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.
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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