Iowa Has Made Massive Improvement This Year

ChosenChildren

ChosenChildren

Well-Known Member
The only accurate way to measure a team's improvement from one year to the next is to study the objective polling services. Using that measure, Iowa has really improved this year:

RPI Index

Last year at NIT selection time: 130
Current this year: 86

Pomeroy Ratings

Last year final: 86
Current this year: 34

That is a 44 team improvement on RPI and a 52 team improvement on Pomeroy. Sure, Gatens got us 3 or 4 wins last year in the second half when he got hot, but this team overall is much better than that team by any objective measure.
 
Next year Spank...Next year! It's a shame Marble got hurt or I think we would be sitting pretty right now for NCAA selection. We lose May but I expect the freshmen and sophomores to be better. Marble, Basabe and White should be very difficult to stop on the offensive end. The heartache of this year will lead to many happy moments next year...I strongly suspect.

storminspank said:
Now if only this team could shoot and close games, they'd be even better.
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Defensively it has been night and day. They have only fallen apart one time like last year, at Michigan. The cold shooting is tough to stomach, but the defense will be there to keep them in games. All I ask is a couple weeks of hot shooting and the Hawks could have a pretty special March.
 
The team has improved...

ChosenChildren said:
The only accurate way to measure a team's improvement from one year to the next is to study the objective polling services. Using that measure, Iowa has really improved this year:

RPI Index

Last year at NIT selection time: 130
Current this year: 86

Pomeroy Ratings

Last year final: 86
Current this year: 34

That is a 44 team improvement on RPI and a 52 team improvement on Pomeroy. Sure, Gatens got us 3 or 4 wins last year in the second half when he got hot, but this team overall is much better than that team by any objective measure.
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by quite a bit. Making a Pomeroy jump of 54 spots (Iowa is 32 today) is impressive. The defensive improvement has been dramatic, with Pomeroy having Iowa as the 24th best defensive team in the country, in terms of defensive efficiency.

Last year's team was able to win a few more of the close games (the 4 games last year against Wisconsin/Minnesota, Illinois in the BTT). The "could go either way in the last 1-2 minutes wins" this year consists of PSU. That's it. ISU, UNI, Wisky at home were all conceivably loseable in the last couple of minutes but Iowa had double-digit leads under 3 minutes to go in those games. The list of games Iowa has led with under 2 minutes to go/been tied and then lost is staggering (@Minny, @Wisc, @Purdue, MSU at home, @Neb). Blind luck would have a team winning a couple of those. If 2 opponent shots just don't go in (the 3 by Hollins @Minny and Jackson's 3 @Wisky) Iowa is in and playing for seed.
 
Is Iowa's RPI better from beating more ranked teams or losing to better teams? I thought Iowa had 4 wins vs ranked teams last year compared to 1 this year
 
A couple of other improvement notes:

Last year Iowa was outscored by an average of 3.8 ppg in B10 play, this year we are outscoring opponents by 0.4 ppg.

Last year we had five double digit losses in B10 play, this year we've had two, and they were on the road against the number one and two teams in the country.
 
hawkfan33 said:
A couple of other improvement notes:

Last year Iowa was outscored by an average of 3.8 ppg in B10 play, this year we are outscoring opponents by 0.4 ppg.

Last year we had five double digit losses in B10 play, this year we've had two, and they were on the road against the number one and two teams in the country.
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I think, had Gesell been able to score as well as had Gatens last year, Iowa may well have been a sweet sixteen team. Also, Iowa scpred only 19 points aginst Nebraska
affter Mike left the game. Defensively, they are much better. Their ability to score well is lacking.
 
Defensively this is the best team I have seen in a long time and that is the biggest improvement over last year. But yeah, if they can only find someone to consistently make a jump shot.
 
Midway thru the B1G I totally agreed with this premise. Not seeing it now. This team can get almost zero offensive continuity including before MG's injury. Part of that is due to poor fundamentals which should be down by now. We are now a B1G scrum team. Not scrub, but scrum ball club. We can't 1/2 court. Can't post up. Can't shoot the 3. We score a lot of scrum points and a lot of fast breaks, but the fast breaks are nullified by giving up easy counter fast baskets, much of the time to big men.
 
I would say the defense has turned the corner. Offence still very weak. Athletically and physically just not there. FM has done a great job with what he's got to work with. I don't see a much changing next year.
 
ILHawk said:
Midway thru the B1G I totally agreed with this premise. Not seeing it now. This team can get almost zero offensive continuity including before MG's injury. Part of that is due to poor fundamentals which should be down by now. We are now a B1G scrum team. Not scrub, but scrum ball club. We can't 1/2 court. Can't post up. Can't shoot the 3. We score a lot of scrum points and a lot of fast breaks, but the fast breaks are nullified by giving up easy counter fast baskets, much of the time to big men.
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Keep plugging away! Some day some one will listen!
 
Offense next year - Marble will be better from start to finish just by staying healthy. Basabe and McCabe will be seniors making their last run at it. Based on Gatens last year and May this year I expect to see improvement from both.

White is going to keep getting better IMO...mentally especially. He should make the critical late game FTs, etc. that he's missed this year. I also think he will be a year older and that much stronger. Oglesby will almost certainly shoot a better percentage next year. Olaseni will be better IMO...assuming he doesn't redshirt. He seems to panic a bit at times when he gets offensive rebounds and miss the easy put back.

