The thing is, when you really look back at it, Fennelly’s program peaked in the early/mid 2000s… or 20-25 years ago. I’m not saying there haven’t been highs since then, but that was when ISU WBB was at its best, and at the time we were hoping the program would take the next step… and not only did it never take that next step, it never quite got back to that point either. I understand the argument that he built ISU WBB… but that was 30+ years ago, with most of the accomplishments coming more than 20 years ago now. And the last 5-10 years have been really disappointing, especially considering the talent that has been on the team over that time.
Bottom line is Fennelly is going to have his banner in the rafters next to Johnny Orr, because he’s earned that. He’s the guy that took a program that was less than nothing and turned it into something good, and consistently good… but good is for the most part where it capped out at, because he very rarely ever approached great, even if some of his teams should have allowed to get to great.