Happy, but No Bench Scoring is a problem.

[1980HAWKFAN]

Today we didn't need the bench to score. The starters did what they needed to do and the bench played enough defense and limited mistakes so all is good. There will be games ahead where we need scoring from them. Win and move on is all that matters.

 

[SidFarkas]

Evelyn and JT need to practice FT extended to top of key 3s as today people are sagging completely off them.

Your guards boys - take them and make them.

 

[SpiderRico]

How is it a problem if we won?

It isn’t like the bench hasn’t lifted us at all this year. We don’t beat Cinci without Evelyn. Kreiner has shown up in several games. Pemsl has rebounded well lately and dished some decent assists.

In the B1G this year it’s just survive and advance. Every win should be celebrated.

 

[HaydenHawk56]

How is it a problem if we won?

It isn’t like the bench hasn’t lifted us at all this year. We don’t beat Cinci without Evelyn. Kreiner has shown up in several games. Pemsl has rebounded well lately and dished some decent assists.

In the B1G this year it’s just survive and advance. Every win should be celebrated.

That is the good news. Winning despite them.

 

[STILLBUSTER]

What does our bench offer? If these guys aren't looking to shoot, what do they bring? Defense? Rebounding? No turnovers?

Absolutely nothing. Kreiner is serviceable but has cinder blocks for hands. Pemsl is just bad. Evlyn hasn’t contributed in a month.

I get needing to give the starters a breather but ya can’t fall into that classic Fran mode of scripted platoons!

There’s not a single bench player that should play more than 2-3 minute spells.

Face it Fran - your starters are gonna have to play 35 to keep this wild fun going. They want it. They can take it. The success of this team depends on it. Leave it happen!!

 

[SidFarkas]

Under 8 TO, we walked to the bench.
A physical fight and guys need the sub.
Bench needs to bring more to make this team whole.

 

[Hawkfnntn]

No bench scoring is a problem. Pemsl, Kreiner, Bakari, and Till seem to have no confidence in their shots. Kreiner has had some games where he scores and so has Bakari, but don't they don't seem able to bring it when the competition improves. Pemsl passes up some shots when he probably shouldn't.

Yeah I agree. It just is what it is I'm afraid. I don't think there's any magic button to push or way of using them to improve it. Either Kreiner is going to play better or he's not. Evelyn isn't doing much. I'd almost rather play JT more and live with those concequences but he can't play 30 plus mins either. His style requires breaks too along with he's just not ready to handle more.
Pemsl… That dude needs more basketball awareness. That TO where he dribbled right into a defender so he'd steal it made me want to pull my hair out. I can live with his hustle mistakes. And some of his bad passes even. But when he puts the ball on the floor it scares me. He and Kreiner both anymore.

If you want to talk about a noticeable difference. Just look at how Iowa plays when Garza, JW/CJF are all on the bench at the same time. That shouldn't happen. Fran needs to find a way to divvy up rest for those guys so it's staggered. I don't want 2 of them let alone all 3 on the bench at the same time.

 

[1977Hawkeye]

This team seems clearly "tougher" than many of the years past.. So it makes me hopeful that this year, the team can stay strong through the end of the year and not back slide too much, or at all.

The one thing that concerns me, though, is the short bench due to injury and playing some freshmen. Just hoping fatigue doesn't become a factor and cause the team to hit the proverbial wall the final month.

But so far, I have to say I was very wrong about this team (particularly after what I thought after DePaul) and have never been so glad to be proven wrong. TOUGHEST Hawkeye hoops team I have seen since... 1990's maybe? Most of our past teams probably crumble and lose that game when Illinois kept making runs and regaining the lead. Not this team - they kept answering.

Been enjoying it.

 

[MelroseHawkins]

No bench scoring is a problem. Pemsl, Kreiner, Bakari, and Till seem to have no confidence in their shots. Kreiner has had some games where he scores and so has Bakari, but don't they don't seem able to bring it when the competition improves. Pemsl passes up some shots when he probably shouldn't.

Ya got a three headed monster with Garza, Weiskamp and Frederick. That's a hard guard for opposing teams. Connor had four 3 pointers against Ilannoy which was a bonus and made up for many bench points.

I heard that Garza and Weiskamp rank up there as a duo scoring in college basketball. I wonder adding Frederick where the three of them rank, has to be top 3 I would think.

 

[dirtwrap]

One of the reasons I love this team this year is a product of them being so limited player wise. Nothing is more of a head scratcher to me in all of sports than when a team has an advantage or mismatch somewhere and then stops going to it. I mean, you have a mismatch somewhere, whether it is football or basketball, you need to go to it every freaking time until they figure out how to stop it. Blows me away. On this team though, we are that one trick pony that is all about feeding Garza in the post, and if he gets outnumbered then kick it to one of our shooters and let it fly. As great as our offense is with Garza/Wieskamp/CJ on the floor, none of the three can take a game over on their own.

So I see what Fran is doing here. He wants to keep those three on the floor together as much as he possibly can because we are so much better than our opponents offensively, and then roll out the stiffs when we need a break and hope they dont blow it. If he staggered the lineups, we would be slightly better offensively than the stiffs, but far less effective than the 3 headed monster lineup and to keep them fresh for the end of the game is like gold. This is an ncaa tournament team, in that they only have to play 2 games in 3 days, 3 times if they made it to the final. This is not a 4 games in 4 days kind of team.

