Reality Check: Where Exactly is Iowa Basketball on the Improvement Meter

I

ILHawk

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Positives:

Did well against a very weak non-conference schedule. Not perfect, but pretty good which is a major advance.

Still in a position to Dance (albeit a very weak case now)

A reasonable chance to win 8 B1G games without sneaking up on people and having Gatens play insanely.

Recruits that came in this year were solid and rated pretty good.

Played very close games against most good teams.

Beat Wisky again which is no small feat.

Won several B1G road games.

Stand 4-3 against Big Conference bottom feeders (100 to 200 RPI)

Coach plays a lot of players and exhaustion doesn't seem to be a problem.

Fans interested.

3 star recruit coming in at guard. Solid and seasoned transfer recruit from Wisky

MG wants to be the go to guy late. Not all teams have someone who wants the ball late

A senior again has stepped up and been a great player which shows player development.




Negative

Fell apart at Michigan....but Michigan is tough at home

Struggle to beat physical big and deep teams

Lost on neutral court to big physical mid major.

Struggled to control Nebraska guards

Struggled at times against any drive to the hope quick guards including UNI.

Stand 4-3 against Big Conference bottom feeders (100 to 200 RPI)

Not a very good record against top 50 rpi.

Woody's almost complete lack of development.

Continue to try what isn't working when making a Dance run (JO, AW)

Player with ankle injury comes off the bench late to guard the #1 shooting threat.

Lack recruits that are complete players and can have big impact against best teams immediately.

Best incoming recruits are a 3 star from Des Moines and a transfer that might not have played much at Wisky.

Freshmen seem to be a couple years away from really developing.

MG hasn't been successful as the go to guy late.

Senior has been one of the most complete player



Comments:


Is it realistic to expect next year to be much better? If so, why (besides fan aticism) If not, why not?
 
How can some of your positives also be negatives. I think some of your points are good, but some of them dont' make sense as most didn't expect Woodbury to be an all B1G player this year.
 
We are barely better than the worst teams in the conference and that is due in a large part to NW and PSU not having key players. I don't know anybody that expected Woodbury to tear it up, but I thought he could score 6-8 ppg and be somewhat of a scoring option down low. Gesell has had a nice season, but we needed more from the 5 freshman to get out of the cellar.
 
tednugentfan said:
We are barely better than the worst teams in the conference and that is due in a large part to NW and PSU not having key players. I don't know anybody that expected Woodbury to tear it up, but I thought he could score 6-8 ppg and be somewhat of a scoring option down low. Gesell has had a nice season, but we needed more from the 5 freshman to get out of the cellar.
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that is just silly.
 
hawkfarmer said:
How can some of your positives also be negatives. I think some of your points are good, but some of them dont' make sense as most didn't expect Woodbury to be an all B1G player this year.
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Any good interviewer knows that your negatives should also be positives. ;)
 
tednugentfan said:
We are barely better than the worst teams in the conference and that is due in a large part to NW and PSU not having key players. I don't know anybody that expected Woodbury to tear it up, but I thought he could score 6-8 ppg and be somewhat of a scoring option down low. Gesell has had a nice season, but we needed more from the 5 freshman to get out of the cellar.
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Um, okay
 
ILHawk said:
Comments:


Is it realistic to expect next year to be much better? If so, why (besides fan aticism) If not, why not?
Click to expand...

No excuses, next year!! Even with what will be most likely be tougher BT regular season Schedule. We need to be dancing in 2014!!
 
Fran has to find a way to score in the last 4 min. of a game pretty much with the guys he has unless Jok is better than most on here are saying. If he can we could get 3-5 mor BT wins next year if not. Well
 
LASBUR said:
Fran has to find a way to score in the last 4 min. of a game pretty much
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I agree, Fran's shot has looked a little suspect lately. I hope he can break out of his slump and start putting up some more points. I mean, the guy is 0% for the season on free throws. That is killing us down the stretch in close games.
 
Thanks for the input
volhawk50 said:
I agree, Fran's shot has looked a little suspect lately. I hope he can break out of his slump and start putting up some more points. I mean, the guy is 0% for the season on free throws. That is killing us down the stretch in close games.
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tednugentfan said:
We are barely better than the worst teams in the conference and that is due in a large part to NW and PSU not having key players. I don't know anybody that expected Woodbury to tear it up, but I thought he could score 6-8 ppg and be somewhat of a scoring option down low. Gesell has had a nice season, but we needed more from the 5 freshman to get out of the cellar.
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Agree! If our guards are not better next year, forget about it!
 
We lost two games in overtime and an additional 4 games by 4 points or less. We had a lead late in five of those 6 games and people kept making clutch shots against us. That's how close we are to 20+ wins and being solidly in the tournament. As it is now, they don't belong in the field, but nevertheless Iowa is not a bad team.
 
Iowa is in fine shape as a program.
Uthoff, Meyer and Jok come in, another year under the belt of the freshmen.
Iowa should be able to find out how to win those close games hopefully due to gain in experience both with the staff and players.
 
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