Does Iowa Need To Play More Physical On Defense?

[dahlhawk]

One of my biggest pet peeves is when people argue about or complain about referees distribution of calls on teams in a game. If it's a foul, it's a foul. Call it. I don't care how skewed calls are for one team or another. Refs shouldn't try to even calls out. Just call fairly for both sides.

Look at a Bob Huggins team. They literally challenge a ref to call all the fouls, because they make it clear they are going to foul on every play. Refs are human, they don't want to call 50 fouls in a half, so they end up calling the most egregious fouls. Therefore Huggins wins, only some of the fouls are called giving them an unfair advantage. They are universally despised for this, but hey, he's in the tournament usually every year.

 

[dahlhawk]

I think you kind of protect him. Hopefully with his height and Cook's athleticism, they could hold the middle pretty well. I guess I'm thinking of more of the guards playing with contact or taking chances.

If Fran wouldn't ask Garza to run twenty feet to the top of the key and 20 feet back to defend the basket, he would not foul at such an alarming

 

[WindsorHawk]

I am not going to talk about officials costing Iowa games in the BT. However, these crews that we see in Iowa City are the biggest joke in the world of college basketball. Don't make excuses for their ignorance of the rules, their poor positioning on the floor, their inability to keep up with the speed of the game, their inconsistency, which confuses the players. Until the BT powers decide to correct officials' behaviors, and hold them accountable, we will continue to see very poor basketball with little finesse and a lot of thug matches. End rant.

Those Final 4 officials don’t miss many calls. We should play in a couple of those games.

 

[94HawkMA]

To me, Fran's teams often play "soft". Rutger's laid out the perfect template to beat Iowa and offset Iowa's size, length advantage and great shooting. Iowa was ranked I believe 12th in the nation in offensive efficiency and pretty much tied with Michigan St in the BIG.

Rutgers, like Mich St., got right up in the Iowa players mugs and did not give Iowa's guards any space. Michigan St. does the same when playing, with much success. Rutgers could afford to do this as they were willing to sacrifice fouls because of their depth. We've complained about Fran's depth he plays in the past as he typically could go 10 or 11 players. I realize Nunge is redshirting and Pemsl is out, but he has gone that deep in the past and could next year as well. This makes me wonder, should Iowa ramp up the physicality and be willing to sacrifice more fouls? Bang a little more or be willing to play with more contact? This clearly gets into Iowa's head when they play teams that do that. If you struggle to play clean defensive ball, maybe a team should go that route, especially with deep teams. Why the hell not? Soft play is not getting Iowa anywhere, but having a 121 rating or above in defensive efficiency.

We all know how Mich. St. gets away with a lot of contact or not every hit on the arm is called. In games, the more contact the more the refs are going to have to let go, IMO, or they are going to be blowing the whistle every other play. I think after time, it's human nature just to not see certain things after time. This is how Mich. St. can dictate how games are called.

I think many will point out that you worry that Iowa's free throw made advantage will shrink considerably or go away, but that hasn't been paying big dividends lately anyway. Iowa struggles in games where physical play is allowed.

I just think they need to play a bit more physical and a bit more scrappy, even if more fouls are called. They can't play soft anymore.

Thoughts ?

Iowa doesn't have the depth at any position to play physical. We have no point guard. And with Nunge and Pemsl out, we have no shot if the bigs get in foul trouble. If Iowa only loses Baer and Cook for next year, they will be better. Iowa doesn't know how to use Cook. They let him handle the ball in the open court and let him try to pass the ball. All he does is turn the ball over.

 

[MelroseHawkins]

I am not going to talk about officials costing Iowa games in the BT. However, these crews that we see in Iowa City are the biggest joke in the world of college basketball. Don't make excuses for their ignorance of the rules, their poor positioning on the floor, their inability to keep up with the speed of the game, their inconsistency, which confuses the players. Until the BT powers decide to correct officials' behaviors, and hold them accountable, we will continue to see very poor basketball with little finesse and a lot of thug matches. End rant.

Solid.

 

[MelroseHawkins]

Look at a Bob Huggins team. They literally challenge a ref to call all the fouls, because they make it clear they are going to foul on every play. Refs are human, they don't want to call 50 fouls in a half, so they end up calling the most egregious fouls. Therefore Huggins wins, only some of the fouls are called giving them an unfair advantage. They are universally despised for this, but hey, he's in the tournament usually every year.

