Temper your Disappointment

Yep had them holding court at Carver except against Indiana. .. It is in a thread think it was in the Miller prediction thread

12-1 Non-Conference
11-7 BT- Losses Indiana (2) Minnesota (1) OSU (1) MSU (1) Michigan (1) Wisky (1)

23-8
 
storminspank said:
I thought the three was clean, great look at the bucket.
Marble substitution is a head-scratcher. Immediately lost his guy for an easy layup.
White/Basabe was good combo, it was working.
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For the second game in a row, Fran/Marble Head-scratcher. No clue what the heck that was..
 
storminspank said:
I thought the three was clean, great look at the bucket.
Marble substitution is a head-scratcher. Immediately lost his guy for an easy layup.
White/Basabe was good combo, it was working.
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Marble losing Brust, I believe, hurt badly, but we didn't lose the game because of it.....

To take the badgers to two overtimes at Kohl is outstanding. They were fortunate to win this one.....:)
 
storminspank said:
If a team does what you expect them to do, why throw punches at that person's expectations?

We all went in circles after the MN game about this.
I had Iowa 2-8 at this point in conf, so they are actually exceeding my expectations.

Again, it sucks to see Iowa loses these close games over better teams, but this is the sort of season we were all thinking it would be like. Now that it's happening people are ******. Well, that's fine, just temper it. You knew what you were getting into before the season started.

A team that was likely going to the NIT for the second straight year with a chance to steal a few and get on the bubble.

Getting frustrated is fine and the normal response, but remember what you signed up for this season of Iowa Basketball.
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I can handle playing to expectations when we are still building the program and moving in the right direction. I am not okay with continued costly mistakes game after game.

Reminding me a lot of the football coaching staffs ability to make the same blunders game after game, year after year.
 
You make some valid points, but at some point, all this rationalization rings hollow. What happens next year when we see OSU, MSU and MI twice? No doubt the team is young, schedule has been tough, games have been close, but we have been relatively injury free except for Marble, nobody is ineligible etc., which is a luxury other teams haven't had. WI's starting PG out for season and they are playing a new group and they still maintain a level of success.
 
Sorry guys i forget myself , anyway i`m back on earth realistically. i`m happy that we're competitive especially at Kohls Center. I`m proud to be hawkeye.
 
HawkPrdatr40 said:
No way Jon, I'm just not buying that this is the team you expected.

I can tell you that nobody would have predicted the season to play out the way it has. This is a very, very, frustrating BT season. Iowa should without question be exceeding expectations. This is a much better team, that can't finish..
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You have trouble "buying it" because its not what you expected. I just went and read my preseason prediction thread again. Iowa is actually exactly where I had them through 10 B1G games.

I felt this team would be inconsistent and have trouble winning on the road because of so many young players. If anything this team has exceeded my expectations because they've had a chance to win three straight roadies without much of anything from their best player.

I don't know how people can't factor that in. Well, I do know; emotion pretty much kicks in amd you cant fathom a didference from your perspective.

Here's my game by game write up from before the season:

NON-CONFERENCE:

11/09: Texas-Pan American (WIN)
11/12: Central Michigan (WIN) Keno Davis back in CHA
11/15: Howard (WIN) Tell him I said Hello
11/17: Gardner-Webb (WIN) Sounds like someone you hire, not play in hoops
11/20: Western Kentucky (WIN)
11/21: DePaul OR Wichita State (LOSS) Perhaps first real test of the year
11/27: at Virginia Tech (WIN) 1st true road game against gutted Hokie program
12/01: Texas A&M (Corpus Christi) (WIN)
12/04: South Dakota (WIN)
12/07: Iowa State (WIN) This should be a great game between two NCAA bubble teams
12/15: v UNI in Des Moines (LOSS) I think they will lose one of ISU or UNI
12/19: So. Carolina State (WIN)
12/22: Coppin State (WIN)

NON CONFERENCE PREDICTION: 11-2. I think they are just as good or better than every one of these opponents. Would I be shocked if they won them all? Yes and No. No because of what I just said, yes because I can’t wash last year’s Campbell loss out of my memory.

BIG TEN SLATE

12/31: Indiana (LOSS) I hope I am wrong, but the Hoosiers are better than the Hawkeyes
1/06: at Michigan (LOSS) Iowa has five wins in Ann Arbor since 1982
1/10: Michigan State (WIN) Iowa is a surprising 4-2 at home v MSU in last six CHA meetings
1/13: at Northwestern (LOSS) Iowa 1-7 in last 8 at NW, 1-6 in last overall games
1/19: Wisconsin (WIN) The 20th anniversary of Chris Streets death
1/22: at Ohio State (LOSS) Iowa 1-9 last 10 meetings, last win at OSU in 2004
1/27: at Purdue (LOSS) Iowa is better team but can’t win em all. Iowa L last 5 at PU

NOTE: The first seven games are simply a brutal stretch. You have three games against preseason Top Five teams plus two more games against teams ranked in the preseason. That said, the games at Northwestern and Purdue are winnable.

