I'm Pumped about Iowa BB

[deanvogs]

If Gesell & Clemmons are worse than Cartwright was last year, then we are in trouble. And yes, I mean from the get go. Especially from the beginning, as Bryce was a non-factor at the beginning of both seasons... Cartwright had no shot & played average defense in his best games. Both of those areas will be better, at the start, with our new additions. Both have good penetration and can handle the ball quite well. So, out the gates we will be better at PG, compared to Cartwright's start of the season(s). Definitely his performance from last season.

Will there be struggles? Probably. But I do not think there will be many, definitely less than a few people think... If for some reason they both cannot produce. Roy can more than help out. He may very well be one of the better PGs in the B1G. Fortunately he has more potential at another position(s).

Barring a lot of injuries, PG is not a position we will have to worry about as long as Fran is in IC. Enjoy the ride...

Like you said Gesell and Clemons will bring better shotting and defense than BC from day one. The only question is will they be able to distribute the rock as well or at least be adequate in this department.

I think we are without a doubt better at the C, PF, and SF positions this year over last year. We are weaker at SG, and I think we will be as good at PG at the beginning of the year, and much better at PG by the end of the year, as Clemons and Gesell get better.

 

[Foval21]

pg - i believe will start slow because of youth not talent. bc was a better shooter than he was a defender. both those are upgrades with the frosh. but what bc did (when healthy) was push tempo better than almost any pg in the b10 (if not all) and that is when iowa flourished (especially at the end of the year). when marble was at the pg we had a scorer but he wasnt pushing tempo. marble isnt a top pg in b10 if he has to play pg it will hurt the team. devyn was a fish out of water at pg...it helped him develop better handles but up against the better pgs you could see he was overmatched with quickness. he had a height and length advantage but the good pgs he couldnt stay in front of (defensively) and they pushed him around (taylor especially) when he was on offense. he is best on the wing and at the end of the yr when bc was back and healthy it showed.

sg - obvious downgrade no matter who is playing. ogelsby (i believe) will be the main guy and backed up by marble (when may is at sf) and ingram/gesell (depending on what is needed defense or scoring). jo gives us an outside threat that we lack. we have guys who can hit threes but none (other than jo) where they specialize in the deep ball.

sf - obvious upgrade if marble can spend his time here instead of the 2 and 1 spots. and with a defensive back up in a healthy may it will be good to have him back. i could see may start at the 3 and marble at the 2 depending on jo's development and match ups but jo at 2 and marble at 3 gives us better offense and i think in the long run jo will be a better defender as he has the skillset (kind of like gatens except longer and less physical).

pf - obvious upgrade as long as we dont see backsliding like basabe had. really dont need to get into it as it is deep and talented. probably will go with some big lineups with 2 pfs on the court just to cause match up problems at times with white and basabe having such ability and upside.

c - at very least should be a push with mccabe back but should be better as woody comes along. woody is the frosh with the most expectations and the one that will take the longest to reach those. i expect mccabe and basabe to get time here as he comes along.

i see a better team. i see a team that will be better at the start than last yrs team at the start. i see a possible tourney team. but to expect this team out of the gate to be better than the team that finished last yr is expecting too much i think. they are still young and will be like a rolling snowball. as they roll they will build into something very big and very hard to stop.

 

[big10fan]

i expect us to have roughly the same record at the end of the year. team chemistry and finding good rotations may take awhile. i guess we're still building for next year in making a tourney run.

in regards to Gesell. he might not make as many "wow" plays as BC did, but i have a feeling he won't make as many "what the heck was that" plays either. probably a wash in the end.

 

[Foval21]

i expect us to have roughly the same record at the end of the year. team chemistry and finding good rotations may take awhile. i guess we're still building for next year in making a tourney run.in regards to Gesell. he might not make as many "wow" plays as BC did, but i have a feeling he won't make as many "what the heck was that" plays either. probably a wash in the end.

i like how you compare the wow and what the heck plays. good take on the two. i think you have to look at gesell and clemmons as 1 player as i think they will be rotated as such with gesell having a minor edge in minutes. something like 20 min for gesell and 15 min for clemmons. from what i have heard clemmons has some what the heck plays in him and some wow plays also. but he has defense which we know bc didnt. hopefully both understand how to push tempo with the pass as most hs pgs dont they are used to being faster and just beating everyone with the dribble. the tempo that bc brought is what i think we will lack early and that tempo is what facilitated our best. hopefully they can do it but i will have to see it because i just dont trust frosh to come in and blow up and be spectacular out of the shoot. i would love to eat my words though.

