***North Florida Game Thread***

Grady said:
JoeT is showing some impressive improvement game-to-game. In his first games, he was trying to do to much every time he touched the ball, drove into double-teams, shot quickly...typical freshman stuff. He looked SO much better tonight: looked to run the offense, NOT dribbling into double-teams, keeping his head on a swivel. Young guy is growing up in front of our eyes, MUCH quicker than anticipated. Perhaps most importantly, he also showed quicks on the defensive side...we may have found our defensive guard stopper, ala Clemons...and boy, does this team need THAT.
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I was really impressed with his handle. He seemed like he was always 100% in control of the ball, which is extra impressive considering how fast he's moving.
 
thedukeofearl said:
I think we are going to be alright once we fit all the pieces in and come up with the combos.....
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Iowa will be alright only if a certain somebody can fit all the pieces in and this certain someone has shown he is not capable of doing that. Iowa has potentially the one dynamic they’ve been missing for years and now it begs the question on how long Fran waits to hand it over. No matter the learning curve, IMO it should be sooner rather than later!! Unleash Joe T...
 
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I'm with Dean on this. He doesn't need to start yet but needs to play 25 minutes more or less. I believe he will be starting very soon! He played a great game.
 
His skillz are undeniable and he's a baller.....the staff is gonna recognize that. I don't know why everyone would worry about Fran playing his best players. He typically always does. I have no clue about this, but I am guessing Joe T's "per" is out of this world.
 
I think people are too concerned with who starts rather than who finishes. If JT can get 25 minutes a game and is the PG at the end of the game, especially in tough conference play, does it really matter if he starts.

Since he is a freshman maybe it is best to let him start on the bench and watch the game and get a feel of the action before getting in there?
 
HawkPrdatr40 said:
Iowa will be alright only if a certain somebody can fit all the pieces in and this certain someone has shown he is not capable of doing that. Iowa has potentially the one dynamic they’ve been missing for years and now it begs the question on how long Fran waits to hand it over. No matter the learning curve, IMO it should be sooner rather than later!! Unleash Joe T...
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I kept thinking this during the game last night. Iowa probably has the pieces to be a tournament bubble type team, but I’m not sure Fran is willing or able to see it and put out the right rotation.

The only way Fran knows how to shorten the rotation is if he’s simply not allowed to play someone, so it looks like Pat is heading for a redshirt, which all told I think is okay, and hopefully he will get healthy.

Joe T for obvious reasons should see more minutes. Perimeter quickness on defense and penetration are severely lacking on this team.

The big one for me is we need to cut the big man rotation by one guy! I don’t care if it’s Kriener or Pemsl, but there is zero reason that we need to play all four of those slower of foot big men. Last year we primarily played Garza, Cook, and Kriener, with Baer occasionally sliding down to the 4. I would bet that 80% of the B1G coaches if they were coaching Iowa would not play all 4 of those big guys in their rotation. Wisconsin for example right now basically rotates 3 guys in the forward spot. Their 4’s are 6’8 Aleem Ford and 6’7 freshman Tyler Wahl. Both of those guys can shoot threes and would run circles around Kriener and Pemsl in a footspeed race. (They are waiting in their OSU transfer Potter to get eligible). I’ve said this for the better part of two years, I like Kriener and Pemsl, and they’ve certainly had some good moments at this level, but there is nothing that says they have to play. Garza is simply a better player and Nunge brings a little more versatility. Unfortunately one of Kriener and Pemsl should be cut out of the rotation, it could even be a night to night basis. Fran isn’t going to do that though.
 
InGoodCo said:
His skillz are undeniable and he's a baller.....the staff is gonna recognize that. I don't know why everyone would worry about Fran playing his best players. He typically always does. I have no clue about this, but I am guessing Joe T's "per" is out of this world.
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I’m with the general consensus that it doesn’t really matter if Joe T starts or comes off the bench. As most are pointing out he definitely needs minutes. His PER is very good right now, but way way too early to be significant.

On your point about Fran playing the best players I would say, the best players typically play, but not always enough. Fran has always had a challenge getting the rotation right.

I brought up the example of Jbo and Cook’s freshman year, it took him until nearly the end of the season to play Cook at the 5 and Wagner at the 4, which was a good mix of offense and defense for that particular team, had he recognized it earlier that team very well could have danced.

With this particular team I personally believe that most coaches would cut this rotation down to your top 8. Right now that would probably remove Evelyn and either Pemsl or Kriener at least from a positional standpoint. Connor getting more minutes at the 3. Fran probably won’t be willing to do that though. The problem with playing everyone is you sacrifice minutes for the better players.

As an aside, I actually have thought Evelyn has looked solid in defense, but he just seems to have absolutely zero confidence on offense. It kind of makes sense though, I think he spent a lot of his time at Valpo with the ball in his hands, so he may just not be built to play off the ball.
 
