Our record, so close.

[Thawki]

I know we all expected this to be a rebuilding year, or two, and that's fine. But if we had just taken care of business vs Wake, SDSU and Long beach we could be 9-2 right now.

Obviously the competition hasn't been great in terms of the strength of schedule, but how awesome would it have been to actually be 9-2 right now? I know we actually lost those games, but if Gatens weren't hurt, that could very well have been where we were right now.

Maybe this shows us that we're not that far away from being respectable? I don't quite know how to put it, but it would have us feeling pretty good about ourselves, I think, if we were 9-2 now. So, we stumbled a little bit out of the gate and we're not 9-2. But we are somewhat close.

I guess I am just saying we shouldn't get too discouraged, as there seems to be light at the end of the tunnel.

 

[sportstalent]

Those three games would give us 10-2 and we should have beat ISU, so give us 11-1 before tomorrow night, yeah I would take that in a heartbeat. I agree that the competition has not been the best, but last year I would never have had a good feeling like I do this year even if we were 7-5. The fact that we struggled to just win a game is what made it so difficult.
This season has been a lot of ifs, but positive ifs. I am very excited for what the future brings for Iowa basketball. This team plays hard and I hope they don't become broken with the brutality of how our BT season starts. We could start off a lot in the hole before getting that first win. For the players and staff, I just hope there are no blowouts and we can play tough.
Iowa just needs some more players and depth for next season and we can talk about going to the NIT or NCAA tourney. Think about it, people are talking 6 wins in BT play, I still see that as a stretch, but even winning the three games you pointed out, that would be 16 wins and a non-losing season and a legitimate shot at the NIT, with there now being three play-in games.
This could be a season about "what-ifs" and that is not all bad.

 

[ISU]

How should you have beat Iowa State?

 

[sportstalent]

How should you have beat Iowa State?

If we show up for 30 seconds of the first five minutes of the 2nd half and score 3 of the 20 layups we missed...

 

[ISU]

I could say the same thing about ISU and us winning by more.

 

[sportstalent]

I could say the same thing about ISU and us winning by more.

Of course you could, and they I could bring up another point of why Iowa should have won and you could bring up another one and we could do this all night. I think Iowa fans feel that ISU stole one for many reasons and ISU fans think they should have buried Iowa. However, it didn't happen and we can debate, we are fans of each and simply have a difference of opinion.
One thing though, it didn't happen and ISU won, plain and simple. It was a good game and the intrastate rivalry is going to be fun to watch and both areana are going to be loud for a long time. Iowa and ISU will begin to put UNI-Drake in their places next season and dominate them for a long time to come again. It is going to be fun.

 

[ISU]

Of course you could, and they I could bring up another point of why Iowa should have won and you could bring up another one and we could do this all night. I think Iowa fans feel that ISU stole one for many reasons and ISU fans think they should have buried Iowa. However, it didn't happen and we can debate, we are fans of each and simply have a difference of opinion.
One thing though, it didn't happen and ISU won, plain and simple. It was a good game and the intrastate rivalry is going to be fun to watch and both areana are going to be loud for a long time. Iowa and ISU will begin to put UNI-Drake in their places next season and dominate them for a long time to come again. It is going to be fun.

Agree 100%

 

[tweeterhawk]

A lot of couldda's, wouldda's, shouldda's in that post. This team was still finding itself, Fran was still finding what he had and a line-up that worked, and potentially one of our best players and shooters was injured and then recovering from surgery on his hand.

I think this team will be much more competitive than most of us expected to start the year. The bullets start flying for real tonight. Let's see where we're at.

 

[1977Hawkeye]

A lot of couldda's, wouldda's, shouldda's in that post. This team was still finding itself, Fran was still finding what he had and a line-up that worked, and potentially one of our best players and shooters was injured and then recovering from surgery on his hand.

I think this team will be much more competitive than most of us expected to start the year. The bullets start flying for real tonight. Let's see where we're at.

The injury to Gatens is the most legitemate what-if in this thread. If we have a healthy Gatens and was playing his usual game, some of those L's are W's. We lost to ISU and we had Gatens, who had a big first half in that game, so that loss is what it is. But the games against Wake, SDSU, Long Beach.. Those ones could have gone in our favor instead of being close losses if we'd had Gatens at 100%. That's what stings.

We're still not a very good team right now even with Gatens, but I'd sure like the looks of 10-2 a whole lot better, or even 9-3.

It would be nice to have a full and healthy roster again some year and see what we can do. Seems like we've been starting over every year for lord knows how long.