Welcome to Iowa City, Coach Fran. Seriously, it really is a hoops town!
I've heard a lot about how Coach Fran plays an "up-tempo style" and how that's going to really help fill seats in Carver-Hawkeye Arena. Really? Seriously? Look, we hear this phrase every time a new coach is trotted out somewhere, as a reason why things will be better and fans should / will come out this time.
Let's say a theoretical Hawk fan and his wife are sitting in their residence one night debating about whether or not to go to tonight's basketball game. They can't really decide whether or not they want to go, and finally hubby says, "But Coach Fran plays a really up-tempo style! It'll be FUN!" Is that going to magically sell Wifey on going to the game? Would those words every really come out of hubby's mouth? Of course not. This is ridiculous.
Tim Floyd coaches the most boring brand of basketball in the country. Disciplined. Suffocating defense. Smart shot selection. People came out to see him anyway -- and you know why? The dude won basketball games and a lot of them. Outside of a few diehard basketball fanatics, people don't care about the STYLE, they care about one thing -- wins.
Heck, look at Iowa's very own football team. Iowa football isn't about flashiness, or style-over-substance, it's about a bunch of blue collar guys who work hard in the weight room and want it more than the guy on the other side. They play tenacious defense, they value the football, and they play slow, methodical offense. They play BORING Big Ten football. Guess what? They also win a heck of a lot of games, and 70,000 show up every week.
So enough about Coach Fran's style, or "up-tempo" or whatever. That is a bullshit argument. There's only one style or tempo that average fans care about -- and that's the Win/Loss column. I said in my last post that I think Coach Fran is a good hire and I will be watching the situation in Iowa City from afar with some interest -- particular on Margie McCaffery -- they're either going to love her in Iowa City or hate her. Or maybe, if it's like the last regime, they'll say, "Who?"
2 comments:
I agree with you in that specific styles of play won't fill the seats. But instead of it merely just being the win/loss column as the determining factor I think most of it is the actual talent on the court/field. You need talent to both sell seats and win games. Sure coaching helps to a certain extent but it is the talent that wins out. Your example of Tim Floyd's boring system doesn't matter at all to the fans when they get to watch the likes of OJ Mayo, Nick Young, Taj Gibson, Marcus Fizer and other NBA talents on the court.
-Jameson
PS - "Would those words ever* really come out of hubby's mouth?"
Excellent points, James. The ability to recruit top-notch talent certainly helps to put butts in the seats too.
Of course, fan support helps to recruit players, as does your win/loss record. Top notch players don't want to play in front of 3,000 people, either.
It's the whole chicken vs. the egg debate. You need top recruits to win games. You need to win games to recruit top notch players.
I will be following Coach Fran with great interest. I think he's a great coach and I just hope he gets more support than did Coach Lick.
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