Is Iowa

B

BILLYBOBSTEXAS

Well-Known Member
at the level of Gonzaga where they expect to win vs hope to win? I believe so. We will find out soon as the Big will be a meat grinder this year. I expect a minimum of 4 losses during conference play. What say you?
 
it would be historic, like 1970 historic, if we lost fewer. Lute never did. When we tied for the conference championship in 1979 we went 13-5. Final Four team, playing without Lester for most of two months, went 10-8. Mr. Davis's amazing 1987 team which was ranked #1 for a week went 14-4.

If this team shoots well, the sky's the limit. It sure is nice to dictate to the other team to pick their poison.
 
I'm not as confident as most, not because of the talent, but because we play 10 games against teams that are ranked right now, with 6 of those on the road (even though there's not home crowds, there's still an advantage). Going 6-4 in those games with no other losses is a lot to ask for. I think we may do better in the NCAA's than in the regular season schedule.
 
hawk52 said:
If we don't play better D imo noway we make it to even the elite 8. Iowa. Iowa was exposed today. Stop Garza force 3s.
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Curious how you think they were exposed. That game went down about how I expected. Everyone knows Iowa doesn't play d. They didn't exactly stop Garza who had 30. They made shots, we didn't. I would say this team is pretty much who everyone thought they were before this game.

I was more surprised at the number of offensive rebounds we allowed, was terrible.

I do agree though, you can't be elite depending on offense alone. When shots don't fall, like today, you lose because you can't outrun the other team.

We all know Iowa's defense is a joke and Garza is the catalyst. Nothing new today.
 
I think rebounding and transition defense have been our weaknesses this year. I think we're fine. Suggs was 2-6 from 3 coming into the game and just went off and we couldn't hit the broad side of a barn. If that would've happened, but we did the 2 things I listed above, I think we would've won.

Consider that Suggs was super human (an average game from 3; 33% coming in equals 3 fewer 3's) and our guys had a terrible shooting night from 3 (40% coming in equals 4 more 3's) and from the free throw line (74.5% coming in equals 5 more makes) and we still stayed within 11 points of them. If we play again and a couple of those swing back to average, we'll be fine.
 
hawkstal said:
Curious how you think they were exposed. That game went down about how I expected. Everyone knows Iowa doesn't play d. They didn't exactly stop Garza who had 30. They made shots, we didn't. I would say this team is pretty much who everyone thought they were before this game.

I was more surprised at the number of offensive rebounds we allowed, was terrible.

I do agree though, you can't be elite depending on offense alone. When shots don't fall, like today, you lose because you can't outrun the other team.

We all know Iowa's defense is a joke and Garza is the catalyst. Nothing new today.
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You just answered your own question of how Iowa was exposed.

- Lack of defense.
- Lack of team rebounding.
- When shots aren’t falling, other than Garza, this team is sunk.

To be this weak on defense, you need your scorers to be hitting every night to simply overwhelm the opponent with points. JBo and the others can’t take a night off.
 
In the game thread I said a one-word headline for the game was: EXPOSED.

Two-word headline: OFFENSIVE DEFENSE
 
Fran has to use his bench better. When it was clear, and it was, that Jordan was going to struggle with Suggs guarding him...it was time to play Toussaint more minutes. It took too long to do that. A weakness that Gonzaga has is that their guards are all 6'5 and don't have the quickness...Toussaint had 5-6 layups...OFF THE DRIBBLE.

I said it in an earlier thread...he should have tried a backcourt of Toussaint and Ulis and work everything through Garza on the offensive end. Garza touches the ball every possession. With Toussaint and Ulis...we could have exploited them in a big way with two quick penetrators and guys that are really good on the defensive side. Sure, you need to see if Ulis is ready for that game...but do you think 2 minutes with him in the game was going to hurt us?...worse than we were being hurt?

Missed opportunity in my opinion.
 
