Leadership.... Or, lack thereof

[#1DieHardHawk]

Yes, the team lacks a true PG, defensive fundamentals, and is suffering from questionable recruiting and a coaching staff that can't seem to push the right buttons.

But, what this team has lacked more than anything the last two seasons is grit and on-court leadership. Bohannon and Moss simply don't have it. Cook plays out of control and makes terrible basketball decisions in crunch time. Baer is a wall-flower. Luka tries, but, as an underclassman, it really shouldn't be his role.

Fran not only needs to recruit better athletes; if this team is to ever take the next step with him at the helm, he needs to recruit players with better intangibles as well. It's ideal when you have both athleticism and grit, but, you better have at least one or the other. This team has neither, and, it may be just a matter of time before fan patience completely runs dry.

 

[revkev73]

Players with leadership potential:

Wieskamp/Garza/Kriener

 

[tksirius]

 

[revkev73]

Evidently not.

 

[Northside Hawk]

From Austin and Andre Hollins to Nate Mason to Dupree McBrayer, Minnesota has had the edge in point guard every year Fran has been here.

Coffey and Murphy run laps around us in the athleticism department.

Garza trying to keep track of Murphy around the basket was like an old lady with a broom trying to shoo a bat out of the house. They are not great, but their strengths dove tail directly with our weaknesses, making them a bad matchup for us. Nothing new to see here.

 

[tksirius]

From Austin and Andre Hollins to Nate Mason to Dupree McBrayer, Minnesota has had the edge in point guard every year Fran has been here.

Coffey and Murphy run laps around us in the athleticism department.

Garza trying to keep track of Murphy around the basket was like an old lady with a broom trying to shoo a bat out of the house. They are not great, but their strengths dove tail directly with our weaknesses, making them a bad matchup for us. Nothing new to see here.

Sounds like you don't agree with Luka.

 

[Cyhawk]

A leader needs to be vocal and have followers behind him. This team needs a vocal leader. Garza and Wieskamp are roll players leading by example. Wieskamp may never be a true leader, I've never seen any emotion from him, you don't know if he's up or down 20 points. Thats not necessarily a bad thing. Garza is trying to lead, but I'm questioning whether the others are following him. No question without Garza this team is lost.

 

[revkev73]

A leader needs to be vocal and have followers behind him. This team needs a vocal leader. Garza and Wieskamp are roll players leading by example. Wieskamp may never be a true leader, I've never seen any emotion from him, you don't know if he's up or down 20 points. Thats not necessarily a bad thing. Garza is trying to lead, but I'm questioning whether the others are following him. No question without Garza this team is lost.

Will a team "leader" be allowed to lead as long as JBO and Cook are a part of the team? I wonder. Some players can't lead but their "presence" won't allow others to lead either. It is a big problem and has been endemic to FranBall.

 

[Grady]

I love Garza, and I think he's the most consistent, gutsy, and best player on this year's team. But his quote is simply wrong. Iowa is not better than the Gophers. It's important to face reality in order to believe in your heart you have to get better. Michigan also likes to spread teams out, and they're a heckuva lot better than MN, so Fran and the boys better get it figured out by Friday night!

 

[Cyhawk]

Thats where leadership comes in, chemistry, roll players, starters, bench players........ If you want to win games everyone needs to be on the same page with the same goal. Every player needs to be comfortable with Garza being the face of the team. Every once in awhile it will be cook, jbo or someone else.

 

[Cyhawk]

I love Garza, and I think he's the most consistent, gutsy, and best player on this year's team. But his quote is simply wrong. Iowa is not better than the Gophers. It's important to face reality in order to believe in your heart you have to get better. Michigan also likes to spread teams out, and they're a heckuva lot better than MN, so Fran and the boys better get it figured out by Friday night!

Every team/player will say they are better than the other team. Thats having your teams back. I agree with his statement

 

[HaydenHawk56]

A leader needs to be vocal and have followers behind him. This team needs a vocal leader. Garza and Wieskamp are roll players leading by example. Wieskamp may never be a true leader, I've never seen any emotion from him, you don't know if he's up or down 20 points. Thats not necessarily a bad thing. Garza is trying to lead, but I'm questioning whether the others are following him. No question without Garza this team is lost.

