Guard play takes you on deep runs in the NCAAs

HaydenHawk56

HaydenHawk56

Well-Known Member
This is Iowa's weakness along with poorly taught fundamentals of defensive schemes. Iowa does not have the guards that can do it all on both ends of the floor. Speed, dribble drivers, good shooters......some times our guards give us good to great shooting games.

You know, what I do love about Fran is that he is willing to play man, zone, look to score in transition, some pressing. Especially after boring Lick Ball and mediocre Alfraud. But, it also feels like sometimes it is like throwing a ton of shit at the dart board and seeing if it sticks.

.

The only way this is going to be mostly fixed is on the recruiting trail, but they could use several practices focusing on defense and shell drills. It would be nice to see Iowa overplay some passing lanes, extend their defense, and use Jack and Luka as rim protectors as a change up.
 
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socalhawk said:
Spot on Hayden. Until Fran can recruit speed and athleticism, Iowa will continue to struggle.
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The Crypto nite for Fran his whole career at Iowa has been getting that one guard who can do it all. Quick and dangerous. Streaky set shooting guards is what we get.
Can you imagine what it will be like next season with Garza gone and likely JoeW? YIKES!!!
 
BigD said:
The Crypto nite for Fran his whole career at Iowa has been getting that one guard who can do it all. Quick and dangerous. Streaky set shooting guards is what we get.
Can you imagine what it will be like next season with Garza gone and likely JoeW? YIKES!!!
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Well, hey. Good! Then you can move on to another team to cheer for.
 
The "guard" play can also be referenced as "guarding", as in defense. You need to be athletic on both ends, not just offense. Having quicker guards on offense is great but even greater on defense. I actually checked the Elite 8 box in another thread. Not so much now
 
Every team we play in B1G play is more athletic than we are. It has been a 10 year process, though, to get to where we are athleticism wise, remember just how bare the cupboard was when Fran arrived? In basketball your roster doesn't change very fast and it's a slow process to upgrade the talent. We are getting better in this regard but still a long way to go.

Anyone else notice that Fran ball wants to move the ball on offense quickly up the court but we never, I mean never, are quick enough to get the easy basket, the layup.

For us to play well we have to shoot well and we are too inconsistent. I hoped we would be better but we're not, that's the bottom line. If we are going to make a tourney run we have to be playing well, shooting well. Right now I don't see it. Fran's teams have both tanked and excelled down the stretch. No idea what this team will do. I looked at the remaining schedule last night and it looks like murder's row.

At this point, we can't be sure that CJ's body can stand up to the rigors of B1G play. JBo's never going to be quicker than he is. The athleticism at guard is in the younger guys. We are starting to see more of them but we need that to increase even more, that's our hope, IMO.
 
Zstatman said:
Every team we play in B1G play is more athletic than we are. It has been a 10 year process, though, to get to where we are athleticism wise, remember just how bare the cupboard was when Fran arrived? In basketball your roster doesn't change very fast and it's a slow process to upgrade the talent. We are getting better in this regard but still a long way to go.

Anyone else notice that Fran ball wants to move the ball on offense quickly up the court but we never, I mean never, are quick enough to get the easy basket, the layup.

For us to play well we have to shoot well and we are too inconsistent. I hoped we would be better but we're not, that's the bottom line. If we are going to make a tourney run we have to be playing well, shooting well. Right now I don't see it. Fran's teams have both tanked and excelled down the stretch. No idea what this team will do. I looked at the remaining schedule last night and it looks like murder's row.

At this point, we can't be sure that CJ's body can stand up to the rigors of B1G play. JBo's never going to be quicker than he is. The athleticism at guard is in the younger guys. We are starting to see more of them but we need that to increase even more, that's our hope, IMO.
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Well said.
 
We don't need to recruit better athletes because better athletes are on the bench. The problem is, better athlete doesn't mean better player. Trading strengths and weaknesses in players doesn't automatically make you a better team. I get that it's easy to complain about what you don't have, but as soon as we start better athletes we will complain about shooting. If we want to be a 1 seed type team, we need better all around players. Not necessarily better athletes. The good news is we lose our two worst athletes next year, so that should help....
 
PCHawk said:
We don't need to recruit better athletes because better athletes are on the bench. The problem is, better athlete doesn't mean better player. Trading strengths and weaknesses in players doesn't automatically make you a better team. I get that it's easy to complain about what you don't have, but as soon as we start better athletes we will complain about shooting. If we want to be a 1 seed type team, we need better all around players. Not necessarily better athletes. The good news is we lose our two worst athletes next year, so that should help....
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You already know how this is going to play out. Iowa will be better defensively next year, but see a drop off on the offensive end.....and people are still going to complain.
 
PCHawk said:
We don't need to recruit better athletes because better athletes are on the bench. The problem is, better athlete doesn't mean better player. Trading strengths and weaknesses in players doesn't automatically make you a better team. I get that it's easy to complain about what you don't have, but as soon as we start better athletes we will complain about shooting. If we want to be a 1 seed type team, we need better all around players. Not necessarily better athletes. The good news is we lose our two worst athletes next year, so that should help....
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Agree. But as I stated elsewhere...hell it may have been in this thread I’m losing track...I would like to see the offense/defense 5 man swap start with 5 minutes left rather than 1.
 
trj said:
You already know how this is going to play out. Iowa will be better defensively next year, but see a drop off on the offensive end.....and people are still going to complain.
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It will be interesting to see. Garza and JBo take a lot of shots. Other guys will be taking those shots and making some of them...less than Garza but possibly more than JBo. And we might get a couple more transition baskets every game.
 
WindsorHawk said:
It will be interesting to see. Garza and JBo take a lot of shots. Other guys will be taking those shots and making some of them...less than Garza but possibly more than JBo. And we might get a couple more transition baskets every game.
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Haven't given up on this year's team, but I am fascinated with what next year's team looks like. Offensive efficiency drops into the mid 30's, defensive efficiency picks up into the mid 70's......Does that make Iowa a sexier version of Purdue?

I think I would sign up for that right now.
 
WindsorHawk said:
Agree. But as I stated elsewhere...hell it may have been in this thread I’m losing track...I would like to see the offense/defense 5 man swap start with 5 minutes left rather than 1.
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I'm not sure there's enough dead balls for that.
 
I'd like to think we could be a well balanced team next year. Some of the guys games should improve not being under the shadow of Luka.
 
Well InGoodCo says JBo is an all time Top 3 guard in Iowa History. So, we should obviously make a run into the Elite 8 this year. Our guard play is only second to Bj Armstrong and Ronnie Lester apparently. No idea why our best win of the year is Rutgers. HMMMMM
 
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