They are who they are defensively. That's how the roster is constructed. Only so many things you can do with 3, arguably 4 decent or above on-the-ball defenders on the roster.

Imo, this comes down to how do you generate offense when the jump shots aren't falling. My suggestions goes as follows:

feed Garza as much as possible
JoeT needs to play more
CJF and JW need to put the ball on the floor more to score and create for others
Fran recognizing that in some games Jbo needs to play off the ball more
 
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Bohannon is a catch and shoot guy. Even with a lock down defender, like Suggs, he's going to get a few opportunities in transition or within the offense, just because Iowa runs so much motion and screens. If he's not hitting them...you have to go a different direction with his minutes.

The question is, when do you make that determination. Jordan has looked off several times, then goes on a tear. It's got to be tough for Fran...to make the determination to sit him. Fran's a loyal dude...but he's got to make that determination faster...and play who gives him the best chance against a Gonzaga.
 
WinOneThisCentury said:
Fran has to use his bench better. When it was clear, and it was, that Jordan was going to struggle with Suggs guarding him...it was time to play Toussaint more minutes. It took too long to do that. A weakness that Gonzaga has is that their guards are all 6'5 and don't have the quickness...Toussaint had 5-6 layups...OFF THE DRIBBLE.

I said it in an earlier thread...he should have tried a backcourt of Toussaint and Ulis and work everything through Garza on the offensive end. Garza touches the ball every possession. With Toussaint and Ulis...we could have exploited them in a big way with two quick penetrators and guys that are really good on the defensive side. Sure, you need to see if Ulis is ready for that game...but do you think 2 minutes with him in the game was going to hurt us?...worse than we were being hurt?

Missed opportunity in my opinion.
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I made the comment in the 2nd half that Ulis and Perkins should get a look. They are quicker, have size, etc.
 
WinOneThisCentury said:
Bohannon is a catch and shoot guy. Even with a lock down defender, like Suggs, he's going to get a few opportunities in transition or within the offense, just because Iowa runs so much motion and screens. If he's not hitting them...you have to go a different direction with his minutes.

The question is, when do you make that determination. Jordan has looked off several times, then goes on a tear. It's got to be tough for Fran...to make the determination to sit him. Fran's a loyal dude...but he's got to make that determination faster...and play who gives him the best chance against a Gonzaga.
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I realize I am just a fan, but it was obvious early that zaga wanted Jbo to put the ball on the floor. That's the scouting report on Iowa moving forward, so I agree Fran will have to make that determination a lot quicker from here on out.
 
tweeterhawk said:
You just answered your own question of how Iowa was exposed.

- Lack of defense.
- Lack of team rebounding.
- When shots aren’t falling, other than Garza, this team is sunk.

To be this weak on defense, you need your scorers to be hitting every night to simply overwhelm the opponent with points. JBo and the others can’t take a night off.
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Exactly, nothing was exposed, this was information that was already known. Everyone knows it, that's why I was trying to figure out if you saw something that was truly exposed, or just exploited. Thanks for the response.
 
Just for fun...zag weaknesses: No answer for Garza, 30 points; no answer for JW, 20 points, drove to the rim; gave up 51 points to Iowa in the second half; blew a 20+ point lead down to single digits; 18 turnovers; Iowa forced 2 of their best to the bench with 5 fouls and got early to double bonus. Gave up 88 points to what some claim is not a very good Hawk team. Could not stop dribble drive by Back up Iowa point guard. Single biggest weakness for Iowa? Did not hit their usual % on three point shots.
(Yeah, and defense, but that doesn’t work well in my post)
 
Fran going with JBo for so long who was a T/ O machine cost Iowa the game. Then at the end we forgot Garza was on the floor, really bad coaching decisions and execution down the stretch. It's a game that Iowa could have stolen.
 
Northwestern laying some serious wood to Sparty.

Not over yet, but you better show up every night in this league ready to play.
 
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