Game Report: Hawkeyes Rally past No. 19 Michigan
- Thread starter RobHowe
- Start date
HaydenHawk56
Well-Known Member
I have to give credit where credit is due. They continue to impress and they are making me eat crow with each new victory that could lead to an NCAA birth this year. Right now, I'm seeing a team that has more than one three point shooter (they are getting production from their guards, forwards, and even the post players from the 3 point line). This team can spread you out more than past teams. This team has role players that are giving productive role player minutes. This team has shown more than a heartbeat up to this point in time.....seems to feel different from past Fran teams. They are also showing more on the defensive end playing together as a team compared to past Fran teams as well.
But, the biggest difference probably is, and it is not a big surprise, the outstanding play of Garza this year. Iowa may very well have the best player in the league right now and you probably have to go back to Andre Woolridge for such discussion for the last Iowa team to feature such a player (perhaps Luke Recker if he did not get injured that one year).
If this keeps up, they get an NCAA birth.
I will still be curious to see how Iowa responds if/when Garza, JoeW, or both have off nights (hopefully they won't). Or, if any signs of a collapse start to occur.
I'm still worried about us stopping opposing guard penetration, making sure we are hitting from the free line (we did very tonight), and how we will respond when we are going through cold shooting spells.
Also, the remaining schedule is still very challenging. Going to be tough to win the following games, at Maryland, at Purdue, at Indiana, at Minnesota, at Michigan St, at Illinois).
The other 7 games left will not be a walk in the park either, but you get them at home and that has been a saving grace for Big Ten Teams (Rutgers, Wisconsin, Illinois, Nebraska, Ohio St, Penn St, Purdue).
Iowa probably needs to get to 19-20 wins to get an invite. If they can protect the home court, they would be good in shape where they sit now (13-5). Get any road wins, those are a bonus/insurance at this point. They certainly have quality wins over 3 ranked opponents.
The good news is Iowa continues to over-achieve being down players and getting impressive production out of the ones they still have competing. Iowa's proving to be a tough out for opposing teams.
Last edited:
SheagleHawk
Well-Known Member
I absolutely love this team. With a core of Garza, CJ, Joe and Jordan we are a top 10 team next year.
#1DieHardHawk
Well-Known Member
Great win for the Hawks and also just a great game to watch. It had an NCAA tournament feel to it. The lack of perimeter defense and allowing penetration still drives me batty, but this team just finds a way to overcome it.
The ascension of Garza obviously is a huge factor. I loved his tenacity and attitude coming in, but I don't think anyone could have foreseen him becoming a dominant player and potential 1st-team All-American. Credit to him, as he just relentlessly works at it.
In the past, you could feel games slipping away after a few bad plays, but this team fights and rallies. A lot of that can be attributed to Garza and CJ, but other players are feeding off of that competitiveness. No one backs down. It's infectious.
The ascension of Garza obviously is a huge factor. I loved his tenacity and attitude coming in, but I don't think anyone could have foreseen him becoming a dominant player and potential 1st-team All-American. Credit to him, as he just relentlessly works at it.
In the past, you could feel games slipping away after a few bad plays, but this team fights and rallies. A lot of that can be attributed to Garza and CJ, but other players are feeding off of that competitiveness. No one backs down. It's infectious.
SheagleHawk
Well-Known Member
Yep, we lose this game with last years team. As soon as Michigan took a 6pt lead in the 2nd after the Hawks controlling most of the game, we would’ve folded. There is zero quit in this team. Goddamn warriors! I don’t know if it’s a leadership thing with different guys stepping up or a chemistry thing, but I’m blown away by the difference in mental and physical toughness of this team and really any other Fran-coached Iowa team.
InGoodCo
Well-Known Member
9 of Iowa’s last 13 are against Quad 1ish caliber teams, the only game they could lose from here on out that would be a bad loss is at home vs Nebraska. Meaning, this team isn’t going to have many blemishes and just had it’s 3rd W over a ranked team this season. Iowa has won 7 of its last 9
We would all enjoy watching JW, CJF, CMac, for this and 2 more years with Garza as long as he is here. I hope next yearJBo is 110% for his going away tour. And it will be great to have Nunge and others. In the meantime, this team as just knocked off two top 20 teams so they will be ranked in the top 25 soon with another win or two. A top hustling team with enough offense that helps overcome them playing pretty good defense. Fun to watch and it will be fun to watch JT learn to play at the speed of the game rather than try to force so many things.
Zstatman
Well-Known Member
You can't underestimate the advantage of having 3 legit scorers. Each had at least 20 last night, that's hard to defend. Kriener had double figures while hardly anybody else took a shot.
And the ability to switch defenses the way they do is good, you have to know what you are doing to be able to do that efficiently. I used to worry about Fran's abilities on the Xs and Os portion of the game but not anymore. He's coached a lot of basketball over the years and knows what he's doing, you can hear it in his post game interviews. I think now it's that he has the players to do what needs to be done on O an D. It took him 10 years to get here but it feels like he's got the base talent he needs now to compete on an annual basis.
And the ability to switch defenses the way they do is good, you have to know what you are doing to be able to do that efficiently. I used to worry about Fran's abilities on the Xs and Os portion of the game but not anymore. He's coached a lot of basketball over the years and knows what he's doing, you can hear it in his post game interviews. I think now it's that he has the players to do what needs to be done on O an D. It took him 10 years to get here but it feels like he's got the base talent he needs now to compete on an annual basis.
JG10Hawk
Well-Known Member
They are currently 26th (top vote getter outside of the top 25) and have won twice this week. They most definitely will be ranked in the top 25, probably top 20 come Monday.
D
DDThompson
Guest
yeah, howard isn't a very good actor.
he knew the free throw count before he went out there and acted like he was reading them for the first time.
hawkdrummer1
Well-Known Member
This team has something many of Fran's teams lacked; balls. C J Fred, Wiesy, Garza all ballers that don't get fazed no matter what happens.
Last edited:
tksirius
HN's Love Doctor
deanvogs
Well-Known Member
I would be upset if I were a Michigan fan as well if you didn't watch the game. If you watched the game you could see that Michigan's whole strategy was to throw bodies and fouls at Garza and Iowa really. It wasn't like any of the fouls the refs called weren't fouls. They could have actually called a ton more on Michigan. They weren't hitting Michigan with ticky tack foul calls.
Iowa on the flip side doesn't defend that way. They sit in a zone, they don't get up in ball handlers face, they don't go the whole grab and hug defense that many B1G teams do.
ssckelley
Well-Known Member
I really like Howard as a coach, he is going to do well at Michigan but I really hated seeing him complaining about the free throws. Go back and watch the tape, the refs actually did Michigan a favor by not calling a ton more fouls. They were hacking left and right, it wasn't just Garza.
His body is probably just still sore from the 20 fouls he drew at Nebraska.
