Iowa realistic ceiling this year?

[lightning1]

It is obviously early, but this is what I like so far.

1. Cook seems to have a different mindset. He has his head up whether bringing the ball down or on the block. He’s finding open guys. He also has better handles. Any team that tries to play him straight up with one man is going to end up on a lot of dunk reels. If he plays unselfish, that will be a huge asset.

2. It is just my opinion, but I think Wieskamp is going to contribute immediately. He can shoot 3’s, can get to the rack or stop anywhere in between to get a shot off.

3. Connor has great floor awareness. He had a couple sloppy passes in the exhibition game, but also had a couple that were right on the money. He will get better as the season goes on. His minutes will help keep JBo sharp and rested.

4. I liked what I saw from Cook, Garza, Pemsl and Kriener with interior passing during the exhibition. They either got a good shot or found the open big man cutting to the basket. That will cut down on slop and needless dribbling in the lane.

5. Ellingson and Wagner got 20 minutes/game between the two of them last year. Those minutes going to others is addition by subtraction.

6. Defense will be better, it cannot be worse.

We will see what happens, but I am convinced last season was the anomaly, not the norm. I guess we will find out soon enough. I will be happy with an NCAA berth, but I think we have the horses to go on a run.

If Cook got the message and plays accordingly, it could be big for our season. No doubt.
JW is the real deal and I expect him to play starter minutes. Great all around game and he hustles like a true competitor.
Connor is an x factor in my opinion. I've always thought of him as more of a role player than a difference maker.

 

[1977Hawkeye]

This team has as much talent as anyone in the league. Last year was an anomaly. Call it nagging injuries. Call it the Sophomore jinx. Whatever. It will not happen this year.

Cook and Garza will dominate, Weiskamp is B1G ready and will excel. JBo will exceed his Freshman year performance. Nunge, Moss, Pemsl, Daily and Baer will all provide excellent production.

I say:
25 wins
Sweet 16

Sold?

Like the optimism.

I hate to be a naysayer, but if I had a dollar for every time I've seen people talk this way, just to end up with yet another disappointing season... This is Iowa basketball we're talking about. If it was 1998 I'd be on board, but you can only see the same movie so many times before you realize it always ends the same way. Yeah, the last couple decades have made me pretty pessimistic.

But like I said above, you never know how a season will go. I hope you're right.

I think the pieces are there to have a good team.. Just need it to come together.

 

[Xerxes]

Ceiling 23-8 (13-7)

If they get to 20-11 (10-10) I'll be pretty happy. Tough B1G schedule this year.

 

[Tierney]

This team has as much talent as anyone in the league. Last year was an anomaly. Call it nagging injuries. Call it the Sophomore jinx. Whatever. It will not happen this year.

Cook and Garza will dominate, Weiskamp is B1G ready and will excel. JBo will exceed his Freshman year performance. Nunge, Moss, Pemsl, Daily and Baer will all provide excellent production.

I say:
25 wins
Sweet 16

Sold?

They should be pretty good if they remain healthy. Hopefully, Bohannons injury isn't serious. It will set him back some though. I don't see McCaffery really doing much if he splits his time between two sports. There aren't to many people that are that talented. Anyway, if Bohannon is slow to recover to form, it will hurt Iowas season. Fredrick might have been helpful, and Fran seems set on playing McCaffery over Dailey at the point.

 

[ibahawkeye]

This team has as much talent as anyone in the league. Last year was an anomaly. Call it nagging injuries. Call it the Sophomore jinx. Whatever. It will not happen this year.

Cook and Garza will dominate, Weiskamp is B1G ready and will excel. JBo will exceed his Freshman year performance. Nunge, Moss, Pemsl, Daily and Baer will all provide excellent production.

I say:
25 wins
Sweet 16

Sold?

Sold on the NCAA birth and could see us winning a game. I don’t know if we’re talented enough at the guard positions to win 2.

But I feel like a lot of us are looking at just last year but a lot of these guys along with an injured Jok played pretty well.

Perhaps they didn’t handle the success and I’m hoping a big piece of humble pie that was last year will have them focused.

