Some thoughts on Individual Players

ibahawkeye

ibahawkeye

Well-Known Member
Jok - We all know he can shoot light outs and get his own but last night he was terrific using ball screens and in many cases having 2 Cyclone defenders on him which he can start a ball reversal and get other guys involved.

Pemsl & Moss - Putting those 2 together because I thought the times that ISU got any momentum or went on a mini run these guys were on the bench and we needed to get them back in.

Baer- I've said all along he would be a great 6th man and provide a spark and boy did he do that. 5 immediate points all coming off turnovers I believe.

JBo- He's going to struggle defensively. Thomas and other guys were able to shoot over him fairly easily. He had some turnovers that make you shake your head like one post feed that he never had the angle and should have attempted. With that said, I know some prefer a more of a traditional PG but I would take a shooting PG who may not be as good off the dribble. His shooting ability really opens the floor.

Ellingson- Gotta give the kid props. We know he can shoot but he still doesn't get that many looks. However, last night was the first time I ever recall him actually don't sometimes off the bounce. He created at least 2 scores by driving and dishing to go along his 3.

Wagner- Showed his toughness banging around. Just needs to become a better free throw shooter.

Uhl- Still not real high on Dom but he got put in a couple tough spots last night having to force shots late on the shot clock. He did knock down the big wide open 3 from the top of the key off Wagners assist.

Overall it's obviously a great win and makes me feel better about our chances of competing in the B1G, especially when we get Cook back.
 
Moss has to stay out there....he came up huge and Jok, well, that kid can just flat out shoot the rock...Pemsl has high energy, not afraid...Kids played hard, they played together, it was fun to watch
 
Pemsl/Moss/Cook are just scratching the surface. Looks like a very good core going forward, and the ceiling for those 3 is very high.

Bohannon needs to stop making the silly turnovers. Of the 3 he had, two were of the silly/unforced type. The feed into the post and then dribbling it off his feet late on his drive to the basket. Clean those up and he is much better than I thought he would be.

Baer is instant energy and does all the little things you need a player to do. Love him coming off the bench.

Wagner plays tough, and physical. I think he is going to start finishing better. Seems to know his roll on the team, you need solid roll players.

Uhl, I said before the season I just don't see it. 6'9 body, but he wants to play like he is 6'4

Ellingson has a roll on this team. Hit open shots, protect the ball, play D and spell Moss/Jok

Williams I am a bit concerned about. Doesn't use his length and athleticism to his advantage yet, needs to figure that out. If he can't figure that out then scrap the PG experiment with him and move him to a wing spot.
 
Now that us "sunshine pumpers" have some breathing room around here, it's nice to see it all come together. That's a huge win for these guys - for Fran - for our program in general. There are still gonna be games where we scratch our head, but I think you will see the team become more consistent as they gel and grow. You just can't make absolutes about a team full of underclassman who've only played 10 games together. I love that CP was thrust into playing time with the Cook injury, we're now deeper in a couple weeks because of it.
 
InGoodCo said:
Now that us "sunshine pumpers" have some breathing room around here, it's nice to see it all come together. That's a huge win for these guys - for Fran - for our program in general. There are still gonna be games where we scratch our head, but I think you will see the team become more consistent as they gel and grow. You just can't make absolutes about a team full of underclassman who've only played 10 games together. I love that CP was thrust into playing time with the Cook injury, we're now deeper in a couple weeks because of it.
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I fully admit, you saw the light, when it looked ugly early. I really think we saw what this team could become, and you deserve credit for seeing it when a lot of us were on the edge. I really like CP, but last night Moss is the one who made me think, whoa, this guy could be really good some day.
 
DJL said:
I fully admit, you saw the light, when it looked ugly early. I really think we saw what this team could become, and you deserve credit for seeing it when a lot of us were on the edge. I really like CP, but last night Moss is the one who made me think, whoa, this guy could be really good some day.
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Thanks meng - there's a lot of positive posters on here - I am not 100% sunshine tho - I also thought Iowa would possibly lose to Omaha. They are just good enough to give a young team like Iowa trouble. But I'm not all "I told ya so" today because this team STILL has got a LONG ways to go, but as some of us have said on here, it's really really easy to see the talent and potential on this team and Fran has proven that he knows what he's doing. He knows how to win basketball games and will continue to win more than he loses at Iowa. This may be a "down" year, and I am certainly not calling for any kind of post season play after 1 game, but this program should be SOLID over the next few years no?
 
Agree that Moss continues to impress. He seems to be more comfortable/confident with each game, which shows us new parts of his game. He's so fluid when attacking, and has the ability to hang under control in order to finish - has the chance to have a great Hawk career. Was really impressed with him starting D on Morris last night - shows the type of quickness he has.
 
