2019-2020 Strengths

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NikeHawk21

Well-Known Member
I’ve done this in the past but wanted to do a thread on the perceived strengths of our team this year. I will do one on weaknesses as well.

1. Scoring
Could plug this in with Iowa almost every year. With Wieskamp, Garza, and Bohannon this team will have little issue scoring. Nunge, Frederick, Kriener, and Evelyn will provide some scoring pop as well I would guess. Have plenty of outside shooting and inside scoring options.

2. Rebounding
This one might be a tad surprising as we weren’t great here last year. I think Nunge with his size and new frame will be very good on the boards. I think Garza will be improved on the boards. Kriener as a senior should be strong. I think Joe is a very good rebounder on both ends for his position. Pemsl likes to mix it up inside. Iowa could be a strong rebounding team.

3. 3pt shooting
I guess this goes with the above scoring point but I like to single it out because 3pt shooting can be the ultimate equalizer. It can help you get back into games you have no business being in. Bohannon and Wieskamp you can almost pencil in for about 40% which is pretty elite at their volume. I’m speculating CJF will be up there in the high 30%s based on what I’ve heard. Evelyn has the ability I think Nunge and Garza will both be able to knock down the outside shot. Lots of options and I think again Iowa will be one of the better outside shooting teams in the B1G. Potential that all 5 of Iowa starters will be able to shoot it from deep.

4. Bench
This one is interesting, because if Fran doesn’t manage this right I think this could be a potential weakness (See my next thread). But overall I think having quality bench players is a strength. We don’t know the lineups for sure just yet, but pretty likely Kriener is coming off the bench as a senior. Evelyn could be a 5th year guard off the bench. Pemsl has done some nice things. We have the makings off a strong bench if Fran manages it right.
 
Waiting for the weakness thread, but if I'm going to play devil's advocate here, I think 2 through 4 could go in the weakness thread too.

2. Garza has been average at best on the defensive boards which has really been due to limitations in his speed and quickness. He gives it his all, is smart, and has good positioning, but I'm not really sure his improvement in strength will translate to more defensive boards specifically. Compound that disadvantage with the fact that he'll be eating up 30 minutes a game in the post. And for me, Nunge is a big question mark on the boards still, despite being quick and having incredible length, he either did not have the willingness or the strength to go inside and grab them as a freshman. I have concerns about making up for Baer's production too.

3. Under the assumption that Jbo doesn't play, our only proven consistent shooter has been Wieskamp. And he hasn't been asked to make the big shots on a consistent basis yet, he's been allowed to let the game come to him. Will his accuracy be affected by his forced production? Evelyn was an average shooter as best last year and that was playing against mid majors. CJF is unproven. Nunge only shot 33% as a freshman and Garza had a horrendous dry spell last year. Once again, another area where Baer's loss could be felt as he had a knack for hitting big 3's to answer in tough situations.

4. I'm with you, Fran's been 50/50 as to whether having more players actually means better depth. Lots of great teams out there only go 8 deep. Quality over quantity.

Alright, all that negative-nancying out of the way, I fully believe that rebounding will actually improve under the addition by subtraction principle. Nunge w/ a bigger frame will likely be a big upgrade over Cook who never seemed to be in position. Older Wieskamp+Kriener>>Younger Wieskamp+Kriener. If Pat's willing to stick his nose in there and battle, I don't think we'll see a huge loss from Baer's production w/ the second team. And notice how I completely left out talking about Pemsl? I think he might be our best rebounder and having him back will be huge.

I'm still actually a bit concerned about 3 point shooting until I see how Evelyn, CJF, Nunge, Pat, and Connor shoot it. But the potential is there.
 
If Jordan doesn't play, without knowing the CJF and Nunge are going to provide on the perimeter, I think Iowa is going to be a shooter short. Likely NIT type of season. With Jordan, one of the most clutch shooters in the college game, that honestly changes my prediction quite a bit. With Jordan I think this is an NCAA team - likely in a similar spot as they were last season.

As far as strengths - I think a strength is hardly anyone is talking about Ryan Kriener and Cordell Pemsl. Both guys with a ton of experience playing at this level and they are nearly after thoughts heading into the season. While I don't want Fran to play too many guys, Iowa has more depth then what I thought heading into the year.
 
InGoodCo said:
If Jordan doesn't play, without knowing the CJF and Nunge are going to provide on the perimeter, I think Iowa is going to be a shooter short. Likely NIT type of season. With Jordan, one of the most clutch shooters in the college game, that honestly changes my prediction quite a bit. With Jordan I think this is an NCAA team - likely in a similar spot as they were last season.

