Is Evelyn the PG the rest of the way?

[N8theGr8]

I love how people think that teams that don’t press often are all of the sudden just going to press Iowa to death. Cincy has literally been playing that style for years, that’s what they are built to do. You have to give them some credit in that regard but not many B1G teams are built that way.

Evelyn and Cmac haven’t played hardly any PG in the last several weeks and were asked to do it for nearly the entire game. Not to mention we had a lot of silly lazy turnovers. Iowa was one of the better assist to turnover teams in the country coming into that game, and while part of that is Jbo I don’t think it’s the whole story.

Iowa will be fine. This was a post finals week lay-off stinker performance that we somehow managed to win, which was great to see.

Exactly. I'd also like to add that Toussaint is better than that. He's already shown it. Evelyn won't make shots like that every game, but he also won't have 5 turnovers every game either. It was the first time we played with that lineup for any extended minutes and we were extra short handed without Till. It wouldn't surprise me to hear that Till's absence indirectly resulted in Toussaint's start as there was no backup for Kriener.

I hate to admit it, but I was honestly expecting a let down as the team shuffled players and tried to cope with the absence of Bohannon's steadying presence. Instead, Evelyn stepped up and showed we have another gamer on the team. It establishes him in the rotation and prevents him from being an afterthought. While a win is certainly the objective on any given night, I see this as the real benefit.

 

[Hawkfnntn]

It's a possibility. But who knows. This was by far the best he's looked so far. Can he keep that up? Will JT improve? How long of a leash will Fran have towards him as opposed to the freshman? Only time will tell. I'm not rooting for one over the other or predicting anything. I just hope whomever is out there plays well. Throw this last game in the trash though. Holy crap. There's 'winning ugly' and there's whatever that was. I feel fortunate they won that. It's hard to play much worse and still win.

 

[mopkins]

Toussaint will be fine he just needs to learn control. I think he's so used to just blowing by guys in high school and he can't do that as much anymore. His first 2 turnovers he was just completely out of control. He does that a lot and will need to figure it out.

 

[Ian Pike Hammer]

Santa Claus?

Not 4 u, saw that u made the naughty list....again. Hope yr not opposed to fossil fuels!

 

[ssckelley]

Not 4 u, saw that u made the naughty list....again. Hope yr not opposed to fossil fuels!

It's WAYYYY more fun being on the naughty list.

 

[NikeHawk21]

Exactly. I'd also like to add that Toussaint is better than that. He's already shown it. Evelyn won't make shots like that every game, but he also won't have 5 turnovers every game either. It was the first time we played with that lineup for any extended minutes and we were extra short handed without Till. It wouldn't surprise me to hear that Till's absence indirectly resulted in Toussaint's start as there was no backup for Kriener.

I hate to admit it, but I was honestly expecting a let down as the team shuffled players and tried to cope with the absence of Bohannon's steadying presence. Instead, Evelyn stepped up and showed we have another gamer on the team. It establishes him in the rotation and prevents him from being an afterthought. While a win is certainly the objective on any given night, I see this as the real benefit.

Immediately after the game it certainly didn’t feel good. Blowing a 15 point lead in the second half and turning it over like we did.

Looking back on it now, for me my biggest concern post Bohannon was depth. Evelyn getting that confidence might be huge for this team going forward. I’ve been down on Pemsl but he gave us some decent minutes and Kriener has been pretty steady. Our bench gave us 25 points.

Now I could be incredibly wrong, but I really don’t see turnovers or free throw shooting plaguing this team going forward.

 

[koralakers]

I like that coach doesn’t seem to have a problem playing ‘the hot hand’ any particular game.

 

[seepig]

I wouldn't say Evelyn plays the 1 the rest of the way, that would be a bit of an overreaction and would be to the detriment of Touissant's development. But with Moss transferring out, Bohannon now shelved the rest of the way, and Touissant being inexperienced it is clear the depth and experience Evelyn brings is vital. I still think Touissant gets the majority of the PG minutes with McCaffery getting time as well. Evelyn can play the 1 if needed and he can spell Frederick at the 2 as well. He won't be a consistent double digit scorer but I'd wager he will have 2 or 3 more games like this the rest of the way as depth comes into play alot in the Big Ten.