Plus you have even more experience and an upgrade in talent for Joe.

 

[trj]

If Cook got the message and plays accordingly, it could be big for our season. No doubt.
JW is the real deal and I expect him to play starter minutes. Great all around game and he hustles like a true competitor.
Connor is an x factor in my opinion. I've always thought of him as more of a role player than a difference maker.

We don’t agree on much, but Conner being the X - factor is spot on. What he can and cannot do will dictate everything.

 

[smhawk]

Seriously how unfair is it for soemtimes to play Duke this year? Zion Williamson seems like straight to NBA material - cant wait until one and done era is over.

 

[NikeHawk21]

I’d like to update my ceiling prediction.

With no Nunge and Fran’s insistence on jamming Connor, Pemsl, and Kriener in there I would say this team’s ceiling is NIT. Probably best case scenario they find 8 conference wins.

 

[PCHawk]

I’d like to update my ceiling prediction.

With no Nunge and Fran’s insistence on jamming Connor, Pemsl, and Kriener in there I would say this team’s ceiling is NIT. Probably best case scenario they find 8 conference wins.

I didn't get to watch the second half but I listened to the post game show on the radio and they made Connor the impact player of the game. They made it sound like he was a big part of the second half pull away. Anyone have any insight on this? Also he was an extremely well spoken kid. In my opinion Moss is our worst guard as far as all around basketball playing ability goes. It's too bad because he probably has the second highest ceiling of our guards.

 

[NikeHawk21]

I didn't get to watch the second half but I listened to the post game show on the radio and they made Connor the impact player of the game. They made it sound like he was a big part of the second half pull away. Anyone have any insight on this? Also he was an extremely well spoken kid. In my opinion Moss is our worst guard as far as all around basketball playing ability goes. It's too bad because he probably has the second highest ceiling of our guards.

Oh god no. Connor played better than he did the other night, mainly because he didn’t throw the ball to the other team. He’s a liability on defense from what I’ve seen, and he’s average at best offensively.

Everyone is ripping on Moss, and maybe rightfully so, but Fran only played him 15 minutes. I wouldn’t say he played any worse or better than JBo or Mac, they just got more opportunities. I still think Moss should play on the second unit, because they looked like they needed a scorer last night.

Fran is going to jam Connor into the lineup this year regardless of whether it’s best for the team or not. It’s becoming more and more clear to me that this was the plan all along. That’s why he never wanted to go after new guards.

 

[Cableman]

I said it in another post during the summer. I think they will finish 3rd to 6th in the big 10. Just a gut feeling and one game hasn't changed that feeling.

 

[NikeHawk21]

I said it in another post during the summer. I think they will finish 3rd to 6th in the big 10. Just a gut feeling and one game hasn't changed that feeling.

To me it’s not one game though. We saw this movie the entire season last year, Nd this is basically the same exact team. Weiskamp certainly helps but is he going to turn a 4 win team into a 10-12 win team. Unlikely.

Turnovers, horrible defense, and horrible coaching plagued this team last year, I saw more of the same last night.

 

[JG10Hawk]

Efficiency wise (offensively), Connor was the 2nd best player behind Cook. On defense his + / - was -11.8.

Efficiency wise (offensively), Moss was the 2nd worst ahead of Pemsl. On defense his + / - was -2.6. In other words, bad Moss showed up last night.

 

[Cableman]

To me it’s not one game though. We saw this movie the entire season last year, Nd this is basically the same exact team. Weiskamp certainly helps but is he going to turn a 4 win team into a 10-12 win team. Unlikely.

Turnovers, horrible defense, and horrible coaching plagued this team last year, I saw more of the same last night.

It's still one game of a new season. Do you expect the 28% shooting to continue? I do not. Also I do expect a better defense this year. It was a focus during the off season I have to think that it will be better.

 

[NikeHawk21]

It's still one game of a new season. Do you expect the 28% shooting to continue? I do not. Also I do expect a better defense this year. It was a focus during the off season I have to think that it will be better.

I do not expect 28% to continue, I fully expect this will be a solid offensive team. Do you expect to outscore our opponents by 20pts from the free throw line every night?

