That game set basketball back 50 years.

[DP5555]

I'm going to take a wait and see approach after the Hawks FINALLY grinded out a tough win last night against a legit opponent. I don't care how ugly it was. I think the fact they earned the win is more important. It's all about confidence. They were on such a losing streak in big games that come down to the wire that they literally didn't have any confidence. You could see it in their play. There's no way some of these guys are really that bad of shooters. Maybe I'm wrong, but at this point I refuse to believe that. I think it has been a mental block for quite some time. I'm anxious to see how they react after getting a W in a game like that. I'm hoping it will be the boost to their confidence that they so desperately needed.

Obviously, the game this weekend isn't going to show us much. Hopefully it will be a nice exhibition where they can knock down a bunch of shots and head into the ISU matchup with hot hands. That game will be huge and I fly into Vegas at noon on the 12th!!!!

 

[InGoodCo]

While you guys wait and see, I'll go ahead and enjoy and celebrate one of the biggest regular season wins in school history. I'll wait and see if you guys come around and like this team if they can live up to this boards standards....which are higher than beating North Carolina in Chapel Hill apparently.

 

[STILLBUSTER]

50 years? Cool, that's '64-'65 season, the beginning of the Ralph Miller era - with an emphasis on gutsy effort and pestering, pressure D - sorta what the Hawks did to NC.

 

[1hawkeye1]

College BB is going down the drain with the mug and thug style now. Just last year they were enforcing the freedom of movement and I think scoring was up 18%. Now, this year it is just as bad or worse than it ever was. The freedom of movement is gone, and we are back to 90 feet of hand checking, grabbing ball handlers, bumping and holding cutters, body checking through the lane down low. It is just crap and it is ruining the game. Let the offensive players move. Force the defense to play D with your feet, and not by grabbing players up and down the court. Offensive numbers will go up if you just do that, they proved it last year.....but now for some reason it is just back to the same old crap.

AMEN, brother. Drives me absolutely nuts. Then a guy like Aaron Craft gets lauded as a wonderful defensive player when all he does it scratch, grab, and rake at the ball until he forces the offensive player to fumble it.

Back in my day defense was played with your feet not with your hands, and we liked it!! Now get the hell off my lawn, Roy Williams!

 

[parahawkeyes]

Why are people agreeing with the post bashing early season officiating while at the same time taking shots at the Hawks for their early season shooting woes?? If the first one is real, the other one can't be taken for much as evidence for future performance. And the first one was backed up with factual evidence. If defenses are being allowed to control perimeter players then HAHA no, we won't shoot well, and quite frankly I'm a little more than shocked people are surprised by this.

Also, especially to the guy who specifically lamented our future ability to hang with "the big boys", well we've more than hung with the big boys---we're actually playing better against them than they are against us. I'm gonna go classic simpleton here and note that 5 @ UNC and -3 against Syracuse gives us a +2 in that department. Then there's Texas. I can say a million things about that and then each individual poster can say a million other things, but only one thing will be said by all: that game was much much closer than that final suggested.

And this is the early season, pre-season, before conference play. First handful of games without the guy we spent two years revolving the entire game plan around only to have him handle it more than expected during actual play. LOOK AT HOW WE'RE PLAYING THESE GAMES!! We could repeat our schedule from 2 years ago and this would still be impressive, but this is TEX, UNC and SYR with nary a home game. With DEF officiating. I know last year was tough and blah blah blah football team, but check it out, you just let it cost you your enjoyment of beating North Carolina and Roy Williams. Feel good about that? Was it worth it?

 

[DodgerHawki]

Thanks for the link. I just don't get why the NCAA and officials continue to let the game devolve into a game of holding, hand checking, bumping, and flat out shoving. They need to get their heads out there azz and quit letting bullies like Izzo, and Ryan force a boring version of the game upon us. This used to be a game of skill, now it is just a game of who can grab, hold, bump and check the best.......

I didn't see a ton of holding and hand-checking in last night's game. The refs called a lot of fouls and Iowa had only 12 turnovers, with UNC having 10. It was just bad shooting in most instances, and good defense when teams went near the rim.

The larger issue is that the most skilled players generally don't stick around for more than a year, they go pro. That's the biggest difference from the salad days of the 1980s to today. The NBA game has improved with the emphasis on hand-checking, but the skill level of the NBA perimeter players is far above what you see for most teams in college.

 

[1977Hawkeye]

I'm going to take a wait and see approach after the Hawks FINALLY grinded out a tough win last night against a legit opponent. I don't care how ugly it was. I think the fact they earned the win is more important. It's all about confidence. They were on such a losing streak in big games that come down to the wire that they literally didn't have any confidence. You could see it in their play. There's no way some of these guys are really that bad of shooters. Maybe I'm wrong, but at this point I refuse to believe that. I think it has been a mental block for quite some time. I'm anxious to see how they react after getting a W in a game like that. I'm hoping it will be the boost to their confidence that they so desperately needed.

Obviously, the game this weekend isn't going to show us much. Hopefully it will be a nice exhibition where they can knock down a bunch of shots and head into the ISU matchup with hot hands. That game will be huge and I fly into Vegas at noon on the 12th!!!!

Iowa actually didn't shoot all that poorly in the first half.. I thought at halftime, IIRC, they showed Iowa was 10-22, which is about 45%. Not great, but serviceable. It's just that the second half was sooooo horrible shooting-wise that it made the overall game stats look pretty bad. So honestly, just one bad half.

UNC shot horribly the entire game, thankfully.