I just want to go on the record we don't miss Moss' 6-7 points/game and lack of defensive intensity. The Team D has been better without him there quite frankly. I've seen him play 2 games in person for KU and it inevitably ends with him making a bone head play followed by a gaff on defense followed by a buzzer and Bill Self's face beet red as he curses while Moss trots over to the bench to take a towel. Kid hasn't improved even under the great Bill Self.

 

[HuckFinn]

I am not going to worry about who starts. We have three guys who can play point and another position as well. We need all three to play well. The cavalry is not on the way.

 

[revkev73]

If Evelyn gets the majority of PG minutes, this novel will have an unhappy ending.

 

[BigD]

I expect Joe to bounce back, but I think we can also expect more spells like Friday night. Fran saw enough from Joe over the last week to name him the starter. Thankfully Iowa, even with all the attrition it’s faces, actually still does have options. Our coach has recruited really well and this team at one point had tremendous depth it appears.

First start jitters. It’s very very likely that during practice he is the better guard. Before this last game Joe looked like he was coming around and that Evelyn was fading into the sunset. The roles reversed this past game so it looks like it’s going to be a game by game situation.

 

[slankyJ]

Right now it's too early to make the Evelyn vs Toussaint call. It was one game, it was a big game though against a good opponent.
We all knew that along with true freshmen come some lumps and learning curves. We all saw a game like this coming from JT, we just didn't know we'd get it in his first ever start. JT deserves several more chances. January will prove the JT vs BE argument

 

[JPinIC]

If we are stuck playing half court offense play BE. JT is 2-13 from three. His man is going to cheat into the lane and clog things up for our offense. Even if JT is able to find scores at the rim, I would rather have three points than two..It is hard to win on the road without spreading the floor and hitting threes.

If our transition game is clicking, play JT.

Edit I like JT coming off the bench to cause havoc on D and help start a run with the transition game.

 

[washtu401]

I'll say it again, if I was opposing coach I would really pressure the ball. Pressure defenses seem to get us out of our game.

 

[tmess1989]

I'll say it again, if I was opposing coach I would really pressure the ball. Pressure defenses seem to get us out of our game.

Especially when the other team is allowed to hand check and grab the ball handler and off ball players all game. Toussaint struggled with it much more than the other guards and he let it affect the rest of his play. He has to play through thosenon calls and not let it let him be mentally affected. It also seemed like a few players were having a hard time not slipping on spots on the floor and Toussaint seemed to be most affected/frustrated by it.

 

[revkev73]

I'll say it again, if I was opposing coach I would really pressure the ball. Pressure defenses seem to get us out of our game.

Kind of like...as a coach, you are a fool if you don't blitz Iowa every chance you get in fb

 

[PCHawk]

Kind of like...as a coach, you are a fool if you don't blitz Iowa every chance you get in fb

Which would mean every single coach we ever played is a fool.

 

[NikeHawk21]

I'll say it again, if I was opposing coach I would really pressure the ball. Pressure defenses seem to get us out of our game.

The weird thing is, yes we turned it over a ton against Cincy but we still ended up scoring 77 points. A lot of those turnovers seemed to be unforced and more of the lazy variety. The thing with pressuring is you leave yourself open to a lot of fouls and the possibility of giving up some easy ones. We hung 79 on Cincy last year when they pressured us.

Michigan “pressured” our guards this year and we scored 91 points in their house.

Pressuring can certainly get iowa out of sorts at times, but I’d approach that with peril if I’m an opposing coach.

 

[tweeterhawk]

The weird thing is, yes we turned it over a ton against Cincy but we still ended up scoring 77 points. A lot of those turnovers seemed to be unforced and more of the lazy variety. The thing with pressuring is you leave yourself open to a lot of fouls and the possibility of giving up some easy ones. We hung 79 on Cincy last year when they pressured us.

Michigan “pressured” our guards this year and we scored 91 points in their house.

Pressuring can certainly get iowa out of sorts at times, but I’d approach that with peril if I’m an opposing coach.

How many of those turnovers also stemmed from nine (?) days of not playing during finals and the first game without JBo, who we have learned is a steadying force driving this team and also a nearly 100 percent free throw shooter? I would submit Jordan’s proficiency and confidence at the line rubs off on the rest of the team. Iowa was uncharacteristically bad at the charity stripe the other night.