bpiercehawks
Well-Known Member
The Hawkeyes take on North Dakota State tonight at Carver. NDSU is coming off an 85-50 loss to #10 Texas. It's always nice to compare the results of mutual opponents. The big thing I'm looking for is the field goal percentage the Hawks allow vs NDSU. Instead of comparing points allowed, I will be looking at how Iowa compares to the 27% shooting allowed by Texas in their game vs. NDSU. Also, Texas controlled the boards at a 51-32 advantage. These stats will be interesting to compare.
Many times last year I became frustrated with Iowa's 11 man rotation. If nothing else, at least this year we will be going with a 10 man rotation. Not great, but better than 11. Uthoff will benefit the most from playing added minutes. It seemed like both Uthoff and Clemmons struggled last year because of reduced minutes and not being allowed to play through some mistakes.
Granted it was against an inferior opponent, but it is nice that the Hawks were able to bring scorers off the bench vs. Hampton. Olaseni (12), Jok (11), and Uhl (8) will be nice to bring some offense off the bench. If you think back to the Lick years (and Fran's first year), the Hawks were fairly solid in the starting lineup but were very weak in bench scoring. We would go long stretches without scoring; a 10 point deficit would then spell defeat more often than not.
Another component of Coach McCaffery's system is that the Hawks get to the free throw line. This is reminiscent of Mr. Davis Davis' teams that would make more foul shots than the opponents would attempt. Whitey always gets to the line (the big reason he's able to get his points without having a well-rounded offensive game), and it was terrific to see Gabe and Jok go 6-6 each from the line.
NDSU goes with a more guard-oriented starting lineup. Lawrence Alexander and Kory Brown will be good matchups for our defenders, and Dupree and Kading are good on the boards. Kading had 4 offensive boards vs. Texas, so the Hawks will need to get a body on him to limit NDSU's second chances. After last year's collapse, the Hawks are going to have to show that they can bring a consistent effort every night, especially from the defensive end. Also, it seems like under McCaffery, the Hawkeyes have one Campbell game a year in the non-conference where they are in for a dogfight that we don't expect.
Go Hawks!
Many times last year I became frustrated with Iowa's 11 man rotation. If nothing else, at least this year we will be going with a 10 man rotation. Not great, but better than 11. Uthoff will benefit the most from playing added minutes. It seemed like both Uthoff and Clemmons struggled last year because of reduced minutes and not being allowed to play through some mistakes.
Granted it was against an inferior opponent, but it is nice that the Hawks were able to bring scorers off the bench vs. Hampton. Olaseni (12), Jok (11), and Uhl (8) will be nice to bring some offense off the bench. If you think back to the Lick years (and Fran's first year), the Hawks were fairly solid in the starting lineup but were very weak in bench scoring. We would go long stretches without scoring; a 10 point deficit would then spell defeat more often than not.
Another component of Coach McCaffery's system is that the Hawks get to the free throw line. This is reminiscent of Mr. Davis Davis' teams that would make more foul shots than the opponents would attempt. Whitey always gets to the line (the big reason he's able to get his points without having a well-rounded offensive game), and it was terrific to see Gabe and Jok go 6-6 each from the line.
NDSU goes with a more guard-oriented starting lineup. Lawrence Alexander and Kory Brown will be good matchups for our defenders, and Dupree and Kading are good on the boards. Kading had 4 offensive boards vs. Texas, so the Hawks will need to get a body on him to limit NDSU's second chances. After last year's collapse, the Hawks are going to have to show that they can bring a consistent effort every night, especially from the defensive end. Also, it seems like under McCaffery, the Hawkeyes have one Campbell game a year in the non-conference where they are in for a dogfight that we don't expect.
Go Hawks!
