#1 Hawkeyes - #8 Mountaineers NCAA 2nd Round Game Thread

And actually to amplify your point the hawks were 25-30 from the line. Nearly half their points.
It's clearly a tactic. "Take the fouls". Just don't let Clark (or Stuelke) shoot.
Even better if the refs call the game like Saturday or the first half of this game.[/quote]

Mostly effective tactic.
But it's like watching the last minute of a close game. For 40 minutes.
*yawn*

Again. It's sooo similar to the NHL trying to grow its audience in the 90s and 2000s. Call post season games completely different than the regular season. Aggravating.

And frankly, WV got screwed by this more than Iowa. First half, they got away with soo much more underneath than the second. Yea, I know you should be able to adjust. But to guess at how it's gonna be?
 
Her drive to put Iowa up two and the and one free throw stopped the run by WV. She is the one Iowa player that isn't afraid to mix it up.
And the 1 player who has elevated her game during the post season / since Mollie's injury. Without her, Hawks don't 3-peat B10 tourney. Without that drive ... ? So many times she has come up with THE rebound, 3 shot, or and-1 exactly what is needed at exactly the right time.

Sure hope Gabbie, Kate and - for God's Sake, Caitlin find their shots. It's been a nail biter in that dept all post season. Don't think Hawks can handle having to win ugly against Colo and certainly not LSU / UCLA.
 
Last night’s game was like a bulls versus pistons game when the pistons were doing anything they could to stop Jordan and daring the refs to blow their whistle. I don’t think we’ll see another defense like that but I also think that’s the consensus on how to try to beat Caitlin and the rest of the Hawks. Maybe I’m wrong but I think refs in women’s basketball are terrible. It was a war last night.
 
Last night’s game was like a bulls versus pistons game when the pistons were doing anything they could to stop Jordan and daring the refs to blow their whistle. I don’t think we’ll see another defense like that but I also think that’s the consensus on how to try to beat Caitlin and the rest of the Hawks. Maybe I’m wrong but I think refs in women’s basketball are terrible. It was a war last night.
Agree. Opposing coaches see if they don't have the players to run and gun with the Hawks or the post player to feed it to maybe our best chance is to rough it up and play up into the shooters. The risk of that of course is what we finally saw late in the game....foul trouble and a parade to the free throw line. I thought the 2 biggest plays down the stretch were Gabbie's block and Sidney finally taking it to the rim. I'm not sure Colorado will be able to or want to play that way.
 
Last night’s game was like a bulls versus pistons game when the pistons were doing anything they could to stop Jordan and daring the refs to blow their whistle. I don’t think we’ll see another defense like that but I also think that’s the consensus on how to try to beat Caitlin and the rest of the Hawks. Maybe I’m wrong but I think refs in women’s basketball are terrible. It was a war last night.
Yup no doubt. The WVU team put the refs in that situation last night. If you're going to play that way almost the whole time you're lending yourself to getting a bunch of fouls called on you. And offensively they shot a boat load of 3s. Iowa defensively baited them into doing that and they shot like 9-30 something. So Iowa wasn't going to be fouling them as much. Basketball people who watched the game saw that it wasn't a one sided ref show so much as that's how WVU dictated that it would be. Kudos to them they did play tough and kept the score low. They took away alot of what Iowa would've liked to do.

But bottom line is WVU scored 54 pts. That's not going to cut it against Iowa and even on their worst day (which this pretty much was) that shouldn't be enough to beat them. So kudos to Iowas defense and being able to play how they did. Stuelke being able to stay out of foul trouble and play big mins was huge. Even if she wasn't scoring a lot. She drew a lot of fouls and they need her to be out there and play like that.
 
Basketball people who watched the game saw that it wasn't a one sided ref show so much as that's how WVU dictated that it would be. Kudos to them they did play tough and kept the score low. They took away alot of what Iowa would've liked to do.

I was going to call WV's effort (and really Holy Cross' as well) 'strategic fouling'. It's not really "strategic", though, other than there's strategy behind it.

Kind of like the difference between the US and British bombing efforts during WWII. One tried to selectively take out targets that would insure victory and shorten the war. The other just went with essentially carpet bombing and worried about the rest later.

