Article; Why is Iowa Hoops being overlooked?



I think the article touched on it. Iowa isn't a blue blood. We don't have a superstar player (at least in medias eyes) coming back. Those guys that compile lists like that are lazy this time of year. They just look at coaches and the name of the schools... Because it shouldn't take much homework to see how Iowa is returning a really good (not to mention young) team that had a ton of momentum at the end of the year. Iowa was a bad loss or two from dancing last yr. This years group shouldn't have any excuses to not be from where I'm sitting. When Fran first got here I think this is pretty darn close to the type of team he was wanting to put together. A deep roster of kids that can all run and most of them can shoot outside. I can't wait to see them play and make those outside media folks eat their words
 


I think they will be pretty good this year if they have that killer mentality. If they play to the competition then they still should be pretty good. Cook, Garza, and Nunge seem to have that killer personality. They need a leader to be really good. Right now, I don't see any juniors or seniors that seem to be leaders for the team. Nicholas Baer maybe.
 


Personally - I think Baer, Ellingson and Wagner can all be good leaders. Not sure on Dom, he seems passive. I also think that the Sophomore class is full of players who seem like leaders and have a lot of moxi/confidence/cockiness - ala Cook, Pemsl and Jordan.
 


Tierney said:
I think they will be pretty good this year if they have that killer mentality. If they play to the competition then they still should be pretty good. Cook, Garza, and Nunge seem to have that killer personality. They need a leader to be really good. Right now, I don't see any juniors or seniors that seem to be leaders for the team. Nicholas Baer maybe.
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I agree that would help. Call me crazy but I think JBo might turn into that kind of leader. He's grown up with a Qb for a Dad. Brothers that all were good D1 basketball players. I just think after having played as well as he did down the stretch last yr that he'll have confidence to take the bull by the horns and be a more vocal leader. As good as he played the final 10-15 games last yr I don't think we've seen the best from JBo either.. Baer I guess could too. He's just such an energizer bunny guys naturally feed off his energy. It sounds like he has a bit of a nerdy personality (I say that in a good way) that he may not necessarily be that type of leader your describing. But we'll see. They have talent all over the place that the mins will be hard earned that's for sure
 


Hawkfnntn said:
I agree that would help. Call me crazy but I think JBo might turn into that kind of leader. He's grown up with a Qb for a Dad. Brothers that all were good D1 basketball players. I just think after having played as well as he did down the stretch last yr that he'll have confidence to take the bull by the horns and be a more vocal leader. As good as he played the final 10-15 games last yr I don't think we've seen the best from JBo either.. Baer I guess could too. He's just such an energizer bunny guys naturally feed off his energy. It sounds like he has a bit of a nerdy personality (I say that in a good way) that he may not necessarily be that type of leader your describing. But we'll see. They have talent all over the place that the mins will be hard earned that's for sure
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Calling Zach a good D1 basketball player is pretty generous to him ;)
 


I think there was a lot of deference to Jok, last season. That was part of the problem and I think we saw that they were way more aggressive when Jok missed those few games. When Jok came back, it was sort of reversed and he took a back seat, at least to a degree. That helped the team play well down the stretch. I think there are several (potential) leaders: JBo, Baer, Kriener and Cook; though I think Cook is more of a lead by example: meaning if he's playing with passion, everyone else will. He may not necessarily be trying to lead. The think is, you could add Moss to that. This team has so much potential talent that if they all play aggressively, they may not need a leader night in and night out. This team has possibilities.
 




Why is Iowa BB overlooked by outsiders?

Cup of teas in MM and NIT invites aren't going to ring the bell.

But I'm really looking forward to this team.
 


What I find funny is that they're talking about 2018-19. They're just blowing off the upcoming season.

:confused: lol

GO HAWKS!!!
 




