PeoriaHWKI
Well-Known Member
As lopsided as the calls were in Iowa's favor you have to wonder if Izzo picked up on Iowa's other losses and its poor performance at free throw shooting and decided he was going to make Iowa beat him at the FT line?
Free Throws are the Weakness and Izzo knew it
- Thread starter PeoriaHWKI
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xXxHerkyxXx
Well-Known Member
If so it was a good move.
STILLBUSTER
Well-Known Member
It was clear right away what his game plan was (and I posted it in the game thread) -- maul Iowa, take the fouls and work the refs to get whatever they would give.
The purpose was to prevent Iowa's transition game from running his short-handed team off the court by forcing continuous stoppage in play. It completely took Dev and, especially, White out of their games of attacking the rim in transition. It kept the crowd out of the game. It put all the pressure on the Hawks to make free-throws (which they are below average at doing) and, just as importantly, forced them to play from sets, not breaks (which they are equally below average at doing).
It didn't help that, once again, Uthoff was a deer in the headlights of the bright stage and Fran kept betting on the come for McCabe to contribute, while ignoring Olaseni's demonstrated ability to contribute. It also was a poor job by Fran of losing composure and directly hurting his team, again. Not to mention, once again failing to attack from the inside - out, where he has the obvious size and talent advantage.
As much as he's a whiny b!tch, Izzo is an awesome coach and he implemented a masterful strategy. He does what a coach is supposed to do on a game x game and opponent x opponent basis -- know your team's weakness and protect it. Keep your best players on the floor. Identify your opponent's weakness and relentlessly attack it.
The purpose was to prevent Iowa's transition game from running his short-handed team off the court by forcing continuous stoppage in play. It completely took Dev and, especially, White out of their games of attacking the rim in transition. It kept the crowd out of the game. It put all the pressure on the Hawks to make free-throws (which they are below average at doing) and, just as importantly, forced them to play from sets, not breaks (which they are equally below average at doing).
It didn't help that, once again, Uthoff was a deer in the headlights of the bright stage and Fran kept betting on the come for McCabe to contribute, while ignoring Olaseni's demonstrated ability to contribute. It also was a poor job by Fran of losing composure and directly hurting his team, again. Not to mention, once again failing to attack from the inside - out, where he has the obvious size and talent advantage.
As much as he's a whiny b!tch, Izzo is an awesome coach and he implemented a masterful strategy. He does what a coach is supposed to do on a game x game and opponent x opponent basis -- know your team's weakness and protect it. Keep your best players on the floor. Identify your opponent's weakness and relentlessly attack it.
glidinghawk
Well-Known Member
I wonder if Izzo realizes his own team shoots 3 percentage points less than Iowa at the FT line? (72.3% for Iowa, 69.3% for Sparty).
So Iowa has a better FT shooting team than Michigan State. That's a fact.
Why doesn't Iowa shoot more threes. Michigan State took 29 of them last night and made about 34.4% of them. Maybe if Iowa got aggessive with the 3 point shot, they could get 8 to 10 a game, even if they hit only a third of them.
I'm pretty sure Izzo had it figured out last year in Carver too. After MSU had tied the game late, Appling fouled Clemmons needlessly in a non shooting situation. The announcers were howling about why would Appling give Iowa FTs when they were in the double bonus? Clemmons missed both FTs.
glidinghawk
Well-Known Member
I guess you didn't double check the box score. Clemmons made both FTs. So it was a dumb foul.
Bigtenchamp
Well-Known Member
lol.... umm no way.
If they didn't foul us so much we would have scored 40 pts...
That was the only way we could score... that was not his strategy. I can only imagine how much he would crack up at this suggestion.
A lot of the fouls were on weird stuff too and not rebounds or attacking the basket.
If they didn't foul us so much we would have scored 40 pts...
That was the only way we could score... that was not his strategy. I can only imagine how much he would crack up at this suggestion.
