SI has Iowa at #52

L

longtimer

Well-Known Member
2 spots behind Iowa State and 9th in the Big Ten It appears most outside of this Board are not overly impressed with us. 8th or 9th (where most have us) will certainly not get us in the tournament especially with such a weak non conference schedule. We likely wont face a top 25 team unless Clones or Tech gets in.
I think we have a lot of "good" players My concern is will we be good enough defensively? We are not the most athletic team. In addition we dont have a go to guy. The kind of player that you can clear out and let him take over. Maybe Moss?
Still looking forward to this year. We are headed in the right direction
 
I wouldn't get too caught up in the preseason hype by national scribes -

in 2016 - most publications had Iowa around 9th or 10th - they finished 5th - missed the dance by 1 game.
in 2015 - most publications had Iowa around 9th or 10th - they finished 3rd - made the dance
in 2014 - most publications had Iowa around 9th or 10th- they finished 3rd - made the dance
in 2013 - most publication had Iowa around 10th or 11th - they finished 5th - made the dance

see the trend? With how many good teams there are in this conference year in and out - Iowa is rarely going to get picked high coming into the season unless they just flat out win a conference title to say "hey we're here, we've done it". Until then, it's easier, for the big publications just to play it safe or even be a little lazy about it.

Iowa has a very good chance of facing off with Cincinnati in the Cayman Island Classic. They should be top 15. Virginia Tech also has a very good shot of being ranked after the first few weeks.

Iowa is not the most athletic team in the country, you are correct, but let's clear this up right here. It's not NON athletic. It's one of the more athletic teams Iowa has had in the last 20 years or so I would guess. It's potentially Fran's most athletic I think. Iowa has plenty of options to be the "go to" guys in Jordan Bohannon, Moss and Cook - they've just not been "the guy" yet. That doesn't mean we don't HAVE one.

Uthoff, Jok, White, Marble - none of them before their senior seasons were really "go to" guys. None of them were on any of the national top 150 player list sans Jok, who was borderline and ranked sub 130. The national publications - they hardly do their homework. SI, CBS etc...

Iowa media expects them to make the dance - that's where I set my personal expectations, cause they actually follow the team.
 
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It's almost unreal how in todays environment of information so readily available that all these outfits are so lazy at doing homework. I'd almost put the farm on it Iowa will finish higher then 6th in the BIG. Unless JBo and Cook miss a lot of games I can't see them finishing 9th or lower I just can't. The schedule is too advantageous for it and this team has too much talent top to bottom. I don't think our defense will be good enough to be blowing out many teams but we can score a ton which will put a lot of pressure on other teams to try and keep up.
 
When half of your conference membership has played in the NC game since 2000 and your team isn’t one of them, you should not be expected to be picked to finish much higher than they are. MN and NW aren’t in that group either but they were NCAAT teams last year with even more back than Iowa. This says more about the league than Iowa IMO.
 
Oh yeah, I am not beating any drum saying we're being over looked. I am just saying - these national rags rarely get it right and they all typically regurgitate and tow the same line as everyone else. Like... for example - Lunardi had us IN the dance last year before the season (mostly because we made it in 15) .... this year, he has OUT (largely because we didn't make it last season).... that's pure laziness for a guy who gets paid to primarily do one thing and that's produce a mock bracket.

One thing I just don't believe is the whole "this team isn't very athletic" deal. Iowa is plenty athletic IMO. Maybe not as athletic as maybe the top 10 teams in the country, but plenty athletic. I suppose that's because we start a slow white kid that no one respects at PG. ...and honestly, I think this team has A LOT of guys who could be potentially "go to's" ... more options then last season for sure.
 
Hawkfnntn said:
It's almost unreal how in todays environment of information so readily available that all these outfits are so lazy at doing homework. I'd almost put the farm on it Iowa will finish higher then 6th in the BIG. Unless JBo and Cook miss a lot of games I can't see them finishing 9th or lower I just can't. The schedule is too advantageous for it and this team has too much talent top to bottom. I don't think our defense will be good enough to be blowing out many teams but we can score a ton which will put a lot of pressure on other teams to try and keep up.
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I wouldn't look too much into it...there are 347 division 1 basketball teams, so you can't really expect the media to be up to date on all of them. My guess is the media glances at Iowa, sees they lost their top scorer and 1st team all big ten player and assume they're going to take a step back. Then they move on to the next team.

I don't really expect anyone outside of the big ten to do a deep dive on Iowa basketball this year. If Iowa makes a splash this year then I'd expect a ton of hype from the media going into next year
 
We go through this every year. How can Iowa be good if they have to replace Jok (or Uthoff, or White, or Marble)? And every year we exceed the pundit's predictions. You would think by now they would be tired of being wrong and give us some props.
 
