greghammel
Well-Known Member
With a 3-2 away record, the Hawkeyes are currently the only Big Ten team with a winning away record. Very tough to win on someone else’s court.
Hawkeyes only B10 team with winning away record
- Thread starter greghammel
- Start date
InGoodCo
Well-Known Member
Iowa has one of the best resumes in the country at this point. I mean if we were really taking a look and dissecting everyone's wins and losses up to this point. Iowa would probably be a top 5 or 6 resume. The reason most brackets don't project them higher is because, well, it's Iowa. No one expects them to maintain it. I kind of don't either. I think Iowa will fall back a bit. I think they will go thru a lull where they lose a couple of games back to back and go thru a dip, but ultimately, the work they did earlier in the season will pay off and get them comfortably in the dance. Probably a 7 seed - and to be honest, they will likely win their first matchup and then what "ELITE" team is gonna wanna face Iowa and Garza in the 2nd round? Not many. They are going to be a tough out, just get there.
This would be a great year to be a 6 seed.
InGoodCo
Well-Known Member
I just hope after they drop a couple we don't have to hear the "Fire Fran", "His kid can't play", "This team void of talent" takes from cheap seats. We have a good coach and program that is winning despite their circumstances and PLENTY of talent. They are likely going to lose some games coming up and things are gonna even out. I don't think we are one of the top 15 teams in the country but with the way the entire sport seems to be kind of down this season, they might prove me wrong.
Good , you know full well there are a handful of posters who have been noticeably absent this last month or so , that will be back letting us know what a poor team and coach we have if/when we drop a couple games , right now it must be terrible to be one of the negative Nellie's, they have nothing to vent about
InGoodCo
Well-Known Member
Yup - I walk onto this board every day like this the last two seasons. 2 years ago I took my lumps w/ a lot of posters on here, but the fact is, it's gotten better but I am still being sold that it hasn't. Iowa needs to be better overall and win more and I agree with that - I want something more tangible, a 2nd weekend of the NCAA - a better showing in the conference tournament. But the sky isn't falling on Iowa basketball, mostly because we have a coach that understands the culture and what it takes to win more ball games then he loses at Iowa. We're in good shape, let's stop acting like we aren't.
Given proper rest I'd take our team over most others and could actually see us being top 15. I'm a bit concerned how our 7-8 man rotation will fare when faced with tough back to back games in a tournament format though. I'm also concerned how well we'll hold up with some of our starters averaging 35+ minutes (I'm specifically thinking of CJF who is just coming off a stress injury and averaged 37 minutes in our last 2).
HaydenHawk56
Well-Known Member
Again, they have made me eat crow. They are playing like an NCAA tourney team and should be in barring any collapse or more serious injuries to players. That said, here is why we should not boast to much about our away wins and losses just yet in conference.
Remaining away games:
at Maryland
at Purdue
at Indiana
at Minnesota
at Michigan St
at Illinois
We could very well lose all of those games. It will be hard to get a high NCAA seed with those remaining road games to navigate through.
Home game:
Wisconsin
Illinois
Nebraska
Ohio St
Penn St
Purdue
There could be a landmine or two in there.
If I had to guess, Iowa goes .500 the rest of the way and gets to 20-11 on the regular season. I will give them at least a win in the BTT. I will say 21-12 and they get a 7 seed.
Remaining away games:
at Maryland
at Purdue
at Indiana
at Minnesota
at Michigan St
at Illinois
We could very well lose all of those games. It will be hard to get a high NCAA seed with those remaining road games to navigate through.
Home game:
Wisconsin
Illinois
Nebraska
Ohio St
Penn St
Purdue
There could be a landmine or two in there.
If I had to guess, Iowa goes .500 the rest of the way and gets to 20-11 on the regular season. I will give them at least a win in the BTT. I will say 21-12 and they get a 7 seed.
