Let's talk Indiana

Indiana was the last team I wanted to see Iowa face. That being said Iowa somehow beat them last time after only shooting 20% from 3. That is unlikely to happen again.

Indiana plays their top 4 guys 30+ minutes most games, so they aren't deep at all. Iowa needs to run the floor, press often, and try to get them into foul trouble. Basically wear them out and get Bryant crying for the ball again. Iowa has mixed up their zone defenses pretty good lately...although they still give up a lot of open 3s.

Indiana is currently favored by 1 point. The over/under is 157 so lots of scoring expected
 
The Pros:
  • The Play: Iowa has been playing it's best the last 2-3 weeks.
  • Youth: Do they really know this is more than just another game? Maybe not .. and I mean that in a good way. If they go into it like it's just another game ,, they can win.
  • Rotation: Iowa is playing 9 to 11 players. Only 2 are averaging more than 25 MPGs. The young Hawks should be rested and ready to play.
  • Health: Unlike previous years, Iowa is as healthy as they have been all season. In past years, there were always one or two key players with nagging injuries. If I'm not mistaken, this year the only one is Jok and he's almost as healthy as he's been all year.
  • Crean: I don't like him .. never have .. he's arrogant and cocky .. he's always recruited well, but IMHO he's never gotten everything out of his team.
The Cons:
  • The Play: Indiana is playing better than they were when we beat them 2+ weeks ago.
  • Youth: This is not just another game and a lot is riding on it. Will the pressure get to them?
  • Health: With the exception of OG, Indiana appears to be healthier then they were at the first meeting.
  • Crean: As mentioned above, he's always recruited well and this team is no exception.
  • Talent: It can get you a long way and IMHO Indiana's talent is better than Iowa's. If they put it together .. ..
  • Track Record: Like it or not, Fran's track record in the BTT is not good. Is that a product of his coaching or the team's health at the time of the first tournament game?
I've said it in other threads, I don't like this match up. I have this feeling that too much can go wrong. Indiana was the last team I wanted to see Iowa face.

Like others on this board, however, I am happy to feel this way. While I felt like we had a chance three weeks ago, I was not holding my breath. The fact that we as fans are realistically talking about the Dance .. to have hope right now .. it has been a fun couple of weeks, whether we make the Big Dance or the NIT.

Heck .. IMHO it's been a great season. IIRC, very early in the season (or was it preseason?) Jon said there would be peaks and valleys. Right now we're peaking and let's hope we stay on this peak for another few weeks!!

Just my $.02 .. .. GO HAWKS!!!
 
Last edited:
I hope the players and coaches are not as worried as our fan base. Things appear to be shaking out well for our tourney chances to strengthen. This is giving me a positive and peaceful lead up to this game. I feel like karmically Iowa is due the good shake. Let's all practice the power of positive thinking. "I think we can, I think we can, I think we can!"
 
WindsorHawk said:
I'm not worried. For one thing it won't do any good to worry. But the real reason I'm not worried is because we are playing well. Fran is using the press and the zone well. The guys have figured out how to play together. And chemistry is a very dangerous thing.

Also, Jok told Fran last Friday that he was 100%. It was the 1st time he's been 100% since he got hurt. And it showed Sunday. He looked good...smooth. The upside of his injury is that it held his minutes down the last 1/3 of the season. He is fresh and should be able to showcase his game the rest of the way. I'm talking about his complete game where 20 is a given and 30 is reasonable.

Jok made a ton of FTs (22-23) n the first IN game on his way to 35 points. But he didn't play all that well. He was 1-6 from 3 and still not himself. This time IN will see the real Jok.

And lastly...we have to win. Our NCAA starts tomorrow. We know it. The team knows it. If we lose we got to the back up plan and play in the NIT...which looked like a pipe dream after the 2nd IL game. I hope we play well...because I'm confident we will win if we do.

Whatever happens this was a fun team to watch and had a very successful season in a rebuilding year...with our best player and Cook both being less than 100% for significant periods.
Click to expand...

...pretty much sums it up.

JOK is going off the rest of the way folks. If the rest play like they have been any team that beats them hats off to em. Enjoying the crap out of this season! Go HAWKS!
 
NikeHawk21 said:
It seems like we have talked about everything else on here (bubble, incoming recruits, awards, coaching vacancies, next season), but haven't even discussed the most important game of our season.

I do not have a good feeling about this game. If Indiana shoots us out of the zone we are in trouble. Their guards are much quicker than ours and we had a tough time containing them in man-to-man last time.

I also just worry about Iowa coming out and laying an egg for a number of reasons. We haven't played well in the BTT under Fran. I also wasn't happy with the way we finished the Penn State game. Basketball is a huge momentum game and I hope that doesn't carry over to the start of this one.

If we lose I won't be in total meltdown mode, but it would be really sweet to make the tournament this year. My confidence level isn't high for this one.
Click to expand...

I'm with you on this one. Fran's record in the Big Ten Tourney is just 2-7, worst record of Big Ten coaches of 3 years or more. That's just awful. Just real poor showings in the BTT and have had rather favorable matchups as well. Don't know what it is but Iowa just doesn't play well under Fran in the BTT. Maybe it's the pressure of it? So I'll stick with the trend let alone playing against multiple pros.
 
mopkins said:
Indiana was the last team I wanted to see Iowa face. That being said Iowa somehow beat them last time after only shooting 20% from 3. That is unlikely to happen again.

