Another headscratcher - physical and/or mental

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uihawk82

Well-Known Member
The hawks started slow in first 5 minutes of the game then caught fire.

then did they think they had this won at halftime, did they think izzo wouldnt tongue lash his team and whip them into a frenzy? Is it mental.

Hawks played lackluster from the get go with a TO to start second half, Uthoff/jok/others quit shooting so MSU packed it in the lane and that took away Gabe who had a great second half.

Hawks needed to make jumpers in the second half to keep the lane open.

And all the missed shots and turnovers led to easy MSU points.

And what can you do about MSU making every 3 ptr.

Josh O just airballed a wide open 3 with 10 seconds left , well that says it all.
 
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No talent, no development, no coaching, no confidence. Bring McCabe back, at least he was not a wimp
 
It's mental. This team is mentally weak and has no leadership at all. When they are playing well the going is good, but when the going gets tough this team folds like a cheap tent.

Iowa played great defense and dominated Michigan State in the first half but then went cold and never fought back.

This team lacks heart and that's been the case for a few years now. They'll win games, but then **** their pants just as often like they did tonight.

Very disappointed in some of the players. I want to call kids out for the lack of effort but fear I'll risk a 2nd banning. It's not hard to see who is a mental midget out there when they have their backs against the wall. It's not just one player either, it's several.

I'll just stop now. I've had a few beers and don't need to dig a hole, but everything I've said and want to say is true. This team is lightyears better then when Lick was here, but Fran and company has a long ways to go to get to where Mr. Davis had the program.

Just frustrated as hell tonight. This was a winnable game.
 
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QuadCityHawkeye said:
It's mental. This team is mentally weak and has no leadership at all. When they are playing well the going is good, but when the going gets tough this team folds like a cheap tent.

Iowa played great defense and dominated Michigan State in the first half but then went cold and never fought back.

This team lacks heart and that's been the case for a few years now. They'll win games, but then **** their pants just as often like they did tonight.

Very disappointed in some of the players. I want to call kids out for the lack of effort but fear I'll risk a 2nd banning. It's not hard to see who is a mental midget out there when they have their backs against the wall. It's not just one player either, it's several.

I'll just stop now. I've had a few beers and don't need to dig a hole, but everything I've said and want to say is true. This team is lightyears better then when Lick was here, but he also has a long ways to go to get to where Mr. Davis had the program.

Just frustrated as hell tonight. This was a winnable game.
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Totally agree. I don't know what they are so scared of? And I don't understand our schemes and why we go away from what was working? Just throwing up crap in the half court offense and not even looking inside. Don't get why we can't identify the shooters on the perimeter and stick with them? And the clanks from the line in the 2nd half only support the low mental make-up of this team. They folded.
 
BlackGold57 said:
No talent, no development, no coaching, no confidence. Bring McCabe back, at least he was not a wimp
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You might have a point with confidence, coaching and development..Olesani has become decent from nothing..certainly others that haven't improved but I'd say that's a wash.

I disagree with the talent. We aren't Kentucky talent wise, but I think we have enough to compete in the upper half of the conference and if we played to the best of our ability we'd be an absolute lock for the NCAA with a good seed. It wouldn't even be a question whether we make it, just what seed we'd get. They seem mentally weak. That Florida coach pretty much summed it up. They have one bad play and instead of coming back to try to make something happen they hang their heads and give up.
 
Well, we tore them up by going to Gabe in the post, then seemed afraid to pass it to him in the 2nd half. Iowa BB= 1st half: do what works, 2nd half: do the opposite.
 
BlackGold57 said:
No talent, no development, no coaching, no confidence. Bring McCabe back, at least he was not a wimp
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I think we have two really talented players, Utoff and Gabe, and one of them has clearly developed.

Coaching is really lacking though.

The he ball needed to go to gabe on the Block every time down court but Fran just allowed them to go back to their old crap.

this motion offense doesn't work whith this team, outside of Utoff they aren't skilled, quick or smart enough, they need to work out of set plays.
 
QuadCityHawkeye said:
It's mental. This team is mentally weak and has no leadership at all. When they are playing well the going is good, but when the going gets tough this team folds like a cheap tent.

Iowa played great defense and dominated Michigan State in the first half but then went cold and never fought back.

This team lacks heart and that's been the case for a few years now. They'll win games, but then **** their pants just as often like they did tonight.

Very disappointed in some of the players. I want to call kids out for the lack of effort but fear I'll risk a 2nd banning. It's not hard to see who is a mental midget out there when they have their backs against the wall. It's not just one player either, it's several.

I'll just stop now. I've had a few beers and don't need to dig a hole, but everything I've said and want to say is true. This team is lightyears better then when Lick was here, but he also has a long ways to go to get to where Mr. Davis had the program.

