The first half vs. MSU was encouraging. There is a pulse!

[Biggusblockus]

Iowa played some of their best basketball of the season during the first 20 minutes last nite.

Izzo's knows how to beat a lot of teams - including Iowa. and made the right adjustments at halftime.

1) Shut down Marble - check
2) Frustrate the Iowa bigs - check
3) Handcheck, armbar, hold, molest Iowa until the refs start calling it (which they won't in EL) - check
4) Force the Iowa Guards away from the basket, forget the backdoor cuts - check

This Iowa team is still a second round NCAA exit. That's the ceiling barring some miracle. But they can play good hoopyball - we saw it the first half.

 

[STILLBUSTER]

I was hoping the need to resort to "partial game moral victories" was left behind with last season.

There's nothing encouraging about the last 2 weeks' performance. With the exception of Marble, I'd take last year's team's intensity and toughness over all the weak, underperforming talent and depth on this team, right now, and feel a whole lot more encouraged going into the BTT and NCAA.

 

[uihawk82]

If they can capture some good shooting and either better defense or cooler opponent shooting then good things will happen.