Attn: Mike Gesell

ArvadaHawk said:
He's on the roster; his name is Peter Jok. Coach 'Caff has a delicate decision to make. I think he needs to bench MG in favor of Jok. Sapp showed tonight that he's an okay scorer from the point, but not a legit 2 guard. MG is inconsistent at both 1 & 2. Eventually, the starting guards need to be Trey and Jok. Sapp and MG play back up to both. Sapp still deserves to be the starter, but he needs to be a better scorer sooner, rather than later. MG needs to work his way back in.
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Barring injury, Gesell will start every remaining game in his career. And I'm glad he will.
 
AntonioRamos said:
Thanks for tracking down those numbers. I was thinking tonight that he was picking right back up from where he left off in the NCAA "tournament" game last year.
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He's picking back up where he left off last year during Iowa's freefall when he increased his FGA while his FG% plummeted
while Marble got blamed for being a ball hog because nobody else would take the shot under 7 seconds.

I like his intensity. He plays pretty good defense.
Nobody needs to defend him.

But he can't shoot the ball.
Playing an undersized 2 who can't shoot isn't going to help the big men get points in the paint.
 
sportstalent said:
Please stop blindly driving deep into the lane and continue to get blocked. Please stop taking shots at the end of the half that you can't make.

Now, let me say this before I am accused as ripping on a player.

This is the first time in a long time that there is no player on the roster I do not like. I think this team has a chance to be a lot better than the experts think.

This was a pet peeve of mine last season and I hope he can correct it.
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I was surprised how many times he took it to he basket, blocked every time. There has to be a point where one realizes that something is really not working. He does have a jump shot, mid-range and three point range. There was evidence of this his first year, not last season. Remember how BJ would stop short and nail a short jump shot off the backboard. Of course Mike would have had to stop long before the basket and shoot a rainbow, at least against teams with the natural talent and size of Texas.....

The entire team had difficulty getting a three point look in the second half. They just dominated us, similar to the MSU game a few years ago, but not thuglike.....

I am hoping this is just an eyeopener for the team against a tough, athletic Texas team that was on fire. We must find a way to get an open three, spreading the floor, setting screens. It is very frustrating not to get anything close to a decent shot. We have the shooters who just can't get open. We weren't dominated like that all last season. Michigan at Ann Arbor had their way with us but we only lost by ten. This was actually embarrassing.....

The way I am going to look at tonight's game is we are not going to go undefeated this season. It is good to get that monkey off our backs. We looked like the better team the first half, but most of our scoring was from the FT line.....


Iowa and Syracuse both lost by 14 points, one would think it will be a close game. If it is my faith will be renewed somewhat. Bottom line, Texas is Very Good and barring injury or other unforeseen difficulties, they should win the Big 12 and go far in The Dance. Kentucky looks like a pro team, glad they don't have Tyus Jones who is something else and I am glad he chose Duke over Kentucky.....

Kansas was destroyed by Kentucky Tuesday night, looking much worse that we did. It happens to the best of them every now and then.....

Ramble over, tears have subsided and dried. The second half was not unlike the entire football game at Minnesota.....

Alas.....

drawingboard.jpg
 
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Wasn't Mike one of the top players for turnover efficiency last year? Granted, his drives into the lane are basically turnovers. I don't know, I feel like he needs to just run the offense and shoot when he gets good looks. Driving in like he does is bad in multiple ways, he either gets blocked, can't finish if he some how doesn't get blocked, or he gets fouled and misses his free throws.
 
g11 said:
Wasn't Mike one of the top players for turnover efficiency last year? Granted, his drives into the lane are basically turnovers. I don't know, I feel like he needs to just run the offense and shoot when he gets good looks. Driving in like he does is bad in multiple ways, he either gets blocked, can't finish if he some how doesn't get blocked, or he gets fouled and misses his free throws.
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I can't fault mike for driving like he does as I feel we are coached that way and I'm always thinking to myself "nice take, easy layup" and then someone out of nowhere swats the **** out of him. That's the alarming thing to me as we get swatted a crap ton, and teams get to the rim with ease against us. (Real teams). We have great quickness and first steps, just zero explosiveness outside gabe as to getting off the floor.
 
Mike is simply not tall, fast, agile and athletic enough to drive the lane for layups. His play is to drive and kick out, to bounce pass to his buddy Adam or to someone else or to develop a quick pull up shot from 8 to 10 feet away.

Not sure Jok has proven he's ready to get the keys to the car at point.
 
fsanford said:
He probably was a bit overrated coming out of high school. So expectations were inflated.

The guy is a mid major player always was.
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I hate to say it, but you are probably right. It is his junior year, and every year Fran has tried to recruit over him, with no luck... It finally makes sense now. But I can be a Lil slow sometimes...
 
glidinghawk said:
Barring injury, Gesell will start every remaining game in his career. And I'm glad he will.
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GH, if MG was scoring, consistently, I'd be right with you. But he isn't. Texas started to leave him open to double somewhere else. It's a real problem when your opponent is leaving your shooting guard open because he isn't scoring well.
 
I appreciate the fact that he was driving to the basket, and he was trying to score, that's not the issue here....it's his jump shooting, FT shooting.....I'm not sure what the answer is....Mike has to figure it out for Iowa to be more successful than what we witnessed last night....
 
fsanford said:
He probably was a bit overrated coming out of high school. So expectations were inflated.

The guy is a mid major player always was.
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yeah, because he's not shown that he can have a good assist to turnover ratio against Division 1 competition...and that's not an important statistic for a point guard. He played poorly last night, he hasn't shot the ball very well over the past 9-10 games, but he can be a valuable asset to this team.

We need him as a ball handler, assist man, and a defender. He was solid on defense in the first half and most of the night, that's important because Jok and Olgesthree were terrible on defense last night. His defense against penetration looked much much better.

Let's not mid major him until he's played a few more games this year. Clemmons played awful last night too...as did Olgeshree.

Fran needs to tell him he doesn't need to shoot every time he drives the lane...circle it out or kick it out for a jumper.
 
patmyne said:
I can't fault mike for driving like he does as I feel we are coached that way and I'm always thinking to myself "nice take, easy layup" and then someone out of nowhere swats the **** out of him. That's the alarming thing to me as we get swatted a crap ton, and teams get to the rim with ease against us. (Real teams). We have great quickness and first steps, just zero explosiveness outside gabe as to getting off the floor.
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There is a difference between getting halfway around a guy and throwing up an off-balance, prayer of a shot off the backboard and actually getting by the guy defending you for either an open layup or cause the defense to rotate and pass to an open man. Iowa is very lacking in quickness and first steps. White moves well for a 4 and knows how to use his body to create angles, but none of the Iowa perimeter players (other than Dickerson) can stress a good team. And right now Dickerson doesn't really have an idea of what to do if he gets in the lane.

It's something that only a roster turnover can fix. Help starts arriving next year, but will will be a year or two before it doesn't look like a complete mismatch on the perimeter for Iowa.
 
MG has peaked. I haven't seen improvement from him since about midway through his freshman year. He can still contribute to this team, but he's got to stop trying to be what he isn't. And he isn't a slash and drive to the hoop player.

Not exactly sure where he excels, but that's where he needs to keep his game. Keep it real, Mike.
[video=youtube;_VrFV5r8cs0]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_VrFV5r8cs0[/video]
 
at least draw contact, he always seems to drift, softly and try to flip it in. When you are 6'1" you need waaaay more separation against the likes of TX interior. Maybe a tear-drop floater sooner, idk but yes please stop over penatrating with that soft stuff
 
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