Just frustrated as hell tonight. This was a winnable game.
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Ok, you say it is mental, I agree to a big part.

And I dont think you are calling out players if you state some skill, decision, athletic move they try or dont try that fails.

I mean they shot like crap in the second half and to me that is mental, maybe they were focusing on the defender and unsure rather than really focusing on the rim.

Again, probably mental, unsure versus confident. how it switched so fast from one half to the next is the headscratcher
 
uihawk82 said:
Ok, you say it is mental, I agree to a big part.

And I dont think you are calling out players if you state some skill, decision, athletic move they try or dont try that fails.

I mean they shot like crap in the second half and to me that is mental, maybe they were focusing on the defender and unsure rather than really focusing on the rim.

Again, probably mental, unsure versus confident. how it switched so fast from one half to the next is the headscratcher
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I think physically they are pretty talented overall. If they were't they'd be getting blown out of games like they did when Lick was here. Those teams had little talent at all.

What makes me so upset is that this team does have talent. Many of their losses come because of mental mistakes that mount, and before you know it their lead is gone and they are down double digits. That happened against Iowa State and again tonight. Both home games which are really frustrating losses. You even could say Iowa folded to an extent against Northern Iowa and didn't step up at the end vs Syracuse. Texas was just a loss that was due to pure talent being far superior. Iowa wasn't going to win every game outside Texas, but they should have at least won tonight. It's a trend and it got old last season.

I don't expect Iowa to win every game but they have lost some very frustrating ones. The talent is there, but Iowa needs to play a complete game against a quality opponent and that's only happened once all season when they beat Ohio State.
 
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I agree this team is mentally weak. Not sure what the fix is....or even if it CAN be fixed. This is 2 years in a row now. There is something wrong and I'm not so sure Fran knows how to fix it. I sure as heck don't have any ideas.
 
Other than Lester, do you really think Lute Olson has great players. Other that Brown, do you really think Miller had great players. Alford won two B10 tourney championships with what????

Thanks Gary and Fran.
 
Iowa didn't match up physically with Michigan State other than Olesani and Uthoff. Michigan State could really focus on stopping Uthoff and Olesani in the second half. The other Iowa players really aren't a great threat offensively. There really is no comparison between the Michigan State guards and the Iowa guards. You can't knock their effort, but there really is no comparison. The only Iowa guard capable of really being a big ten defenses concern might possibly be Jok. If Iowa had a couple of upper division conference guards they would be pretty tough, but a good defense can unravel them pretty good. It makes it a lot harder for White, Uthoff, Olesani, and Woodbury.
 
They're mentally weak. The three biggest recruits on this team right now are White, Woodbury, and Gesell, and all three are punchlines. I think we pretty much knew last year that Woody and Gesell were busts, but White has been really disappointing this year. I think he knows how this is going to end, and he's not good enough to do anything about it.
 
We don't have one player that we can depend on to shoot the 3 with any consistency. Gatens was the last dead shooter we had but he only put it together his senior year. Everyone we play shoots light out from 3.. Poor defense doesn't help.
 
Just saw a tweet. See below. Didn't realize the basketball team and football team had so much in common.


Div I, Most Losses After Leading at the Half - Since 2010-11

Hofstra - 28
UC Davis - 26
Iowa - 25
South Carolina St.- 25
E. Washington - 25



Bottom line is, Iowa needs to be allowed to bring in some athletes with more of an edge physically and mentally.

 
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No one that can hit shots from outside and major defensive lapses guarding Trice etc. doomed this effort.

Iowa needs a real back court.
 
The defense could pack all 5 guys inside the lane and there is no way our team ever shoots 71% from 3. We probably shoot less than 50% most nights in that scenario. When you're not capable of making 50% of your wide open 3's you're in trouble.
 
Couldn't agree more PC....Good scorers make an effort to locate themselves where the defense isn't, and good guards find them to feed them the ball....Trice just had one of those nights for MSU.....where did he go? Right outside that 3 pt line all 2nd half, and someone found him and got him the ball....our defense was miserable, or at least the guy who was supposed to be guarding him....Teams know we can't shoot, and you can almost see it in their faces, $hit eatin' grins, daring us to shoot, embarrassing.....
 
BlackGold57 said:
Other than Lester, do you really think Lute Olson has great players. Other that Brown, do you really think Miller had great players. Alford won two B10 tourney championships with what????

Thanks Gary and Fran.
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Lute Olson brought in future NBA players other than Ronnie Lester. Bruce King, Bobby Hansen, Greg Stokes, Michael Payne and Brad Lohaus come to mind.

Ralph Miller brought in future NBA players other than Freddie Brown. Sam Williams, Chad Calabria, John Johson and Kevin Kunnert come to mind.

I'm sure there are others.
 
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