Pretty Concerned

[tednugentfan]

Shocking, an actual thread on basketball with intelligent posts by all. I guess Ghost and DuffClown haven't found it yet. First half against Gardner Webb and the whole WSU game were disconcerting. The offense was brutal and that may be an understatement. I thought the goal was to push tempo and shoot 3's, but we haven't done either very well. Yes it's early in the season and not time to freak out, but we have to get White and Marble involved in the offense, as we don't have too many other proven scoring options. Agree that feeding Woodbury in the post and letting him kick it out will help with continuity. Unfortunately Woodbury has picked up two early fouls in the last few games and can't stay on the floor. Woodbury takes good shots and is an excellent passer, so running more offense through him seems like a good idea.

 

[HawkeyeRyno]

Not concerned but unimpressed. Defense has improved however. Uptempo game has disappeared. But looking at that WSU game to lose by only 12 as awful as Iowa played in that game is a moral victory. Imagine if Iowa had actually played well. Game is completely different outcome.

Side note: I wish McCabe would use two hands when he goes up for that inside bank shot. At least force defender to come across body and draw a foul. Similar thing happened to Woodbury. Thought he could have dropped stepped and dunk it. Hopefully that comes with time. At 7'1" you'd think he'd dunk that. Can McCabe dunk?

 

[franstheman]

Not seeing it Herky. Iowa is a team of shooters and that seems to be the game. Will be easy to defend in BIG1G. Where is the inside scoring going to come from?

All of the post guys from last years NIT team are back + Woodbury. So these bigs have already gotten us to a post season of some kind.

 

[Hawkstrat]

People claiming that Woodbury is a project and two years from contributing don't actually watch the games, do they?

Good grief, you instantly notice the difference when he goes to the bench in foul trouble. He isn't likely to ever be Patrick Ewing, he isn't going to average 15+ PPG, but he changes the way Iowa plays on offense, and how the opponent attacks Iowa on defense.

Anyway, Marble penetrates fairly well, but his little push shot has been off, he needs to adjust and starting going to the rim to get fouled. Gesell will also learn how to handle quick PGs, Armstead gave him difficulties, but Gesell is athletic enough that he should have made Armstead pay for his over aggression- and by the end of this season he would have. I also think Ingram is going to see more minutes going forward.

Iowa doesn't have enough shooters, hopefully with the addition of Uthoff and Jok, the 2013 version will be more complete.

 

[docholihawk]

Another thing that happens early in a season when a coach is searching for different combinations in games to try to find the ones that work and you start to see players excel. What also happens is your better players don't fit in with the experiment and their game will seem to be off. This early in the season is to find all that out and when Fran finds the right combinations you'll see Marble and White as well as Gesell and Woodbury find their roles.

 

[Cover3]

Those phantom fouls are not the usual: It's the refs fault. They were ridiculous and took us out of the game, among other things, but that finished us.....

We played very well in the first half in a hard fought contest. Couple of breaks and we tie/win the game. I thought the Shocker's last basket, a dunk with about 10 seconds left was entirely classless......

On your last point, Jack, I think Fran would agree. It looked to me briefly like Fran skipped over WSU's head coach to shake the assistants' and players' hands. If I did perceive that correctly, it would not be unprecedented:

McCaffery rips Holy Cross for hard fouls - College Sports - Siena and University at Albany college basketball coverage - timesunion.com - Albany NY

Love Fran. Love all three teams he's run out there for us. These guys will come around, and they'll be in some sort of March situation this year. Even comfortably getting an NIT bid will be a step up. For those that rip on Barta about Ferentz's contract, Gary did perform quite admirably in getting us into the Little Dance last year. I know we all want the Big Dance, and it may happen this year, but this team isn't going to look like 2000 Michigan State running the floor. Not for a couple of years, at least .

 

[atomicblue224]

What me worried? nah....... we're okay!!

 

[aaronzuriel]

Pretty concerned about what? AT what point? Now or in 2 months and still a month to go? Just don't get any threads or posts that do not have any real insight or analysis.... especially based on 6 games.

Chill when Iowa losses, enjoy and celebrate when Iowa wins.

 

[homes]

They are 6 games in to the season. Too early to make season-defining judgments about the team. Teams better than Iowa have dropped games this year. It will happen. When they play good defense, they are better. Fran has said from the beginning that the offense is based off the defense. Last Wednesday they did not play very good defense at times during the game, they didn't get back, they didn't rotate, they didn't block out, they allowed too many uncontested shots. You can always play with good defensive intensity, even when shots aren't going in. From what I've heard and read from Fran, he is trying to drill this into his team. I think he'll be successful, because I think he has the players on his team that want to play good defense.

 

[racerhawk]

It's November.

 

[eveningnewsteam]

The biggest concern was defense, that has been good so far. The offense will come

 

[DodgerHawki]

It was good for Iowa to play Wichita State...

They are 6 games in to the season. Too early to make season-defining judgments about the team. Teams better than Iowa have dropped games this year. It will happen. When they play good defense, they are better. Fran has said from the beginning that the offense is based off the defense. Last Wednesday they did not play very good defense at times during the game, they didn't get back, they didn't rotate, they didn't block out, they allowed too many uncontested shots. You can always play with good defensive intensity, even when shots aren't going in. From what I've heard and read from Fran, he is trying to drill this into his team. I think he'll be successful, because I think he has the players on his team that want to play good defense.

WSU displayed the flaws this Iowa team has and what they will need to deal with in the B1G. WSU's guards got up into our perimeter players and made it difficult to run a lot of offense. Iowa didn't handle it particularly well. The team didn't back down (shot 39 free throws) but when you make only 4 2-point field goals in a game it's hard to win.

Iowa is still lacking on the perimeter when compared to the better teams they will play this year, and it showed up against WSU. It doesn't mean the sky is falling, just means the team has some weaknesses. A player of Peter Jok's skill set would fit in quite nicely on this squad, by the way. If he is fully recovered next year from his knee/leg issues, he is exactly what the doctor ordered for this Iowa roster.

It will be interesting to see what happens against Va. Tech Tuesday. To beat good teams, Gesell will need to be a factor and Iowa has to find a way to get into its offense.