The Breakdown: Hawkeyes’ Comeback Falls Short at Minnesota

Cook needs to realize that while he can go coast-to-coast and finish against the non-con directional teams, more often than not when he tries to do that in the BTen it's a turnover. He's much better this year about not being a bull in a china shop and not creating offensive fouls when he's working down low with the ball, but now because he had some success driving the length of the court in the 'pre-season' he thinks he can do it all the time. It's really quite simple: don't. Thought I saw a graphic on TV that he now has the highest turnover rate/game for all players in the BTen conference this year -- can that be right? Unfortunately, his poor FT shooting affected this game negatively early, middle and late.
 
Our D was bad for sure and offense good enough to win.

When I look at the box score, we got out scored by 10 at the free throw line.
 
Yeah, we missed a lot of those free throws we normally make. Lately it also seems the refs arent calling as many fouls against our opponents as they call a bunch of tickey-tac stuff on us. Sometimes I wonder if there isnt some kind of conference preferential treatment to some teams over others.
 
Got beat against a middle of the pack Goof team. Are we going to keep losing these winnable games, or pick it up?
 
If Cook goes pro after this year he would be a fool. He needs Iowa next year as much as Iowa needs him. That being said, I'm sure he's going to leave regardless.
 
Thought I saw a graphic on TV that he now has the highest turnover rate/game for all players in the BTen conference this year -- can that be right?
3.11 per game. 2nd worst in the Big Ten actually behind Carsen Edwards (Purdue) who has 3.26.

Cook has the 9th highest turnover rate in P6 basketball.
 
If Cook goes pro after this year he would be a fool. He needs Iowa next year as much as Iowa needs him. That being said, I'm sure he's going to leave regardless.

I think Iowa would be better off without Cook. When he was hurt other guys stepped up but when he's in there it's as if they are obligated to keep feeding Cook the ball so he can get his points.
 
Cook isn't a crunch time player that's a given. What percentage of the time when he dribbles the ball up after getting a defensive rebound does something good happen for us? The guy wants to be Lebron James but you have to have court vision. He dribbles in too deep before realizing there's nothing there when he should make that decision before you get to the free throw line. I don't think anyone that's seen Cook play very much would suggest he's ready for the NBA... He's D league G league or whatever it's called material at best. With his body he'd almost be better served to just try and go all Reggie Evans mode and be a hustler/rebounder. Not worry about being a huge offensive threat because the way he plays in the post in college won't be how he can do it at the next level. And that's all he's got for a game...
 
I liked Garza offensively last night, he hit some nice shots. Defensively not so much. He is slow moving his feet and was out of position a lot. He came over to help out once where he didn't need to and left Murphy wide open for a dunk. When they look over the film on this one, there are going to be a lot of fundamental defensive miscues. You never let a guy like Coffee have a free run to the rim without getting a body near him so he can't fly to the rim. Even our slower players are capable of getting in his takeoff lane. Moving forward some of the mistakes are correctable, but the biggest problem facing us I believe is overall foot speed laterally. That can only be fixed through recruiting.
 
I liked Garza offensively last night, he hit some nice shots. Defensively not so much. He is slow moving his feet and was out of position a lot. He came over to help out once where he didn't need to and left Murphy wide open for a dunk. When they look over the film on this one, there are going to be a lot of fundamental defensive miscues. You never let a guy like Coffee have a free run to the rim without getting a body near him so he can't fly to the rim. Even our slower players are capable of getting in his takeoff lane. Moving forward some of the mistakes are correctable, but the biggest problem facing us I believe is overall foot speed laterally. That can only be fixed through recruiting.
Garza had a really really bad game defensively yesterday.
 
Cook needs to realize that while he can go coast-to-coast and finish against the non-con directional teams, more often than not when he tries to do that in the BTen it's a turnover. He's much better this year about not being a bull in a china shop and not creating offensive fouls when he's working down low with the ball, but now because he had some success driving the length of the court in the 'pre-season' he thinks he can do it all the time. It's really quite simple: don't. Thought I saw a graphic on TV that he now has the highest turnover rate/game for all players in the BTen conference this year -- can that be right? Unfortunately, his poor FT shooting affected this game negatively early, middle and late.
He dribbles high, and to the right, and barrels in without much agility...an unhappy ending is often the result.
 
I think Iowa would be better off without Cook. When he was hurt other guys stepped up but when he's in there it's as if they are obligated to keep feeding Cook the ball so he can get his points.
Cook certainly does some things well and is strong and athletic. But I've had conversations with people saying we could be better next year without Baer and Cook while adding 3 redshirts and 2 freshmen.

I definitely think we are better this year with Cook 2018-19. But yesterday I saw Cook 2017-18. That version hurts us IMO. I think we pull out an improbable win if Cook is on the bench the last 4 minutes of the game.
 
Top