1-0. Your first impressions?

I

Ian Pike Hammer

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Lol, Ogendele is a project; needs to lose 50 pounds!
 
Lol, Ogendele is a project; needs to lose 50 pounds!

Yeah I was surprised at how thick he was, that's not gonna play in the Big Ten.

I mentioned this in the game thread, I'll repeat it here. Not much to draw from a game like this considering the level of competition but Keegan Murray was impressive. I was shocked to see him come on to the court that early in the game and then I was even more shocked at how good he looked. I was also impressed with how Patrick looked, physically and game play. It appears he put on a few pounds but it didn't slow him down. I see some Baer in him defensively, I love how he gets after the opposing point guard.
 
I will say this....Iowa has lacked guys like Ogendele.....you typically see guys like that playing for MSU (more cut of course) or some other team having their way against us.

Other than the slow start, Iowa put them away as expected. Iowa has a lot of pieces to throw at you. Can Fran keep consistency throughout the year is something we will have to watch for. Patrick looked capable for the first time in my eyes (healthy).
 
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About what I expected for the first game against a MEAC opponent. Two new faces that shown were Pat McCaffrey and Keegan Murray. Nunge was at his father's funeral so no chance of seeing him. Ulis and Perkins both have good size and performed well in limited minutes. Weiskamp was OK but offensively he didn't show too much.
 
It was promising to see Pat having put on weight. He's still skinny obviously but not skeletor skinny like last year. He's a healthy looking skinny now. He should be able to create some havoc on defense with how long he is. Garza, Joe and Connor looked pretty much the same. CJ's shot looked good so hopefully he can stay healthy. Keegan Murray impressed me. I was surprised it took so long for Joe T to get on the court.
 
Saw some good, some bad defense from the newbies. Looks like we could lead the nation in FT %; don't know what the final stats were. Perkins looked right at home. Need Ulis to relax. What is your assessment of JBo's defense on a 1-10 scale? Yeah, Patrick is a definite asset and he and Keegan Murray can both rebound the ball! Impressive!
 
I also saw W A Y too many drives to the hoop. Perimeter defense looks like it might still be an issue! Better get that fixed; B1G teams/good teams will exploit that relentlessly going foreward.
 
Weiskamp is still struggling and Joe T is still moving too fast. That’s a little concerning but Garza, CJ, and JBo are right on form. The Defense is not better (except for Pat). He’s a difference maker playing the point on the press. Keegan will get minutes, hard to say how many until we see Nunge play. Ogendele will have to redshirt, no way he can get conditioned in season. Sometimes playing a small team is hard for a tall team but Iowa really needs to think about playing some quicker players. Their five starters continue to look nailed to the floor. Mac really needs to develop one or two of the freshman into defensive stoppers. The starters were continually allowing uncontested shots and drives to the hoop. That has to stop if Iowa wants to reach their team goals. My favorite part of the game was the loss of the mikes by the announcers. The former Badger player was horrendous! Hope he doesn’t do another game for Iowa. Just wouldn’t shut up and kept repeating himself.
 
The kids are hyped. They'll relax once everyone's roles are established. Watch film, settle in and keep focused on the prize. Illinois scares me more than anything. Those boys are damn good and tough. I love the early competition we have. Great for the kids
 
I was very impressed by patrick. Knew he was good, he looked very good. Multi-faceted game. Was taking quick players to the rack. Aggressive. I liked the baer comparison above. upside is a more talented baer. Was very impressed by him. He showed out. Changed the game when he came in.
 
Offense-- Yeah, it is going to be great again. No worries. We will score a ton

Defense- I like where we are going. This is not a quick team overall. So we need to play team defense, as the announcers stated we were doing all day. This is how Iowa needs to play. Let them drive into our bigs, that works. Garza is so good defensively, he wont get many fouls or blocks, but he will disrupt drives. We have length and height, get those arms out and up and teams will struggle shooting and passing.

Rebounding- We will be rebounding the crap out of the ball. Chuck up a 3 and either Garza will clean up a miss or one of those aggressive wings will crash and get it.