I made this same point earlier and how Mich St. can dictate how calls are called by the end of a game. Same premise.

 

[kicker22]

Maybe I'm in the minority on this but I credit teams that play physical. If an Izzo led MSU team can play physically enough to alter the way "a game should be called" then good for them. I would rather be the team with the ultra aggressive/physical style of play then the finesse team who's game completely comes unglued if things get physical.

I'm not saying that the physical play doesn't bother me at times, but as I've said in previous posts, when we compile a roster of players that fit into a certain mold it doesn't take much to disrupt the game plan and lets be honest we're not bringing in guys known to have a nasty side or play smothering defense. We've got one of the better offenses in the conference, but I'd settle for a middle of the conference offense it we brought in players that were ready to bang and get nasty from the opening tip. I could say its thug ball until I turned blue in the face, but the moment we bring in guys that play that style of defense I'd 100% on board.

 

[MelroseHawkins]

Iowa doesn't have the depth at any position to play physical. We have no point guard. And with Nunge and Pemsl out, we have no shot if the bigs get in foul trouble. If Iowa only loses Baer and Cook for next year, they will be better. Iowa doesn't know how to use Cook. They let him handle the ball in the open court and let him try to pass the ball. All he does is turn the ball over.

They usually do. Cripes, just the 5 on the floor is 25 fouls. Add into that 4 bench players and that is 45 total for a game. Yea, you have to be smart with a couple players in certain games such as Bohannon, but others could definitely get more physical. What if you got hard play out of Garza for 3/4 of the game and it wasn't a game he was really scoring a lot in? You'd still have Kreiner who could cover the rest.

What made me post this was watching how Rutgers managed the game against Iowa. They were starting to get into foul trouble and had at least 1 foul out, I believe, but still were able to get to the end of the game by having the advantage of playing physical. Back in the 1980's, a lot of players played with 3-4 fouls. You don't see a lot of Iowa players now playing with 4 fouls much. Occasionally maybe Garza on occasion, but as a team, it is usually not an issue.

When I coached b-ball, if the team didn't have very many fouls, I would question how aggressive they were playing.

 

[WindsorHawk]

I want smart physical. I don’t want to be MSU mugging all over the court. But no one should ever get an and one. Don’t play dirty. But don’t let that shot get up on the rim.

And don’t let Happ score inside of 10 feet tomorrow night. We go 9 deep. So we should be able to foul Happ 18 times and stay out of foul trouble.

 

[dahlhawk]

I want smart physical. I don’t want to be MSU mugging all over the court. But no one should ever get an and one. Don’t play dirty. But don’t let that shot get up on the rim.

And don’t let Happ score inside of 10 feet tomorrow night. We go 9 deep. So we should be able to foul Happ 18 times and stay out of foul trouble.

The players that need to be physical are Baer, Conner, Dailey, and Moss. Guys that have a limited number of minutes in the game and can be subbed for. Kreiner if Garza hasn't gotten early fouls. These guys should be "all in" when playing defense.

 

[ModebaSan]

I don't think physicality is the problem here. I think it is a lack of an aggressive attitude. They have to develop a mean streak and believe that they are unstopable. They've got to believe it instead of just saying it. You can talk about it, you can understand what you need to do, but until you back up your words with action, you're just kidding yourself. Just do it! (Sorry Nike)

 

[BigD]

1. A legit Big Ten point guard that can defend and also break down the opponents defense like they do ours every damn game.

2. A post player that can jump and block shots and defend our defensive rim.

3. A Reggie Evans type of player who can own the defensive rebounds and send a message that if you come in trying to get an offensive rebound you best have good medical insurance.

4. A coach that can teach and INSTILL defensive skills and basic boxing out skills
and recruit players that have quick feet.

5. We have none of the above.

 

[WindsorHawk]

1. A legit Big Ten point guard that can defend and also break down the opponents defense like they do ours every damn game.

2. A post player that can jump and block shots and defend our defensive rim.

3. A Reggie Evans type of player who can own the defensive rebounds and send a message that if you come in trying to get an offensive rebound you best have good medical insurance.

4. A coach that can teach and INSTILL defensive skills and basic boxing out skills
and recruit players that have quick feet.

5. We have none of the above.

Next year...

1 - Joe T.?
2 - Nunge?
3 - Pemsl
4 - NA
5 - Hopefully we have 1, 2 and 3 next year.