Pemsl- is providing us with a consistent threat from the low post that we haven't seen in quite some time. He played really well defensively last night.

Wagner- played much better and attacked the basket on offense. He's solid on defense as well.

Moss- great game, finally finished around the hoop. I think he's going to be a really good shooter too, he just rushed a couple last night. He still needs a little seasoning basketball wise, but I think he's going to be really good.

Jok- finally locked in defensively.

Bohannon- to be quite frank I didn't think he played very well. He has a really tough time handling the pressure, and just didn't have the athletic ability to get around Morris or anyone else. Now he only had three turnovers, but there were many possessions when he had a tough time even getting us into our sets. I'm still really high on his shooting ability and I think going up against a potential all-American PG will be a great learning experience.

Baer- awesome energy off the bench. He is best suited as the 6th man.

Ellingson- I have to give credit where credit is due. I've never been a big fan, but he hit a big three and made a couple nice plays driving to the basket.

Uhl- I thought he played fine honestly. He was 1/4 from the field but 2 of those were possessions where guys ether threw him the ball at the end of the shot clock or nobody could get open so he threw up a shot. If he can provide defense and rebounding for 15 or so minutes a night and hit the occasional three I think we will be fine. His problem is still more mental right now. He needs to figure out when is a good time to shoot the open 3, when is a good time to pass, and when is a good time to use his speed to go around his guy. Right now it seems like he drives it when there is a ton of traffic.

Williams- I thought he played fine as well. 2 assists/ 1 TO in 11 minutes of action. I think he did a much better job at handling ISU's pressure than Jordan and his length is the main reason for that. He showed the ability to get places with the dribble, which is very important for a PG. He had the one turnover during ISU's big run and Fran yanked him right away. I think his problem too is also mental right now as he can't figure out what is a good shot and what isn't. To me he needs to attack the basket off the dribble and look to score, get fouled, or kick out to an open shooter.

Fran- much better job managing rotations, by not doing as much mass subbing. He actually called a time out during an ISU run! The players executed the press and zone defenses much better, and he did a better job of picking the spots to use them.
 
InGoodCo said:
Thanks meng - there's a lot of positive posters on here - I am not 100% sunshine tho - I also thought Iowa would possibly lose to Omaha. They are just good enough to give a young team like Iowa trouble. But I'm not all "I told ya so" today because this team STILL has got a LONG ways to go, but as some of us have said on here, it's really really easy to see the talent and potential on this team and Fran has proven that he knows what he's doing. He knows how to win basketball games and will continue to win more than he loses at Iowa. This may be a "down" year, and I am certainly not calling for any kind of post season play after 1 game, but this program should be SOLID over the next few years no?
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Agree, I think this game helps the fan base see the light, and we will have to remember it when we lose some head scratching game later in the season. We will have our ups and downs, but we are positioned well for the future.
 
I think it was pretty easy to see what this team was capable of even tho they hadn't shown it yet. The individual performances were just too hard to ignore. Pemsl and Moss have become legit Big 10 starters and JB has become a decent Big 10 starter who makes guys around him better. When Cook gets back, we have a pretty damn good starting lineup with two great energy guys off the bench. What we're missing most is reserve guards. I really hope Dailey does next year what Moss is doing this year or the guard position will be worse.
 
I think when all is said and done, Bohannon will be a very good addition to this team and those of you who criticize him will be very glad he is a member of the Hawks!
 
NikeHawk21 said:
Pemsl- is providing us with a consistent threat from the low post that we haven't seen in quite some time. He played really well defensively last night.

Wagner- played much better and attacked the basket on offense. He's solid on defense as well.

Moss- great game, finally finished around the hoop. I think he's going to be a really good shooter too, he just rushed a couple last night. He still needs a little seasoning basketball wise, but I think he's going to be really good.

Jok- finally locked in defensively.

Bohannon- to be quite frank I didn't think he played very well. He has a really tough time handling the pressure, and just didn't have the athletic ability to get around Morris or anyone else. Now he only had three turnovers, but there were many possessions when he had a tough time even getting us into our sets. I'm still really high on his shooting ability and I think going up against a potential all-American PG will be a great learning experience.

Baer- awesome energy off the bench. He is best suited as the 6th man.

Ellingson- I have to give credit where credit is due. I've never been a big fan, but he hit a big three and made a couple nice plays driving to the basket.

Uhl- I thought he played fine honestly. He was 1/4 from the field but 2 of those were possessions where guys ether threw him the ball at the end of the shot clock or nobody could get open so he threw up a shot. If he can provide defense and rebounding for 15 or so minutes a night and hit the occasional three I think we will be fine. His problem is still more mental right now. He needs to figure out when is a good time to shoot the open 3, when is a good time to pass, and when is a good time to use his speed to go around his guy. Right now it seems like he drives it when there is a ton of traffic.