I'm not gonna get all bent out of shape over pre season rankings and others picking us further down in the B1G. The fact is there is a lot of good teams, and we will be in the mix. MSU is clearly on top, but Minnesota and Northwestern return a ton, so they deserve to be up there. Purdue won the league and has a lot coming back minus Biggie. Then after those 4 you got Michigan/Wisconsin/Iowa/Maryland. I don't really get picking Indiana high, but then again I don't know exactly what they have either.

I can see Iowa finishing anywhere from 4th to 8th really.
 
deanvogs said:
I'm not gonna get all bent out of shape over pre season rankings and others picking us further down in the B1G. The fact is there is a lot of good teams, and we will be in the mix. MSU is clearly on top, but Minnesota and Northwestern return a ton, so they deserve to be up there. Purdue won the league and has a lot coming back minus Biggie. Then after those 4 you got Michigan/Wisconsin/Iowa/Maryland. I don't really get picking Indiana high, but then again I don't know exactly what they have either.

I can see Iowa finishing anywhere from 4th to 8th really.
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How could you get all bent out of shape?
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well...after watching the defensive play against William Jewell, 50s about right. If they can figure out how to play better defense...and actually play with toughness...I'll adjust. That was awful...seriously bad. I know it's an exhibition, but 45 points in the first half to the 300th best program in America? What would Duke score?

Guys weren't moving their feet and were constantly getting beat off the dribble. Exactly like last year.

Honestly...it was disappointing. I know we can score and shoot...but that's not been the issue for what, Fran's entire tenure?
 
WinOneThisCentury said:
well...after watching the defensive play against William Jewell, 50s about right. If they can figure out how to play better defense...and actually play with toughness...I'll adjust. That was awful...seriously bad. I know it's an exhibition, but 45 points in the first half to the 300th best program in America? What would Duke score?

Guys weren't moving their feet and were constantly getting beat off the dribble. Exactly like last year.

Honestly...it was disappointing. I know we can score and shoot...but that's not been the issue for what, Fran's entire tenure?
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Frans teams have been pretty good defensive over his tenure at Iowa. Here is Iowa's KenPom adjusted D rankings over the years: 56, 205, 24, 77, 34, 30, 123. Two really bad years (last year and year 2). The rest have been at least respectable, or down right good (3 seasons of top 35 in Kenpom adjusted D).
 
WinOneThisCentury said:
What would Duke score?
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I've seen that question a lot on here. "If a crappy team scored that much, what would a good team score?" But when a team scores on as many possessions as they did, and shoots that high of percentage, it doesn't matter if you're playing Duke or William Jewell. The point totals will be about the same. You can't do much better than scoring almost every time down The floor. The difference is Duke would prevent us from scoring as many points as we did against William Jewell.
 
WinOneThisCentury said:
well...after watching the defensive play against William Jewell, 50s about right. If they can figure out how to play better defense...and actually play with toughness...I'll adjust. That was awful...seriously bad. I know it's an exhibition, but 45 points in the first half to the 300th best program in America? What would Duke score?

Guys weren't moving their feet and were constantly getting beat off the dribble. Exactly like last year.

Honestly...it was disappointing. I know we can score and shoot...but that's not been the issue for what, Fran's entire tenure?
Click to expand...

Really? These guys spent the summer playing in the PTL and against the Europe "All Stars" - Defense has been a stress point, but optional when you are playing inferior opponents all summer long- and we can't give them a half of basketball to get dialed in for defense? What else is an exhibition game for? It's going to take longer then that. The 2nd half was much better and Fran is tinkering with line ups, Moss didn't play the 2nd half and all 3 Frosh got big minutes. MSU, the # 1 or #2 rated team in the country beat a D2 school by 8 pts in their exhibition. They might as well throw in towel for this season with that line of thinking.
 
InGoodCo said:
Really? These guys spent the summer playing in the PTL and against the Europe "All Stars" - Defense has been a stress point, but optional when you are playing inferior opponents all summer long- and we can't give them a half of basketball to get dialed in for defense? What else is an exhibition game for? It's going to take longer then that. The 2nd half was much better and Fran is tinkering with line ups, Moss didn't play the 2nd half and all 3 Frosh got big minutes. MSU, the # 1 or #2 rated team in the country beat a D2 school by 8 pts in their exhibition. They might as well throw in towel for this season with that line of thinking.
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Sounds like we played man to man (by far our weakest defense) the entire game too. That won't happen in games that matter.
 
We're gonna see a lot of zone this year. I don't expect Iowa's defense to be some elite force this season, it doesn't have to be. It will be better though, I have no question about that.
 
Baer pesky...

If Garza can guard the hoop...everyone will be better

Wagner, agree...brute

Hadn't thought of Moss as a top defender
 
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