Iowa Hoops: Margin For Error Rapidly Diminishing

Iowa can't shoot and isn't athletic, but yet five of their losses have come to ranked teams, one lopsided on the road against the team most likely to be No. 1 come Monday. The others by no more than nine with chances to win.

The one thing that you totally overlook in your stunning analysis is this, if Iowa has those deficiencies that you speak of on offense, particularly the limited athletically part, why does it not show on defense?

At this point, Iowa's defense is far ahead of their offense and if the two can become relatively even and the defense isn't dropping off, then Iowa is going to be one of those teams nobody wants to play.

Your comeback will probably be something like they play together more on defense and play more as a team, or that they put a lot more effort in on that end of the court.

On offense, Iowa does a little bit too much standing around, trying to create shots that aren't there and become extremely impatient leading to bad shots.

Teams don't have to be able to create one on one shots to win, when they can't do that on a regular basis, shot selection becomes the single most important thing on that end of the floor.

It isn't youth either because the juniors just as well as the freshman take awful shots, oh yeah, throw in the sophomores as well for that matter, maybe just the whole team, except for May as he rarely forces anything on the offensive end, if he does though, it is once...May understands what type of player he is, I wish the other player did at this point.

When you don't have a "go-to" guy, it comes down to basketball IQ, this team at times shows it, then they go into their slumps by chucking shots in the first 10 seconds of the shot clock...look at how they have finished some halves, bad shots leading to easy transition for opponents, pretty simple really.

Fran's recruiting is the last thing that should be questioned. Shot selection, understanding one's ability as a player, understanding and accepting roles is what will make or break this team, not recruiting. Fran has done an exceptional job recruiting. I like how you are judging players in their freshman years and coming to the conclusion that Iowa doesn't have good players.

Fran took over the worst job situation in the Big Ten when he was hired and in year two they went to the NIT. In year 3 they are about 10 points from being ranked and a virtual lock for the NCAA tournament, Iowa has good talent, a great coaching staff, but yeah still lack a couple things it is impossible to think Fran is going to fill the holes that existed overnight.


Iowa is 113th on defense. Doesn't show?

246th on 3's made. 262 on %

26th on 3 pt defense. 198 on steals against them per game. 127 on getting steals.

If there is a defensive fall off, where is it? Inside. Turnovers from difficulty getting the ball inside.
 
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Why do people keep saying this about Indiana? IIRC, they led pretty much the entire game, if not the entire game. At no point did the Hawks have the Hoosiers on the ropes.

MSU is a different story. Iowa definitely had Sparty on the ropes and should have won.

Iowa had numerous chances to take the lead against INdy and failed to make layups and easy shots. That was a very winnable game.
 


Year 3 of McCaffrey and the "we are better than Lickliter's teams" comments come out. Now I understand why Ferentz has been able to run the football program into the ground with most Iowa fans burying their heads in the sand because "we can't get anyone better". The bar for Iowa basketball is not set at "be better than the awful Lickliter teams". It's like saying Hillary Clinton is hotter than Roseanne Barr. Making the NIT and getting one game further than we did last year is where my bar is set and next year it has to be the NCAA tourney, or Fran's recruiting has to be questioned. IMO, McCaffrey is stockpiling the same type of players; limited athletically and incapable of creating their own offense. Nobody on this team can create their own shot, which is why we consistently go for long stretches without scoring.

Recruit more blue chip great athlete players!! - Every single Nuge post
 


Iowa is 113th on defense. Doesn't show?

246th on 3's made. 262 on %

26th on 3 pt defense. 198 on steals against them per game. 127 on getting steals.

If there is a defensive fall off, where is it? Inside. Turnovers from difficulty getting the ball inside.

Iowa is 31st in defense according to KenPom. Top 10% in the country, pretty damn good actually. Where are you getting 113th?
 




















Fact is we are 2-4 and NW may be 4-4 by end of day. The perimeter defense appears to be fine.
 


Everyone knew Iowa had to play IU, MI, MI ST, OH ST (Top 15 teams) and Wisky in the first 6 games.

Iowa only beat Wisky and NW on the road in the first 6 games... ie 2-4.

However... Iowa could have (ok shouda, wouda) beaten IU, MI ST and OH ST.

Iowa will rebound with a much easier schedule in the coming weeks.. and I agree the margin for error is diminishing.

But Iowa passes the "eye ball" test" and guess what...

IOWA is BACK
 




I guess that really doesn't bother me given the difference is schedule between the two teams and the fact that Iowa pasted them by 20.

we just haven't seen anything yet to make fans consider they will be dominant against the lower teams. Hopefully they will be.
 








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