Williams- I thought he played fine as well. 2 assists/ 1 TO in 11 minutes of action. I think he did a much better job at handling ISU's pressure than Jordan and his length is the main reason for that. He showed the ability to get places with the dribble, which is very important for a PG. He had the one turnover during ISU's big run and Fran yanked him right away. I think his problem too is also mental right now as he can't figure out what is a good shot and what isn't. To me he needs to attack the basket off the dribble and look to score, get fouled, or kick out to an open shooter.

Fran- much better job managing rotations, by not doing as much mass subbing. He actually called a time out during an ISU run! The players executed the press and zone defenses much better, and he did a better job of picking the spots to use them.
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This is spot on. Good to see Moss play well against a good team
 
Pemsl is my favorite amongst the newbies. I see him having a very Brunneresque career. Below the rim bruiser that just finds a way to get points.

The nicest thing is having a big man that doesn't seem to miss 2/3 of his layups **cough..uhlwoodberry..cough**
 
theboat said:
Pemsl is my favorite amongst the newbies. I see him having a very Brunneresque career. Below the rim bruiser that just finds a way to get points.

The nicest thing is having a big man that doesn't seem to miss 2/3 of his layups **cough..uhlwoodberry..cough**
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How about his finishing thru contact? That's something Iowa players never seem to do.
 
BILLYBOBSTEXAS said:
I think when all is said and done, Bohannon will be a very good addition to this team and those of you who criticize him will be very glad he is a member of the Hawks!
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I'm glad he's a Hawk and think he will continue to improve. Does anyone else notice that his makes are almost always perfect swishes? Pretty.

I'm certainly going to call a spade a spade, and say he didn't have a very good game last night. If you recall he started out defensively on Matt Thomas who I believe had 7 of ISU's first 12 points. 8 points on 8 shots isn't exactly efficient either. As I said earlier, playing against Monte will be a good experience for him.

I think he will continue to cut down on the silly turnovers and his defensive awareness will continue to improve with time. The question will be if he can overcome his lack of size and athleticism. I'm guessing with time in a college weight program his strength and athleticism will improve, the question is how much. His ability to space the floor with 3 point shooting and strong FT shooting clearly need to be considered as well when evaluating him as a player.
 
I was most impressed with the overall defensive effort. Yes, as I'm sure my cy-friends will point out, ISU had a bad shooting night. But Iowa out hustled them all over the court.

I expect with all this youth, the season will be very high highs (isu game) and very low lows (uno game) for the rest of the season. But the highs are gonna be fantastic.

This group will only get better. GO HAWKS!!!
 
I'd like to point out that I have been publicly high on Moss since the PTL. Just FTR. ;)

That being said, one thing I hope Fran & staff focuses on is having Cook not force things like he was prior to injury and hopefully he can follow up last night's defensive effort with his own when he returns.
 
tksirius said:
I'd like to point out that I have been publicly high on Moss since the PTL. Just FTR. ;)

That being said, one thing I hope Fran & staff focuses on is having Cook not force things like he was prior to injury and hopefully he can follow up last night's defensive effort with his own when he returns.
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Put me in the high on Moss camp from the beginning as well. I was disappointed when we redshirted him last year because I thought he could bring something to that team. I really thought he was going to start from the word go this year. As a wing he is a good shooter, can finish around the hoop, and has the quickness and speed to defend quicker players (Morris). I don't know if we've had a guy like that in quite some time. Maybe Marble, but I think Moss has more athleticism than him.

I think Cook's injury may be a blessing for this team, as it has allowed for the emergence of Pemsl and Moss. When he returns I expect him to return to the starting lineup in place of Wagner, but I think now that he's been able to watch a few games he will do a better job of letting the game come to him. He made some mistakes trying to do too much early in the season but I can hardly blame him with all the hype Fran and the Iowa fan base were giving him. He's still a freshman and needs time to adjust to the new game speed. Let's hope he brings more effort defensively.
 
Moss has me so fired up. That kid has a fearlessness about him out there now. He was a bit tentative earlier in the year but now I think he's got a bit of a gunslinger mentality where he's just going to let it rip. His slashing to the basket and defense against the other teams best guards is what makes him so invaluable. Him and Baer both were who got the crowd into it with their hustle plays. Baer is just the perfect 6th man if there ever was one
JBo is who he is. Their are two things I hope he works on going forward and that is his strength and his quickness in his legs. If he can improve his leaping ability speed and quickness it'll only help him not only on defense but offense too. I love how he plays too I can live with the occasional turnover those are going to happen. I'd rather have an aggressive turnover then a tentative shot taken. Which he never seems to take he's got no fear.
Jok isn't perfect but damn he's good. When he's on there's just no stopping him. It's been fun to see how he's gotten to where he is now. He's clearly the heart and soul of this team
 
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