Fran McCaffery has earned our trust in tough situations like the current
By Pat Harty
IOWA CITY, Iowa – Right now, the Iowa men’s basketball team appears to be in serious trouble.
It can’t defend and time is running out before the Big Ten grind starts on Dec. 28 at Purdue.
Iowa coach Fran McCaffery is searching for options and for solutions to the problems on defense, but even he seems befuddled by it.
His team is 3-5 heading into Monday’s game against Stetson at Carver-Hawkeye Arena. That is Iowa’s worst record in seven seasons under McCaffery after eight games.
His first team was 4-4 after eight games and finished 11-20 overall and 4-14 in the Big Ten in the 2010-11 season. That is Iowa’s only losing season under McCaffery.
His second team made significant strides, finishing 18-17 overall and 8-10 in the Big Ten behind all-Big Ten senior guard Matt Gatens. Iowa made the National Invitation Tournament that season and ended a stretch of four consecutive losing seasons for the program.
I bring up McCaffery’s second team because it sort of reminds me of his current squad, with Peter Jok now playing the role of Gatens as a sharpshooting senior guard surrounded mostly by young and inexperienced players.
Gatens did have senior point guard Bryce Cartwright to rely on, but Cartwright had only been in the program for one year after transferring from junior college.
Joining them in the starting lineup were two sophomores – Devyn Marble and Zach McCabe – and a freshman forward named Aaron White.
It was an up-and-down season in which some of the low points were stunning and sobering, including a 77-61 loss to Campbell on Nov. 23, 2011 at Carver-Hawkeye Arena.
Iowa’s mostly unknown and unheralded opponent was by far the better team that day, just like Nebraska-Omaha was on Saturday while defeating the defense-less Hawkeyes 98-89 at Carver-Hawkeye Arena.
The feeling right now is similar to 2011 in that fans are wondering how and if McCaffery can stop the season from unraveling.
My response to that would be don’t bet against him.
McCaffery might lose it at times in the heat of the moment, but he never loses it when dealing with the big picture. He takes it one practice and one game at a time, consumed by the moment more than anything else.
There is no panic in McCaffery because that would show weakness and cause others to do the same. He stays the course and deals with whatever obstacle comes his way.
The same team that lost to Campbell in 2011 won three of its last four Big Ten games, along with one game in the Big Ten Tournament and one game in the NIT to cap what at the time was considered a successful season.
Iowa has accomplished more in each season under McCaffery, earning NCAA Tournament appearances in each of the past three seasons.
We should’ve known the streak would be in jeopardy this season, considering all the roster changes.
Very few programs outside of Kentucky, Kansas, Duke and a few others could withstand losing four starters from the previous season without suffering to some degree.
McCaffery has sort of been caught in a rebuilding year, caused by a number of factors, including missing out on some key recruiting targets.
His current roster is not without talent, though.
The loss of freshman forward Tyler Cook and senior forward Dale Jones to hand injuries are two critical blows, but the hope is that Cook will return for Big Ten play.
Hope is what Iowa fans need right now, and trust in McCaffery.
He has earned that trust by lifting the program from the depths of despair caused by three consecutive losing seasons under previous head coach Todd Lickliter.
McCaffery also has earned the right to struggle, should that be the case this season.
But mostly, he’s earned the benefit of the doubt by meeting the challenges more times than not.
The players also have to be held accountable to some degree, and they realize that. They held a players only meeting after Saturday’s loss to Omaha in which they all promised to get better and work harder, as is the case with most players-only meetings.
“I told them there are going to be ups and downs and we just have to stay positive,” Jok said. “It’s not how you start. It’s how you finish.
“We just have to stay together and stay positive. And we’ve got to make a change, because once Big Ten starts, from there on we’re playing the best teams in the country.”
McCaffery’s current team is struggling mostly because it can’t defend. There isn’t a 7-foot-1 center protecting the rim anymore, nor are there two lockdown senior defenders starting in the backcourt, as was the case last season with senior center Adam Woodbury and senior guards Anthony Clemmons and Mike Gesell.
That still doesn’t excuse the current team’s performance on defense because it has been dreadful at times.
It’s unacceptable to McCaffery, and different than previous problems he has faced in coaching.
“I've had experience before with issues,” McCaffery said after Saturday’s loss. “I've never had one with consistently the same problem and seemingly no effected change, and that's what's been frustrating because we haven't defended. We've played essentially 10 games if you count the scrimmage and the exhibition game. We haven't defended in any of them. We have outscored people in four or five of them, but we haven't really competed defensively like you're going to need to with the caliber of teams on your schedule. So that has to change.
“So how you do that? Well, you change your practice structure. You change personnel. You reward the guys that are playing with the kind of effort that you're both referring to. If you don't run back, you're coming out. That happened today. Put a guy in, he didn't run back, they tipped one in, you're out. I don't need any attitude.”
Those are words from a head coach who is definitely in charge of the situation.
McCaffery might not fix all the problems, but it won’t be from a lack of trying.
Expectations are higher than they were in 2011, but fans still have to be realistic and understand that Iowa isn't above struggling.
Iowa made the NCAA Tournament in nine of 13 seasons under former head coach Tom Davis, who held the job from 1986-99. But Davis also had two losing seasons, caused by many of the same things that are hurting the current Iowa team.
It was easy to overreact to the Omaha loss because we’re talking about a program that has only competed at the Division level for five years. You could argue that an established Big Ten program never should lose under those circumstances.
But it happens.
The only option is to move on, trust in your way of doing things and try to get better.
And that is exactly what McCaffery is doing right now, one practice at a time.