"Death by a thousand cuts-how Iowa's Defense failed against Illinois"

Wow, that was a really nice write up!

As far as forwarding it to Fran goes, I would bet these points have already been made to the guys. This isn't grad-level rocket surgery, this is basketball 101 stuff. I think it's all indicative of a team that's not "in the zone" mentally. Hopefully a switch goes on between now & the BTT.
 
Settles said tonight on On Iowa Live that Iowa's pick and roll defense has been the main problem. So add this to the list of defensive fundamental breakdowns.
 
No communication and poor positioning, and poor footwork to get to the right spots.

Wow, did they suddenly forget how to play D?

They need to be in man to man about 90 percent of the time, IMHO.
 
Very good article, Hayden. Loved the title: Death of a Thousand Cuts. We have to become an intelligent team again and start having fun in the game, playing loose and fast, but together again.....

:rolleyes:
 
Nice article. Yesterday Jess also mentioned the horrible offensive rebounding. It was also brought up with Jim and Ken on KXNO the unexplainable rotation Fran has been doing especially when a guy gets hot and has a little mojo going and then Fran sits them. Jess did mention the screen rotations we were so good at earlier in the year and how bad we've gotten fundamentally. I think Fran will be working big time this week in practice on defensive fundamentals and rebounding.
 
Skeets sitting the hot player is a call back to the Tom Davis era. I can recall Matt Bullard making three straight 3's on three tips down the court and the good Doctor giving him the hook. It used to make me crazy. (Cue another old iowa guy to tell how players sub themselves out in Dr Toms system). Which i rebut with "Nobody subs themselves out after three straight makes."
 
Skeets sitting the hot player is a call back to the Tom Davis era. I can recall Matt Bullard making three straight 3's on three tips down the court and the good Doctor giving him the hook. It used to make me crazy. (Cue another old iowa guy to tell how players sub themselves out in Dr Toms system). Which i rebut with "Nobody subs themselves out after three straight makes."

Yeah--if there was one thing I would change about the Tom Davis era, it would be keeping in-state talent home. If there was a second thing, it would be more flexibility in rotation.
 
Skeets sitting the hot player is a call back to the Tom Davis era. I can recall Matt Bullard making three straight 3's on three tips down the court and the good Doctor giving him the hook. It used to make me crazy. (Cue another old iowa guy to tell how players sub themselves out in Dr Toms system). Which i rebut with "Nobody subs themselves out after three straight makes."

Sure you aren't confusing Mr. Davis with Raveling? Raveling used to drive fans nuts by pulling guys just as they were getting on fiya.
 
I've been criticizing White for his hedge toward what he anticipates to be the passing lane for a month. His swing and miss steal attempts have turned him into one of the worst baseline zone defenders I can recall -- frequently out of position / awkwardly sideways and there goes the baseline. His (and Uthoff on the other side and Woody up high-middle) are the most glaring but, as BHGP points out, it's pretty pervasive by everyone.

Thing is, it's REALLY been noticeable to me just watching live games. Imagine how noticeable it's become to the rest of the conference teams, who are breaking down film and scouting you for hours. It's no coincidence the defensive collapse is occurring during the second time through the B1G.
1) Hawks' defensive tendencies, especially in zone, are out there and exploited.
2) Hawks are playing more zone. (I guess to preserve energy or in hopes the other teams are also fatigued and won't hit as many perimeter shots?)

Another related point, somewhere in one of these threads, someone quoted Speraw saying the last 2 weeks, practice has been nothing but game prep and little work on fundamentals. Maybe that's part of it, though it's hard to imagine such an epic collapse on defense due to not being able to spend much time on it for a couple practices. I'd tend to go with the simple points I made -- your strategy / tendencies in zone defense are glaring, making your zone easy to attack and virtually ineffective but you continue to play more zone. Ya think?

I will agree on one aspect of Speraw's comment spending too much time on game prep. Bear with me on this.

I know it's just Dolph saying this as a lead-in but I've heard more about "This is Andrew Francis' "scout" ... or, "Kirk Speraw "had the scout" on this game." than any previous season. Maybe I'm over connecting the dots a bit, here, but, let's be honest, Dolph is expected to emphasize the highlights. Makes me wonder if it's a pride-point of the staff to the point where it's expected to be part of the s c r i p t?

My point, I still believe the Hawks are top 3 in this conference in terms of high-end talent and overall depth of talent. While I get the necessity to scout your opponent so you can exploit and attack their weaknesses, I wonder if it's as necessary, this late in the season, second time around, to the point where you've allowed your own house to self-destruct? Maybe too much worrying about the opponent and not enough on keeping the talent focused on doing what their capable of doing?
 
