I have a physical cringe every time I remember this is the same team except for one player that was one win away (and with a 10-8 Big Ten record should've been in anyway) from the NCAA Tournament last year. It can be argued "Well we lost Peter Jok" but although Jok was the best player he actually had a low plus/minus and the team played very well without him.
It boggles me that this team has an incredible shooter (Bohannon) yet seems to run few plays to get him open looks. It boggles me that this team has a great inside player who shoots a high percentage (Pemsl) yet demoted him and runs no plays through him.
Tyler Cook shoots WAY too much. I'd love to see the advanced analytics on him because it seems he hardly passes. He's not playing for this team; he's playing to pad his stats and make an early entry into the NBA Draft. Have fun in the G League, bro.
Garza, Nunge and Cook are horrible interior defenders. They get beaten for easy layups so many times I can't even count.
I think the biggest difference between last season and this is that an opposing team that decides to pester Bohannon shuts down the entire Iowa offense. We have no other good ball handlers. During several close losses (most notably Nebraska and Michigan State), why the ball wasn't in Bohannon's hands during the final critical moments is inexplicable.
And think about this: in the Big Ten alone, there are at least four teams (Nebraska, Minnesota, Northwestern, Penn State ... and you can make an argument for Rutgers being the fifth) that have PASSED Iowa in overall program success during McCaffery's tenure. (Nebraska is 10-4 in league play, for cripes' sake! Nebraska!) Say what you want about Mr. Davis and Steve Alford, but they almost always had the Hawkeyes in or very near the Top 25.