Indiana is currently favored by 1 point. The over/under is 157 so lots of scoring expected[/QUOTE

Hawks came back 3 times in OT win from 9+ pts down.
IU turns the ball over - a lot.
Only worry is if IU decides to feed it inside every possession to Thomas - betting their guards won't - they want to shoot before that happens.

For both teams - playing in an empty arena - can you get your team going?? Has to be weird after spending 2 months playing in front of raucous crowds.
Click to expand...
 
WindsorHawk said:
I'm not worried. For one thing it won't do any good to worry. But the real reason I'm not worried is because we are playing well. Fran is using the press and the zone well. The guys have figured out how to play together. And chemistry is a very dangerous thing.

Also, Jok told Fran last Friday that he was 100%. It was the 1st time he's been 100% since he got hurt. And it showed Sunday. He looked good...smooth. The upside of his injury is that it held his minutes down the last 1/3 of the season. He is fresh and should be able to showcase his game the rest of the way. I'm talking about his complete game where 20 is a given and 30 is reasonable.

Jok made a ton of FTs (22-23) n the first IN game on his way to 35 points. But he didn't play all that well. He was 1-6 from 3 and still not himself. This time IN will see the real Jok.

And lastly...we have to win. Our NCAA starts tomorrow. We know it. The team knows it. If we lose we got to the back up plan and play in the NIT...which looked like a pipe dream after the 2nd IL game. I hope we play well...because I'm confident we will win if we do.

Whatever happens this was a fun team to watch and had a very successful season in a rebuilding year...with our best player and Cook both being less than 100% for significant periods.
Click to expand...


This is a great way to look at it.
 
TheIowaHawkGuy said:
I'm with you on this one. Fran's record in the Big Ten Tourney is just 2-7, worst record of Big Ten coaches of 3 years or more. That's just awful. Just real poor showings in the BTT and have had rather favorable matchups as well. Don't know what it is but Iowa just doesn't play well under Fran in the BTT. Maybe it's the pressure of it? So I'll stick with the trend let alone playing against multiple pros.
Click to expand...

I've already said why. Last year's class didn't have the mental toughness to not overlook an inferior opponent. The 2 years before that where we had decent teams we won both times.

The only thing a coach can do wrong in that situation is overlook an opponent and get ready for the next game. Even if Fran did that, it doesn't matter this year because there is no way he is overlooking Indiana.

Here is the breakdown of first round games under fran.

Years we were terrible - 0-2
Years we were huge favorites - 0-3
Years where it was 50/50 - 2-0

Since this year is a 50/50 game, I wouldn't worry about the times we sucked or were huge favorites.
 
mopkins said:
For me its not IU fear as much as it is Fran in the BTT fear.
Click to expand...

I keep posting stuff on this topic but no one replies. Can you tell me what a good coach can do to be bad at coaching specifically in the Big 10 tournament? One year we beat Northwestern by 26 twice then lost in the tournament to them. What can a coach possibly do to make that happen? Like I said before, it's possible he overlooks the first team, but I highly doubt it. And even if he did the last 3 years, he won't this year.
 
PCHawk said:
I keep posting stuff on this topic but no one replies. Can you tell me what a good coach can do to be bad at coaching specifically in the Big 10 tournament? One year we beat Northwestern by 26 twice then lost in the tournament to them. What can a coach possibly do to make that happen? Like I said before, it's possible he overlooks the first team, but I highly doubt it. And even if he did the last 3 years, he won't this year.
Click to expand...

how you prepare the team mostly. Iowa had 3 days off...what did they do in that time? When did they leave for DC and how does that compare to how they normally treat road games? How do they handle the media and the pressure of the tournament? All of that falls on the coach.
 
mopkins said:
how you prepare the team mostly. Iowa had 3 days off...what did they do in that time? When did they leave for DC and how does that compare to how they normally treat road games? How do they handle the media and the pressure of the tournament? All of that falls on the coach.
Click to expand...

How would any of that be different than any other game? The 2 years prior we had worse teams that beat better teams. They were coached by Frank too. The difference was the players and the situation. We were huge favorites the years we lost. Does Fran forget how to coach when he's a huge favorite? Or do certain players not have the mental strength to not take teams for granted?
 
1977Hawkeye said:
I suppose it's partly the last 3 years in the BTT talking, but I too am uneasy about this one. This Indiana team kinda reminds me of some of Alford's Iowa teams - they had talent and underachieved/melted down in the conference season, only to turn it on in the BTT when their backs were against the wall. I think IU is dangerous and Iowa needs to come ready to play this one.

I can't help be concerned about a look-ahead to Wisconsin (the game that gets us "in" if we win) when we still have a Thursday game to win as well.

As for this BTT, I honestly don't know what to expect. I could see Iowa making it to the finals, and I could also see them losing tomorrow. Time will tell. One thing I know for sure: if we lose, we won't have to worry about the finals. :)
Click to expand...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Share this page

Top