Hmm. Maybe I'm Off My Rocker but.....

[bogeyman]

I'm not as familiar with the adjustments that KenPom makes, 5656 may know more. I do know that is much tougher to play defense off missed shots then it is when the other team has to take it out from underneath the basket following made shots. So to answer your question, yes poor offense can hurt defense.

Yeah I agree, so my thought is that sometimes these stats don't necessarily show the whole story perhaps just because of all the variables. Seems to me our offensive droughts have been our biggest glaring weakness in losses and other aspects of the game revolve around that.
Just sure would be nice to see Fran's offense with an elite PG one year just to see what a difference it makes. Hope we find out someday. Crossing Fingers. Do we have any in state PGs in the future with any potential? Other than Connor?

 

[Hawk5656]

Yeah I agree, so my thought is that sometimes these stats don't necessarily show the whole story perhaps just because of all the variables. Seems to me our offensive droughts have been our biggest glaring weakness in losses and other aspects of the game revolve around that.
Just sure would be nice to see Fran's offense with an elite PG one year just to see what a difference it makes. Hope we find out someday. Crossing Fingers. Do we have any in state PGs in the future with any potential? Other than Connor?

I think Connor is more of a 2 guard. AJ Green will be a good one but not sure what you consider "elite"

 

[UncleHawk]

I hear Iowa's in the top 5 for Tyger Campbell now. He's a highly rated 2019 PG with Iowa connections.

 

[Hawk5656]

I hear Iowa's in the top 5 for Tyger Campbell now. He's a highly rated 2019 PG with Iowa connections.

He's the type of PG we need but he'll end up playing for Izzo I think

 

[PCHawk]

The reason for the reason Iowa was so good in the first two thirds of the season and the drop off in the last third part of the season, to me, is the coaching. Iowa had a lot of weaknesses that the other teams figured out as the season progressed. I agree that this years team had the potential. Last years team had experience, but I don't think they had the overall potential that this years team has.

I don't buy the whole coaches figured us out argument. Izzo is the best coach we faced and he didn't figure us out for the second game.

 

[Tierney]

I don't buy the whole coaches figured us out argument. Izzo is the best coach we faced and he didn't figure us out for the second game.

Izzo doesn't have to figure out other teams with the talent they have. I think they played them twice early in the conference schedule. Michigan state lost its best player right before the first time they played Iowa, and were just getting him back the second time they played Iowa.

 

[bogeyman]

I think Connor is more of a 2 guard. AJ Green will be a good one but not sure what you consider "elite"

Yeah I'm struggling to see Connor as a top tier PG too for some reason. Hope I'm wrong. We need someone sooner than 2019 thats for sure.

 

[Husky28]

Last year's drop off was all about the offense and scoring options... You had JU and Jok getting a combined 35-40 pts/game avg, but we really had no other options to get the additional 35-40 pts. Some players had good games but it takes a consistent combination to maintain the offensive balance.

For this year's team it's going to take some sort of combination of the following scoring for the team to really have a shot at the top 5 in the league (hard for young teams to do). Best case scenario:

Jok - 18-20
Cook - 10-12 (probably a stretch but with the minutes... most likely 8-10 Note: Swanigan only averaged 10.2/game)

That's 30 pts./game.

PG - 10-12 (CW/JB) this is another stretch due to priorities on defense and offensive leadership - most likely 6-8/game
SF - 14-16 (Baer/Moss/BE/Daily) should be attainable.

That's 24 - 28 pts. Now we are at (accumulative) 58 pts./game (high end).

PF - 20-25 pts. (Uhl/Pemsl/Kreiner/Jones) a combination of scoring from this group is where we'll need the most help.

That would put pts./game at 78-82 and that's at best case scenario. Players in bold I think will be the ones the coaches will be leaning on to produce or make up the difference in scoring - the rest I think will provide "bonus" points but I don't really have a have feel on the expectations vs. their abilities at this point.

 

[Hawk5656]

Yeah I'm struggling to see Connor as a top tier PG too for some reason. Hope I'm wrong. We need someone sooner than 2019 thats for sure.

