for 20 years. That's the long and short of it. It's frustrating to watch a team with an outstanding offense at and a bad defense at times or vice versa. But the difference is we have a fanbase who cares about basketball and they don't at this point. They have a surprisingly good team with another potential All American who is a legacy player. That should be enough, but it isn't.
Their fans care. The #1 problem is Fran and his relationship with donors(especially large), media and his peers at Iowa. One of the donors that I'm good friends with(owns a large dealership in Iowa) supplies cars to athletic program, he goes out of his way to make sure that Fran doesn't get one of his cars(Alford was the same). They have had 15-20 years of very unlikeable people running that program.
If Iowa got Steve Forbes that would dramatically change that program and give it major lift.
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Are 8,000 fans big donors trying to keep cars from him? There were probably 4k fans at their last home game.
Agree on Forbes. I admittedly don’t know much about his past with Pearl, but I do know his family. Steve would be the opposite of what they’ve hired since Dr Tom and is a guy that could energize the fanbase in my opinion.
Meh there's only a handful of "large donors" out there - the masses are what fill the seats, not large donors. I don't think that's it.
They have had a long run of un-likable coaches and haven't had a fun March in essentially a generation. That kills fan support and program momentum.
Alford was the beginning of the end for Iowa Basketball. He pi**ed off a lot of the diehard fan base with his off court behavior. Todd Lickliter brought no offensive excitement. Fran brought nepotism. There has been little to be proud off in the program (other than Garza) since 1999.
Maybe they should try shooting Fran wearing a t-shirt out of a cannon.
Halftime entertainment is they roll out a portable ring and have Fran fight a guy in an officials uniform. Think Frans halftime tirades do anything for the team?
I think it boils down to the fact that if they have a game against a ranked opponent that they expect to win, or if their team is having a really strong season (at the time), they'll go. Otherwise, their die hard fans are about enough to fill Carver to half capacity (or less).
real question. Does Iowa average more fans at wrestling than basketball? I’m not sure how many show up to wrestling
I been to Carver many times-- Of course it's always cheap$ tickets or they were 'comped' to us.
Once we attended a late season game in the waining days of Todd Lickliter.
~why? My spouse wanted to try an IC restaurant afterwards, and they Carver ran a special > $5 for any available seat
It was a sellout. $5/seat. I could tell 1/4 of the crowd were like first-time attendees.
We sat right behind two guys who literally came right in from the pig stye.
They literally stunk like pig sh#t.
Apologies to farmers, yet we had to vacate our seats and find something in the nosebleed section
oh, and another thing. In my years attending games there--their fans collectively have the LOWEST basketball IQ's I have ever been around
Once we attended a late season game in the waining days of Todd Lickliter.
~why? My spouse wanted to try an IC restaurant afterwards, and they Carver ran a special > $5 for any available seat
It was a sellout. $5/seat. I could tell 1/4 of the crowd were like first-time attendees.
We sat right behind two guys who literally came right in from the pig stye.
They literally stunk like pig sh#t.
Apologies to farmers, yet we had to vacate our seats and find something in the nosebleed section
oh, and another thing. In my years attending games there--their fans collectively have the LOWEST basketball IQ's I have ever been around