Desperate times, though and all. For war torn Britain.....
Or teams that have to play our Hawks.
 
I was going to call WV's effort (and really Holy Cross' as well) 'strategic fouling'. It's not really "strategic", though, other than there's strategy behind it.

Kind of like the difference between the US and British bombing efforts during WWII. One tried to selectively take out targets that would insure victory and shorten the war. The other just went with essentially carpet bombing and worried about the rest later.

Desperate times, though and all. For war torn Britain.....
Or teams that have to play our Hawks.
Well in WVs case it's how they are. I think they avg 20 plus fouls a game it's just in their DNA. They may have tried to turn it up a notch against CC still too. But overall that's just their way of trying to play. And if they coulda hit some more shots they coulda won. They missed a boat load of 3s many of them wide open that Iowa baited them into taking. That was Iowas defensive strategy which won out at the end of the day.
 
4.9 Million folk watched the game last night

Some disgruntled commentators on The Athlete were really upset that so many
fouls were called on WV

Caitlin had 32 points
WV had 54 points

Tough game, good win, should prepare the Hawks for the next round/rounds
 
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Yup no doubt. The WVU team put the refs in that situation last night. If you're going to play that way almost the whole time you're lending yourself to getting a bunch of fouls called on you. And offensively they shot a boat load of 3s. Iowa defensively baited them into doing that and they shot like 9-30 something. So Iowa wasn't going to be fouling them as much. Basketball people who watched the game saw that it wasn't a one sided ref show so much as that's how WVU dictated that it would be. Kudos to them they did play tough and kept the score low. They took away alot of what Iowa would've liked to do.

But bottom line is WVU scored 54 pts. That's not going to cut it against Iowa and even on their worst day (which this pretty much was) that shouldn't be enough to beat them. So kudos to Iowas defense and being able to play how they did. Stuelke being able to stay out of foul trouble and play big mins was huge. Even if she wasn't scoring a lot. She drew a lot of fouls and they need her to be out there and play like that.

Good Post, very good indeed
 
Agree. Opposing coaches see if they don't have the players to run and gun with the Hawks or the post player to feed it to maybe our best chance is to rough it up and play up into the shooters. The risk of that of course is what we finally saw late in the game....foul trouble and a parade to the free throw line. I thought the 2 biggest plays down the stretch were Gabbie's block and Sidney finally taking it to the rim. I'm not sure Colorado will be able to or want to play that way.

Sydney and Hannah had great games and gave it right back to WV

They played as tough and hard as the Mountaineers

Our D was outstanding, and letting them attempt so many threes was their downfall

Also giving the Hawks so Many FTs

Hawk FTs: 25-30

WV FTs: 3-5

We had 9 Tos...WV had 15

They destroyed themselves with thug behavior, similar to a NHL game
 
I happen to have some extra time on my hands so I rewatched the game. Trying to be impartial I thought they should have called around 17 more fouls on West Virginia and possibly 7 more on us. I also thought we left 16 points on the floor in the form of open shots we should make.
 
4.9 Million folk watched the game last night

Some disgruntled comments on The Athlete were really upset that so many
fouls were called on WV

Caitlin had 32 points
WV had 52 points

Tough game, good win, should prepare the Hawks for the next round/rounds
And only a 1/3 of the fouls they should have called. IA started playing rough later too but it's just not their game. I just don't understand how they can let the defender grab the off arm of the dribbler then call an offensive foul when the dribbler tries to release the arm.
 
That's one of the many things I love about this basketball team.

They play a beautiful style of free flowing basketball based on skill. They get down the court as fast as any team I've seen, the ball pops around the perimeter, they hit each other on the move and when cutting to the basket.

But to a woman, the team is all dawg. They don't back down to anyone and can grind it out when they have to. It's a mark of competitive greatness.
 
That's one of the many things I love about this basketball team.

They play a beautiful style of free flowing basketball based on skill. They get down the court as fast as any team I've seen, the ball pops around the perimeter, they hit each other on the move and when cutting to the basket.

But to a woman, the team is all dawg. They don't back down to anyone and can grind it out when they have to. It's a mark of competitive greatness.
Good stuff!
 

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