We really needed to land Moore or one of our other top PG targets in this last class since we had so much to sell

 

[bogeyman]

Last year's drop off was all about the offense and scoring options... You had JU and Jok getting a combined 35-40 pts/game avg, but we really had no other options to get the additional 35-40 pts. Some players had good games but it takes a consistent combination to maintain the offensive balance.

For this year's team it's going to take some sort of combination of the following scoring for the team to really have a shot at the top 5 in the league (hard for young teams to do). Best case scenario:

Jok - 18-20
Cook - 10-12 (probably a stretch but with the minutes... most likely 8-10 Note: Swanigan only averaged 10.2/game)

That's 30 pts./game.

PG - 10-12 (CW/JB) this is another stretch due to priorities on defense and offensive leadership - most likely 6-8/game
SF - 14-16 (Baer/Moss/BE/Daily) should be attainable.

That's 24 - 28 pts. Now we are at (accumulative) 58 pts./game (high end).

PF - 20-25 pts. (Uhl/Pemsl/Kreiner/Jones) a combination of scoring from this group is where we'll need the most help.

That would put pts./game at 78-82 and that's at best case scenario. Players in bold I think will be the ones the coaches will be leaning on to produce or make up the difference in scoring - the rest I think will provide "bonus" points but I don't really have a have feel on the expectations vs. their abilities at this point.

Our PG being almost zero threat to knock down shots from outside just killed us. Teams have sagged on us since the Cartwright days, we need a shooter our there with the ball. Sag and they'll make you pay. Even if Bohannon or CW can't penetrate as well as we'd like, if they could at least be a consistent threat from the arc it might help us a lot and open some things inside.

 

[NikeHawk21]

Yeah I'm struggling to see Connor as a top tier PG too for some reason. Hope I'm wrong. We need someone sooner than 2019 thats for sure.

We have a true sophomore PG and a true freshman PG on our team this year who we haven't seen much of to date. Should we at least give them a chance to see what they can do?

 

[NikeHawk21]

Last year's drop off was all about the offense and scoring options... You had JU and Jok getting a combined 35-40 pts/game avg, but we really had no other options to get the additional 35-40 pts. Some players had good games but it takes a consistent combination to maintain the offensive balance.

For this year's team it's going to take some sort of combination of the following scoring for the team to really have a shot at the top 5 in the league (hard for young teams to do). Best case scenario:

Jok - 18-20
Cook - 10-12 (probably a stretch but with the minutes... most likely 8-10 Note: Swanigan only averaged 10.2/game)

That's 30 pts./game.

PG - 10-12 (CW/JB) this is another stretch due to priorities on defense and offensive leadership - most likely 6-8/game
SF - 14-16 (Baer/Moss/BE/Daily) should be attainable.

That's 24 - 28 pts. Now we are at (accumulative) 58 pts./game (high end).

PF - 20-25 pts. (Uhl/Pemsl/Kreiner/Jones) a combination of scoring from this group is where we'll need the most help.

That would put pts./game at 78-82 and that's at best case scenario. Players in bold I think will be the ones the coaches will be leaning on to produce or make up the difference in scoring - the rest I think will provide "bonus" points but I don't really have a have feel on the expectations vs. their abilities at this point.

I like the analysis. I think Wagner even got left out, we have a lot of options. If we can average 70-75 pts in the big ten I think we will be successful. I'm sure our averages will get padded some of the non-conference games but I think 70-75 in big ten play can be attainable:

Jok: 18
Cook: 12
Jones: 8
Uhl: 7
Baer: 7
Wagner: 6
Williams: 6
Moss or Brady: 5
Jordan: 4

That's 73 points and appears within possibility.

 

[Husky28]

I like the analysis. I think Wagner even got left out, we have a lot of options. If we can average 70-75 pts in the big ten I think we will be successful. I'm sure our averages will get padded some of the non-conference games but I think 70-75 in big ten play can be attainable:

Jok: 18
Cook: 12
Jones: 8
Uhl: 7
Baer: 7
Wagner: 6
Williams: 6
Moss or Brady: 5
Jordan: 4

That's 73 points and appears within possibility.

