Cover3
Well-Known Member
Yes, our defense was awful the other night; terribly so. But, Fran will right the ship, as this team already has shown it can bounce back from some ugly losses and cure its defects (over short stretches, at least).
The thing that got lost from the other night is that, in spite of Indiana scoring nearly every possession (it seemed), we actually trimmed the lead and had SEVERAL chances down 12 with 10-15 minutes to go to cut it to single digits. Just having a more athletic team that, as mentioned by many other posters, can stop the ball on defense would have given us a shot there, even after being down by 17 at halftime.
Losing Gatens will hurt, and the new players next year will almost certainly have some obvious 'growing pains' adjusting to major college ball. But, two things about basketball (esp. in contrast to football):
1) Freshmen have to make an adjustment, but many more seem to do it well in basketball. Our guys coming in aren't Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, but the class's high ranking suggests they can ball. I think they will, and I think the defensive end is the first place it shows up next year.
2) A few guys can totally change a program. One player is a fifth of your lineup, and four are 40% of your two-deep. We know Fran will play guys right away, so we will have a totally different team next year. Gatens is solid, Cartwright has his moments, and Brommer and Archie have contributed at times; but by the end of next season, I feel like it will be apparent that we've upgraded.
I'm hoping for a few more wins this year, to get to about 14 or 15. I would expect similar improvement next year, hopefully to 17 or so and an NIT bid with a young team. There will inevitably be meltdowns when it's apparent we won't be going 23-8 next year, but I won't be part of it.
It is happening, and look for next year to have fewer blowout losses (save for @MSU and @Illinois probably; every Iowa BBall team's rites of passage), a couple more big wins, and to hopefully just have enough horses to clean up against 'lesser' opponents.
The thing that got lost from the other night is that, in spite of Indiana scoring nearly every possession (it seemed), we actually trimmed the lead and had SEVERAL chances down 12 with 10-15 minutes to go to cut it to single digits. Just having a more athletic team that, as mentioned by many other posters, can stop the ball on defense would have given us a shot there, even after being down by 17 at halftime.
Losing Gatens will hurt, and the new players next year will almost certainly have some obvious 'growing pains' adjusting to major college ball. But, two things about basketball (esp. in contrast to football):
1) Freshmen have to make an adjustment, but many more seem to do it well in basketball. Our guys coming in aren't Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, but the class's high ranking suggests they can ball. I think they will, and I think the defensive end is the first place it shows up next year.
2) A few guys can totally change a program. One player is a fifth of your lineup, and four are 40% of your two-deep. We know Fran will play guys right away, so we will have a totally different team next year. Gatens is solid, Cartwright has his moments, and Brommer and Archie have contributed at times; but by the end of next season, I feel like it will be apparent that we've upgraded.
I'm hoping for a few more wins this year, to get to about 14 or 15. I would expect similar improvement next year, hopefully to 17 or so and an NIT bid with a young team. There will inevitably be meltdowns when it's apparent we won't be going 23-8 next year, but I won't be part of it.
It is happening, and look for next year to have fewer blowout losses (save for @MSU and @Illinois probably; every Iowa BBall team's rites of passage), a couple more big wins, and to hopefully just have enough horses to clean up against 'lesser' opponents.
