 Scott DochtermanI'm originally from Burlington, and I'm a 1997 Western Illinois University graduate. I've worked in Burlington, Muscatine, Fort Dodge and [...] |
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Iowa crushes S.C. St; McCaffery surpasses Lickliter
Iowa throttles S.C. State; McCaffery passes Lickliter
IOWA CITY — Three seasons ago Fran McCaffery took his lumps as a first-year Iowa coach, enduring the second-most single-season losses in school history.
Last year McCaffery brought hope with the school’s first winning record in five seasons. Now, after a 90-46 win against South Carolina State Wednesday night at Carver-Hawkeye Arena, McCaffery has evened his Iowa record at 39-39.
Less than halfway into his third season, McCaffery now has one more victory in 18 fewer games that predecessor Todd Lickliter managed over three complete seasons. Wednesday night’s win gave the Hawkeyes a 10-2 record so far, the program’s best record through 12 games since 2004-05.
Iowa dominated the game from start to finish. By halftime Iowa junior Devyn Marble outscored South Carolina State 21-20. From the middle of the first half through the middle of the second, Iowa blasted through on a 45-9 run.
Marble connected on 8 of 13 shots, including 6-of-8 from 3-point range to score 27 points. He played only 22 minutes, sitting out all but four in the second half. He now has 57 points in his last two games.
Backup center Gabe Olaseni produced the game’s highlight reel play, blocking a breakaway dunk attempt by the Bulldogs’ Phillip Henry with less than five minutes remaining. Olaseni grabbed 10 rebounds, blocked four shots and scored six points.
Iowa paid South Carolina State $90,000 for the game, one of five Iowa non-conference opponents to receive that number. Iowa’s non-conference home slate this year cost the school $710,000 in guarantees, according to contracts supplied by the University of Iowa to The Gazette via state open-records law.
Iowa plays one more non-conference game — this Saturday against Coppin State — before opening Big Ten play against Indiana on Dec. 31.
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I watched that game. Wow!
Also, where was Josh Oglesby? Is he injured?
He had a slight shoulder injury and was held out. No big deal and Fran said he should be able to play Saturday.
Scott,
I don’t want to be negative, but I was curious if there had been any kind of analysis done on our non-conference schedule since McCaffery arrived at Iowa? Other than the over-publicized softening of the schedule by refusing to play at Northern Iowa, opting instead for a quiet “classic” in DesMoines, has the McCaffery era brought any other (softening) schedule changes? Or, do you feel Iowa’s non-conference schedule under McCaffery is comparable to his predecessors? I also would encourage Iowa fans not to get their hopes up too high for the conference season. I think Iowa basketball could win less B1G games this year than last year, and still in reality be an improved team over last year’s Hawkeyes. I think patience is the key here, and I think Fran has earned that patience with his efforts on the recruiting front.
I hope the Hawkeyes have played a representative schedule, so as to be tough by league time.
Thanks Zach, you brought up many of the things i would have. 10-2 looks nice on paper, but look at the quality of ‘pre-season’ opponents. It’s not like Iowa has knocked off Kansas, Duke, North Carolina, Kentucky, Louisville, etc in the ‘pre-season’. let’s see how it looks in mid april.
i’ve asked before, but no one has the answer…. the fans will run off a basketball coach that can’t get the program over the hump and into national prominence, but allow a football coach to have so-so seasons, and are perfectly OK with that.
Michaela,
I will say that I am consistent in my support of good, ethical, classy coaches. I was upset that Tom Davis was shown the door. He had more success in his final season (people say that he was declining) than the program has had since he left. I would much rather he had left on his own terms and had some say in who replaced him – much like Fry did with the football team.
In fact, I feel that the reason that the football team has had much more success than the basketball team in recent years is because of the consistency between KF and Fry, and the inconsistency of the program philosophy as the basketball program has changed hands many, many times.
Though there are many differences between Fry and KF, there are many things that do remain of Fry’s legacy in the KF program, among these are: ethics, hard work, and the general success of the program. In contrast, in basketball we have gone from a half-court offense (with an ill-tempered coach) in Steve Alford, a very slowed-down eat the shot clock and play defense (albeit with a very classy coach) in Lickliter, and now back to an up-tempo more Tom Davis-like style of play (although with another ill-tempered coach who needs to shut his mouth once in awhile) under Fran – none of these coaches having the success that Tom Davis did.
Now, while I don’t plan on this being a very successful season either, I do think that the Iowa administration should give Fran at least 3 more years after this year to see if this great class of recruits that he brought in can become at least as successful as Tom Davis’ final year. If they can achieve that or better in their careers, I would advise the university to stick with Fran for the long haul – but that’s just me.