I big time disagree with people who say it doesn't matter who starts. The fact that people actually believe that blows me away. Getting off to a good start is extremely important in games. It can be the difference between putting a team away early and letting them hang around and build confidence. The best way to get off to a good start is to have your best players in the game.

Starting is also the easiest way to get more minutes and still get breathers here and there. You don't need a breather at the beginning of each half because you haven't exerted any energy yet. Everyone knows you start your best players. If it didn't matter, it wouldn't be done 99% of the time.
 
deanvogs said:
I could care less if Joe starts. Joe does need to be on the court 20-25 MPG thought. That will accelerate his development, and also help the team.
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The best PG on any collegiate basketball team (especially at this level) needs to start and not be your 6th man off the bench..
 
NikeHawk21 said:
I’m with the general consensus that it doesn’t really matter if Joe T starts or comes off the bench. As most are pointing out he definitely needs minutes. His PER is very good right now, but way way too early to be significant.

On your point about Fran playing the best players I would say, the best players typically play, but not always enough. Fran has always had a challenge getting the rotation right.

I brought up the example of Jbo and Cook’s freshman year, it took him until nearly the end of the season to play Cook at the 5 and Wagner at the 4, which was a good mix of offense and defense for that particular team, had he recognized it earlier that team very well could have danced.

With this particular team I personally believe that most coaches would cut this rotation down to your top 8. Right now that would probably remove Evelyn and either Pemsl or Kriener at least from a positional standpoint. Connor getting more minutes at the 3. Fran probably won’t be willing to do that though. The problem with playing everyone is you sacrifice minutes for the better players.

As an aside, I actually have thought Evelyn has looked solid in defense, but he just seems to have absolutely zero confidence on offense. It kind of makes sense though, I think he spent a lot of his time at Valpo with the ball in his hands, so he may just not be built to play off the ball.
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I agree on Fran's rotation, I have always hated the entire "hockey" like line up change he does. Why can't he mix that so we keep our best players on the floor and so we can see what some of the bench guys look like with some of the starters? Drives me nuts. But... I think he did well last year... and he has done well in the past (as in pushing the right buttons, getting the right guys on the court, his rotations etc) IMO, last year he found the right balance and did a pretty good job with that. I think they are still in the "let's see what we have here" mode. There's a lot of new pieces on this team. It's impossible they don't recognize what they are seeing from Joe T.

It's just hard for me to tell what that is gonna be in these types of games... Like, if you're gonna play a bunch of guys and see what you have, North Florida is the type of game to do it. So, I don't know how much he'll lean things down. Games like Depaul when we're getting our doors blown off he is just shoveling guys in to see if he can stop the bleeding.

I think we'll see Fran lean on certain guys more when the games against better teams start coming. Ya can't imagine that if Jordan starts to get right that he's gonna be coming in off the bench in a month.

We'll know by next week. I REALLY hope we play Creighton. They have really good guards and almost nothing in the post. It would be a clash of 2 teams that couldn't be more opposite and I wanna see how they stack up. I think CU fans are planning on dancing this year but I think that's ambitious.
 
NikeHawk21 said:
I kept thinking this during the game last night. Iowa probably has the pieces to be a tournament bubble type team, but I’m not sure Fran is willing or able to see it and put out the right rotation.

The only way Fran knows how to shorten the rotation is if he’s simply not allowed to play someone, so it looks like Pat is heading for a redshirt, which all told I think is okay, and hopefully he will get healthy.

Joe T for obvious reasons should see more minutes. Perimeter quickness on defense and penetration are severely lacking on this team.

The big one for me is we need to cut the big man rotation by one guy! I don’t care if it’s Kriener or Pemsl, but there is zero reason that we need to play all four of those slower of foot big men. Last year we primarily played Garza, Cook, and Kriener, with Baer occasionally sliding down to the 4. I would bet that 80% of the B1G coaches if they were coaching Iowa would not play all 4 of those big guys in their rotation. Wisconsin for example right now basically rotates 3 guys in the forward spot. Their 4’s are 6’8 Aleem Ford and 6’7 freshman Tyler Wahl. Both of those guys can shoot threes and would run circles around Kriener and Pemsl in a footspeed race. (They are waiting in their OSU transfer Potter to get eligible). I’ve said this for the better part of two years, I like Kriener and Pemsl, and they’ve certainly had some good moments at this level, but there is nothing that says they have to play. Garza is simply a better player and Nunge brings a little more versatility. Unfortunately one of Kriener and Pemsl should be cut out of the rotation, it could even be a night to night basis. Fran isn’t going to do that though.
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I kept thinking Iowa has the pieces to easily make the tournament. They have two really good players. Most teams with two really good players make the tournament. Now it looks like they have a point guard who makes both ends of the floor better. Nunge is starting to look better. CJ looks like an average 2 guard on a Big 10 team. That's 2 average starters, one good starter (if Toussaint starts) and two really good starters. That's a tournament team.
 
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