The Schedule Turns

ssckelley

ssckelley

Well-Known Member
Take a look at the rest of our schedule below, every game the rest of the way is winnable. Iowa should be 10-1 in conference (19-4 overall) when they travel to Indiana on the 11th. Iowa has a shot at doing something they haven't done in a long time, win the regular season Big Ten title.

UPCOMING GAMES TIME
111 Jan. 31 Northwestern 3:00 PM
109 Feb. 3 Penn State 7:00 PM
102 Feb. 7 @ Illinois 1:00 PM
40 Feb. 11 @ Indiana 9:00 PM
215 Feb. 14 Minnesota 7:30 PM
109 Feb. 17 @ Penn State 6:30 PM
66 Feb. 24 Wisconsin 9:00 PM
68 Feb. 27 @ Ohio State 12:00 AM
40 Mar. 1 Indiana 9:00 PM
31 Mar. 5 @ Michigan 8:00 PM
 
We now how we play against the best teams in the nation. Time to find out how we play against the bad teams. They need to prove they can dominate these games. If they play to their level of competition, even if they win the games it's a recipe for an early exit in the tournament.
 
Damn, these kids are truly on a mission, I know we fell short last night, but they are focused, driven, and will be a force to reckon with. PC, that's my concern also "you play to your competition"....we've seen it at the high school level, and it's a very true phenomenon. You have to be ready at all times, now get those Wildcats and get back on track.....
 
The at Illinois game will be key. In 05-06 road games against not good teams is what kept us from a regular season title. Beat Minnesota OR Northwestern on the road that year when neither were good and Iowa is trying to win their first title in 10 years.
 
I think the basement is 15-3 and the ceiling is 17-1. I will go with 16-2 and an outright conference championship.

Edit - We better come ready to play. Williams, Wagner and Fleming need to get some playing time over these next 10 games. It's not just about winning these games for what it does this year. It's also about winning by the appropriate margin so we can prepare for next year IMO.
 
The big thing that keeps me from completely thinking we will roll is we don't really blow out bad teams. If we aren't hot from three games will be closer than preferred.
 
bcl20 said:
The at Illinois game will be key. In 05-06 road games against not good teams is what kept us from a regular season title. Beat Minnesota OR Northwestern on the road that year when neither were good and Iowa is trying to win their first title in 10 years.
Click to expand...

I know, it's Illinois right? But the Illini are horrible this year, Iowa needs to take care of business. They must have been playing over their heads to beat Purdue at home.
 
ssckelley said:
I know, it's Illinois right? But the Illini are horrible this year, Iowa needs to take care of business. They must have been playing over their heads to beat Purdue at home.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I tried to watch the Ohio State vs. Illinois game last night...was difficult much of the time. Those 2 teams aren't very good. If we play like we did last night against either of these teams and we likely win by 6 instead of losing by 6.
 
bcl20 said:
The big thing that keeps me from completely thinking we will roll is we don't really blow out bad teams. If we aren't hot from three games will be closer than preferred.
Click to expand...

Your assessment is right on. I am hoping that we've been taking "mental" breaks against kNU and RU because of the mental drain it has been for this team. This first half has been a gauntlet. But now, they do need to shift gears and determine to dominate lesser teams.
 
bcl20 said:
The big thing that keeps me from completely thinking we will roll is we don't really blow out bad teams. If we aren't hot from three games will be closer than preferred.
Click to expand...

Yep, my fear coming into the season, with this style of play, was "live by / die by". Since Iowa has not been a good shooting team, let alone, run-n-gun / pop-n-shoot team, I couldn't see much above a bubble team. Iowa is clearly a better team than I gave them credit for and, to date, have proven they are better than every team left on the schedule.

Here's hoping the law of averages completely reset itself last night; not only the shooting but the toughness, discipline and focus. A B14 title and deep run are there for the taking. At the same time, 2013 is peeking around the corner.

Clemmons needs to take over the point. Uthoff and Jok need to take over every game and show no mercy.
 
99% of last night was some weird supernatural force causing air balls/bricks and just bizarre decision making. 1% was Gesell thinking he is 6'8". Overall, it was a strange game, but if Gesell can get steered in the right direction, I think we win an outright B1G Championship.
 
STILLBUSTER said:
Yep, my fear coming into the season, with this style of play, was "live by / die by". Since Iowa has not been a good shooting team, let alone, run-n-gun / pop-n-shoot team, I couldn't see much above a bubble team. Iowa is clearly a better team than I gave them credit for and, to date, have proven they are better than every team left on the schedule.

Here's hoping the law of averages completely reset itself last night; not only the shooting but the toughness, discipline and focus. A B14 title and deep run are there for the taking. At the same time, 2013 is peeking around the corner.

Clemmons needs to take over the point. Uthoff and Jok need to take over every game and show no mercy.
Click to expand...
I'm not sure Clemmons needs to completely take over but I think he should be primary ballhandler more when Mike is on the floor. I guess I'm not really sure what Mike would bring to the game off ball though. Yeah, he has his moments but he still does a good job setting guys up. I just don't get how his stroke is so awful.
 
bcl20 said:
I'm not sure Clemmons needs to completely take over but I think he should be primary ballhandler more when Mike is on the floor. I guess I'm not really sure what Mike would bring to the game off ball though. Yeah, he has his moments but he still does a good job setting guys up. I just don't get how his stroke is so awful.
Click to expand...

