Baylor spanked Illinois in the 2nd half, are Hawks good enough to be elite?

VTHawk

Well-Known Member
So I just watched Baylor play Illinois and while it was close in the 1st half Illinois just could not stay with the Bears. Baylor's defense looked stifling and tough in the paint. Illinois could not penetrate the Bears D with any success down the stretch. Baylor's offense looked great. They can shoot the three very well. Maybe better then us. I am having trouble seeing Iowa being able to stick with them throughout a game. I know we don't play them in the schedule and we will see what Baylor is made of when they play Gonzaga however Baylor has great athletes and are an elite team.

Is Iowa tough enough to hang with the elite teams this year? Baylor is an extremely physical team. They seem to have an awful lot of talent, and their offense is aggressive and as I said their defense stifling. I am not sure if Iowa is physical enough to hang with the better teams in the nation.

We already know Keegan Murray and Patrick McCaffery can play but they are really going to have to seriously step up. Joe Toussaint has to slow down a bit and make the right decisions and not be so wild because right now he looks like a slightly better version of Brian Garner (showing my age). The team overall needs to box out every time a shot goes up because the way I saw it, way too many times they just stood around doing nothing but looking up at the rim.

In the second game against Southern, we got out rebounded by them 42-37. Worse then that we got out rebounded on the offensive boards 19-10.

We will see how they play against better teams but if the defense does not play significantly better I don't see us hanging with elite teams. If they don't box out aggressivly every time a shot goes up we are not going to be able to hang with the elite teams. I know most of these statements are beating a dead drum, however I will also say I don't know if our offense is capable of breaking down a team like Baylor and be able to score lots of points. I am not sure we are physical enough outside of Garza and he will get doubled teamed.

I know its only two games but Baylor looked pretty damn impressive.

I hope my observations turn out to be completely wrong of course.
 
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So I just watched Baylor play Illinois and while it was close in the 1st half Illinois just could not stay with the Bears. Baylor's defense looked stifling and tough in the paint. Illinois could not penetrate the Bears D with any success down the stretch. Baylor's offense looked great. They can shoot the three very well. Maybe better then us. I am having trouble seeing Iowa being able to stick with them throughout a game. I know we don't play them in the schedule and we will see what Baylor is made of when they play Gonzaga however Baylor has great athletes and are an elite team.

Is Iowa tough enough to hang with the elite teams this year? Baylor is an extremely physical team. They seem to have an awful lot of talent, and their offense is aggressive and as I said their defense stifling. I am not sure if Iowa is physical enough to hang with the better teams in the nation.

We already know Keegan Murray and Patrick McCaffery can play but they are really going to have to seriously step up. Joe Toussaint has to slow down a bit and make the right decisions and not be so wild because right now he looks like a slightly better Brian Garner (showing my age). The team overall needs to box out every time a shot goes up because the way I saw it, way too many times they just stood around doing nothing but looking up at the rim.

In the second game against Southern, we got out rebounded by them 42-37. Worse then that we got out rebounded on the offensive boards 19-10.

We will see how they play against better teams but if the defense does not play significantly better I don't see us hanging with elite teams. If they don't box out aggressivly every time a shot goes up we are not going to be able to hang with the elite teams. I know most of these statements are beating a dead drum, however I will also say I don't know if our offense is capable of breaking down a team like Baylor and be able to score lots of points. I am not sure we are physical enough outside of Garza and he will get doubled teamed.

I know its only two games but Baylor looked pretty damn impressive.

I hope my observations turn out to be completely wrong of course.
I would say simply to enjoy the run. It could be a long time before a player like Luka Garza rolls through here again and I'm not advocating NBA success with him whatsoever.

I know what he can do at this level, however. But once again enjoy it while he's here.

Someone is always going to be stronger, tougher, more physical, more athletic, or better coached. Can we beat a Baylor or a Gonzaga on a given night? Sure. But I hope we don't look back on this season a decade or two decades from now when some future AD has hired a paint salesman for a head coach and regret not enjoying it more. I know Badger fans right now who regret not enjoying back to back Final Fours more than they did.

The caveat here is the title of your thread. You ask a dozen Hawkeye fans their definition of elite and you may get a dozen answers. They may prove not to deserve a #3 ranking, but if they can stay in the top ten i would have to consider that pretty elite.
 
Nice problem to have considering how long we've been meddling in mediocrity. I like being worried about if we are good enough to hang with the elites instead of wondering if we can win 20 games and get into the NCAA tournament. I admit I see some huge gaps defensively, mostly on the perimeter but with Luka Garza underneath and all the shooters we have this team is gonna put up a ton of points. So I'm gonna enjoy the ride.
 
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