lightning1
Well-Known Member
Bohannon's points had nothing to do with PG play. He made 6 - 3pt shots. Most of those shots came off the ball. The 7 assists say more to me than the 24 pts.
Hawkeye Defense Absent Again in Loss at Nebraska
- Thread starter RobHowe
- Start date
NikeHawk21
Well-Known Member
*Iowa is glaringly weak at SG, weak at SF, and young at Center.
Sure I’d like an upgrade at PG to allow JBo to do some other things, but PG is far from the only thing wrong with this team and in my opinion not our biggest weakness.
If PG is so glaringly weak, why could we compete and beat good teams last year with the same PG?
lightning1
Well-Known Member
The effort was there last night, on the defensive end. Watching last night's game wasn't nearly as painful as the other games we watched this season.
Adam
Well-Known Member
While what you say is true my main point of contention is that the defensive positioning was not as bad as the multitude of fouls would suggest. By my count Nebraska earned 14 made free throws from calls that were questionable at best. While this does not mean Iowa would have won, I do believe that we played well enough to keep that game within 10 points. The way it played out blows the scoring difference a little out of proportion.
P.S. Do you not believe in small steps of progress? It seems unlikely that this team is going to go from JV level defense to Virginia pack line over night. The best we can expect is small improvements and hopefully some consistency. Last night's defense was closer to what it will take to be competitive. It was even better than against Wisconsin. Nebraska is way better than Wisconsin. I mean like way way better. Especially at home. I think it is important to acknowledge when small improvements are made rather than pile on to a seasons worth of defensive bashing.
RobHowe
Administrator
Officiating was not the problem last night. Bad defense was the problem. Saying it was better is putting lipstick on a pig. The defense was still awful.
While I can appreciate the positive outlook and looking for a silver lining, Iowa is not close to being a competent defensive team. It just isn't.
lightning1
Well-Known Member
Agreed. The effort was much better but there were a lot of reach fouls due to being out of position. But at least we were close enough to the offensive player to get a hand on them to commit the foul. Lol. Baby steps? I'd much rather see fouls than uncontested layups and 3 pt shots.
Iowa has the worst defensive efficiency of any team in the Power 5.
Adam
Well-Known Member
Lip stick on a pig is where we are at bro, and yes I will point out when the shade of lip stick compliments the pigs eyes better.
Pigs need love too man.
This is what I was going to say. Being close enough to foul is a huge improvement.
I can't believe Rob doesn't want to acknowledge the defense has been better, just becasue it still sucks. Once it was apparent this season was over, all I wanted to see was effort. Last night there was plenty of it. If they finish the season playing with that effort, it's something to build on for next year. If they go into next year with this effort and they still suck this bad, we need to come up with about 9 mil.
#1DieHardHawk
Well-Known Member
There's an old saying, "You can't make chicken salad out of chicken shit."
While you can work on team defense fundamentals and reach a certain level of competence, at the end of the day, if the players on the court are physically limited. you're simply not going to get great results. The best you can do is work on effort, hustle and determination, and hope.
That said, my biggest concern with this team remains its lack of leadership and cohesiveness. I was at the ND-Virginia Tech game last night, and was reminded of how good teams almost always have several core players that work at building that camaraderie. Our players basically just stand around in their own little worlds in dead ball situations or immediately after a play. Good teams have players that are clapping, fist bumping, encouraging each other, smiling, etc. IMO, that is by far the biggest issue with this squad.
While you can work on team defense fundamentals and reach a certain level of competence, at the end of the day, if the players on the court are physically limited. you're simply not going to get great results. The best you can do is work on effort, hustle and determination, and hope.
That said, my biggest concern with this team remains its lack of leadership and cohesiveness. I was at the ND-Virginia Tech game last night, and was reminded of how good teams almost always have several core players that work at building that camaraderie. Our players basically just stand around in their own little worlds in dead ball situations or immediately after a play. Good teams have players that are clapping, fist bumping, encouraging each other, smiling, etc. IMO, that is by far the biggest issue with this squad.
We gave up 98 points to a bad offensive team and our fundamentals on defense are actually getting worse. Our Adjusted Defense is the worst it's been all season so I'm not sure how you can say our defense has been getting better. I can't remember the last time we played a game and our Adjusted Defense improved actually. Drake maybe?
Becasue I actually watched the games. We aren't giving up 15-20 wide open layups a game anymore.
NikeHawk21
Well-Known Member
I think it’s really your guy’s opinion that the defense was better, not sure that universally agreed upon. Nebraska was having there way with us basically all night. If you’re going to foul a team 22 times, you would think that’s because you weren’t giving them anything easy, but that’s not really the case when the other team shoots 57% on two point shots.
To your point about effort though. I do think Fran did a poor job putting our team in position to play good defense. For instance if Nunge is guarding Palmer in man to man, as he was for a good amount of time last night, he can try as hard as physically possible, but that’s still not going to be a winning matchup for us.
GotTimDodge
Well-Known Member
Fran needs one more win to reach 3 conference wins.
Last time Iowa bball finished with 3 conference wins?
This aired live:
Cheers!
Last time Iowa bball finished with 3 conference wins?
This aired live:
Cheers!
There's always the Because I actually watched the game guy. Yeah we really made a bad offensive team work hard to put up a hundred on us haha!
