STORY: Looking Ahead to Big Ten Basketball's '20-21 Season, How Iowa Fits In

I can already tell the expectations for Iowa are going to be through the roof if Luka comes back. That creates a different dynamic. I think the mental makeup of this group is strong and it will be challenged going from hunter to hunted.
I was certain he was leaving, but now I'm not. Any tea leaf reading going on in Iowa City on this subject?
 
I can already tell the expectations for Iowa are going to be through the roof if Luka comes back. That creates a different dynamic. I think the mental makeup of this group is strong and it will be challenged going from hunter to hunted.

Oh, fearless HN Leader, it will be partially up to you to help keep those expectations realistic! Have fun with that.

Go from the hunter to the hunted, that's an intersting way to put it. Assuming everyone comes back and is healthy they should be up to the task. The depth should be there and even with injuries they should be able to keep challenging themselves.

Didn't I see where Iowa St is losing one of their better players? Any chance Xavier deciedes he made a mistake and wants to be a Hawkeye? Also what if DJ Carton wants to come home? Would Fran even take either of them? What if they both agreed to walk on? Well, I digress........
 
I was certain he was leaving, but now I'm not. Any tea leaf reading going on in Iowa City on this subject?

I've heard speculation on both sides.

I've said all along that I think he does through the draft process and evaluates things after that. But, who knows when that will be now?
 
VanDeWeghe may have been the worst defensive player in the history of the NBA. He fit in perfectly with those Doug Moe era Nuggets teams.

The dude had a sweet jumper however.
 
Is there any BTen team whose future is more tied to whether one player leaves early or stays for his Sr year than Iowa? Nope. If Garza returns they deserve to be considered one of the conference favorites. If he leaves, they immediately fall to a middle-of-the-pack BTen team. Looking at what other teams return, it looks like Maryland dips, but I don't see any other team taking a step back, and even NW and Nebraska will be significantly better than this year. Wisky, Purdue, Illinois & Rutgers will be really tough outs. In many ways the league will look a lot like this year: probably not a national top-5 team in the bunch, but a whole lot of teams that can do serious damage in the non-conference season and end up 10-10 or 11-9 in conference.
 
I think another factor that needs to go into this is who is coaching these programs in 20-21. Who is leading these programs. Deace would say you can't hide your quarterback in college football. Well, we can't hide our coaches either. Putting together a complete season will be the first one for this staff.
 
Is there any BTen team whose future is more tied to whether one player leaves early or stays for his Sr year than Iowa? Nope. If Garza returns they deserve to be considered one of the conference favorites. If he leaves, they immediately fall to a middle-of-the-pack BTen team. Looking at what other teams return, it looks like Maryland dips, but I don't see any other team taking a step back, and even NW and Nebraska will be significantly better than this year. Wisky, Purdue, Illinois & Rutgers will be really tough outs. In many ways the league will look a lot like this year: probably not a national top-5 team in the bunch, but a whole lot of teams that can do serious damage in the non-conference season and end up 10-10 or 11-9 in conference.
I would say Illinois with Ayo is a close second. If he returns they are a serious contender, if he leaves they are likely pretty average.
 
2015 we were 34 in adjusted defense. 2016 we were 30th. We are a far cry from that over the last three years.


Given how this team is currently built the best you can hope for is adjusted D in the 70’s or 80’s. As I stated before I thought the D was good enough until West Lafayette happened.
 
A good portion of Iowa's defense right now is predicated on how well it plays offensively. If it's making shots, it can mix in pressure and take time off the opponent's shot clock, meaning less needed to defend in the half court. It also creates turnovers. The Hawkeyes also are not good in scramble situations.
 
I do not see how anyone is going to stop Iowa from scoring 80 next year. Every night (unless its Fran playing too many bench players).

Who you gonna leave to double Garza? Leaving Bohannon is suicide; and leaving CJ is not much better. Despite the slump, we have seen that JW can shoot and he is career 38% from deep. Leave Connor? He is the craftiest guy in the league and also proved that when he is wide open, he can shoot the 3. That will only get better. Any of those guys are going to murder you from outside if you leave them alone. You also have 3 returning guys off the bench that have starting experience and can score.

Luka will get his. We have three guards that can score 20 on any given night. That gives a lot more room for error if one of them is off. This team will be filthy next year on offense......
 
Pitino is done. He’s recruited quite a bit of high level talent, but has really never been able to build an entire roster and coach them up.

Minnesota produces a lot of basketball talent, and Pitino doesn’t even recruit a lot of them. I don’t feel sorry for him one bit.
 
I do not see how anyone is going to stop Iowa from scoring 80 next year. Every night (unless its Fran playing too many bench players).

Who you gonna leave to double Garza? Leaving Bohannon is suicide; and leaving CJ is not much better. Despite the slump, we have seen that JW can shoot and he is career 38% from deep. Leave Connor? He is the craftiest guy in the league and also proved that when he is wide open, he can shoot the 3. That will only get better. Any of those guys are going to murder you from outside if you leave them alone. You also have 3 returning guys off the bench that have starting experience and can score.

Luka will get his. We have three guards that can score 20 on any given night. That gives a lot more room for error if one of them is off. This team will be filthy next year on offense......

Like you say, if all the pieces are back and if they are shooting well and scoring 12+ more pts a game without having scoring droughts in games then that takes so much pressure off their defense.

As others have said, when you score you set up the press to take 8 seconds away from the opponents shot clock. Play another 12 seconds of tough Dee and then the opponent doesnt have much time.
 
VanDeWeghe may have been the worst defensive player in the history of the NBA. He fit in perfectly with those Doug Moe era Nuggets teams.

The dude had a sweet jumper however.

Yeah, no one was playing D for those Nuggets teams during the Moe era. Had to read your post for a second and third time because I thought you were trying to single out Kiki. Because Alex English wasn't exactly locking people up.
 
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Yeah, no one was playing D for those Nuggets teams during the Moe era. Had to read your post for a second and third time because I thought you were trying to single Kiki. Because Alex English wasn't exactly locking people up.
Alex English, if anything, had an even sweeter jumper. I remember him playing for the Bucks in the mid to late seventies before he went to Denver. Larry Bird was always campaigning for Auerbach to pull the trigger on trading for him because Larry thought a second unit led by English would make the Celtics unstoppable. They eventually got Scott Wedman, another great mid range shooter, for that role for a lot less than English would have required. Then they got Bill Walton who found one last hurrah out of his injury ravaged body and West Coast hippie lifestyle to end up winning another title.
 
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