Just with the amount of returning experience it's hard to believe nobody is looking at the Hawks as contenders. Ask Wisky if they think JBo is a good player. Baer is the player every fan base loves to hate and and every coach wishes he had on his team. Cook athletism is feared around the league and the bench will be the deepest in the league. Experience wins games. Iowa has multiple scoring threats and incoming players that will make an impact. Who cares what people think around the country it's not football. Everyone gets to play in the NCAA tourney if they are good enough. We should enjoy flying under the radar and let their game do the talking.
 


My guess is these national writers look at Iowa losing their leading scorer and having a young team and write us off...and that makes total sense. Can't expect these "experts" to have in depth knowledge of all 300+ basketball teams.

I don't think losing Jok hurts as bad as the rest of the country thinks. This team looked good without him and they all have another year of experience under their belt. I kinda like that people are underestimating us.
 


Fran has done a nice job rebuilding and I think we're loaded for some great years ahead.

But the answer to the OP question is obvious. 2 NCAA wins in 6 years isn't terribly impressive. Go deeper and we'll gain respect.
 


This is Tyler Cooks team. He is the leader. Which is a great thing, IMO.

Iowa never gets love. If we make a run to the final 4 this year, you will see us all over the publications.
 


hawkdrummer1 said:
Fran has done a nice job rebuilding and I think we're loaded for some great years ahead.

But the answer to the OP question is obvious. 2 NCAA wins in 6 years isn't terribly impressive. Go deeper and we'll gain respect.
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I get what you're saying - but considering Iowa has only 3 NCAA wins since the year 2000, the recent success of NCAA wins should at least be taken into consideration by pundits. They're just lazy and there's no other way to put it. All the brackets had Iowa in LAST year, which was incredibly dumb, but since these guys suck hard at their jobs, they just looked at the previous field and included them. Same situation this year, Iowa wasn't in last year, lost their leading scorer so.... case closed.
 


InGoodCo said:
I get what you're saying - but considering Iowa has only 3 NCAA wins since the year 2000, the recent success of NCAA wins should at least be taken into consideration by pundits. They're just lazy and there's no other way to put it. All the brackets had Iowa in LAST year, which was incredibly dumb, but since these guys suck hard at their jobs, they just looked at the previous field and included them. Same situation this year, Iowa wasn't in last year, lost their leading scorer so.... case closed.
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How many wins Iowa had before Fran is completely irrelevant. "You suck a lot less" is not exactly a ringing endorsement. I think the informed pundits know Iowa is trending up (though again, you'd have a hard time supporting that argument using postseason data) but are still in "wait and see" mode. We're competitive...but not yet "contenders".

It's a bit like teams with losses that complain about being left out of a college football playoff. Just win baby.
 


hawkdrummer1 said:
How many wins Iowa had before Fran is completely irrelevant. "You suck a lot less" is not exactly a ringing endorsement. I think the informed pundits know Iowa is trending up (though again, you'd have a hard time supporting that argument using postseason data) but are still in "wait and see" mode. We're competitive...but not yet "contenders".

It's a bit like teams with losses that complain about being left out of a college football playoff. Just win baby.
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They're just lazy. Iowa is absolutely a contender for the B1G this season and return 3 players that got post season recognition last year. The last 3 seasons none of the national preseason mags had Uthoff, Jok or White in their top 150 players. Lazy. Iowa is an absolute after thought and that's the bed they made over the last 2 decades, but recent trends will hopefully buck that.
 


Why is Iowa overlooked? The same as in football. Bad bad losses losses. Poor tourney results In the end overall mediocre record. We see 10-8 and upper Big finish. Outsiders see 19-15. Greatly lacking in high caliber players. We see improvement. They see 19-15 after many years. This year outsiders see a very young team. We see improved player caliber.

The judgement will be in the results at the end of the year. Seriously contend for the Big Title w/o a collapse, get a couple of wins in the Big Tourney (3 would be great) and not get blown out in the dance after a couple of wins.... That will make things change. Only then.
 


I would like to state that I don't agree with many of the comments in this thread. Some of you cats just have a weird outlook on things.
 


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