New Starting Line-ups?

Just a few things. Brommer is far and away our best center. Olesansi will not be a consistent offensive contributor (this year) and may only be marginally better on D. Sure he can run a little and likes to block shots from the weakside, but the jury is still out what he brings in a man on situation.

The only thing limiting Mel last year was foul trouble. He's also put in a lot of work from 15. At the rate he's improving I'd wouldn't be surprised to see him leave after his Jr year. He's a very driven young man, and he's very set on playing in the NBA.
 
Wake up. Mel Basabe leaving his Jr. year for the NBA? Seriously? Please go back and look at the last few NBA drafts.
 
CAARHawk said:
It is quite likely Mel is going to have a dropoff this year. At the end of the year teams figured out how to limit his effectiveness.
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Wanna put a friendly wager on this? If he doesn't do better than 11 PPG and 7 RPG I would be shocked.
 
The pessimism is strong on here....predicting that Mel will drop back this year,because why exactly? The Hawks were 3-7 in the second half of the Big Ten season,but 4 of those 7 losses were by 3 points or less. Could have been 7-3,yet Mel was all figured out,and the team was horrible?
Basabe has improved his game in the offseason,and is shooting the ball much better from the mid-range. He will be better this year. So will Marble,Cartwright,Gatens,May,McCabe and Brommer. Oglesby and White can chip in. Iowa will improve this year,bet on it.
 
JHHawk said:
The pessimism is strong on here....predicting that Mel will drop back this year,because why exactly? The Hawks were 3-7 in the second half of the Big Ten season,but 4 of those 7 losses were by 3 points or less. Could have been 7-3,yet Mel was all figured out,and the team was horrible?
Basabe has improved his game in the offseason,and is shooting the ball much better from the mid-range. He will be better this year. So will Marble,Cartwright,Gatens,May,McCabe and Brommer. Oglesby and White can chip in. Iowa will improve this year,bet on it.
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Could have also been 1-9. Two of those three wins you speak of were by 2 points or less....including a 1 point win over a terrible Indiana team. The sophomore slump is well documented in college basketball play. Our record may improve, but its only because we have an easier schedule. There are people looking for our current players to make strides that are just not realistic. 20 loss teams that add no more talent to their starting 5 don't come back the next year and make the NCAA tournament...it just doesn't happen.
 
I agree with CAAR. As I said in the Mel thread a few weeks ago, I'm not sold on Mel as a go-to guy in the Big Ten, unless he shows a more developed post game and a consistent midrange shot. I'd also like to see him play competent defense.

We'll never now what Hubbard could or could not have contributed. We do know he is an undersized forward who isn't really a point and isn't really a 2, but could sort of maybe fill in both spots. He wasn't the savior and his loss doesn't doom the program.

This is a team of limited role players and freshmen, and a 16-win season would be a pretty solid coaching job.

CHA needs a serious talent infusion. Short of that, nah, not going to happen.
 
Yes, by all means, let's look at a stud freshmen, then assume be will get no better. Ya know, cause lots of players show no development over a four year career.
 
Scoop said:
Yes, by all means, let's look at a stud freshmen, then assume be will get no better. Ya know, cause lots of players show no development over a four year career.
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Neither CAAR nor I stated that Mel would not get better.

I'm not sold that he's a stud -- yet.

I've been watching Iowa BBall since 1978, and I don't see anything to get too excited about right now. I'm cautiously optimistic about Fran.
 
Yes, by all means, let's look at a stud freshmen, then assume be will get no better. Ya know, cause lots of players show no development over a four year career.
 
Scoop - Gatens was all-frosh B1G and had league honors. May was all-frosh B1G.

Watch what happened to Mel the second time B1G teams played him.

Now does that mean his scoring will go down, maybe not. But look at his shooting average and his plus and minus numbers.
 
Like others are saying, just because the names are the same, it doesn't mean the players are the same. But I'm not as worried about the starters as I am about the bench. Last year the starters would play well first half, but not the full game. We didn't add starters, but we definitely added more depth. If we have solid bench play this year, I think we could do pretty well.
 
CAARHawk said:
It is quite likely Mel is going to have a dropoff this year. At the end of the year teams figured out how to limit his effectiveness.
Click to expand...

This is 99.9% bull **** and .01% horse ****.

Mel scored in double figures in 11 of the last 15 games including 7 out of the last 9.

The second time through the leage he improved or equaled his performance in every game except for two (and in one of the two he still put up 19 and 8) and in games he didn't it was usually due to foul trouble.

Mel gave absolutely no indication of a drop off as season wore on.
 
Cartwright, Gatens, Marble, Basabe and Brommer.....Cartwright, Marble and Basabe were all first year Big Ten players. They should all be stronger and better all around players this year. Cartwright started slow last year and got better...hopefully that trend continues. Marble was very young when he got to IC..he showed flashes of being a solid player in the Big Ten, but he needed to get stronger...I think he has. Basabe was a tough matchup for teams last year...as long as his teammates help out and do their part so teams can't double him, he should have another solid year.

There is hope...last year's team wasn't too far from adding another 6-7 wins.
 
We have a two year starter in May. It is likely that he may lose his starting job to Marble permanently. Marble is long and athletic and from all accounts much better shooter. He will improve our defense and offense. I think that bodes well that we r headed in the right direction. Archie averaged 8 minutes a game last year. White and Olaseni are miles ahead of him. I see Archie losing some of his munutes, which will be a upgrade. I believe we will be 9 deep this year without much drop off. May, McCabe, White, Oglesby, Olaseni, I think this bench will be much improved over last year. This bench has the potential to all be starters some day, or were starters already. How long has it been since we were able to say we are developing our bench for the future. We are headed in the right direction. Depth, experience, consistency are keys to winning. We can win without a five star recruit. I think we can win 20 this year. Not saying we will, but we can. By the end of the year I could see White and Olaseni contending for starting time.
 
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