Woodbury and Clemmons will almost certainly be better. We also have an incoming freshman that can shoot the 3 and 2 players coming off redshirts that should help right away. Keep in mind these 2 guys are not freshmen so their bodies will be more mature and stronger than a true freshman. They are also going against higher caliber players in practice which will help them even though they aren't playing in games.

Finally, I think Fran tried to be as competitive as possible with what he had the first 2 years. This year I think he emphasized defense. Next year I suspect he will try to retain the defensive disciplines established this year and complement them with more focus on offense and the fast break.

Overall, I'm expecting big things next year. I think it's going to be special and a year we will talk about for some time. Fran isn't trying to build a one hit wonder. He's building a "program." I don't think it will be too long before we reload annually rather than rebuild...meaning finishing in the upper half not winning the conference every year.

ihawkeye said:
I would say the defense has turned the corner. Offence still very weak. Athletically and physically just not there. FM has done a great job with what he's got to work with. I don't see a much changing next year.
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WindsorHawk said:
Offense next year - Marble will be better from start to finish just by staying healthy. Basabe and McCabe will be seniors making their last run at it. Based on Gatens last year and May this year I expect to see improvement from both.

White is going to keep getting better IMO...mentally especially. He should make the critical late game FTs, etc. that he's missed this year. I also think he will be a year older and that much stronger. Oglesby will almost certainly shoot a better percentage next year. Olaseni will be better IMO...assuming he doesn't redshirt. He seems to panic a bit at times when he gets offensive rebounds and miss the easy put back.

Woodbury and Clemmons will almost certainly be better. We also have an incoming freshman that can shoot the 3 and 2 players coming off redshirts that should help right away. Keep in mind these 2 guys are not freshmen so their bodies will be more mature and stronger than a true freshman. They are also going against higher caliber players in practice which will help them even though they aren't playing in games.

Finally, I think Fran tried to be as competitive as possible with what he had the first 2 years. This year I think he emphasized defense. Next year I suspect he will try to retain the defensive disciplines established this year and complement it with more focus on offense and the fast break.

Overall, I'm expecting big things next year. I think it's going to be special and a year we will talk about for some time.
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I think Gesell makes the biggest strides on the offensive end next year, I think he becomes a 13-14 ppg guy. He was able to handle running point as a freshman in a very tough B10, next year things will slow down a little more for him and he'll be able to look to score more. I think Uthoff will be able to provide a better scoring option off the bench than anyone we have now, Jok will provide a shooting upgrade over Ogelsby almost by default and all these things will make White a more dangerous player as he is great at cutting and finding holes in the defense. We don't need major offensive improvement, we just need slightly better shooting and we're looking at a 10-6/11-5 team at this point in the B10 season.
 
I think many of the things you mention which will benefit White will also benefit McCabe. I didn't mention Gesell because he's already pretty productive. I think he will be more efficient but don't know that his overall scoring numbers will increase dramatically. There are only so many points to go around and Gesell will work on running the offense and score within the offense. His junior year is a different story with the 3 seniors gone after next year.

hawkfan33 said:
I think Gesell makes the biggest strides on the offensive end next year, I think he becomes a 13-14 ppg guy. He was able to handle running point as a freshman in a very tough B10, next year things will slow down a little more for him and he'll be able to look to score more. I think Uthoff will be able to provide a better scoring option off the bench than anyone we have now, Jok will provide a shooting upgrade over Ogelsby almost by default and all these things will make White a more dangerous player as he is great at cutting and finding holes in the defense. We don't need major offensive improvement, we just need slightly better shooting and we're looking at a 10-6/11-5 team at this point in the B10 season.
Click to expand...
 
WindsorHawk said:
Offense next year - Marble will be better from start to finish just by staying healthy. Basabe and McCabe will be seniors making their last run at it. Based on Gatens last year and May this year I expect to see improvement from both.

White is going to keep getting better IMO...mentally especially. He should make the critical late game FTs, etc. that he's missed this year. I also think he will be a year older and that much stronger. Oglesby will almost certainly shoot a better percentage next year. Olaseni will be better IMO...assuming he doesn't redshirt. He seems to panic a bit at times when he gets offensive rebounds and miss the easy put back.

Woodbury and Clemmons will almost certainly be better. We also have an incoming freshman that can shoot the 3 and 2 players coming off redshirts that should help right away. Keep in mind these 2 guys are not freshmen so their bodies will be more mature and stronger than a true freshman. They are also going against higher caliber players in practice which will help them even though they aren't playing in games.

Finally, I think Fran tried to be as competitive as possible with what he had the first 2 years. This year I think he emphasized defense. Next year I suspect he will try to retain the defensive disciplines established this year and complement them with more focus on offense and the fast break.

Overall, I'm expecting big things next year. I think it's going to be special and a year we will talk about for some time. Fran isn't trying to build a one hit wonder. He's building a "program." I don't think it will be too long before we reload annually rather than rebuild...meaning finishing in the upper half not winning the conference every year.
Click to expand...

Great points and I hope each player puts in the work and improves. I've seen too many times as of late players not developing or taking steps back in there development. They can push the ball well as a team but the half court offence has to get better. When they are force to run the offence in the Big Ten play the offence get stagnant and turns it over way to much. That is where we are missing the physical and athletic players. A year in the weight room will help but I think we'll be in the same bubble talk again next year. At least we're being talked about.
 
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