I think Basabe kills it next season

[1hawkeye1]

n b ******* a

what?

 

[DesMoinesHawki]

Let's hope he comes back strong. We can see what he can do when he is focused. I think this year he got too frustrated on the court and tried to force too many shots. Hopefully he will regain his confidence on the court.

 

[UncleHawk]

I can't believe that the loss of Cole hasn't been brought up more this yr. I think he was such a leader of that team last yr and pushed Basabe hard. I just admired him as much as any of the recent former hawks. He went through so much and I think his leadership and just all out effort was missed.

I think Cole's absence was mentioned as a possible reason for Mel's slump last fall. Then McCabe came in and did the job and fans wondered why Basabe couldn't. It seems Mel needs a pure post player in the starting line-up to be successful. Do we have one coming in next year?

 

[RocknRollface]

This exactly. Playing two non-shooting bigs is terrible for offensive spacing. Unless Basabe can develop a jumper I don't think you can play Basabe with Woodbury or Gabe.

Basabe is a tweener, he's a classic garbage man, but he doesn't have the size to defend and board with quality big guys.

There are many different ways to play. The big east is loaded every year with teams that play two bigs who can't shoot.

Off the top of my head Kansas Louisville and UNC all play two bigs together who can't shoot and they did ok this year.

It may have a negative effect on spacing but it will have a positive effect on rebounding and defense.

Basabe and Woodbury will play at the same time often.

And as far as not having the size to defend and board with quality big men, I have no clue how you come to that conclusion. There has been plenty of evidence to the contrary.

He does struggle against guys 6'10 and taller but from here on out he will not have to be Iowas center so he will not be matched up against those players.

 

[gohawks71]

+1

I would not be too surprised not to see much of change in the numbers for Basabe. That may not mean he didn't bust his butt or he's not significantly improved. There will be more viable options at the 5 and if Roy Dev moves to the three the four could get clogged up a bit too. We've got a bunch of interchangable parts, or tweeners, or what ever you want to call them, but other than Woody being a 5 most everyone else can play a couple of spots. My bet is defense at each spot and match ups will determine who sees the floor. We've got a bunch of guys who can score the ball if not a single pure scorer. With Mike hopefully showing true point guard skills I'm hoping for a variety of guys stepping up in different games and overall defensive improvement. One thing for certain, it will be fun to watch.

 

[Husky28]

We struggled against teams that had a good power forwards. Partly because our bigs couldn't handle the other team's center so we had to put McKabe or Basabe on them. Which in turn, forced White to guard the power forward - pretty tall order for a FR. Although White did well for a FR, he struggled (defensively) against strong 4's... Hopefully, the Woodbury, Meyer & Olaseni committee can provide enough defensive support to allow McKabbe and Basabe to guard the power forwards. It will be interesting to see if White can build up enough strength to handle the 4's but yet maintain the speed and agility to perform offensively as well as he did last year.