Does Wieskamp kind of remind you of Jared Uthoff in that regard. Can be good, real good, but can also be quiet and emotionless. But, he has years to grow under this staff..............

 

[Cyhawk]

Does Wieskamp kind of remind you of Jared Uthoff in that regard. Can be good, real good, but can also be quiet and emotionless. But, he has years to grow under this staff..............

Wieskamp / Uthoff comparison is spot one. Unlike Uthoff I think Wieskamp will be a top 20 possibly top 10 Hawkeye of all time. I agree he has some time to grow under this staff, however I don't see him ever being a vocal leader. He's played thousands of ball games in his life, it's not his style. When the end nears (his Sr. year) the sense of urgency will change and possibly his outlook on the game. For now sit back and enjoy the ride.

 

[HawkPrdatr40]

Iowa does lack leadership and it’s at the TOP. Team Leaders are developed and molded into place by good head coaches!!!

 

[Northside Hawk]

Sounds like you don't agree with Luka.

Garza may get a chance to put his money where his mouth is. We may meet Minnesota in the conference tournament with our NCAA life at stake.

I DON'T agree with Luka. The gophs have given us fits since Richie took over. Coffey and Murphy are bad matchups for him to try and guard around the basket. 6'6 6'7 athletic Ed Horton types. Stockman, the Russ Millard lookalike, was also toying with us in the paint. Once the ball got into the paint or the short corner we were toast.

The rest of Garza's game is really coming on. He has good footwork and patience on his moves that he should be teaching Kriener every day. He is learning to avoid the foul trouble that plagued his freshman year. He has overcome the cyst and the bad ankle injury. He should be a bell cow in the second half of the conference season and be ready to counter when teams adjust to him.

 

[hawkeyebob62]

How "Mississippi State" is that?

 

[theboat]

How "Mississippi State" is that?

I was thinking the same thing. I think that shows what is wrong with this team. They think they are a lot better than they actually are.

 

[1hawkeye1]

Leadership is an essential element for success. Obviously, we aren't in the locker room or at practice. But from I can see Garza and TC are the leaders on this team.

I don't think they lack leadership. They just plain suck on defense. Their positioning vs msu was good. Against MN it stunk. I don't know what they hell they were trying to do, but you can't stand out at the 3 pt line with your man when the ball is on the opposite side of the floor. There was no helpside defense at all. Just awful.

 

[bogeyman]

We don't have leaders that get it done in the clutch, been this way for much of Fran's tenure. I think Joe W has that potential but until Cook is gone won't have the label of our go to guy. Our "NBA PLAYER" air balled a free throw and committed a silly turnover with the spotlight on last night in crunch time.

 

[Northside Hawk]

We don't have leaders that get it done in the clutch, been this way for much of Fran's tenure. I think Joe W has that potential but until Cook is gone won't have the label of our go to guy. Our "NBA PLAYER" air balled a free throw and committed a silly turnover with the spotlight on last night in crunch time.

This is going to be the inner conflict of the conference second half. I've seen enough of Joe to know that he is our best player. Not potentially-now. We don't beat Northwestern or Penn State without the little plays he made in clutch time. He knows how to get open, how to read screens. He can defend and rebound.

The problem arises when upperclassmen on the team try to do too much. Bohannon's 1-7 from distance against MSU because they ran him ragged trying to play man to man defense on the other end. Cook's ill advised decisions (not the turnovers themselves, the decisions).

Like I've said earlier, we are basically down to eight and a half players. You can win with eight and a half but they all have to play their roles. Cook has improved his passing tremendously. He can shoot with either hand out to ten feet. He has other areas, even on this level, that need polishing. He gets so out of control some times that he loses his balance and tumbles into the basket support or falls into the cameramen on the baseline, thus compounding his mistake by being in no position to get back on defense.