As for playing Mulvey or Ogundele for Rebraca that would a big hell no. Rebraca wasn't great, but most of the game he had little help from his teammates on putting pressure on the ball. Indiana had zero trouble finding TJD. I thought Fran's starting lineup was weak on defense today. When he went to CMac, Kris and Joe T we had better pressure on the ball. Keegan kept it close and gave us a chance for Jbo to launch that prayer at the buzzer. If we let Purdue just abuse us in the paint we are in trouble.
...which is why SCHawkeye isn't off the mark. Rbraca was not in the game today in any way, mentally or physically. Why not put some added height in the lane with Mulvey and Ogundele to try and disrupt Purdue's giants? What do we have to lose? It's not like Rbraca is stepping out and hitting 10 footers and drawing out their big men. I see absolutely no downside to that strategy. They absolutely couldn't be any worse defenders or rebounders than Rbraca was today.
You have to be kidding if you think 2 guys from deep off the bench give us a better chance than Rebraca who has started all year. That is ridiculous. My God did you see Ogundele get garbage minutes agaisnt NW? He has very little footwork.... looks like he needs to drop 25 to 30 pounds and even thinking they wouldn't hurt our chances tells me one thing.....you dudes are clueless.
Rebraca scored 0 points.
Iowa more than held their own in IC against the bigs from Purdue, they are not very athletic. The guards won that game against us along with Ivy who's a matchup nightmare. Iowa needs to crash the boards but more importantly secure the rebound before trying to advance the ball. Iowa had numerous t/o's when they just tried to advance the ball before looking where the defenders were. The Iowa guards had terrible shooting performance against Purdue so they are due to break out. Need to play Peyton more and get everyone crashing the boards. Keep it close and try to steal another one, Iowa is really playing with nothing on the line. All the pressure is on Purdue. They almost lost both games to teams far inferior to them. Iowa has a punchers chance. Wouldn't hurt if they got hot on the 3 point line again. Iowa has won three games, they have nothing left to prove to me or the media. This is all about their desire, Keegan has the heart of a warrior.
I though PMac was having a terrible game early and that it was a continuation of his recent hip/illness issues. I was calling in the game thread for Kris to pick up Pat's minutes.
Agreed, PMac had a good game. Disagree with Fran's bench coaching yesterday, tho. It was clear from the first few minutes of the game that Rbraca was not in it -- mentally or physically. 0 pts and impotent on offense. Repeatedly in the wrong spots and outlengthened and outclassed by Jackson-Davis and any other Hoosier going for a rebound. That he got as many 2nd half minutes as he did, while Kris M sat on the bench, was coaching malpractice. As soon as he sat Rbraca and inserted Kris and started fronting J-D at the 5.5 min mark, the game changed entirely.
Those rebounds over Rbraca's back weren't fouls, he was just 'out of it' that game from the beginning. While inserting Kris M and fronting J-D was a good idea yesterday, if you think Rbraca can front and compete with Edey who's 7'4" tall, well, I strongly disagree.
I think they were fouls as the Indiana players were slamming into the back of Rebracca and every other Hawkeye purposely to jar the ball loose. That is a foul. In today's game Purdue's bigs will simple reach over the heads of the Iowa players and snag it, that's not a foul. It is imperative we box out and our guards clean up the loose balls. Purdue guards and forwards are making a living this year on getting put back points when we are occupied blocking out the Bigs. Beating this team will be a huge task, we gave them our best shot at Carver and they didn't blink.
