Looking Forward to Penn

[UncleHawk]

I'm looking forward to the Penn game because it will finally give our bigs some size to play against. Penn's center, Nelson-Henry is 6'11",265lbs, and averages 18.3ppg. They also have some good 3pt shooters and assist men.
Pennsylvania Quakers 2013-14 Statistics - Team and Player Stats - Men's College Basketball - ESPN

Xavier has some of these problems magnified for opponents. Their center, Stainbrook, is a whopping 6'9", 290lbs, and averages 10p and 10r per game. In addition, they have assist men coming out their ears. Christon, their star, averages 17p, 3.7a. Randolph averages 4.3a and Dee Davis dishes out 9 assists per game! One good thing is that they don't appear to shoot many 3pters.
Basketball Statistics

Penn could, in some ways, be a nice transition game to a team like Xavier.

 

[ssckelley]

I think the Hawks will be fine under neath the basket, I think our bigs are better than theirs. But what I am anxious to see is how well Iowa's guards will defend Hicks and Jackson-Cartwright. Both know how to score and have been shooting the 3's pretty good so far this season. A game like this is where Iowa could miss Oglesby.

 

[DodgerHawki]

I'm looking forward to the Penn game because it will finally give our bigs some size to play against. Penn's center, Nelson-Henry is 6'11",265lbs, and averages 18.3ppg. They also have some good 3pt shooters and assist men.
Pennsylvania Quakers 2013-14 Statistics - Team and Player Stats - Men's College Basketball - ESPN

Xavier has some of these problems magnified for opponents. Their center, Stainbrook, is a whopping 6'9", 290lbs, and averages 10p and 10r per game. In addition, they have assist men coming out their ears. Christon, their star, averages 17p, 3.7a. Randolph averages 4.3a and Dee Davis dishes out 9 assists per game! One good thing is that they don't appear to shoot many 3pters.
Basketball Statistics

Penn could, in some ways, be a nice transition game to a team like Xavier.

The benefit to the first few games has been in giving guys like Uthoff and Jok the chance to play against opponents rather than just practice. Other than that, it's next to impossible to gain anything of value. It's different playing when it matters whether or not you make a shot or do something correct defensively.

Xavier will be a tough game. Many here seem to assume a win. Musketeers will be very tough opponent.

 

[bcl20]

Nobody assumes a win. They assume Iowa is better (they are) and hope to win based upon that.

 

[bcl20]

I think the Hawks will be fine under neath the basket, I think our bigs are better than theirs. But what I am anxious to see is how well Iowa's guards will defend Hicks and Jackson-Cartwright. Both know how to score and have been shooting the 3's pretty good so far this season. A game like this is where Iowa could miss Oglesby.

Good guards are pretty much the only thing that makes me nervous about are team. Unfortunately, this is college basketball so there are a lot of them.

 

[UncleHawk]

I think the Hawks will be fine under neath the basket, I think our bigs are better than theirs. But what I am anxious to see is how well Iowa's guards will defend Hicks and Jackson-Cartwright. Both know how to score and have been shooting the 3's pretty good so far this season. A game like this is where Iowa could miss Oglesby.

Hawks will be better under the basket than Penn, but my point is that the Quakers actually have some real big men who have been productive. That will be at least some prep for what's to come.

Agree that it will be good for us to face some more 3pt shooters. However, so far we've been pretty good at opponent 3pt% (17.2%) and most other stats vs inferior competition, being 1st or second in almost all categories in B1G statistics:
Basketball Statistical Leaders

I'm interested to see if Jok and Marble can continue their 3pt streak. Getting Gesell to hit a couple would really start to ease my mind. However, as a team we are now shooting 36% from 3 (from above link). That's not too bad considering we shot for 30% last year.