By Pat Harty

IOWA CITY, Iowa – Near the end of Monday’s 77-64 loss at Indiana, several disgruntled Hawkeye fans reached out to me on Twitter to voice their frustration with Fran McCaffery and the Iowa men’s basketball team.

Their frustration was justified with Iowa having lost for the fourth time in the last five games, and much of the criticism was accurate and fair because Iowa is struggling in nearly facet of the game right now.

From committing too many turnovers to getting shredded on defense, the 4-5 Hawkeyes are in a serious funk heading into Thursday’s annual showdown against Iowa State at Hilton Coliseum in Ames.

Sophomore point Jordan Bohannon is struggling to where McCaffery benched him for the start of the second half against Indiana, and Bohannon didn’t just accept the demotion, he agreed with it.

So fans have reason to be frustrated, but they don’t have reason to criticize McCaffery for not trying to recruit point guards, as some did after Monday's loss, which lowered Iowa's record to 0-2 in conference play.

McCaffery can be criticized for not signing enough true point guards during his time at Iowa, which dates back to 2010. But it hasn’t been from a lack of effort or focus, as some have suggested.

It just hasn’t happened, and yes, it’s kind of strange, considering McCaffery’s relentlessness as a recruiter and his background as a former standout point guard from talent-rich Philadelphia.

McCaffery had Iowa in the running to land star point guard Tyler Ulis, and you could argue that no coach worked harder to land Ulis than McCaffery.

Iowa was one of the first schools to offer Ulis a scholarship and McCaffery didn’t let up until Ulis signed with Kentucky in 2014.

The Wildcats started recruiting Ulis much later than Iowa, but with schools like Kentucky, it usually doesn’t matter when they enter the race.

Ulis, who grew up near Chicago, would go on to have two spectacular seasons at Kentucky and is now in the NBA.

McCaffery would go on to sign junior college point guard Trey Dickerson and high school shooting guard Brady Ellingson in the 2014 class.

Dickerson played one semester at Iowa before quitting the team, while Ellingson has played sparingly, although, he led Iowa with 16 points against Indiana on Monday.

In addition to Ulis, other point guards that McCaffery has tried hard to recruit include Tony Carr, Xavier Simpson, Riley LaChance, Bryant McIntosh and Charlie Moore.

Carr (Penn State), Simpson (Michigan) and McIntosh (Northwestern) all currently start at point guard for a Big Ten team, while LaChance starts for Vanderbilt and Moore,is sitting out this season at Kansas after transferring from Cal-Berkeley.

The point guard dilemma was easier to ignore last season when Bohannon had the luxury of sneaking up on opponents, and he took advantage of it. Bohannon led Iowa with 175 assists and with 89 3-point baskets last season, and he made the Big Ten All-Freshmen team.

He was a serviceable point guard and a spectacular shooter as a freshman.

But opponents are now fully aware of Bohannon’s strengths and weaknesses and are exploiting the latter.

In a perfect world, the 6-foot Bohannon would play alongside a true point guard and focus more on shooting and less on ball handling and pressuring the ball on defense.

But Bohannon is the closest Iowa has to a true point guard on the current roster.

The 6-4 Ellingson and 6-7 Maishe Dailey are the backups at point guard, but neither is a true point guard.

The return of 6-5 freshman Connor McCaffery should help because he is probably closer to being a true point than any player on the roster, including Bohannon.

Fran McCaffery’s son is a gifted passer and is steady with the ball, but he isn’t a true point guard in the sense of being able to break down defenses with his speed and quickness.

But once Connor McCaffery returns from mononucleosis, it should help free up Bohannon for more perimeter shots.

And speaking of Connor McCaffery, it wouldn’t surprise me if other schools use his presence against Iowa in recruiting point guards simply because he is Fran McCaffery’s son and because recruiting can be a nasty business.

Iowa’s current roster is dominated by frontline players and by shooting guards, and that won’t change next season with the addition of 6-7 Joe Wieskamp and 6-4 C.J. Fredrick.

Wieskamp is a special talent, while Fredrick is a gifted shooter, but neither is a point guard.

Iowa doesn’t have any more scholarships available in the 2018 class, but that could change because rosters are always fluid.

A scholarship became available for Fredrick when backup point guard Christian Williams announced in late October that he would transfer after the first semester. Williams now plans to attend Indiana State next semester.

There are scholarships available in the 2019 class and McCaffery is trying to recruit a point guard for that class, including Bettendorf standout D.J. Carton.

But signing Carton won’t be easy because a number of Big Ten schools, including Wisconsin and Minnesota, are also pursuing the 6-2 left-hander

They only thing McCaffery can do is just keep recruiting Carton and hope for the best.

McCaffery desperately needed a point when he took over at Iowa and he landed Bryce Cartwright from junior college.

Cartwright for two seasons played a key role in helping to lift Iowa from the ashes that were left behind by former head coach Todd Lickliter.

The current team could sure use a player like Cartwright, but there isn’t one joining the program anytime soon.

But that is do more to execution than Fran McCaffery's lack of effort on the recruiting trail.

I’m not saying McCaffery is above being criticized or questioned about some of his recruiting decisions because the current roster has way too much of the same thing.

All I’m saying is that McCaffery shouldn’t be criticized for his effort in recruiting point guards. Other coaches might have better results in landing point guards than McCaffery, but effort has nothing to do with it.