ESPN on why Iowa keeps failing in NCAAs

AnyoneButYou said:
Lot of truth in that article.
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There is, but Richmond was throwing up just as much of a stink farm as Iowa. They basically made two more plays then we did and survived.

When I looked at Richmond's roster and saw they had a five foot nine point guard my stomach clenched a little bit. Small quick guards have always given Iowa trouble and JBo trouble. It's part of the reason we have struggled with Illinois the last two years after dominating them in the early Underwood years.
 
My take....you need to be good on both offense and defense. You need good guard play and post play. Iowa normally has the offense but Iowa lacked in all 4 of these areas yesterday.....and you can circle these areas as problems in the other years....not necessarily all at the same time. Iowa struggles in the NCAAs because they usually don't have a complete team coming into it. When they do, they get matched up with a Duke like team in the 2nd round....or everything goes to chalk. Could be the case Iowa got hot and their extraordinary shooting covered up their problems coming into the NCAAs. Throw in a different game ball, long travel, a biased crowd not in your favor, and firing off all of your arsenal to win the BTT, and playing a team that had some weapons and a coach who did his homework....Iowa got picked off.
 
Iowa had good guard play and post play for 2 straight months - they emptied the emotional tank winning the conference tournament 4 days prior and came out flat and got beat. That happens in a one off situation. Richmond had 6 super seniors, this wasn't their first rodeo.
 
Also for whatever reason, Fran and his staff did a lousy job preparing for the Princeton Offense and making in game adjustments. Imagine if those 3 inbound plays they made don't happen...Iowa wins....or the 4 back door plays they went untouched for an easy lay up.
 
InGoodCo said:
Iowa had good guard play and post play for 2 straight months - they emptied the emotional tank winning the conference tournament 4 days prior and came out flat and got beat. That happens in a one off situation. Richmond had 6 super seniors, this wasn't their first rodeo.
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Good point about them being a veteran team. Like Matt Gatens said he was worried when he saw their name come up for us as they played them this year and he knew they were not going to be a cake walk.
 
HaydenHawk56 said:
I think the Big Ten should explore getting their tourney done sooner.
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Without a doubt, it's a great disservice to everyone involved. IL won it last year and did exactly what Iowa did. In fact, I'd be interested to know what B1G tournament winners went on to have deep runs?
 
InGoodCo said:
Without a doubt, it's a great disservice to everyone involved. IL won it last year and did exactly what Iowa did. In fact, I'd be interested to know what B1G tournament winners went on to have deep runs?
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NO, ILLINOIS DIDN'T DO EXACTLY WHAT IOWA DID. ILLINOIS WON ITS FIRST GAME. THEN THEY LOST TO LOYOLA, WHICH IS A SOLID PROGRAM THAT HAD WON THEIR CONFERENCE AND CONFERENCE TOURNEY. THEY WON THEIR OPENING ROUND GAME BY LIKE 30 POINTS, IIRC.
 
The biggest problem with what everyone keeps focusing on is that the only comparisons we ever make (rightly so) is only to fellow B1G members. Is the B1G a good, tough conference? Yes. Does ikt translate directly to the Big East, Atlantic 10, SEC, or any other conference? Nope.

It's a catch-22 no doubt. Fran has to gear his team towards the style of B1G play because that's what we have to do all season long. But unless you're a blue blood-ish school like Wisconsin or Michigan that can muscle their way through a tournament with crazy deep teams and a stable full of top recruits, our conference's style doesn't transfer to the NCAA tournament.

The B1G is a conference of muscle ball. It's physical, in the paint, hard-nosed basketball played in what you could call the more "traditional" style. You have to either be a really big team good at that style of basketball, or have a counter to it to survive. We aren't a team equipped to respond to the wide-open, super-fast paced, ball movement & harrassment defense style of basketball that you run into in the east and west coasts.
 
okeefe4prez said:
NO, ILLINOIS DIDN'T DO EXACTLY WHAT IOWA DID. ILLINOIS WON ITS FIRST GAME. THEN THEY LOST TO LOYOLA, WHICH IS A SOLID PROGRAM THAT HAD WON THEIR CONFERENCE AND CONFERENCE TOURNEY. THEY WON THEIR OPENING ROUND GAME BY LIKE 30 POINTS, IIRC.
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You are right, I am wrong. They still made an early exit. It happens....seemingly a lot to Iowa. Please change your font
 
InGoodCo said:
Iowa had good guard play and post play for 2 straight months - they emptied the emotional tank winning the conference tournament 4 days prior and came out flat and got beat. That happens in a one off situation. Richmond had 6 super seniors, this wasn't their first rodeo.
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Iowa came out flat in a few games along this run and just righted the ship. What empty emotional tank? That sounds so much like an excuse. Richmond able to win their conference tourney but had some emotion left over??

Also don't care about seniors unless it is an even match up. They are still Richmond and don't have the players we have. Senior players don't automatically win. Seniors make a real difference when the talent is even. It helped but sounds like another excuse. They haven't been in the Tournament since 2011 so it was the first rodeo.
 
ajdwhs87 said:
Iowa came out flat in a few games along this run and just righted the ship. What empty emotional tank? That sounds so much like an excuse. Richmond able to win their conference tourney but had some emotion left over??

Also don't care about seniors unless it is an even match up. They are still Richmond and don't have the players we have. Senior players don't automatically win. Seniors make a real difference when the talent is even. It helped but sounds like another excuse. They haven't been in the Tournament since 2011 so it was the first rodeo.
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Oh it's definitely an excuse, Iowa should have won yesterday. Did I indicate that they shouldn't have won? All we have left now is to sort out the reasons why.
 
ajdwhs87 said:
Iowa came out flat in a few games along this run and just righted the ship. What empty emotional tank? That sounds so much like an excuse. Richmond able to win their conference tourney but had some emotion left over??

Also don't care about seniors unless it is an even match up. They are still Richmond and don't have the players we have. Senior players don't automatically win. Seniors make a real difference when the talent is even. It helped but sounds like another excuse. They haven't been in the Tournament since 2011 so it was the first rodeo.
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Also a good point they had four wins in 4 days as well. Only thing I can think of is Iowa had a more crueling path in the BTT and had to travel longer to a place where Richmond had more fan support. But that does sound excuseish. Personally I think we should have zoned them more and played the Big O and pounded them more inside...along with Keegan.
 
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