Somebody please give me some hope!!

M

mbpharmhawk

Member
I watched about 10 minutes of the second half of tonight's game. I don't understand this at all!! We lost 1 senior from last year's team, yet we look horrible! I don't think Basabe took 1 shot the whole time I watched. He was a non-factor on defense. He was a tremendous player last year! What happened?

I understand that we don't have a lot of talent yet, but to me the guys we do have out there do not give good effort. They show no hustle on defense and to loose balls. I'm sorry, but defense is about hustle, passion, and toughness. It doesn't look like this team has any of this. If we are going to play a full court "press," we at least need to hustle to the spot and trap the guy. We lope around and still get beat at the other end of the floor. Any team can have a good shooting night against us because we let them stand and shoot.

Offensively, I'm not sure how some of these guys get scholarships with the way they consistently miss shots.

I'm clearly frustrated as I know all players, coaches, and fans are. I didn't expect us to all of the sudden go NCAA tourney on us this year, but holy cow! I was hoping Fran was taking us in the right direction! Somebody please tell me that Fran is taking us in the right direction! I'm struggling to find the positives right now....
 
mbpharmhawk said:
I watched about 10 minutes of the second half of tonight's game. I don't understand this at all!! We lost 1 senior from last year's team, yet we look horrible! I don't think Basabe took 1 shot the whole time I watched. He was a non-factor on defense. He was a tremendous player last year! What happened?

I understand that we don't have a lot of talent yet, but to me the guys we do have out there do not give good effort. They show no hustle on defense and to loose balls. I'm sorry, but defense is about hustle, passion, and toughness. It doesn't look like this team has any of this. If we are going to play a full court "press," we at least need to hustle to the spot and trap the guy. We lope around and still get beat at the other end of the floor. Any team can have a good shooting night against us because we let them stand and shoot.

Offensively, I'm not sure how some of these guys get scholarships with the way they consistently miss shots.

I'm clearly frustrated as I know all players, coaches, and fans are. I didn't expect us to all of the sudden go NCAA tourney on us this year, but holy cow! I was hoping Fran was taking us in the right direction! Somebody please tell me that Fran is taking us in the right direction! I'm struggling to find the positives right now....
Click to expand...

We were horrible last year too though...But yeah, it is frustrating. Just an awful defensive team, and shooting below 30% doesn't help either
 
Jury is still out on Fran. If after the 2013-14 season its not turned around, he won't do it.
At this point, I'm almost convinced that Alfraud purposely wrecked the program.
 
We have a good recruiting class

This team's ceiling was low to begin with. If we suck in two years then there is no hope

There isnt a quick fix in the Big Ten and it wont be a fun journey
 
Team looks lost, it is not even fun anymore to watch. Looks like Brommer and Archie should have been shown the door last year and replaced with JUCO bigs that fit the style of play needed. Ship has sailed on that one, it is what it is.
 
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I think the style is right, but there are several players on this team that needs to graduate (if we could press the fast-forward button) or transfer to a lower level. That said, I do think we are capable of being better than this with the players we have. It is puzzling how we have regressed. Where that blame lies, I'm sure it is shared between the coaches and players alike. Frustrating.
 
Hope:

1. Basketball is weird. Duke is getting crushed tonight by Ohio State; I'm sure their fans are as disappointed as we are.

2. We won't shoot 29% every night.

3. Gatens is nowhere near as bad as he looked tonight.

4. I was actually most concerned about our defense, and they really did play pretty well in the first 30 minutes or so. Clemson was working for their shots and a lot of their turnovers were forced by us.

5. I don't see how they can possibly play any worse.

6. Oglesby and White are going to be good.

I'm grasping at straws here, obviously. Basketball can have a lot to do with rhythm and confidence, and right now we have zero of both. But those things are fixable if you can somehow catch a spark. I never expected much from this team (18 wins was myabsolute, absolute max), but I know they can play better than they have been for the last two weeks.
 
We lost one senior from last year.

Yep. That's the problem. Hawks lost their only decent post defender from a very bad team.

So, what do you have left? A very bad team with no interior defense.

Your Hope? A strong recruiting class and the fact that no player on the current team looks inexpendable.
 
Tonight is the first night I have really questioned whether McCaffrey knows what he is doing. We were awful last year and IMO, a 911 emergency should have gone out to get better players in here (jucos or recruits). I don't get how keeping Archie, offering Olaseni (an afterthought to Katenda) and rolling the dice on Hubbard makes sense. Sick of hearing about all these guys that don't get offered etc., who are players, yet we seem addicted to projects.

Short on hope myself.
 
Ok, here it goes......

Last year as an ISU fan, I didn't watch too much Iowa basketball, but didn't Fran's team get much better as the season went on?

Also, Fran just doesn't have a lot to work with now, but you have a couple pretty good players coming in. I don't think they'll be overnight saviors, but by the end of next year, and 2013-14, they should have some horses to match up with teams.

White looks pretty promising.

Lastly, if I'm Fran, I would try to move a handful of these guys out the door. Let them know if that if they want to play, they probably need to look at another program, and open the door for a JUCO or transfer or two that could help sooner rather than later (obviously Fred has went that rout). I think you guys need some infusion of talent and that is a quicker way to do it, if done selectively.
 
busabus114 said:
We have a good recruiting class

This team's ceiling was low to begin with. If we suck in two years then there is no hope

There isnt a quick fix in the Big Ten and it wont be a fun journey
Click to expand...

This. Or Ostrich.. I don't know the terms these days..

These guys aren't world beaters. I do think we're jumping the gun at pressing so much without having the players who can do it..but this year isn't going to be great. We just need to see improvement.

And looking on the bright side, it should be real easy to see improvement on what we've seen so far. :)
 
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