So buckle up for the rest of the way because this roller coaster of big game swings shows no sign of slowing down.

 

[JPinIC]

Absolutely nothing. Kreiner is serviceable but has cinder blocks for hands. Pemsl is just bad. Evlyn hasn’t contributed in a month.

I get needing to give the starters a breather but ya can’t fall into that classic Fran mode of scripted platoons!

There’s not a single bench player that should play more than 2-3 minute spells.

Face it Fran - your starters are gonna have to play 35 to keep this wild fun going. They want it. They can take it. The success of this team depends on it. Leave it happen!!

On the road, we have to roll the dice with our bench. There are five more road games left and as we saw in College Park, home cooking by the refs can lead to some unfortunate combinations of players on the floor. We are all counting on the bench to show up in those situations and give us a shot at winning.

Purdue is on the Bubble and getting desperate. They are 5-6 in the B1G with a 12-10 record with 9 games left 5 of which are in Mackey. A loss to Iowa on Wednesday puts them on the edge of the NIT, it will be an all-out battle and don't expect Iowa to get any calls. It will be the same story at Indiana and @ Minnesota.

 

[SpiderRico]

This team seems clearly "tougher" than many of the years past.. So it makes me hopeful that this year, the team can stay strong through the end of the year and not back slide too much, or at all.

The one thing that concerns me, though, is the short bench due to injury and playing some freshmen. Just hoping fatigue doesn't become a factor and cause the team to hit the proverbial wall the final month.

But so far, I have to say I was very wrong about this team (particularly after what I thought after DePaul) and have never been so glad to be proven wrong. TOUGHEST Hawkeye hoops team I have seen since... 1990's maybe? Most of our past teams probably crumble and lose that game when Illinois kept making runs and regaining the lead. Not this team - they kept answering.

Been enjoying it.

Toughest team since the 1993 team that lost Street in the middle of the year. Nutted up and beat MSU at their place and a Top 5 Michigan team at home. Ran out of steam at the end of the year, but not out of heart.

The 1999 team that made the Sweet 16 (losing to the eventual Nat'l Champ) was a pretty tough outfit as well. I remember Joey Range getting into it with El-Amin as the teams were going to their locker rooms at the half. That was a fun team.

 

[thedukeofearl]

When we can substitute 2 of our top three players in a close game

And play even with the opponent with the score not changing drastically

Even without scoring

Using the clock to give the starters on the bench time to rest

We are Way ahead of the game

Fran and staff have worked miracles with this strategy so far this season

 

[HuckFinn]

When we can substitute 2 of our top three players in a close game

And play even with the opponent with the score not changing drastically

Even without scoring

Using the clock to give the starters on the bench time to rest

We are Way ahead of the game

Fran and staff have worked miracles with this strategy so far this season

I was trying to figure out how to say this. Now I don’t have to. I would not have done this well with such efficiency.

 

[revkev73]

The Big Ten Tournament and prior to that, the race to the finish, wear thin teams out. Thin teams are exhausted before they enter the NCAA. That said, the starters are top shelf and the way the roster is now, there isn't too much of Fran playing a "long bench" to try to make everybody a bit happy.

Garza, CJF, CMac, JoeT, Wieskamp are warriors. I'll take what we have.

 

[99topdawg]

all I know is the final score says Iowa won by 7 points....I really don't give a rats butt about the bench scoring. Evidently it wasn't needed today.

Agreed. However, if we DO want to increase our bench scoring, we should take Garza and Weiskamp out of the starting lineup.

I think the question isn't about bench, but more about scoring distribution and as you said, it doesn't matter where the points come from, as long as we get them. It would be nice to see more guys contribute, though.

 

[WindsorHawk]

all I know is the final score says Iowa won by 7 points....I really don't give a rats butt about the bench scoring. Evidently it wasn't needed today.

Bingo!

 

[dirtwrap]

Agreed. However, if we DO want to increase our bench scoring, we should take Garza and Weiskamp out of the starting lineup.

I think the question isn't about bench, but more about scoring distribution and as you said, it doesn't matter where the points come from, as long as we get them. It would be nice to see more guys contribute, though.

We have to get 55 out of Garza/Wieskamp/CJ. I think even without playing their best Garza and Wieskamp can get there because their usage is so high and they both go to the line. CJ is really the one that has to be efficient, because we need him to score on far less usage. Question is, between Kriener/CMac/JoeT, can they scratch out 20 a game collectively? I want to think that Kriener and JoeT can play an effective 2 man pick and roll game on that second unit. However we do it we need to get to 75.

 

[MelroseHawkins]

Agreed. However, if we DO want to increase our bench scoring, we should take Garza and Weiskamp out of the starting lineup.

I think the question isn't about bench, but more about scoring distribution and as you said, it doesn't matter where the points come from, as long as we get them. It would be nice to see more guys contribute, though.

Plus if it just happen one time, that is an anomaly and really isn't worth fretting about.

 

[ArvadaHawk]

Yep that's due to injuries. Our 3 bench players would be the 3 guys who hardly played if Bohannon, Nunge, and Patrick could go. It is a big problem, but the team is trying hard to work through it.

i only disagree re: kriener. kriener was gonna be the backup to garza regardless. but, our bench essentially is kriener and that has been my beef with pemsl. he needs to produce or do the right thing.