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ssckelley
Well-Known Member
I could be wrong but I'm wondering if having less options available on the bench hasn't helped Iowa. Sometimes I've gotten frustrated with Fran's substitution pattern, I've seen players get hot and Fran takes them out because of reasons. With a short bench he's stuck more with the hot hand.
I'm not a big fan of a 10 player rotation unless they are playing a Tom Davis style where you are up and down, using a full court press. Frans press isn't as tiring, it's more meant to disrupt the timing of the other teams offense versus getting turnovers.
I have thought the same thing in regards to the rotation shortening up. I have no problem playing 10 guys if they all can play.
Remaining games going .500 seems like a good bet. Who knows though with this year. I think we can get 1-2 more on the road. Depends if we protect home court the whole way. This season is still up in the air as how we finish. Very excited about what I've seen so far. The margin for error is small.
NikeHawk21
Well-Known Member
The back half of this schedule is really tough, that’s why I made that thread about the road schedule yesterday. I’d actually been talking about it earlier in the year (which is why I thought the PSU & Neb games were so devastating).
If we can somehow manage to go .500 down the stretch I think we should be in the conversation for a 6 seed given our other metrics. At least I hope.
The margin for error is small. But when you have a center who can bring it every night, as opposed to a guard who can be hot and cold with shooting, it raises your margin of error quite a bit. Most teams in the league are pretty damn equal, which means they should finish right around .500. With Luka, I feel like our average finish should be higher than .500.
When you really stop and think about it, it's pretty arguable that we are the best team in the conference. We probably have the best player in the league. There's a pretty good chance we have the best 2nd best player in the league. And CJ could even be the best 3rd best player in the league. The drop off after that is pretty big. But the further down the pecking order you get, the less important the players are. If CJ doesn't get hurt, maybe we are sitting at 7-1 right now in sole possession of first place. Right where the best team should be sitting.
Bow I don't think we are the best by a big enough margin to be able to make up for losing two games you shouldn't lose due to injury, so I highly doubt we finish in 1st. But if we finish one or two games out of 1st, I'll look back and think we might have had the best team this year.
InGoodCo
Well-Known Member
That's kind of where I got em. I am happy this season is going good but I by no means think this team is just gonna go out there and dominate the league and somehow have some crazy record by the end. They are likely a 7 seed or higher. I hope they prove me wrong but I am just being realistic.
InGoodCo
Well-Known Member
Definitely, I understand that and it's why I am not going crazy bananas about this team yet and trying to claim they are "Fran's best team" or using superlatives like "This team is so much more mentally tough than the rest of his teams" and yadda yadda yadda. There's just too much season to go and really, I expect them to lose all their road games (even tho they didn't and likely won't from here on out, it's just how I chalk them up at the beginning of the year and it typically evens out for the ones I didn't see losing). For as much as peeps make me out to be some sort a sunshine pumper, I am fairly grounded in how I look at this program. They've looked great over the last few weeks, but these are games I thought they would win all along and games that frankly they should have.
HuckFinn
Well-Known Member
I find it interesting that many of the traps we see for Iowa with so much of the season left to play, certainly are in place for everyone else in this league. It is so deep talent wise that I am shocked. I cannot even worry about out NCAA seed, or even what our BT record will be in March. Beat Wisconsin.
Keep in mind that this is skewed a little since Penn St. counts as a neutral game for the Net Rankings.
We are 2-2 at neutral sites and 5-4 away from home with one B1G road win at Northwestern.
I think I would take the '15 team at their high point over this year's team at their high point. The mentally tough thing is easy to go to when a team wins or loses. Kinda over played if you ask me. The earlier teams proved over a few years of losing close games that they weren't mentally tough. This team hasn't shown anything mentally that last year's team or the one from 3 years ago didn't show
MelroseHawkins
Well-Known Member
Ah, other years when Iowa was a consistent bubble team, yea it might. If it's the one bad eye sore, it won't be that bad.
