That will definitely be an interesting dynamic to watch. The Iowa women's team clearly has more star power and momentum heading into the season. The men's team has relatively no star power and is more than a bit stale. I'm envisioning weeknight Big Ten games against Penn State that draw 3,000 fans. Maybe.
Fran McCaffery and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Transfer Portal
- Thread starter CoKane
- Start date
That will definitely be an interesting dynamic to watch. The Iowa women's team clearly has more star power and momentum heading into the season. The men's team has relatively no star power and is more than a bit stale. I'm envisioning weeknight Big Ten games against Penn State that draw 3,000 fans. Maybe.
Overall, Iowa will be slightly worse iteration of last year's team.
Offensively - Still very good but without that staple All-American they've had the past 4 years in Garza, Garza, Ke Murray, Kr Murray. Kris had a rough last couple months shooting the ball but he absolutely dragged that roster through some games last year. I don't see a guy who's going to average 20 and 10 on this team next year but Sandfort will likely take another step. Can he average 15 a game with better efficiency than he's shown his first two seasons? We'll see. I also think Krikke can almost completely replace Rebraca offensively. Josh Dix will be a nice 4 year piece. Will need to get more comfortable with the ball but he can shoot it already. I'd look for him to take a step next year and will be curious to here reviews on him from USA basketball training camp.
Defensively - They might actually project to be worse defensively and I didn't think that was possible. Krikke is a defensive sieve who will not compete on the boards like Rebraca did. Sandfort and PMac can't guard anyone and Patrick is a poor rebounder. It's hard to drop farther than #171 in AdjD but they're going to try with this roster.
Offensively - Still very good but without that staple All-American they've had the past 4 years in Garza, Garza, Ke Murray, Kr Murray. Kris had a rough last couple months shooting the ball but he absolutely dragged that roster through some games last year. I don't see a guy who's going to average 20 and 10 on this team next year but Sandfort will likely take another step. Can he average 15 a game with better efficiency than he's shown his first two seasons? We'll see. I also think Krikke can almost completely replace Rebraca offensively. Josh Dix will be a nice 4 year piece. Will need to get more comfortable with the ball but he can shoot it already. I'd look for him to take a step next year and will be curious to here reviews on him from USA basketball training camp.
Defensively - They might actually project to be worse defensively and I didn't think that was possible. Krikke is a defensive sieve who will not compete on the boards like Rebraca did. Sandfort and PMac can't guard anyone and Patrick is a poor rebounder. It's hard to drop farther than #171 in AdjD but they're going to try with this roster.
Last edited:
Agree with the above. I think they could be a bubble team given their relatively easy schedule and false perception of the B1G being an elite MBB conference.
Minnesota, Michigan, and Penn State twice gives them a nice floor. They'll have a couple good shooting nights at home of course. Can they get to 11 B1G wins like last year? We shall see. 10-10 and you're in trouble in that conference.
If Fran gets that roster into the tournament then he should be named Big 10 coach of the year. That is probably the most limited group he’s had since he replaced Lick.
Can’t remember the year, but the team that was down 46 or whatever at Purdue was pretty bad. Garza’s Fr season maybe?
Feels pretty comparable to the 2017 NIT team. Jok (Sr), Baer (So), Moss (Fr), Tyler Cook (Fr), Bohannon (Fr), Pemsl (Fr). That team finished 18-14 (10-8) and missed the tournament due to a 1st round Big 10 tourney loss.
I think you're underselling them a bit. They have some pieces and will win home games. Last year was a bit of a red flag though coming 1 loss away from missing the tournament with a 22 year old All-American plus Rebraca (25) and Connor (24).
I am pretty confident in predicting a Round 1 loss for hoks in the NCAA.
Actually, I am pretty confident in predicting that outcome for Iowa for as long as Fran is there.
He is consistent if nothing else.
Seems pretty spot on. On nights where both Perkins and Pay. Sandfort struggle, they won't win. I think Sandfort will be an inefficient scorer. Perkins will be the heartbeat of the team, and he tends to be a bit of an emotional headcase at times, can get careless when things aren't going well etc. If he hasn't nipped that in the bud this year, I can't see them making the NCAA Tourney.
A lot comes down to how well Krikke adapts to Big 10 ball. With the Big 10 being down the past few years, one wouldn't think there would be too much adapting to do, even from the Horizon, but Rebraca took a year, and as you noted in a post above, Krikke isn't a competitor the same way Rebraca is. Rebraca was a laughably bad Big 10 player in his first year, but then turned into a fairly respectable one in year 2.
Just a reminder that Fran spends more money recruiting than Kirk does.
via Chad
via Chad
To be fair, good football players want to play defense for Iowa so they don’t have to spend much there. Same with TEs. And clearly they thought the same would apply to the rest of the offense but were very wrong.
There's so many legacy players (that shouldn't take much cost/time) at Iowa bball though. That's the crazy part.
And they’ve had 8/14 recruits since 2019 come from the state of Iowa and the quad cities.
Every time Fran takes the family out to dinner or on a vacation, he considers that recruiting expenses and team-building activities.
That lazy recruiting strategy is the biggest reason Fran hasn’t been to a Sweet 16 if you ask me.