A lot of the fouls were on weird stuff too and not rebounds or attacking the basket.
glidinghawk
Well-Known Member
Sorry, were you talking about last year's game and not last night's game?
volhawk50
Well-Known Member
This thread might make sense if Iowa were 300th in the nation in free throw shooting percentage. But they're 87th. Not to mention MSU was short handed and needed their best players on the floor the whole time. Izzo may have known free throw percentage was Iowa's weakest area, but he was not intentionally fouling, end of story.
I was referring to last year's game. Maybe I didn't make that clear in my post. Though I said last year's game in Carver? Maybe I should check the box score, but I do remember Clemmons was fouled twice in the last 15-20 seconds of the game while Iowa was in the d-bonus. I believe he hit 1 of 4. On his second trip to the line I'm fairly certain Appling committed that foul and Iowa was down 2 at that point.
I remember my buddy next to me saying that Appling's foul was his best play of the night. Putting Clemmons at the line again.
glidinghawk
Well-Known Member
Changing topics, I missed the MSU-Iowa game from the Big Ten tourney last year. Did MSU do a lot of fouling late in that game (fouls that were called) and did Gesell play at all in that game?
I do remember a lot of very physical play by MSU. I don't remember Iowa shooting a lot of FTs though and Iowa fans were livid over it. My lasting memory is Iowa being up 12 with 10:00 left and being down 8 with 2:00 left. I think they scored 2 points total over that stretch.
I'm fairly certain MG played. I think he converted an "and 1" 3 point play to give Iowa's its biggest lead of the game, 13, right at the start of the 2nd half.
I'm fairly certain MG played. I think he converted an "and 1" 3 point play to give Iowa's its biggest lead of the game, 13, right at the start of the 2nd half.
STILLBUSTER
Well-Known Member
So, maybe Izzo doesn't count on Iowa missing free throws. Maybe he sees the recurring trend that Iowa is soft and, if you get physical with them, they will wilt into going scoreless for incredibly long stretches. It's just an added bonus that, this year, they also miss a bunch of freebies when the game is on the line. Either way, give up the 1 because they can't make 2 for several minutes at a time.
jacknicholson
Well-Known Member
His strategy failed on free throws. MSU shor 56% on 20 attempts. We shot 70% on 43 attempts.....
His strategy on D centainly was very good, completely took us out of our game.....
His strategy failed on free throws. MSU shor 56% on 20 attempts. We shot 70% on 43 attempts.....
His strategy on D centainly was very good, completely took us out of our game.....
This is about right on par with what Iowa has done so far in the B1G season. Which overall, 70% isn't bad, that puts them about in the middle/lower middle in that team ranking for the conference.
The problem for Iowa is clutch FTs in the last few minutes. Last night Clemmons stepped up an hit 2 in a row but outside of that it wasn't good. Woodbury missed 2 on a trip, Gessel split FTs on two trips, Marble also split a pair late. I think White who is Iowa's best FT shooter might have even split a pair late.
The Nebraska game went from comfortable win to getting way too tight because of empty foul trips and splitting FTs on 2 shot fouls.
ISU & Nova games were lost at the foul line.
The only game Iowa stepped up in at the FT line was the Ohio St game.
hawkforlife9
Well-Known Member
My fear, teams watch how teams shut down Iowa a simply replicate it. They should be learning out to shut down White by now. And to the point of this thread, foul about anybody other than White or Marble and it's a 50/50 chance they miss the front end of a one-in-one.
I must admit that its much easier for me to remember the big FT misses than the makes. I'd guess that in the Xavier and ND games, Iowa probably did a good job in the last 3-4 minutes hitting FTs. I know they hit a bunch of FTs to bury Ohio St. You'd probably have to go back to the box score to figure that out.
Regardless Iowa lost game to Villanova, ISU, and MSU largely because of missed FTs so certainly the consistency is not where you want it to be with a good team.
Regardless Iowa lost game to Villanova, ISU, and MSU largely because of missed FTs so certainly the consistency is not where you want it to be with a good team.
Knight78
Well-Known Member
Right. So shooting 37% from the field is why our free throws didn't fall. From the FT line we shot 69% last night and our season average is 72%. 3% more would be 1 or maybe 2 FTs. If we shoot our season average 47% from the line, we make 4-5 more field goals and win easily.
