Iowa ranked #25 in AP Poll

[Zstatman]

Who could've guessed this team would be ranked?

 

[NikeHawk21]

Side note. Our defense is obviously better now, I think up to the 80s. I wonder what kind of defensive numbers we would have now, from thos point on, if you could eliminate all of the previous data from the equation. Obviously if we started playing like a top 50 defense, we will never end up with top 50 in numbers because the first 10 games will skew them. What I'm asking is what kind of defense can we play like from this point on? Is top 40 too optimistic? I think that's a pretty realistic number.

I was thinking about this too. Our defensive efficiency made a huge jump after Cincy. On one hand we gave up 70 points to a limited Cincy team, but the fact that we turned the ball over that many times probably means that they had a ton of possessions and should have scored way more than that. Interesting that in the first game without Bohannon we make a big jump there, it will be interesting to follow that as we go. I imagine Garza’s 5 blocks also helped.

 

[PCHawk]

I was thinking about this too. Our defensive efficiency made a huge jump after Cincy. On one hand we gave up 70 points to a limited Cincy team, but the fact that we turned the ball over that many times probably means that they had a ton of possessions and should have scored way more than that. Interesting that in the first game without Bohannon we make a big jump there, it will be interesting to follow that as we go. I imagine Garza’s 5 blocks also helped.

I'm really not surprised at all about Garza's offense. He is definitely a little better, but not that awful much. But his defense is blowing me away. He has turned into a pretty damn good defender in one year. It makes me wonder what another year of work can do for him. I know I won't underestimate how much he can improve. He'll probably come back next year with a 30 inch vertical lol.

 

[DDThompson]

It isn't a guarantee that the entire roster returns. We lose Kriener and Evelyn to graduation. It is possible Weiskamp and Garza take a hard look at the NBA. We also don't know how Bohannon's recovery will go with this hip surgery and whenever Nunge comes back he won't have played any meaningful minutes in close to 3 years and will be coming off knee surgery. The optimal scenario is Iowa wins 20+ and goes deep in NCAA tourney this season as there are no guarantees next season. But I agree that if Kriener and Evelyn are the only ones that Iowa loses and Bohannon and Nunge come back strong then next season's team would be Fran's best to date and would represent the best chance Iowa has had at a conference title in the last 10 years.

I think Garza returns and JoeW stays four.

It’s going to be a very good team next season.

 

[tksirius]