[24hawk24]

I have said this from his first year at Iowa...the Iowa Hawkeyes will not be CONSISTENTLY successful in the Big 10 with the defensive scheme Fran McCafrey puts on the floor, unless they can get talent that is top tier in the Big Ten.

Fran is undeniably an excellent recruiter. And we WILL be better as his recruits come pouring in. Problem is, I do not think we are going to consistently have top tier talent in the Big Ten. Therefore, this PROGRAM will not be consistently successful.

What is successful? To me, success is formulating the best team possible out of the players you have to work with.

We play a little defense in spurts, but there is ABSOLUTELY NO SUBSTANCE behind what we do defensively. Understand that it does take at least four years to build a program. I am not at all upset at how many losses we have, but I also was not that ecstatic with our two BigTen road wins. What I have been upset about is our mentality and the way we compete. I can see it, trust me. You can have off nights in a program, but you can not obtain long-term success if you can't compete consistently.

I do understand that with our style of play, we will give up more points than most teams in the Big Ten. And how well we execute on offense is a determiner of points given up...but unless something changes, the way Fran coaches and the way he gets players to compete is not a recipe for LONG TERM success as a program. I know it is a very pessimistic outlook, but I call what I see, and most of the time I am right.

[TheNebraskaHawk]

I think that you are wrong and Fran's past successes proves my assertion. I do agree that we need (And we are getting), the type of talent that is needed to be successful on a regular basis. Will we win the B10 every year? No, but look at the competition, I am betting that we will be competing in the top tier on a regular basis in the near future.

[tm3308]

Originally Posted by 24hawk24

I have said this from his first year at Iowa...the Iowa Hawkeyes will not be CONSISTENTLY successful in the Big 10 with the defensive scheme Fran McCafrey puts on the floor, unless they can get talent that is top tier in the Big Ten.

Fran is undeniably an excellent recruiter. And we WILL be better as his recruits come pouring in. Problem is, I do not think we are going to consistently have top tier talent in the Big Ten. Therefore, this PROGRAM will not be consistently successful.

What is successful? To me, success is formulating the best team possible out of the players you have to work with.

We play a little defense in spurts, but there is ABSOLUTELY NO SUBSTANCE behind what we do defensively. Understand that it does take at least four years to build a program. I am not at all upset at how many losses we have, but I also was not that ecstatic with our two BigTen road wins. What I have been upset about is our mentality and the way we compete. I can see it, trust me. You can have off nights in a program, but you can not obtain long-term success if you can't compete consistently.

I do understand that with our style of play, we will give up more points than most teams in the Big Ten. And how well we execute on offense is a determiner of points given up...but unless something changes, the way Fran coaches and the way he gets players to compete is not a recipe for LONG TERM success as a program. I know it is a very pessimistic outlook, but I call what I see, and most of the time I am right.

We need better athletes, and that should start happening soon. Watching OSU or MSU whip the ball around the perimeter is dizzying. Our guys just can't move quickly enough to defend the open man. But again, once we start getting more of Fran's guys in here, that won't be as much of an issue.

[HawkForce]

one problem I always notice with our defense is when we play man, a lot of times you will see us come up on a screen and one player switches but the other doesn't recover quick enough to his new man leaving him wide open. Sometimes the offensive players don't recognize this but it has led to more than a few wide open looks to the basket...and I see it enough that it has to be something we do schematically.

[Section136]

Our starting "center" is about 6'7". Our team defense is going to suffer until we get a legit number 5.

[homes]

Originally Posted by 24hawk24

ABSOLUTELY NO SUBSTANCE behind what we do defensively.

Sounds nice, but I don't understand what this means, and you gave no examples of this substance-less defense.

[hawkeye12345]

We simply don't have the talent to be consistent at any level right now. We are going to take some lumps at times due to the lack of talent but Fran continues and needs to continue to implore his style on this team. Why? Because the recruits that he wants need to see what he wants to do rather than what we can do right now.

We had a nice win against Wisky and Minny but got thumped by two of the best teams in the country! Big deal.

As mentioned, we don't have a legit C. This allows every team to extend their defense and body us up without fear we are going to dump the ball inside. It also doesn't help that our wings aren't the best ballhandlers in the world. It also allows the opposing offense to dribble penetrate without the fear they are going to have their *** handed to them by shot blocker or bigger body. This also forces our defenders to sag in the paint to help out our much shorter and lighter interior post players on defense which opens up the 3 ball.

This isn't a complicated game but it does require a full team to execute at both ends. We have well above average players at the 4, 3 and 2 position and our PG play has been great at times and gawd awful at others.

Guess what? We have two 4* players coming in next year. One is a 7' Center (with a backup) and the other is a PG (with a backup). 4, 3 and 2 are still going to be on the team (Basabe, White and Marble).

This is Yr 2 of the Fran era and if you can't see that the program is moving in the right direction then you simply don't understand the game very well.

[herbyhawk]

there is no backstop to this team, until we get somebody 6'10 or taller in the middle the outside will be exposed
you can't get by with a 6'7 kid playing out of position
hopefully Olaseni progress enough so that Woodbury doesn't have to be the main guy at center
the good thing Meyer at 6'10 is another big that can play inside and out like White
height hides alot of outside defiency
kinda like a good painter can cover up alot of the carpenters mistakes
but we have better perimeter players coming in to help with these short comings
it may take all of next year for them to learn and get fully acclimated to the college game
i really expect when Marble, Basabe and McCabe become seniors they make alot of noise in the Tourney and continue to do so year in and year out as he continues to get more and better talent

[herbyhawk]

i think its a matter of people can't see the progress, its a matter of not wanting too

[Section136]

Originally Posted by herbyhawk

i think its a matter of people can't see the progress, its a matter of not wanting too

Pretty good point. I also think that some people want the turnaround to be instant. It doesnt work like that, not even for storied programs like Indiana.