What I saw with the my own two eyes, the “eye test” was many of the same exact things that plagued this team last year. Turnovers and crappy defense. We were fortunate that the kangaroos are a terrible offensive team.

Will our defense improve this year? I absolutely think they will, almost by default.

Could this team improve mightily from what we saw last night? Sure, that happens in college basketball every year, but for me that is becoming less and less likely. Sure we might go up from the 4 win conference team we saw last year, but NCAA tournament, that seems like a long shot at this stage.

 

[83Hawk]

I"m still waiting for ClintonIaFan to post his season prediction. I'm sure he will have Iowa going undefeated.

 

[revkev73]

Depends on how far the coaching can take the team.

Baer could be Old Baer.

Pemsl could stop underwhelming.

Cook could start to hustle.

JB could shoot lights out.

JW could be the real, real deal.

CM could surprise us.

No talent at PG, unable to defend quickness are big hurdles to overcome.

When is the last time the Iowa fan base has been shocked/stunned by the upside results of a season?

 

[Northside Hawk]

Man. You're just a pup. I'm 47 myself. I remember what it was like to be 16. Good times.

I remember what it was like to be 47

The meniscus in my knees was in good shape.

I had yet to contract bursitis in the elbow.

I didn't have to throw left handed when I played catch with my kids.

My brother in law couldn't beat me in H-O-R-S-E.

Good times.

 

[Northside Hawk]

I’d like to update my ceiling prediction.

With no Nunge and Fran’s insistence on jamming Connor, Pemsl, and Kriener in there I would say this team’s ceiling is NIT. Probably best case scenario they find 8 conference wins.

I didn't realize how much better a player Nunge became just by not being able to play. People are talking like we just redshirted Kevin McHale or something (exaggeration)

He had a nice spurt in December last year (Iowa State, Indiana) then what happens about 5,708 times in sports ended up happening. Opponents got a bit of a scouting report on him.

Fran didn't do him any favors by playing him out of position, that is true. But where was he going to get major minutes this year once Garza got healthy? He wasn't getting them at the four and he wouldn't at the three unless Wiescamp hits the wall or something.

My lingering image of Nunge from last year is trailing Reaves or Stevens as one of them threw down as vicious a dunk as you will see.

Don't compare his loss like we were losing a Jarrod Uthoff type player. He would have wasted his year. Again, would you rather waste a year of Nunge or waste a year of Pemsl/Kreiner.

The way people talk (complain) about Cordell and Ryan I would think that's all the more reason to get them through the system as quickly as possible, as I brought up in May. And Fran may tighten the screws on the rotation and end up giving them Uhl type minutes anyway. Let's see how the next six to eight games play out as the competition gets tougher.

 

[BILLYBOBSTEXAS]

I didn't realize how much better a player Nunge became just by not being able to play. People are talking like we just redshirted Kevin McHale or something (exaggeration)

He had a nice spurt in December last year (Iowa State, Indiana) then what happens about 5,708 times in sports ended up happening. Opponents got a bit of a scouting report on him.

Fran didn't do him any favors by playing him out of position, that is true. But where was he going to get major minutes this year once Garza got healthy? He wasn't getting them at the four and he wouldn't at the three unless Wiescamp hits the wall or something.

My lingering image of Nunge from last year is trailing Reaves or Stevens as one of them threw down as vicious a dunk as you will see.

Don't compare his loss like we were losing a Jarrod Uthoff type player. He would have wasted his year. Again, would you rather waste a year of Nunge or waste a year of Pemsl/Kreiner.

The way people talk (complain) about Cordell and Ryan I would think that's all the more reason to get them through the system as quickly as possible, as I brought up in May. And Fran may tighten the screws on the rotation and end up giving them Uhl type minutes anyway. Let's see how the next six to eight games play out as the competition gets tougher.

Great Post! I would like to add some posters have intense dislike to anyone with the name the same as the head coach! C-Mac had 7 points, 3 assist, 0 turnovers. His defense was ok, not great. If they want to rag on someone, maybe Moss would be a candidate. I would like to see Dailey take his spot.