Is this a reasonable goal?

F

FreddyBrown

Moderator
In a pregame interview Bobby Hansen said the team's goal should be to win all of their remaining home games. Obviously the Ohio State game is off the board, but it doesn't seem like an unreasonable, unreachable goal to win the remaining home games against Illinois, Northwestern, Michigan and Indiana. We could also lose any or all of them, but each of those teams appears to be beatable--more so than Ohio State on paper.

I'd like to see the Hawks steal another road game somewhere, but winning out at home would sure do a lot to start rebuilding a home court advantage, bringing out the fans, and helping out with recruiting since we will hopefully have some kids in for some or all of those games.

I hope we'll have a crowd for Illinois similar to the one we had for Ohio State, if for no other reason than to drown out the legion of yahoos the Illwhini will probably bring (or won't they, since they suck lately?). Probabaly won't be quite as big given the football component of last night and the free student tix, but would be very nice to have a big, loud group.
 
I think it's reasonable. I don't know how likely it is, but I always thought that you should not set goals too high, or too low. Shooting for 6-7 wins sounds about right to me, for this year.

Looking at these four games, like you said, they all look winnable. OSU may be a better team than any of the four games remaining, although we could very well lose any of those games as well. If we could do that, and somehow steal one more road win, that would get us to 7-11. Who would've thought that even a couple of weeks ago? That would be one heckuva coaching job by Lickliter if that happens.

I believe I will stick with my upgraded 5-13 prediction, but I think it's definitely possible to exceed that if the team continues to play like they did last night.

Finally, the team is playing well enough to give me even a sliver of hope for the future.
 
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I think it is not unrealistic to think they could beat Michigan,IU and NW at home.
I just do not think it is likely.

NW...I am sold on them being better than Iowa right now. They will play that 1-3-1 trapping zone in the halfcourt with the long limbed Nash,Shurna,and Crawford doing the trapping...we saw what happened last nite when OSU threw that on...NW does it much more and better than OSU.

Michigan...They are erratic but I still remember the arse-whupping they laid on us in the BTT...they will be fighting for their tourny lives...not easy.

IU... we should beat them...no Creek and we just did it.

I say we go 2-1 with wins over IU and Michigan...leaving us at the 10-21(4-14) record that I projected back in September.
 
FreddyBrown said:
In a pregame interview Bobby Hansen said the team's goal should be to win all of their remaining home games. Obviously the Ohio State game is off the board, but it doesn't seem like an unreasonable, unreachable goal to win the remaining home games against Illinois, Northwestern, Michigan and Indiana. We could also lose any or all of them, but each of those teams appears to be beatable--more so than Ohio State on paper.

I'd like to see the Hawks steal another road game somewhere, but winning out at home would sure do a lot to start rebuilding a home court advantage, bringing out the fans, and helping out with recruiting since we will hopefully have some kids in for some or all of those games.

I hope we'll have a crowd for Illinois similar to the one we had for Ohio State, if for no other reason than to drown out the legion of yahoos the Illwhini will probably bring (or won't they, since they suck lately?). Probabaly won't be quite as big given the football component of last night and the free student tix, but would be very nice to have a big, loud group.
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we'll need to play well and catch some breaks to win any remaining games.

For example: v. Indiana, Cougill's threes rained in, and that, IMO, was the difference of th game. v. OSU Cougill's 3s were in and out. had those 3s of Cougills that were just a little off last night, been on, that OSU game would have been Iowas W, not OSUs.
 
For some reason, our slow down style seems to work better against good running teams. It did work against Indiana already so that's a good shot. Northwestern likes to keep things slow so that will be interesting. And the Michigan game will be a three-point shootout for the ages. Which ever team is hitting will win.
 
parquet said:
For some reason, our slow down style seems to work better against good running teams. It did work against Indiana already so that's a good shot. Northwestern likes to keep things slow so that will be interesting. And the Michigan game will be a three-point shootout for the ages. Which ever team is hitting will win.
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It only makes sense really. If a teams strength is their athleticism, and getting up and down the court is what they do best, it will obviously hurt them slowing down the pace of play.

I think ultimately this is what Licks goals are is to neutralize the advantage other teams may have athletically. If you stop them from getting transition baskets, it becomes a game of our half court offense versus yours.
 
I think 3 out of 4 is a more realistic goal.

I would start to feel more optomisitc about this program if they are able to do that.
 
I waiting for the day when our goal doesn't include losing all the remaining games on the road.
 
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hawkdoctor said:
I waiting for the day when out goal doesn't include losing all the remaining games on the road.
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As recently as 2007,Iowa beat every team in the league at least once,cept for National Championship game participant OSU and Wisky.

Iowa beat MSU,Minny,Mich,Ill,PU,IU,NW and PSU that year...aahhh,the good ole days:)
 
I think it should be their goal. That's setting standards pretty high for this team but I think they need a tough but attainable goal. If they play like they've played the last few games they can win out at home. I still think they can steal one against Northwestern or Michigan on the road. Michigan is not a good team and Northwestern, while decent, never really blows out an opponent. One can steal one from them at the end as they almost always play close games.
 
FreddyBrown said:
In a pregame interview Bobby Hansen said the team's goal should be to win all of their remaining home games. Obviously the Ohio State game is off the board, but it doesn't seem like an unreasonable, unreachable goal to win the remaining home games against Illinois, Northwestern, Michigan and Indiana. We could also lose any or all of them, but each of those teams appears to be beatable--more so than Ohio State on paper.

I'd like to see the Hawks steal another road game somewhere, but winning out at home would sure do a lot to start rebuilding a home court advantage, bringing out the fans, and helping out with recruiting since we will hopefully have some kids in for some or all of those games.

I hope we'll have a crowd for Illinois similar to the one we had for Ohio State, if for no other reason than to drown out the legion of yahoos the Illwhini will probably bring (or won't they, since they suck lately?). Probabaly won't be quite as big given the football component of last night and the free student tix, but would be very nice to have a big, loud group.
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I almost semi-bet my life that NW will beat Iowa...
 
Ann Arbor has been one road venue the Hawks have done ok in...winning 2 of last 3 at their place...both games Tony Freeman just lit them up, so maybe today it will be Cully or Matt Gatens or Eric May or Devan Bawinkel shooting them outta the gym?

Michigan is a weird team, you have no idea what team will come out for them...the one that beat UCONN,or the one that lost at home to NW after leading by 15.
 
clicheusername3 said:
I almost semi-bet my life that NW will beat Iowa...
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Northwestern will probably make the tournament (all they really have to at this point is beat the teams they should beat).

The way style they play though, makes it so anyone can beat them. That includes Iowa.
 
"I think ultimately this is what Licks goals are is to neutralize the advantage other teams may have athletically."

I hope Iowa gets to the point where we don't have try to neutralize the other team because they have better players. That tells me that our coach cannot recruit at the level of other teams, which also tells me that we will not be challenging for Big 10 titles because we will lose too many games to those "athletically better teams" during the season. What it tells me is that Iowa will be a consistently middle of the pack team unless our coach can recruit some of those "athletically better" kids to our team.

If our coach maintains that attitude in the Big 10 that he does not need the better players to compete in the Big 10, we need the coach to define what HE means by competing in the Big 10--winning or competing for a Big 10 championship or just beating the better teams on occasion and being a .500 team or slightly above and because the Big 10 gets 5 and 6 teams into the tournament--a tournament berth. Should not the coach's goal be to win the Big 10 or compete for the title every year? I just have never heard him say that...
 
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