As far as strengths - I think a strength is hardly anyone is talking about Ryan Kriener and Cordell Pemsl. Both guys with a ton of experience playing at this level and they are nearly after thoughts heading into the season. While I don't want Fran to play too many guys, Iowa has more depth then what I thought heading into the year.
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For shooting Evelyn is a wild card for me. His sophomore year he shot 38% and made 57 3s, last year not so good. If he returns to that sophomore form he can be a weapon from outside.
 
NikeHawk21 said:
For shooting Evelyn is a wild card for me. His sophomore year he shot 38% and made 57 3s, last year not so good. If he returns to that sophomore form he can be a weapon from outside.
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I'm not sure if it's Fran's perpetual green light or coaching, but shooters do seem to improve under him. So I actually expect Evelyn to be better this year. He was 14/38 for 36.8% to finish the last 10 games of the regular season last year, so the capability is there. But he also finished 0-7 in the post season, so I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

As for Fredrick, I've had a sneaking suspicion that this guy is going to be a stud. I just went and knocked on some wood there, but if he has the agility to be singled out by Fran as our best perimeter defender and he played point in high school where shot nearly 50% from 3, I think he could be the real deal. His uncle shot 49% for his career at Notre Dame and worked with CJ every day in high school. I think north of 40% is well within the realm of possibility.
 
N8theGr8 said:
I'm not sure if it's Fran's perpetual green light or coaching, but shooters do seem to improve under him. So I actually expect Evelyn to be better this year. He was 14/38 for 36.8% to finish the last 10 games of the regular season last year, so the capability is there. But he also finished 0-7 in the post season, so I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

As for Fredrick, I've had a sneaking suspicion that this guy is going to be a stud. I just went and knocked on some wood there, but if he has the agility to be singled out by Fran as our best perimeter defender and he played point in high school where shot nearly 50% from 3, I think he could be the real deal. His uncle shot 49% for his career at Notre Dame and worked with CJ every day in high school. I think north of 40% is well within the realm of possibility.
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There have been reports from guys on the team that CJF can absolutely fill it up. These aren’t Fran quotes these are dudes he’s practicing with everyday.
 
NikeHawk21 said:
There have been reports from guys on the team that CJF can absolutely fill it up. These aren’t Fran quotes these are dudes he’s practicing with everyday.
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I'm to the point where I think our 2 spot is almost for sure going to be an upgrade from last year. Even if our starter isn't an upgrade over Moss, our backups will be a big improvement and Moss didn't play much more than half of the game. If that happens, and Bohannon is back, we should be better at 4 positions this year.

As far as the 4 goes, I don't think anyone will be a more talented player than Cook, but they very well could be close to the same as far as +/- goes. Cook made more good plays than our 4s this year will probably make, but he made more bad plays than the new guys will probably make too. I'm hoping it's close to a wash with less usage. Which would be a good thing because Cook wasn't efficient enough of a player to justify getting the amount of usage he got.
 
PCHawk said:
I'm to the point where I think our 2 spot is almost for sure going to be an upgrade from last year. Even if our starter isn't an upgrade over Moss, our backups will be a big improvement and Moss didn't play much more than half of the game. If that happens, and Bohannon is back, we should be better at 4 positions this year.

As far as the 4 goes, I don't think anyone will be a more talented player than Cook, but they very well could be close to the same as far as +/- goes. Cook made more good plays than our 4s this year will probably make, but he made more bad plays than the new guys will probably make too. I'm hoping it's close to a wash with less usage. Which would be a good thing because Cook wasn't efficient enough of a player to justify getting the amount of usage he got.
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I’m getting very excited to watch Frederick. We just keep hearing good things about him. You take each with a grain of salt but the amount of positive I’ve heard about him makes me think with a pretty high level of certainty he’s the real deal.

I’ve always been super high on Nunge. Even when guys were knocking him freshman year when Fran had him chasing around wing players. He’s a different player than Cook, but he can space the floor a little better, I think will be a better shot blocker, and doesn’t need the ball in his hands at much. Now, in the interest of fairness Cook was a mismatch nightmare that required a lot of attention, Nunge doesn’t have that.
 
PCHawk said:
I'm to the point where I think our 2 spot is almost for sure going to be an upgrade from last year. Even if our starter isn't an upgrade over Moss, our backups will be a big improvement and Moss didn't play much more than half of the game. If that happens, and Bohannon is back, we should be better at 4 positions this year.