 

[1977Hawkeye]

We have the makings of a pretty good defensive team. We need to firm up our defensive rebounding, but that the firm rotation players can really guard. We are exceptionally long across the frontline, with Uthoff, White, Woodbury, Olseani, and Uhl getting most of those minutes. We really speed up teams: White can defend wing players on switches/close outs and Uthoff is excellent closing out on shooter and blocking shots. Gessell and Clemmons are also committed defenders. Both compete, both move their feet.

We are going to need good defense too. Because I'm afraid we are just a little short on offensive firepower this year. We won't be able to beat good teams with defensive lapses.

The rebounding needs work for sure, but the Hawks did a much better job down the stretch last night IMO.

This is not a great shooting team, but they are surely not near as bad as we saw in the second half last night, either. Just one of those halves where they couldn't buy a bucket. The first half, they shot around 45%, which isn't too bad. If they can continue to play tough D, be serviceable on the glass, and knock down a few shots at least like they did in the first half last night, this should be a good season.

 

[bogeyman]

Thanks for the link. I just don't get why the NCAA and officials continue to let the game devolve into a game of holding, hand checking, bumping, and flat out shoving. They need to get their heads out there azz and quit letting bullies like Izzo, and Ryan force a boring version of the game upon us. This used to be a game of skill, now it is just a game of who can grab, hold, bump and check the best.......

Izzo was complaining about the refs last night postgame. LOL. Stinks to not have Teddy Valentine and Ed Hightower in your back pocket for a game eh Tommy?

 

[1977Hawkeye]

Izzo was complaining about the refs last night postgame. LOL. Stinks to not have Teddy Valentine and Ed Hightower in your back pocket for a game eh Tommy?

Tom Izzo drives me nuts. I watched a small part of the MSU/ND game last night when Iowa/UNC was on a timeout, and all I saw in that short time was Izzo flying around the sidelines, screaming at the refs, with a look on his face that made it seem like one of his kids just wrecked his brand new sports car... I think it was in response to what was an extremely obvious goaltending call against one of his players.

Personally, I can't stand the guy. Bo Ryan isn't much better.

 

[blkngldFRO]

I didn't see the whole game (working) and will watch it tonight.

The one stat that the UofI basketball team needed more than any of them THEY BEAT A TOP 15 TEAM ON THE ROAD IN AN EXTREMLY HOSTEL ENVIROMENT!

When is the last time the Hawks have pulled that off. Was it pretty no…but I have seen some really freaking ugly losses on the road and at home over the years. Everyone was saying when is this team going to get that big win…when will they close out a game…ok we have been complaining about consistency of shooting the whole time as well…

BUT

I am enjoying the crap out of this win!!!! You will be surprised what a win like this can do for the confidence of a shooter. Go Hawks clean up the offense and let’s GET MAD AGAIN!
ps were back.

 

[deanvogs]

I didn't see a ton of holding and hand-checking in last night's game. The refs called a lot of fouls and Iowa had only 12 turnovers, with UNC having 10. It was just bad shooting in most instances, and good defense when teams went near the rim.

The larger issue is that the most skilled players generally don't stick around for more than a year, they go pro. That's the biggest difference from the salad days of the 1980s to today. The NBA game has improved with the emphasis on hand-checking, but the skill level of the NBA perimeter players is far above what you see for most teams in college.

I wasn't talking about the Iowa vs NC game, I was talking about officiating as a whole. They spend a whole year trying to clean some of this stuff up, and it actually worked last year as scoring was back up, and the game was more fun to watch. Now this year it is like everything has backslide to where it was, like last year never even happened.

 

[blubberhawk]

Yep,its very maddening to get wide open looks at a 3 only to see it clank. But what else do you do? Maybe Fran will be forced to play Ellingsen if he can consistently drain them. But then you lose out on the defensive end with him. Ogles has been the most disapointing when essentially that is what he was recruited for.

Ogles can't guard his shadow. You would be missing nothing on the defensive end. If Ogles can't shoot 40% from the three pt. line, there is no reason in the world for him to be on the court.

 

[Bigtenchamp]

Why are people agreeing with the post bashing early season officiating while at the same time taking shots at the Hawks for their early season shooting woes?? If the first one is real, the other one can't be taken for much as evidence for future performance. And the first one was backed up with factual evidence. If defenses are being allowed to control perimeter players then HAHA no, we won't shoot well, and quite frankly I'm a little more than shocked people are surprised by this.

Also, especially to the guy who specifically lamented our future ability to hang with "the big boys", well we've more than hung with the big boys---we're actually playing better against them than they are against us. I'm gonna go classic simpleton here and note that 5 @ UNC and -3 against Syracuse gives us a +2 in that department. Then there's Texas. I can say a million things about that and then each individual poster can say a million other things, but only one thing will be said by all: that game was much much closer than that final suggested.

And this is the early season, pre-season, before conference play. First handful of games without the guy we spent two years revolving the entire game plan around only to have him handle it more than expected during actual play. LOOK AT HOW WE'RE PLAYING THESE GAMES!! We could repeat our schedule from 2 years ago and this would still be impressive, but this is TEX, UNC and SYR with nary a home game. With DEF officiating. I know last year was tough and blah blah blah football team, but check it out, you just let it cost you your enjoyment of beating North Carolina and Roy Williams. Feel good about that? Was it worth it?

The hawks were missing wide open shots... tons of them.

It was mental and you could see it... didn't have anything to do with the defense.

 

[Knight78]

I think I saw more shots made in a 2nd grade YMCA game.

Glad the hawks won and such... but wow lol.

Playing good defense does that. One good thing about it is that we won. We won ugly, but we won.