I believe this year's team will be better than last year's team

[SnapBack]

I am with most of you and am cautiously optimistic for this season. The most important thing we need improve on is Defense. I think this is the most obvious given how awful we played down the stretch last year. The problem is I don't think we have the athletes to make a significant improvement. But with just a little effort we should be able to clean up simple areas such as help side and boxing out which lacked towards the end of last year.

Offensively, we need to shoot the three with some consistency. The main 4 guys I'm looking at are Utoff, Oglesby, Jok and Gesell, with Gesell being the one that needs to step up and knock down shots. If we can stretch the floor by hitting 3's, it will open up the inside for Woody, Olaseni and White.

A few posters earlier in the thread were worried about losing Marble and not having a guy to create a shot in close games. Why would you be worried when Marble never hit one important shot late in a game to tie or force OT? Iowa was terrible in games decided by less than 2 possessions or that went OT. If Dickerson is anything close to what people say he is, we just need him to get to the lane and dish it off or kick it out for an open shot. Don't get me wrong, I think Marble is a very good player and kept us in games, but we need a guy to create and find the open man. We don't necessarily need a Marble to create his own shot. I think we'll have a good team, but our schedule is tough and the B1G is deep. Should be another fun year.

 

[Tierney]

I am with most of you and am cautiously optimistic for this season. The most important thing we need improve on is Defense. I think this is the most obvious given how awful we played down the stretch last year. The problem is I don't think we have the athletes to make a significant improvement. But with just a little effort we should be able to clean up simple areas such as help side and boxing out which lacked towards the end of last year.

Offensively, we need to shoot the three with some consistency. The main 4 guys I'm looking at are Utoff, Oglesby, Jok and Gesell, with Gesell being the one that needs to step up and knock down shots. If we can stretch the floor by hitting 3's, it will open up the inside for Woody, Olaseni and White.

A few posters earlier in the thread were worried about losing Marble and not having a guy to create a shot in close games. Why would you be worried when Marble never hit one important shot late in a game to tie or force OT? Iowa was terrible in games decided by less than 2 possessions or that went OT. If Dickerson is anything close to what people say he is, we just need him to get to the lane and dish it off or kick it out for an open shot. Don't get me wrong, I think Marble is a very good player and kept us in games, but we need a guy to create and find the open man. We don't necessarily need a Marble to create his own shot. I think we'll have a good team, but our schedule is tough and the B1G is deep. Should be another fun year.

I enjoyed your analysis. I think the offense has the ability to be pretty potent. Hopefully, the defense will be improved. Marble was a good player, but I like the three guys taking their places. They don't have the experience, but Iowa has lots of guys with plenty of experience.

 

[clicheusername3]

Peter Jok is going to make us forget about Devon Marble by the time he's done. The only reminder is that they will continue to show Roy Marble every 3 minutes on Iowa telecasts. Then we will think of Devon. Otherwise we will have forgotten all about him.

We will be better simply because "I believe". You would have had to see "The Book of Mormon" on broadway to get that. See how cultured I am.

He's never going to be even a serviceable defender and I don't see where the improvement comes on the defensive end from a team standpoint. Woodbury is a solid defender but he's not good enough to make up for all of the other shortcomings on that end. Gessel, White, and Uthoff are all matadors or are all easily exploitable via mismatches. Oglesby tries hard but it kills his offensive game putting out so hard on D.

 

[BigD]

I enjoyed your analysis. I think the offense has the ability to be pretty potent. Hopefully, the defense will be improved. Marble was a good player, but I like the three guys taking their places. They don't have the experience, but Iowa has lots of guys with plenty of experience.

Its definately going to be interesting to see what the new players bring to the team.

 

[Tierney]

Its definately going to be interesting to see what the new players bring to the team.

I was looking forward to seeing Ellingson, but its unfortunate he got injured. He probably would of had a hard time seeing minutes with the guys ahead of him. I hope he makes a full recovery. Uhl is obviously talented, and Dickerson is going to bring speed and quickness to the offensive and defensive end. Clemmons supposedly has lost his baby fat so maybe he will keep Dickerson on the bench, but I think Fran loves to run, and Iowa could use more defensive speed at the guard spot. Iowa will be a pretty tough team this year. Its almost November.

 

[SnapBack]

I enjoyed your analysis. I think the offense has the ability to be pretty potent. Hopefully, the defense will be improved. Marble was a good player, but I like the three guys taking their places. They don't have the experience, but Iowa has lots of guys with plenty of experience.

Thanks and I agree, I like the guys who have experience this year (Jr's/Sr's) more than the ones we had last year.