As far as the 4 goes, I don't think anyone will be a more talented player than Cook, but they very well could be close to the same as far as +/- goes. Cook made more good plays than our 4s this year will probably make, but he made more bad plays than the new guys will probably make too. I'm hoping it's close to a wash with less usage. Which would be a good thing because Cook wasn't efficient enough of a player to justify getting the amount of usage he got.
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If I had to guess, Nunge+Pemsl+Kriener+Pat > Cook+Kriener. Now hear me out as to why. No one will match Cook's raw athleticism and the way he could finish if given the ball within 5 feet of the rim and his 7.6 boards per game were solid. But everyone seems to have forgotten how sneaky good Pemsl is. Don't be surprised if Pemsl grabs 5-7 boards in 15-20 minutes per game. That's what he does and would be in line with his first 2 seasons. Also, did I mention that Pemsl also had the same or higher shooting percentages as Cook from short range? Add to that a bulked up Nunge who will have a size and length advantage over every 4 he will play this year and you have a pretty darn solid top 2. I think Kriener will mostly back up Garza and Pat for Wieskamp, but they add match-up flexibility that didn't exist last season.

Now after that, lets consider how bad Cook was at court awareness on defense. Nunge and Pemsl are both major upgrades in that regard. Looking forward to seeing someone actually rotating over in the low post or coming in for a block or boxing out rather than just staring at the play as it happens right in front of them once every few trips down the court.

And if we're going by purely plus minus stats, Nunge, Kriener, and Pemsl's BPMs were higher than Cook's ever was (Pemsl 5.5, Nunge 4.8, Kriener 4.4, Cook 4.2). And the majority of that difference comes from their contributions on defense. So purely statistically, I think we're looking at a significant upgrade.
 
I’m posting due to the current Weakness post has 26 replies and the Strengths only has 9.

We will be better as the ball will not stop in the post on one side this year.

Also, no more gliding 8 foot half hooks across the lane that had a .008% chance of going in.
 
I would think we could really cut down our turnovers this year with the amount of ball handlers we have, and the fact that Cook has a tendency to commit turnovers.
 
NikeHawk21 said:
I would think we could really cut down our turnovers this year with the amount of ball handlers we have, and the fact that Cook has a tendency to commit turnovers.[/QUOTE
Many of those TO’s ended up being live ball, as well as his questionable shot selection running the other way for dunks.
Those all counted against our “poor defense”.
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NikeHawk21 said:
I would think we could really cut down our turnovers this year with the amount of ball handlers we have, and the fact that Cook has a tendency to commit turnovers.
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He was a turnover MACHINE! Let's not kid ourselves! More than one time he personally sucked the life out of a legit rally late in the game.
 
NikeHawk21 said:
I’ve done this in the past but wanted to do a thread on the perceived strengths of our team this year. I will do one on weaknesses as well.

1. Scoring
Could plug this in with Iowa almost every year. With Wieskamp, Garza, and Bohannon this team will have little issue scoring. Nunge, Frederick, Kriener, and Evelyn will provide some scoring pop as well I would guess. Have plenty of outside shooting and inside scoring options.

2. Rebounding
This one might be a tad surprising as we weren’t great here last year. I think Nunge with his size and new frame will be very good on the boards. I think Garza will be improved on the boards. Kriener as a senior should be strong. I think Joe is a very good rebounder on both ends for his position. Pemsl likes to mix it up inside. Iowa could be a strong rebounding team.

3. 3pt shooting
I guess this goes with the above scoring point but I like to single it out because 3pt shooting can be the ultimate equalizer. It can help you get back into games you have no business being in. Bohannon and Wieskamp you can almost pencil in for about 40% which is pretty elite at their volume. I’m speculating CJF will be up there in the high 30%s based on what I’ve heard. Evelyn has the ability I think Nunge and Garza will both be able to knock down the outside shot. Lots of options and I think again Iowa will be one of the better outside shooting teams in the B1G. Potential that all 5 of Iowa starters will be able to shoot it from deep.

4. Bench
This one is interesting, because if Fran doesn’t manage this right I think this could be a potential weakness (See my next thread). But overall I think having quality bench players is a strength. We don’t know the lineups for sure just yet, but pretty likely Kriener is coming off the bench as a senior. Evelyn could be a 5th year guard off the bench. Pemsl has done some nice things. We have the makings off a strong bench if Fran manages it right.
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@InGoodCo

Here is my thread about what Iowa strengths were going into this year. Injuries have ravaged our bench but not too bad for someone who is always wrong I guess.
 
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