Our best Defender?

KarlChilders

KarlChilders

Active Member
Who do you fellers think will be our best defender this year, and why? I am going with Peter Jok because of experience and the fact that he wants to get to the show. He is quick enough and if he is in great shape (Fran says he is) that will help with his stamina on the defensive end.
 
From what we've seen I'd have to say Baer. Hopefully CW is but he might have some issues keeping quicker guards in front of him. Jok is a good steals guy but he's far from a great defender.
 
Iowa has a lot of guys that have the potential to be considered great defenders. With the coaching staff, hopefully, a bunch of them will emerge. The guys on the team seem to be all high energy guys, so I don't think Fran will have a problem getting them motivated offensively or defensively. I think Wagner and Baer are two guys that will elevate the play of their teammates.
 
I'd say Baer. Uhl has the tools to be a good defender but he needs to up his energy level and hustle at that end of the floor. That's why Baer gets the nod from a lot of people here. He hustles from start to finish.
 
RobHowe said:
Ahmad Wagner
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Ehhh. From what I saw last year I'd disagree. If memory serves me correctly he struggled mightily against taller players. His per 40 minute fouls were 6.1 which is similar to Woody as a freshman. With the type of athleticism he has that would suggest to me he was out of position a lot. If he doesn't improve guarding taller players I'm not sure what type of player he really excels at guarding. Hopefully he has improved.

This thread is kind of alarming in general. I don't think we have any really good individual defenders. I think that is why the loss of Hutton stung so much.

Hopefully our "team defense" will be strong with the amount of length and athletism we have, but it is definitely a concern.
 
NikeHawk21 said:
Ehhh. From what I saw last year I'd disagree. If memory serves me correctly he struggled mightily against taller players. His per 40 minute fouls were 6.1 which is similar to Woody as a freshman. With the type of athleticism he has that would suggest to me he was out of position a lot. If he doesn't improve guarding taller players I'm not sure what type of player he really excels at guarding. Hopefully he has improved.

This thread is kind of alarming in general. I don't think we have any really good individual defenders. I think that is why the loss of Hutton stung so much.

Hopefully our "team defense" will be strong with the amount of length and athletism we have, but it is definitely a concern.
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He wasn't great last year but he wasn't awful. And he was a freshman who didn't really play until the conference season, either, so he was thrown to the wolves, so to speak.

He's one of our best athletes who has gotten stronger and quicker laterally from what I've seen this summer.
 
RobHowe said:
He wasn't great last year but he wasn't awful. And he was a freshman who didn't really play until the conference season, either, so he was thrown to the wolves, so to speak.

He's one of our best athletes who has gotten stronger and quicker laterally from what I've seen this summer.
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With his size and athletism he definitely has the tools to be a really good defender. Moss, Williams, and Uhl do as well. Let's hope they all embrace the challenge of being good defenders.
 
The defensive makeup of this team is very interesting. We don't have guys that I look at as good on ball defenders, especially at the guard position. We also lack a rim protector.

With Williams, Jok Baer, and Uhl we do have guys who are all long for their respective positions. We're going to need a total team effort to help make up for the gaps that we are missing and I anticipate this to be a weakness for the Hawks.

I really couldn't come to an answer on an individual player that is our best defender. I guess if I had to pick, I'll say Jok who is a better defender than he gets credit for at this point because of his younger days.
 
Jok has great ball anticipation and can get steals but it seems like he struggled with the man on ball defense. I think our help defense is really going to be important this year. Our defense as a whole may be better than individual defense.
 
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