Oops! I did leave Wagner out. Cook getting 12 would be awesome, but I'm not placing too much emphasis/expectation on that - that's a pretty tough number for most FR, but the potential/optimism is fun! Wagner can definitely help with the balance of scoring. It'd be nice to see 8 pts/game from him. I'm guessing most of his points will be from scrapping in the paint.

 

[BILLYBOBSTEXAS]

I like the analysis. I think Wagner even got left out, we have a lot of options. If we can average 70-75 pts in the big ten I think we will be successful. I'm sure our averages will get padded some of the non-conference games but I think 70-75 in big ten play can be attainable:

Jok: 18
Cook: 12
Jones: 8
Uhl: 7
Baer: 7
Wagner: 6
Williams: 6
Moss or Brady: 5
Jordan: 4

That's 73 points and appears within possibility.

I like this but switching Cook and Jones makes more sense to me.

 

[bogeyman]

We have a true sophomore PG and a true freshman PG on our team this year who we haven't seen much of to date. Should we at least give them a chance to see what they can do?

Absolutely, I don't see either being 1st or 2nd team All Big Ten PGs, but hope I am completely wrong on that.

 

[Hawk5656]

Our PG being almost zero threat to knock down shots from outside just killed us. Teams have sagged on us since the Cartwright days, we need a shooter our there with the ball. Sag and they'll make you pay. Even if Bohannon or CW can't penetrate as well as we'd like, if they could at least be a consistent threat from the arc it might help us a lot and open some things inside.

Collectively our PG play offensively and defensively is almost certain to take a step back. Bohannon and CW were lightly recruited players and CW still couldn't get minutes over the PG's that "killed us"

 

[Tierney]

With Jok, Cook, Wagner, and Uhl I think Williams is going to be a star. He will definitely score over ten points a game. He will be fun to watch offensively and defensively. It won't take him long to prove all the doubters wrong. Jok will be good, and hopefully, Cook will meet expectations, and Wagner will exceed expectations. Uhl looks like he is all grown up after another year on the weights. He should be solid.

 

[Hawk5656]

With Jok, Cook, Wagner, and Uhl I think Williams is going to be a star. He will definitely score over ten points a game. He will be fun to watch offensively and defensively. It won't take him long to prove all the doubters wrong. Jok will be good, and hopefully, Cook will meet expectations, and Wagner will exceed expectations. Uhl looks like he is all grown up after another year on the weights. He should be solid.

Did Williams even average over 10ppg in the PTL? He only averaged 18ppg in small school ball in Illinois and he was playing his natural position most of the time and not PG. Williams has never been known as a scorer, there's no chance he averages over 10ppg this season. He only had 27 points total all of last season

 

[UncleHawk]

With Jok, Cook, Wagner, and Uhl I think Williams is going to be a star. He will definitely score over ten points a game. He will be fun to watch offensively and defensively. It won't take him long to prove all the doubters wrong. Jok will be good, and hopefully, Cook will meet expectations, and Wagner will exceed expectations. Uhl looks like he is all grown up after another year on the weights. He should be solid.

It will be a real surprise if Williams is over 10ppg this year. He's not a big scorer, although he can have his moments, which is why he was lightly recruited. He might be a star but a defensive one. That is my hope and what we really need from him given our personnel. Williams may not score consistently, but an Aaron Craft-like defensive stopper would be just what the doctor ordered for this young team.

Some may be concerned about our frontcourt scoring but not me. Cook is going to be a star, especially with the support of Baer, Wagner, Uhl, Jones, Kriener, Pemsl around him. What we really need is a backcourt shooter to come off the bench to support Jok. I'd love for Moss to emerge over the course of this year.

 

[NikeHawk21]

Did Williams even average over 10ppg in the PTL? He only averaged 18ppg in small school ball in Illinois and he was playing his natural position most of the time and not PG. Williams has never been known as a scorer, there's no chance he averages over 10ppg this season. He only had 27 points total all of last season

He averaged 13.8 PPG in PTL. Fran did mention at the Big10 media day that CW wasn't necessary a scorer. So I tend to agree that double figures is probably a little higher for him.

5656, do you EVER talk about anything else?? This has got to be at least the 5th time you've done this. Bad mouthed the PGs, wait for someone to back them up, reply with something about how they were lightly recruited, too small, barely played last year, or PG wasn't their natural position.