Gentlemen, this team is going to be fun to watch. Grab ahold and hang on, something special is about to happen.
 
First, it was great to finally watch some Hawk basketball. It seemed like an eternity.

My take is similar to those posted above.

Our offense has a chance to be scary good if we can make the ball-movement a little faster and crisper. That should come with more PT. Scheming against our offense has to be a nightmare for opposing coaches. Pick your poison.

Defensively, we still have a long ways to go. I'm not convinced our offense will be able to compensate against better teams. Somehow, Fran has to figure out a way to drill basic on-ball fundamentals into this team. The announcers were annoying last night, but the comment about playing defense with your chest was spot on. We are not athletic enough to be sloppy and still recover. Defensive improvement or lack thereof probably will determine how far this team goes.

PMac was a pleasant surprise. I had the same thought about the comparison to Baer, but Patrick is a longer more skillful version. K. Murray likewise showed a maturity that I wasn't expecting. I saw a little Michael Payne in him. Fran has an abundance of pieces to organize. Hopefully, he'll avoid the temptation to play an overly expanded rotation just to get guys minutes. That doesn't always bode well.

Ogundele's lack of conditioning is a little striking. Expecting him to be in tip-top shape isn't realistic, but he didn't look like he has done anything to prepare physically. Obviously, we are all going to cut him some slack here given all of the unusual circumstances, but players at this level have to have that requisite drive to be in shape. Time will tell if he dedicates himself or washes out. Luka is a great role model, but if Ogundele's not internally motivated, it won't matter.
 
First, it was great to finally watch some Hawk basketball. It seemed like an eternity.

My take is similar to those posted above.

Our offense has a chance to be scary good if we can make the ball-movement a little faster and crisper. That should come with more PT. Scheming against our offense has to be a nightmare for opposing coaches. Pick your poison.

Defensively, we still have a long ways to go. I'm not convinced our offense will be able to compensate against better teams. Somehow, Fran has to figure out a way to drill basic on-ball fundamentals into this team. The announcers were annoying last night, but the comment about playing defense with your chest was spot on. We are not athletic enough to be sloppy and still recover. Defensive improvement or lack thereof probably will determine how far this team goes.

PMac was a pleasant surprise. I had the same thought about the comparison to Baer, but Patrick is a longer more skillful version. K. Murray likewise showed a maturity that I wasn't expecting. I saw a little Michael Payne in him. Fran has an abundance of pieces to organize. Hopefully, he'll avoid the temptation to play an overly expanded rotation just to get guys minutes. That doesn't always bode well.

Ogundele's lack of conditioning is a little striking. Expecting him to be in tip-top shape isn't realistic, but he didn't look like he has done anything to prepare physically. Obviously, we are all going to cut him some slack here given all of the unusual circumstances, but players at this level have to have that requisite drive to be in shape. Time will tell if he dedicates himself or washes out. Luka is a great role model, but if Ogundele's not internally motivated, it won't matter.
Going up against Garza in practice every day would be a huge internal motivator....

Ogundele probably won't see many meaningful minutes once Nunge comes back. I too was pumped about Patrick's performance. He can be disruptive with that wingspan. And along with Toussaint and Nunge give us three solid bench players. I expect a fourth bench player to play himself in that role as well based off what I saw yesterday.

I will be keeping a close eye on Wieskamp. Looks like he will be guarding a lot of bigger players again and that wore him down last year. With a solid backcourt of Connor, JBo, and CJ and Patrick off the bench it is going to be hard for him to find minutes at his natural position unless Fran decides to go with Garza and Nunge at the same time for extended minutes.
 
Going up against Garza in practice every day would be a huge internal motivator....
You would hope so, but motivation is a finicky thing.

Very little is expected of him right now and he's got plenty of time to right the ship, and his circumstances have been far from ideal to say the least. It's WAY too premature to write him off. Nevertheless, if I was his coach, I'd see his (apparent) lack of dedication and physical preparedness as a bit of a red flag. Something to watch moving forward.
 
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