 

[sportstalent]

i like how you compare the wow and what the heck plays. good take on the two. i think you have to look at gesell and clemmons as 1 player as i think they will be rotated as such with gesell having a minor edge in minutes. something like 20 min for gesell and 15 min for clemmons. from what i have heard clemmons has some what the heck plays in him and some wow plays also. but he has defense which we know bc didnt. hopefully both understand how to push tempo with the pass as most hs pgs dont they are used to being faster and just beating everyone with the dribble. the tempo that bc brought is what i think we will lack early and that tempo is what facilitated our best. hopefully they can do it but i will have to see it because i just dont trust frosh to come in and blow up and be spectacular out of the shoot. i would love to eat my words though.

The game I saw Clemmons play live, he reminded me a lot of Bryce Cartwright on the offensive end, but not on the defensive end. I think looking at Clemmons/Gesell as one play is well, not a good thing. Clemmons is super-athletic and if he plays under control he could be a really good player...I have mentioned him as a redshirt before and I wouldn't be surprised if he is.
Gesell is a top-100 player for a reason, it means he has shown that he is something of a complete player. From what I have seen of Gesell streamed online and the one All-Star game...he is the clear starter at PG and it isn't even close. He will be the best Iowa PG since Horner, not saying a lot, but Horner wasn't too bad. Gesell appears to really understand the game of basketball and that is exactly what Iowa has needed from their PG, but just haven't had it. With his high BB IQ, don't expect him to be a liability defensively either.

Iowa will be better out of the gate because of Marble and White. Gatens didn't put up huge numbers to start the season, at least not at the beginning of the season. Gatens grew into a player as the season went along...the shot at home against Purdue when he took it the length of the court at the end of the game got him started. Marble and White were virtual unknows at the start of the season and now they know what each is capable of. McCabe needs to be steady, not so up and down, if he does so, then Iowa will be better for it, but he isn't the long term answer at Center, not even for this season.

The freshman, other than Gesell don't have to have break out years, bue even Gesell just needs to come in and run the team, nothing more and nothing less. Oglesby has to break out and I don't see that being a problem, he has very high basketball intelligence as well and is a better than average ball handler, another guy the was ranked in the top-150 for a reason.

Iowa has to improve in rebounding and 3-pt defense. Rebounding should be better with an improved Olaseni along with Woodbury and Meyer. There were a lot of times last season that larger teams just reached over McCabe to get rebounds. The one area White has to improve on is rebounding position, once he solves that he will be a great rebounder.

This year's Iowa team is going to be far better than last and will be in the postseason again, I have been predicting NCAA tourney and won't back off of that until it just doesn't happen.

 

[ChosenChildren]

The game I saw Clemmons play live, he reminded me a lot of Bryce Cartwright on the offensive end, but not on the defensive end. I think looking at Clemmons/Gesell as one play is well, not a good thing. Clemmons is super-athletic and if he plays under control he could be a really good player...I have mentioned him as a redshirt before and I wouldn't be surprised if he is.
Gesell is a top-100 player for a reason, it means he has shown that he is something of a complete player. From what I have seen of Gesell streamed online and the one All-Star game...he is the clear starter at PG and it isn't even close. He will be the best Iowa PG since Horner, not saying a lot, but Horner wasn't too bad. Gesell appears to really understand the game of basketball and that is exactly what Iowa has needed from their PG, but just haven't had it. With his high BB IQ, don't expect him to be a liability defensively either.

Iowa will be better out of the gate because of Marble and White. Gatens didn't put up huge numbers to start the season, at least not at the beginning of the season. Gatens grew into a player as the season went along...the shot at home against Purdue when he took it the length of the court at the end of the game got him started. Marble and White were virtual unknows at the start of the season and now they know what each is capable of. McCabe needs to be steady, not so up and down, if he does so, then Iowa will be better for it, but he isn't the long term answer at Center, not even for this season.

The freshman, other than Gesell don't have to have break out years, bue even Gesell just needs to come in and run the team, nothing more and nothing less. Oglesby has to break out and I don't see that being a problem, he has very high basketball intelligence as well and is a better than average ball handler, another guy the was ranked in the top-150 for a reason.

Iowa has to improve in rebounding and 3-pt defense. Rebounding should be better with an improved Olaseni along with Woodbury and Meyer. There were a lot of times last season that larger teams just reached over McCabe to get rebounds. The one area White has to improve on is rebounding position, once he solves that he will be a great rebounder.

This year's Iowa team is going to be far better than last and will be in the postseason again, I have been predicting NCAA tourney and won't back off of that until it just doesn't happen.

great analysis. Thanks!