Perkins and Opposing Defenses.

[MelroseHawkins]

Boy, Tony Perkins is really becoming a dilemma for opposing defenses. He's really becoming an issue to handle which is great for Iowa. He seems to be a major gear on this team and a key cog for the offense. He has enough of an outside shot to respect and that is also opening his game for hard cuts to the hoop. The defender comes out on him and he cuts to open space and his teammates are looking for him. He cuts with a purpose and not just going thru the motion. The team assist to points in last nights game was amazing, and much of that was due to the back cuts.

Tony also just plays a really good mental game with his decisions. He has enough handles to effectively penetrate the lane to look for open guys and for that shot at the FT line. He's just a gamer and plays hard. I go back to the two tip ins he had vs Mich St. Key plays in the game. Look at the results of a game where he's on and scoring over 15 pts. He is just so valuable and what this team needed to keep defenses off balance.

I am a huge Tony Perkins fan.

 

[MelroseHawkins]

Oh, and I believe he was 2 assists off from a triple double last night.

 

[PCHawk]

He can shoot 12 footers in the lane whenever he wants. He jumps too damn high for anyone to guard him. When he's playing well is so fun to watch. While he was struggling earlier in the year it was hard to even remember how he was so good at the end of last year. Now that he's playing so well again it's hard to imagine how he wasn't playing well all year.

I talked a lot earlier in the year how Sandfort and Perkins are the reason this team is losing. They were both playing so much worse than they were capable of. Now after seeing both play so well for thos long of a stretch, and seeing the conference standings, it's hard not to be a little disappointed. If just one of them were playing good earlier, we would probably be playing for a conference championship. If they were both playing this good, we would probably already have it locked up. But on the flip side, how fricking bad would thos year be if neither one of them turned it around?

 

[Hawkfnntn]

The announcers couldn't mention it enough how big his cutting was. And we were finding him. It was a noticeable part of the game plan. Tip of the hat to Fran. They must have seen that we could take advantage of their D like that and it worked. Perkins showed no letup at all. He just kept bringing it. And it wasn't just on O. He frustrated the hell out of Indianas freshman pg. Took him out of the game pretty much. Ulis helped with that too. So fun when you see a gameplan work as it's drawn up. Hitting 13 3s like we did really helped with being able to cut like that too

 

[Northside Hawk]

I brought up in the game thread that Indiana on offense looked just as discombobulated as Wisconsin the week before, but it makes a big difference when shots are falling.

We hit 13 three pointers last night vs 3 in Madison. That's a thirty point difference right there.

 

[PCHawk]

The announcers couldn't mention it enough how big his cutting was. And we were finding him. It was a noticeable part of the game plan. Tip of the hat to Fran. They must have seen that we could take advantage of their D like that and it worked. Perkins showed no letup at all. He just kept bringing it. And it wasn't just on O. He frustrated the hell out of Indianas freshman pg. Took him out of the game pretty much. Ulis helped with that too. So fun when you see a gameplan work as it's drawn up. Hitting 13 3s like we did really helped with being able to cut like that too

Someone should have told Indiana to follow the game plan that hawkgold noticed northwestern did. Just let us shoot a bunch of wide open 3s and take away the inside.

 

[InGoodCo]

Tony struggled with his consistency early in the year but seems to be much more comfortable in his role as of late. I personally think this team has come a long ways through the season. When people say "how can this team beat Indiana twice but got swept by a terrible WI team" and to me, that's a lot to do with us playing them earlier in the year and also that the 2nd game was on the road.

I predicted that this team would go undefeated at home and would win 2 road games. Instead they've lost 1 game at home and won 4 road games.

Either way they are 2 games over where I had them in my head conference record wise. I think Iowa ends up in the 2 seed, which is absolutely nuts and IMO Fran should get strong consideration for B1G COY.

 

[MelroseHawkins]

He can shoot 12 footers in the lane whenever he wants. He jumps too damn high for anyone to guard him. When he's playing well is so fun to watch. While he was struggling earlier in the year it was hard to even remember how he was so good at the end of last year. Now that he's playing so well again it's hard to imagine how he wasn't playing well all year.

I talked a lot earlier in the year how Sandfort and Perkins are the reason this team is losing. They were both playing so much worse than they were capable of. Now after seeing both play so well for thos long of a stretch, and seeing the conference standings, it's hard not to be a little disappointed. If just one of them were playing good earlier, we would probably be playing for a conference championship. If they were both playing this good, we would probably already have it locked up. But on the flip side, how fricking bad would thos year be if neither one of them turned it around?

If I remember correctly, I think we was injured or playing thru an injury earlier this season.

On your second thought of what could have been. Yes, makes one wonder but I can also think that this team has surpassed expectations to a point looking at the season. All is good.

 

[Grady]

Someone should have told Indiana to follow the game plan that hawkgold noticed northwestern did. Just let us shoot a bunch of wide open 3s and take away the inside.

Agreed. It's horrible coaching to allow Iowa to back-cut you and get free baskets in your home gym, when Iowa normally has such a hard time hitting jump shots on the road.

 

[PCHawk]

If I remember correctly, I think we was injured or playing thru an injury earlier this season.

On your second thought of what could have been. Yes, makes one wonder but I can also think that this team has surpassed expectations to a point looking at the season. All is good.

Perkins did play injured at the beginning of the year and that very well could have been why he struggled. Especially when the main strength is explosiveness and you don't have thar with leg injuries.

 

[MelroseHawkins]

Agreed. It's horrible coaching to allow Iowa to back-cut you and get free baskets in your home gym, when Iowa normally has such a hard time hitting jump shots on the road.

Murry hit them early which I really think helped Iowa and set the stage for how the game played out. Perkins than hit one in the corner. After this, when a team like Iowa starts hitting them other players play loose as it isn't a huge deal if they take a shot and miss it. That is a huge advantage, especially with some young players.

 

[MelroseHawkins]

Perkins did play injured at the beginning of the year and that very well could have been why he struggled. Especially when the main strength is explosiveness and you don't have thar with leg injuries.

Yep.

 

[PCHawk]

Murry hit them early which I really think helped Iowa and set the stage for how the game played out. Perkins than hit one in the corner. After this, when a team like Iowa starts hitting them other players play loose as it isn't a huge deal if they take a shot and miss it. That is a huge advantage, especially with some young players.

Missing your own shots puts more pressure on yourself to make the next one. But teammates missing shot can add pressure and become contagious too. It's probably a pretty common thing but this team is extreme with that. If Kris misses those first couple shots, it really could have been the difference between a blowout win and a loss. Instead of the team thinking "here we go!" they would have been thinking "here we go again".