I've been criticizing White for his hedge toward what he anticipates to be the passing lane for a month. His swing and miss steal attempts have turned him into one of the worst baseline zone defenders I can recall -- frequently out of position / awkwardly sideways and there goes the baseline. His (and Uthoff on the other side and Woody up high-middle) are the most glaring but, as BHGP points out, it's pretty pervasive by everyone.

Thing is, it's REALLY been noticeable to me just watching live games. Imagine how noticeable it's become to the rest of the conference teams, who are breaking down film and scouting you for hours. It's no coincidence the defensive collapse is occurring during the second time through the B1G.
1) Hawks' defensive tendencies, especially in zone, are out there and exploited.
2) Hawks are playing more zone. (I guess to preserve energy or in hopes the other teams are also fatigued and won't hit as many perimeter shots?)

Another related point, somewhere in one of these threads, someone quoted Speraw saying the last 2 weeks, practice has been nothing but game prep and little work on fundamentals. Maybe that's part of it, though it's hard to imagine such an epic collapse on defense due to not being able to spend much time on it for a couple practices. I'd tend to go with the simple points I made -- your strategy / tendencies in zone defense are glaring, making your zone easy to attack and virtually ineffective but you continue to play more zone. Ya think?

I will agree on one aspect of Speraw's comment spending too much time on game prep. Bear with me on this.

I know it's just Dolph saying this as a lead-in but I've heard more about "This is Andrew Francis' "scout" ... or, "Kirk Speraw "had the scout" on this game." than any previous season. Maybe I'm over connecting the dots a bit, here, but, let's be honest, Dolph is expected to emphasize the highlights. Makes me wonder if it's a pride-point of the staff to the point where it's expected to be part of the s c r i p t?

My point, I still believe the Hawks are top 3 in this conference in terms of high-end talent and overall depth of talent. While I get the necessity to scout your opponent so you can exploit and attack their weaknesses, I wonder if it's as necessary, this late in the season, second time around, to the point where you've allowed your own house to self-destruct? Maybe too much worrying about the opponent and not enough on keeping the talent focused on doing what their capable of doing?


John Wooden would agree here. In his books he talks about how he spent less time worrying about the opponent and more about making sure his team was focused to execute the things they wanted to do. Not that he did not scout, but he wanted his teams to excel at the things they do well in games.
 
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John Wooden would agree here. In his books he talks about how he spent less time worrying about the opponent and more about making sure his team was focused to execute the things they wanted to do. Not that he did not scout, but he wanted his teams to excel at the things they do well in games.

Yeah, but what did John Wooden ever do?!? ;)
 
Skeets sitting the hot player is a call back to the Tom Davis era. I can recall Matt Bullard making three straight 3's on three tips down the court and the good Doctor giving him the hook. It used to make me crazy. (Cue another old iowa guy to tell how players sub themselves out in Dr Toms system). Which i rebut with "Nobody subs themselves out after three straight makes."

Mr. Davis did that a lot, not just Bullard. He would frequently take a hot player out and I remember wondering why, trying to think of a logical reason for it. Perhaps there is one, but I never could figure it out now or then.....

:rolleyes:
 
Sure you aren't confusing Mr. Davis with Raveling? Raveling used to drive fans nuts by pulling guys just as they were getting on fiya.

For some reason I don't remember much about Raveling's coaching. I loved his recruiting, and the game at Indiana where his friend, Bobby Knight humiliated him by making a point about having a 35 second rule by stalling for almost an entire half or the whole game.....

:rolleyes:
 
Playing defense is not glamorous. It doesn't draw headlines and press clippings. The coach's job is to determine the best defensive style for the players he's got. It's up to the players to implement that style to the best of their ability. If one or both are off, then it's not going to work. Maybe doubling off screens/switching off screens doesn't work for Iowa right now - due to fatigue or whatever. So maybe the coach does need to put them in another variation of defense to account for their current level of play. Or maybe the players need to find another gear and get back to what they were doing at the start of the season. Either way, they have less than a week to figure it out.
 
Right now this team just refuses to play defense or rebound. Defensive play and rebounding is all about effort, focus and communication. Until that happens, nothing will change.

I also believe that Fran needs to identify his best 7 defenders and make sure they get most of the minutes. I think Marble and White are giving very little effort on the defensive end. Maybe they need to sit a little bit.
 
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