Fran gets zero credit for Garza and the Murray’s, they did all of their development outside of Frans program.
Tough day for EIU hoops hopes
- Thread starter MuskieCy
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Disagree a bit based on the 'how'.
All 3 of those guys did a ton of work OUTSIDE of Iowa City to improve their games, iirc. Fran didn't teach them much if anything on offense, and certainly NOTHING on defense.
What Fran does do, imo, is gives guys an open system to showcase their scoring ability. So that lets them be a bit flashy and put up numbers and get attention. Esp guys that are marginal physically like White, Garza, JorBo, get to put up flashy numbers in that system.
Yup, another article in the Des Moines Register today discussing how much the Iowa fan base is anticipating the upcoming season, how they have great pieces in place, yadda, yadda. A few days ago there was a piece about all the new players and they were really hyping up the walk-on from Indiana. When a team has open scholarships and ask him to walk on I wouldn't be that excited about him.
Nobody should ever get excited about a walk on in basketball. Football yes. Football walkons work out a lot, not a ton, but there is a chance. Basketball walkons very rarely end up getting minutes. I think the last one that got a lot of time at Iowa state was Haluska's little brother and that is because our roster turnover really was bad. Think it was Hoibergs first year and we needed bodies.
That will be an uphill battle for Fran. The women will sellout season tickets again and football will always be king. Fran has shown that he's a decent coach with a very defined ceiling and it's that relatively low ceiling that is killing fan support.
No it isn't. Iowa State regularly played walk ons during the Prohm era, Jordan Ashton and later Nate Jenkins on that awful 2-win Covid year team. Kourtlin Jackson got some run on one of the Hoiberg teams as well, and later leveraged it into a scholarship at Southern Miss I believe.
Edit: Forgot an even more decent one, Bubu Palo, who would've probably ended up playing a lot if not for his off the court issues.
I don't know if these figures count as "regularly."
PROHM ERA
2016
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9 = Nezlek
Jordan Ashton played 190 minutes that season... but was on scholarship his one year in Ames. He came in as a walk-on but played himself into a scholarship in the preseason.
2017
---
14 = Greder
9 = Nezlek
No walk-on players played in 2018.
2019
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19 = Steyer
7 = Boothe
5 = Schuster
2020
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25 = Steyer
21 = Jenkins
11 = Boothe
11 = Schuster
2021
---
47 = Jenkins
4 = Steyer
2 = Schuster
1 = Boothe
TJ ERA
2022
---
9 = Boothe
2023
---
17 = Hawley
2024
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24 = Kelderman
13 = Hawley
I don't think Prohm was "regularly" playing walk-on players. Even if you consider Ashton a walk-on even after he received a scholarship, the 190 minutes for one year isn't that much.
All the other minutes were just mop-up duties.
EDIT: Moved the legend of Brady Ernst off the list (was on scholarship).
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Sean Haluska was a Juco transfer from Indian Hills and played 2007-2009, all under McDermott
Ernst was a scholarship player, Prohms first commit, if I can recall. Sign of what was to come, if you ask me......
To be fair, I think they took him as an "emergency" big man because they didn't have any true posts after Niang and McKay. They knew the risks/needed a warm body for practice/five fouls on the bench if you need them to protect Georges/figured they're probably replace him with somebody better later.
Good call on Ashton earning a scholarship. I didn't remember that. Jenkins got some extended minutes on the 2021 team due to covid, so probably wouldn't have happened under normal circumstances, I agree.
I know nothing about Jack's game, but that is a very impressive offer if he is anything like his brothers.
It would be nice to see Jack go there and there and outperform what his older brothers did in Iowa City.
I thought we were talking about good teams. Of course it happens, but with the transfer portal, good teams aren't playing a walk-on.
I would guess it is a safe bet he won't have noticeable offensive numbers playing for Bennett.
Not sure who would have noticeable offensive numbers playing for Bennett
Well, if he wanted to get as far away from U of Iowa basketball as he could, UVA is about it.
