MAJOR love from Bilas

[SpiderRico]

Jay Bilas, whom I consider to be the pound-for-pound best analyst in college basketball today, just tweeted out that he's now watched every Iowa game from December on and says we're as good as ANYONE and are good enough to win it all.

I'm lovin' the love....been a LONG time coming!

 

[SpiderRico]

Also says he loves our offense....great screening and cutting team. Says that "patterned movement" much easier to take away defensively, but that Iowa doesn't run patterned movement so much harder to take away.

Great stuff.

 

[WindsorHawk]

Jay Bilas, whom I consider to be the pound-for-pound best analyst in college basketball today, just tweeted out that he's now watched every Iowa game from December on and says we're as good as ANYONE and are good enough to win it all.

I'm lovin' the love....been a LONG time coming!

I'm also a Bilas fan. I think he knows his stuff and doesn't say things just for hype or to generate interest. This is very flattering IMO.

 

[WindsorHawk]

Also says he loves our offense....great screening and cutting team. Says that "patterned movement" much easier to take away defensively, but that Iowa doesn't run patterned movement so much harder to take away.

Great stuff.

Awesome! Thanks for sharing.

 

[Skeets77]

Jay Bilas, whom I consider to be the pound-for-pound best analyst in college basketball today, just tweeted out that he's now watched every Iowa game from December on and says we're as good as ANYONE and are good enough to win it all.

I'm lovin' the love....been a LONG time coming!

That is awesome. I've always liked Jay and felt he did a good job in his analysis.

 

[Xerxes]

Jay Bilas, whom I consider to be the pound-for-pound best analyst in college basketball today, just tweeted out that he's now watched every Iowa game from December on and says we're as good as ANYONE and are good enough to win it all.

I'm lovin' the love....been a LONG time coming!

I would guess that many consider Bilas the best analyst in any sport. Professional or college. Highly intelligent and respected. Isn't afraid to make bold statements and predictions and even called out the NCAA.

Good stuff.

 

[Makavelihawk]

Normally I'd say "Who gives a ****?" But this is far from normal. Jay Bilas is the best, and smartest analyst in any sport, bar none.

 

[Bigtenchamp]

well I'm not so sure our half court offense is so great... we are a transition team that offensive rebounds... but nice that jay is saying good things about us

 

[Skeets77]

When Harrison Barnes was struggling at UNC his Soph year and was getting allot of criticism from around the country I thought Jay did an excellent job in his critiquing HB's positive abilities and attributes and how his game would be geared more towards the NBA once he got past his frozen first step mental block. Since Jay did most of the national ACC games I appreciate his insights and not just jumping on the bandwagon of other analysts.

 

[Skeets77]

@SpiderRico
I emailed Jay and pointed him towards HawkeyeNation and the thread you started. Maybe he'll stop in and say hi.

 

[SpiderRico]

Normally I'd say "Who gives a ****?" But this is far from normal. Jay Bilas is the best, and smartest analyst in any sport, bar none.

That's why I posted it. I normally don't give a rip what a Seth Greenberg or some other lower level analyst says. But when Jay Bilas tweets out that the Hawks are as good as any team in the country and are good enough to win the National Championship, then I tend to take notice.

This game tonight is so huge....I wonder if everyone in Hawkeyenation realizes how huge. On the surface, it's just "another" conference game. But in reality, it's not. First of all, it's a chance to move into second place with 1/3 of the conference season done. Second, and probably more important, it's a chance to build on all of the positive momentum and pub the Hawks have received over the last 7-10 days. If we win against Michigan, at their place, with what's been said about us up until now....then that chatter will explode even more and with that comes increased recruiting interest and all of the other great program-moving momentum that comes with it. If we lose, well, we're just another OSU, ISU, Wisky, etc that just doesn't quite have what it takes to do it this year.

I'm as pumped for this game as any game in a LONG, LONG time.

 

[LG210]

Not only is Jay Bilas the smartest analyst in all of sports--whether professional, college, high school, middle school, elementary school, intramural, rec league, or unorganized "pick up"-type games--he is also he smartest human in the entire United States. Perhaps the world.

 

[ArvadaHawk]

Spiderco...a win tonight also means that Iowa is setup for a showdown with MSU for first place during the first half of the B1G schedule. Then, that sets up Iowa to have the ability to stay in first place the rest of the B1G. That coupled with at least a 2nd place finish in the B1G tourney could position Iowa as a #1 seed, maybe even at the expense of MSU. However, all of that IS WAY WAY WAY TOO EARLY. But, that extends the importance of this game because the way things are shaping up, it could wind up being a 3 horse race, Iowa, MSU and UM.

 

[Skeets77]

https://twitter.com/JayBilas/status/426059329100206080

 

[Tkingpin]

The only knock I have against Jay Bilas is his bias toward the power conferences and disdain of the Mid-Majors. The fact that Wichita State made it all the way to the final 4 last year, and Butler's success of late, VCU, etc... has to be proof that sometimes the 2nd best team in the mid-majors are as good as the 5th or 6th best team in the power conferences.


Most people on this board probably side with Bilas on this, but I graduated from Drake and I like to see the David's go against the Goliath's sometimes...

