We've played the toughest non conference schedule maybe ever at Iowa, and the place was a sell out for this game. Weird time to be talking about scheduling better opponents to fill empty seats.
Iowa vs Kennesaw State Gamethread
- Thread starter Milldaddy
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We've played the toughest non conference schedule maybe ever at Iowa, and the place was a sell out for this game. Weird time to be talking about scheduling better opponents to fill empty seats.
NikeHawk21
Well-Known Member
His free throws have been solid so I think eventually he can get there.
I still think he’s got a lot of development to do though. People think he just needs a jump shot, but he hasn’t finished particularly well around the hoop either. He’s got potential but he needs to develop in several areas.
mopkins
King Kong
I scrolled all the way back to 2010 and this season was easily the toughest non conference Iowa has played according to KenPom. The next closest was the 15-16 season...aka Uthoff senior year season.
NikeHawk21
Well-Known Member
Plus minus is a very tough stat to use on a one game basis. Connor ranked 8th of the regulars in offensive rating and 4th in defensive rating, those aren’t perfect one game stats either I would add.
Connor has been extremely valuable this year and what he’s provided thus far can’t be understated.
If your comment was directed towards me (not saying it was) much of my thoughts on Connor were his ability to be a primary point guard. I often asked if he would be a PG on other B1G teams. With the Nunge injury he is now playing the small ball 4 which works so much better for his skill set than playing the 1 ever did.
What I was discussing in this thread and another thread is that we are going to need him to be a scoring threat playing big minutes. This is due to the injuries we have had. If teams start to disregard him on that end it’s going to hurt the offense as a whole. I’m not saying he can or can’t do it, and quite frankly if he can’t I don’t think it’s his fault either, it’s just the cards we have been dealt.
If our offense gets to the point where it needs someone to do more, it better be CJ before its Connor. We're almost halfway through the season and our offense is nowhere close to the point where it needs Connor to do more. That's not saying it won't get to that point sometime down the road. But right now, they need to keep doing exactly what they're doing until teams can consistently stop them.
NikeHawk21
Well-Known Member
Again, what we don’t know, what we really can’t know just yet, is how this offense will perform in the long run without Jbo. We scored 77 against Cincinnati, but that included a 15 point outburst from Evelyn. Did anyone really see that coming?
My belief is that Toussaint isn’t ready and isn’t capable of providing much in the way of scoring. If Connor doesn’t provide much either that could spell a little bit of trouble in my opinion. Again, that’s not Connor’s fault but it’s just how the roster breaks out. If you have two “non-scorers” in your starting lineup you become much easier to defend in my estimation.
Put another way let’s say our big 3 goes Garza 20, Wieskamp 16, Fredrick 14. That’s 50 points. By the way that adds ~3 points to Weiskamp’s current average and ~3 points to Fredrick’s. Now let’s add Toussaint 5, Kriener 7, Evelyn 4, and Pemsl 2. That’s 68 points.
So if Connor can only give us 4-5 points on a given night we are at 72-73 points, which isn’t winning basketball given our defensive shortcomings. At 8-9 points Iowa is back up in the 76-77 point range which can get them wins in this league.
Obviously that’s completely hypothetical. You’re saying you aren’t concerned about our offense because it’s been great so far, I agree it’s been great, but I disagree that there isn’t cause for concern without Jbo. Again to me we don’t know what our offense will look like without Jbo just yet.
I thought there were thousands of empty seats?
I think the 3 bench guys need to bring more if we're going to stay borderline top 25.
I guess it was sold out.
NikeHawk21
Well-Known Member
That would certainly be one possibility. Another would be Toussaint has more scoring pop than I’m giving him credit for. Something will have to happen to maintain our current level. The reason to me it’s got to come from Connor is that he’s going to be getting a lot of minutes. Kriener is behind Garza and only gets limited minutes. Evelyn I don’t think will get enough shots to consistently be able to score.
I think there are 2 other ways to win that haven't been mentioned. One is it can be a different guy every night scoring. Guys like Connor, Evelyn, and Toussaint might only average 5 points per game, but maybe they take turns getting 10-12. I don't think any of them are capable enough to be counted on every game, but Evelyn has already helped us get a win. Maybe the next game it will be Connor, or Kriener, or Toussaint. Maybe the big 3 have a huge game.
The other thing is defense. We sucked at defense the last couple years because of Cook, Moss, Bohannon, and Garza. 3 of those guys aren't playing and the 4th as improved to the point where he's actually pretty darn good on defense. We don't have a perimeter defense problem anymore. We don't have Nunge guarding 3s anymore. We don't have Cook and Garza giving up a wide open lane anymore. This team is capable of winning some games in the 60s this year.
Having said all of that, we only need to win 9 out of our next 18 games to have a pretty successful season. I think all the things we are discussing here are things that need to happen to be good enough to compete for a top 4 conference finish. I want that to happen obviously, but the way things unfolded this year, it's not the most realistic expectation .
WindsorHawk
Well-Known Member
I have a couple thoughts relative to the Nike/PC discussion. I think the current rotation will average over 70 ppg moving forward. I think the points will come from different guys from game to game. I think the defense is improved and will continue to improve.
The basketball IQ is very high IMO. Most other teams also have weaknesses, limitations, shortcomings, etc. As Hawk fans we focus more on our team’s issues...because we care more and know them better.
I think the next 18 games will be competitive and enjoyable to watch most nights. I am confident we will win at least 9 more.
The basketball IQ is very high IMO. Most other teams also have weaknesses, limitations, shortcomings, etc. As Hawk fans we focus more on our team’s issues...because we care more and know them better.
I think the next 18 games will be competitive and enjoyable to watch most nights. I am confident we will win at least 9 more.
NikeHawk21
Well-Known Member
I do agree PC defense could be another wild card for us. It will be interesting to follow.
I wasn’t intending to sound doom and gloom either just noting that to me Connor’s scoring will be something to keep an eye on. You don’t have to share that view. I do think this team can get 9 more wins, but could they do better? They also could do worse. I’m not sure but I’m excited to watch. If we dance this year I’ll be very happy, anything on top of that is just gravy.
