Iowa basketball has improved over last year

[ferentz4life]

Agree or disagree?

(hint: the answer, at this point, is disagree).

Since this year's team is essentially the same as last year, do you fault Mccaffery for the lack of development?

 

[bcl20]

I don't blame Fran right now (subsequent years may show that it is on him). Right now I blame the departure of Cole.

 

[TChawk]

disagree the coach was done a terrible job, big time worse this year than last.

 

[ferentz4life]

I don't blame Fran right now (subsequent years may show that it is on him). Right now I blame the departure of Cole.

Really? I think the program was trending upward toward the end of the year, but this year has been a sharp decline. I'm not sure that much of a decline can be attributed to Cole.

 

[cibula11]

Can we please find a way to blame KOK?

 

[bkim24]

Not sure how a loss of an undersized 5 man has made everyone else play terrible defense and shoot poorly

 

[bcl20]

Not sure how a loss of an undersized 5 man has made everyone else play terrible defense and shoot poorly

Considering he could defend underneath and now no one can he meant a lot on the defensive end. Iowa wasn't that great of a shooting team last year either.

Cole wasn't great but he was an asset on a bad team. We lost that asset and replaced him with worse players and now we are an even worse team.

 

[bcl20]

Really? I think the program was trending upward toward the end of the year, but this year has been a sharp decline. I'm not sure that much of a decline can be attributed to Cole.

Sure it can. Lose a player and replace him with worse player you are likely to have a worse team if you aren't getting better players in other positions (we didn't) you are likely going to have a poor team. It's not like we dropped from being decent to terrible. We dropped from being bad to awful.

 

[BlackGold57]

This team is as sad as lick's team. Nice of FM to keep all these guys around, but they don't belong. Archie is the new JR Angle.

 

[PCBHAWK]

I don't blame Fran right now (subsequent years may show that it is on him). Right now I blame the departure of Cole.

Cole is the answer...

We don't have anyone who can control the boards.

Basabe has too many mental errors and is soft. Brommer would not play for any other big ten team.

We can't defend the 3 off penetration !!!!!

 

[ibahawkeye]

Considering he could defend underneath and now no one can he meant a lot on the defensive end. Iowa wasn't that great of a shooting team last year either.

Cole wasn't great but he was an asset on a bad team. We lost that asset and replaced him with worse players and now we are an even worse team.

I know Cole had a great Sr. year but I refuse to believe that missing him is the difference between last year and this year.

The improvement from the players returning should have offset the loss of 1 player. Yet, we have seemed to go backwards.

 

[sportstalent]

There are multiple things wrong so far...Cartwright and Basabe are not the same players they were at the end of last season. Marble having cobwebs until the last couple of games hasn't helped any.
Let's see this team all together and a solid rotation; then we can judge.
The thought that this is essentially last years team is a farce because they haven't all played at the same time, healthy yet.
Watching tonight, all the effort that was there last year was there tonight, however, they played without Cartwright again. This team has a lot of holes on the roster, it isn't going to look better with injuries and players not playing like they did last season.
The positive is that Marble is tons better and Oglesby/White play hard all the time they are on the floor. If Basabe turns around, this will be a different team.

 

[bcl20]

I know Cole had a great Sr. year but I refuse to believe that missing him is the difference between last year and this year.

The improvement from the players returning should have offset the loss of 1 player. Yet, we have seemed to go backwards.

We are shooting the exact same percentage as we were a year ago so it's not like the offense is the real issue.

These guys weren't good at defense a year ago and you took away the only interior defender with some ability and now they have to make up for that. They would suck with an interior defender, they aren't going to be able to make up for that.

It's very hard to compete in basketball when you don't have anyone who can do anything inside.

Like I said, it's not like the drop off is that big and I think the loss of Cole could easily be a major reason for that. We went from ****** to more ******.

If poor defense continues when we have a 7 footer in there you can start to look in other directions to cast blame but until then that's where most of my blame lies.

 

[IATrainMaster101]

We have also not been healthy thus season. We all knew this would be a rough team again this year but had reasonably hopes for improvement. But this team is fragile and can not afford losing key players.

Brommer needed to pick up where Cole left off but mussed time and has yet to show the ability to do so. Cartwright was said to be the player Iowa could least afford to lose and he has been slowed.

Things are getting better but we are not seeing it yet for numerous reasons. The good news is that our best players right now are Freshmen and sophomores with a very nice class coming in next year.

 

[olivecourt]

I know Cole had a great Sr. year but I refuse to believe that missing him is the difference between last year and this year.

The improvement from the players returning should have offset the loss of 1 player. Yet, we have seemed to go backwards.

You may be underestimating how terrible last year's team was. Look back at the schedule and results. We lost to South Dakota State at home and Long Beach State on a neutral site. We beat UNI, but that was a home game. We lost our first six Big Ten games and (I believe) 6 out of our last 7.

I'm disappointed but not without hope. We've seen that Marble can play and Melsahn seems to have come out of his funk. I refuse to believe that Gatens is as bad as he has looked, and Cartwright should be able to do his thing when healthy. White and Oglesby have shown flashes.

The biggest problem this year has been that if 2 guys are on, 4 others are off. Have to get everyone clicking at the same time to be competitive.

 

[ibahawkeye]

We are shooting the exact same percentage as we were a year ago so it's not like the offense is the real issue.

These guys weren't good at defense a year ago and you took away the only interior defender with some ability and now they have to make up for that. They would suck with an interior defender, they aren't going to be able to make up for that.

It's very hard to compete in basketball when you don't have anyone who can do anything inside.

Like I said, it's not like the drop off is that big and I think the loss of Cole could easily be a major reason for that. We went from ****** to more ******.

If poor defense continues when we have a 7 footer in there you can start to look in other directions to cast blame but until then that's where most of my blame lies.

Maybe its just the eye test, but it would be one thing if Cole was a shot blocker or altered shots. That wasn't Cole. Why is missing Cole that big of a deal???

 

[sodakhawkeye]

I think that Cole is a better leader than any of us will ever know. We don't have that this year.

 

[bcl20]

Cole could take up space and give post players some difficulties. I see it as Cole wasn't a giant gaping hole under the hoop. That's pretty much we have now, when this happens you are asking bad defensive players to guard more of the floor and that won't end well.

 

[HaydensHawk]

You people are so short sighted.

 

[CAARHawk]

We knew this about Brommer when he first signed. Dude got lucky he was on a horrible team with coaches who didn't have immediate recruiting pull. Otherwise, he would have been shipped off. Same with Archie, May, and dare I say it, Gatens. If he wasn't in IC, on a horrible team, with his Dad's pull, he would be gone.