 

[SpiderRico]

Spiderco...a win tonight also means that Iowa is setup for a showdown with MSU for first place during the first half of the B1G schedule. Then, that sets up Iowa to have the ability to stay in first place the rest of the B1G. That coupled with at least a 2nd place finish in the B1G tourney could position Iowa as a #1 seed, maybe even at the expense of MSU. However, all of that IS WAY WAY WAY TOO EARLY. But, that extends the importance of this game because the way things are shaping up, it could wind up being a 3 horse race, Iowa, MSU and UM.

You're exactly right. I really think that this will end up being a 3 team race between us, Michigan and MSU. OSU has fallen off the face of the earth, Wisky is being shown to be a paper tiger, and the rest of the league will fight for the 6-12 spots.

 

[okeefe4prez]

Oh, Jay. If you make it over here, before you make prognostications about Iowa, let me alert you to an immutable trait of Iowa football and basketball teams. They can never ever ever ever win 3 truly big games in a row. Never. It is impossible. Two, sure. Three? No way. Once I came to accept that fact, I became a more well rounded human being and my anger and rage issues associated with watching Iowa sports subsided completely. Another team with this same immutable trait is the Missouri Tigers.

 

[STILLBUSTER]

That's why I posted it. I normally don't give a rip what a Seth Greenberg or some other lower level analyst says. But when Jay Bilas tweets out that the Hawks are as good as any team in the country and are good enough to win the National Championship, then I tend to take notice.

This game tonight is so huge....I wonder if everyone in Hawkeyenation realizes how huge. On the surface, it's just "another" conference game. But in reality, it's not. First of all, it's a chance to move into second place with 1/3 of the conference season done. Second, and probably more important, it's a chance to build on all of the positive momentum and pub the Hawks have received over the last 7-10 days. If we win against Michigan, at their place, with what's been said about us up until now....then that chatter will explode even more and with that comes increased recruiting interest and all of the other great program-moving momentum that comes with it. If we lose, well, we're just another OSU, ISU, Wisky, etc that just doesn't quite have what it takes to do it this year.

I'm as pumped for this game as any game in a LONG, LONG time.

I realize it! While I share your pumpeditude, it's matched by my nervousness ... because it's such a HUGE game!

I've mentioned "Crisler demons" in every post leading up because I strongly believe that mental obstacle is the only reason why Iowa would lose. Everything else is falling into place ... size - check; length - check; talent & athleticism - check; depth - check; experience - check; shooting - check. As goofy as it may sound, the only serious obstacle left to overcome is "the monkey" that certain places have. Maybe it's just watching it bite the Hawks so often, in such inexplicable ways, that it always makes me temper my belief.

IF Hawks exorcise "the demons" and then follow it up with W's @ NwU and vs. MSU -- every word of Final-4 and NCAA Championship chatter would be legit!!

(Just typing that is f-ing AWESOME!!)

 

[SpiderRico]

I realize it! While I share your pumpeditude, it's matched by my nervousness ... because it's such a HUGE game!

I've mentioned "Crisler demons" in every post leading up because I strongly believe that mental obstacle is the only reason why Iowa would lose. Everything else is falling into place ... size - check; length - check; talent & athleticism - check; depth - check; experience - check; shooting - check. As goofy as it may sound, the only serious obstacle left to overcome is "the monkey" that certain places have. Maybe it's just watching it bite the Hawks so often, in such inexplicable ways, that it always makes me temper my belief.

IF Hawks exorcise "the demons" and then follow it up with W's @ NwU and vs. MSU -- every word of Final-4 and NCAA Championship chatter would be legit!!

(Just typing that is f-ing AWESOME!!)

Just keep in mind....when we beat OSU at OSU a few games back, we hadn't won there in our last 8 trips to Columbus (I think...it was either that or we hadn't beaten them in our last 8 games total). Either way, the Valu City Arena demon was much bigger than the Crysler Arena demon. Plus, we had the added pressure in Columbus of not being able to close a big game out for the last 2 years. So in that one game, we exorcised all demons and now we can go into Crysler and open up a can on the Wolverines.

This is going to be somewhat similar to what happened to the football team back in 2002. We had the loss against ISU early in the year, we had some close games and then pulled a game out against Purdue against all odds and then we absolutely punked everyone the rest of the way. On the basketball side this year, we had our early season loss to ISU and have had some close games and then won a game at OSU that we had no business winning down 9 with 11 minutes left. Now, we've got all that out of the way and we can just play ball and kick the snot out of every team left on our schedule.

Go Hawks!

 

[okeefe4prez]

I realize it! While I share your pumpeditude, it's matched by my nervousness ... because it's such a HUGE game!

I've mentioned "Crisler demons" in every post leading up because I strongly believe that mental obstacle is the only reason why Iowa would lose. Everything else is falling into place ... size - check; length - check; talent & athleticism - check; depth - check; experience - check; shooting - check. As goofy as it may sound, the only serious obstacle left to overcome is "the monkey" that certain places have. Maybe it's just watching it bite the Hawks so often, in such inexplicable ways, that it always makes me temper my belief.

IF Hawks exorcise "the demons" and then follow it up with W's @ NwU and vs. MSU -- every word of Final-4 and NCAA Championship chatter would be legit!!

(Just typing that is f-ing AWESOME!!)

Calm yourself. Please. Overly high expectations plus Iowa sports combine to form a powder keg on message boards across the great state. It's January. This team looks better every time it goes out, but March is a LONG way off. And furthermore, I don't care about seeding. I care about our bracket, when it's released.