Clemmons has been at the point more with Mike playing off the ball more since Mike's injury. With rotations, not always on the floor together, foul issues, etc. it's a somewhat subtle thing but I've noticed. Most everyone on here knows I have been a Clemmons fan since his freshman year. So I notice when he has the ball more at the point. He's been playing well and making good decisions.

But we need both of our senior guards playing well. And I'm not worried about Gesell. He needs to get over the nagging injury. It would be great if we could string together 3 comfortable wins and get Williams on the floor allowing Gesell to rest and recover a bit...while Williams gets some experience.
 
WindsorHawk said:
Clemmons has been at the point more with Mike playing off the ball more since Mike's injury. With rotations, not always on the floor together, foul issues, etc. it's a somewhat subtle thing but I've noticed. Most everyone on here knows I have been a Clemmons fan since his freshman year. So I notice when he has the ball more at the point. He's been playing well and making good decisions.

But we need both of our senior guards playing well. And I'm not worried about Gesell. He needs to get over the nagging injury. It would be great if we could string together 3 comfortable wins and get Williams on the floor allowing Gesell to rest and recover a bit...while Williams gets some experience.
Click to expand...

Having two solid point guards is too much of an advantage to waste. I hope Mike gets it going again.
 
STILLBUSTER said:
Yep, my fear coming into the season, with this style of play, was "live by / die by". Since Iowa has not been a good shooting team, let alone, run-n-gun / pop-n-shoot team, I couldn't see much above a bubble team. Iowa is clearly a better team than I gave them credit for and, to date, have proven they are better than every team left on the schedule.
Click to expand...

I don't really feel like Iowa fits this mold. If you really want to see a team that fits the "live by / die by" mantra, look no further than last year's ISU squad. As good as they were shooting the ball, all it took was a bad shooting night against a 14 seed and they were greeted with a quick exit from the dance. The fact that they could shoot lights out masked the fact that they could not rebound and played lousy defense. That's where this year's Iowa team is different IMO. Even with a cold shooting night, they can hang with and possibly beat anyone. Last night was a prime example, their defense is what kept them in the game where a "live by / die by" team would have been run out of the gym.
 
AdamHawk said:
I don't really feel like Iowa fits this mold. If you really want to see a team that fits the "live by / die by" mantra, look no further than last year's ISU squad. As good as they were shooting the ball, all it took was a bad shooting night against a 14 seed and they were greeted with a quick exit from the dance. The fact that they could shoot lights out masked the fact that they could not rebound and played lousy defense. That's where this year's Iowa team is different IMO. Even with a cold shooting night, they can hang with and possibly beat anyone. Last night was a prime example, their defense is what kept them in the game where a "live by / die by" team would have been run out of the gym.
Click to expand...

Mostly agree, however last night, we allowed a ton of wide open looks from 3 that Maryland missed. Had they made half of those,we would have got buried. Most of our misses were due to good defense on their part. Not many open looks. I still think we would beat them on a nuetral court and easily at home.
 
bcl20 said:
I'm not sure Clemmons needs to completely take over but I think he should be primary ballhandler more when Mike is on the floor. I guess I'm not really sure what Mike would bring to the game off ball though. Yeah, he has his moments but he still does a good job setting guys up. I just don't get how his stroke is so awful.
Click to expand...

Both MG and Sapp have had their instances of carelessness with the ball. MG had a bad night. But he had a great night when he dropped 25 against MSU. Sapp has had turnover issues, also. The beauty is that both MG and Sapp are really good with the ball, but (I believe) MG is up at the top in the conference in assist/turnover ratio. Thursday night was so glaring because MG rarely has a game that bad, from a turnover perspective. MG has been very good at getting to the rim and converting, this season. He just wasn't on Thursday and that had a lot to do with MD having a frontline of 5 or 6 guys 6'-9" to 7'-1".

I don't think there needs to be any change on who the primary handler is when they're both on the court because they essentially share. Sapp is emerging as a pretty good scorer.
 
BILLBUCKNER said:
Mostly agree, however last night, we allowed a ton of wide open looks from 3 that Maryland missed. Had they made half of those,we would have got buried. Most of our misses were due to good defense on their part. Not many open looks. I still think we would beat them on a nuetral court and easily at home.
Click to expand...

Maryland does present a matchup nightmare for most teams because if you dont guard the lane and their bigs they are going to shoot 80% down low.

Iowa played pretty good defense though the first 10 minutes of the second half , and yes maryland was 0-10 from 3 range during that time and many were open shots. But the hawk offense didnt have one of those high scoring runs during that same time in the second half. The offense was off so they lost a close game.

I am not worried as I think they will have resolve to come out at home the next 2 games and drive and dish and get the shots to fall.
 
Seems as though lots of posters are blaming Gesell for the loss to Maryland. Yes, he had a subpar game, but so did Uthoff and the entire bench. Hopefully we can pummel the Mildcats unto submission early and rest Mike and get Williams and Fleming some minutes.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Share this page

Top