1/31: Penn State (WIN)
2/03: at Minnesota (LOSS) I think Gophers are a great defensive team, very athletic
2/06: at Wisconsin (LOSS) no sweep this year
2/09: Northwestern (WIN) Have to sweep post-Shurna Cats
2/14: at Penn State (LOSS) Iowa has lost last five at PSU. Hate that place
2/17: Minnesota (WIN) Chemistry issues hit Minnesota by this time of the year
2/21: at Nebraska (WIN) Huskers worst team in league
2/27: Purdue (WIN)
3/2: at Indiana (LOSS)
3/05: Illinois (WIN)
3/09: Nebraska (WIN)

BIG TEN RECORD: I have them at 9-9. I could see them winning at Penn State and losing at Northwestern. This also has them with an 8-1 record at home in conference play and just one home loss on the season. This adds up to at 20-11 record

Here is a path to get 10 wins in the Big Ten:

-Sweep Nebraska, Northwestern and Penn State (Six Wins)
-Split with Purdue, Wisconsin and Minnesota (Three Wins)
-Beat Illinois

That would be 10-8, but the resume wouldn’t be all that impressive as it would include just one win against a team ranked to start the year.

If Iowa goes 9-9 the way I laid out in the ‘on the record’ prediction and wins 11 or 12 games in the non-conference, they will be in the thick of an NCAA bid and would need a Big Ten tournament win to push them over the hump. I think 10-8 would be good for fifth or sixth place in the Big Ten standings. 9-9 would be sixth or seventh place, but the seventh place team from the Big Ten has a good chance of getting to the dance this year.

Again, I am not comfortable sitting here saying that I EXPECT this year’s Iowa team to make it to the NCAA tournament. I think they will be a bubble team and one with a spotty RPI ranking come March, due to their soft as butter non-conference slate.

That said, if Iowa gets to 21 or 22 regular season wins with 10 of those wins in league play, I think they will go dancing.

At 20-11 and 9-9 in league play? They’ll need to make a little noise at the Big Ten tournament.
 
This is the first time since the Alford years that I have been disappointed in Iowa basketball. Things were looking so good even coming off the NIT loss to Oregon. Marble was showing that he was a legit scoring threat, and the team played well together. Matt Gatens graduating was a big blow but Iowa has more depth this season with the freshman that came in. Right now Marble is about as bad as you can get, and nobody wants to step up and be the go to guy. White cannot create his own shot very well, and struggles at the line late in the game. Mel has his foul issues and plays out of control at times as well. I can handle the mistakes by the true freshman (Gessell, Clemmons, and Woodbury), but Marble and White have let the team down. Especially during crunch time.

The rest of the schedule looks favorable, but there are no gimmies. What worries me is Northwestern is playing better basketball, and Penn State is bad, but the Hawks have lost 5 in a row in their building. Iowa has lost 5 games now that they should have won and that hurts a lot. Should Iowa lose against Northwestern and fall to 3-8 in conference play, ANY postseason dream might have all but died.

Right now I am not seeing much confidence out of most of the players. Eric May is the only guy who has been consistent with solid play.
 
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Iowa just doesn't have a killer instinct player on the roster and that is the problem. This is not something that they are going to learn to do next year all of a sudden either. It has nothing to do with them being young, it is everything to do with not killer instinct at the end of games and just plain old not a smart team a lot of the time. In this day and age freshmen are the best players on the floor more often than not so using the they are young excuse is dumb. More than like they will prob go 4-4 in their next 8 and look like they have all B1G season doing it (like crap) and then miss the NIT.
 
After a nights sleep, this team still has a shot. I came in thinking "Win all your home games and beat Penn State and Nebby on the road" while thinking we'd have no shot vs the Gophers and Badgers. This is still very possible (though asking a team to finish 7-1 is a tough task).

I think that stretch would be enough, we'd have to beat Indiana or Minnesota in that stretch and we'd be 10-8 in the BIG. Plus, I think the close losses would help us in that scenario as it shows we can play with tournament teams.

I can't pick us to make it right now but we are much better than our 3-7 record and if we do make it we would be an incredibly tough out.
 
JonDMiller said:
You have trouble "buying it" because its not what you expected.
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I think this is the issue for everything related to sports in general, not just Iowa Basketball. People "expect" something in their own minds and if it doesn't happen they are disappointed. Most people can handle it, but some people go over the top and you gotta talk them off the ledge. Not many people can predict things let alone "expect" what might actually happen. The homerism fan aspect is too much to overcome most of the time. Most fans want to be optimistic when they see improvement and then it builds into excitement and then comes expectations.

I expected Iowa to win the same amount of games just less amount of blow out loses, considering they have more talent this year than last, that talent just has less experience than last year's team.
 
The Iowa basketball program is horrible and has been since 2007. In an era where the great players are one and done that is a long time to be bad. Not to mention sevearl top 5 recruits have come out of Iowa in that time. We may never see that again.

My point is until we show otherwise we are a bad program. Im not sure why everyone had expectations this year.
 
Most of the disappointment has to do with 6 single digit losses in the Big Ten conference. Something that would frustrate any fan base, anywhere. Not preseason expectations.
 
I see 7 easy wins remaining... with a possible upset against Indy. We are dancing with a decent tourney seat.
 
Couldn't Gatens have grown his hair out and been given a different uniform? We need his perimeter and free throw shooting.
 
Marble isn't healthy. He almost couldn't pivot vs the Gophers up in the barn. When I saw that I couldn't believe he was on the court.
 
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