Kansas/ISU. Did anyone watch?

[docholihawk]

I realize that you are trying to rip on Hilton here but I wish Carver had more of this supposed 'magic'. If the refs were getting intimidated by the Hilton crowd and calling the game in their favor, imagine if the refs on Sunday felt that way in Carver. Iowa would've won by 30. Hell, if they call even a decent game in the 2nd half Iowa wins by 20.

I'm not ripping on Hilton. I think it's a great atmosphere, I'm ripping on the refs who are afraid to call fouls because of the crowd booing.

 

[Hawknigh]

I've talked about this with a co-worker. We've come to the conclusion that since they don't really have a bench the starters figure they have to stay out of foul trouble and the easiest way to stay out of foul trouble is to not play any defense. It's also less physically demanding to not play defense, so they don't need the rest that a good team that plays defense needs. Also, not working so hard on defense in the first half keeps them less tired and when you are tired you commit the silly fouls.

Then in the second half, each player has either one or no fouls and they can play harder with less chance of fouling out. They don't need as much rest because they didn't expend as much energy in the first half. This allows them to come back from deficits with the short bench they have.

I've watched several games of theirs this year and that seems to be the mentality of the players.

Seems like a pretty smart strategy, especially when you have a thin bench.

 

[WestCoastHawk]

Hilton looks electric on TV. Definitely jealous of their home court and prime time national television spots.

 

[99topdawg]

Had a co-worker yesterday say that he thinks they shouldn't play a single starter against A&M on Saturday to rest them. I asked him to name the 5 that would start in their place. He came up with 2. I couldn't help him. I said the dude that got suspended for playing defense and the walk-on that's at his 3rd college. He said, "yea, those are the two I named". So I said, "OK, how about the 6'10-ish 185-ish pound guy that was jumping up and down on the sideline every time Niang took 8 steps and did a layup? Not sure if he was really that happy or if he was supposed to hide McCay while she pouted."

He thought I was making things up. I really wasn't this time.

 

[WindsorHawk]

Had a co-worker yesterday say that he thinks they shouldn't play a single starter against A&M on Saturday to rest them.

This is one of the few times they will play fully rested with plenty of prep time. They better play to win. They have 11 games left and I see more than a couple losses on this schedule.

@ Texas A&M
West Virginia
@ Oklahoma State
@ Texas Tech
Texas
@ Baylor
TCU
@ West Virginia
Kansas State
Oklahoma State
@ Kansas

They could lose all 6 of those road games...not saying they will but they certainly could. And Texas gets 2 extra days of prep and rest going into the Iowa State game. West Virginia doesn't care if they mug you at your place or their place...all the same to them. So that won't be easy. I'm predicting they go 6-5 down the stretch. That puts them at 22-9 and 11-7...probably an NCAA 5 seed moving up or down depending on their conference tournament.

Edit - Their current RPI is 8. They can probably go 6-5 during this stretch and still have a top 20 RPI.

 

[BryceC]

I bet they lose 4 more.