There will be NO 2013!!

Stanzi said:
I knew they were ranked, but I didn't remember them being top 10. I guess I must have blocked out that season after the epic collapse.
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At the same point 2 years ago they were 15-3 and got as high as #9 in the country.
 
deanvogs said:
Fran has only had one year in which his team wasn't better at the end of the year than it was at the beginning/middle of the year. That was the year the meltdown, and it started almost exactly when Patrick was diagnosed with cancer.

I have no worries at all that this team will meltdown, as that was the aberration, the norm in the other 4 years was to be playing the best BB the second half of the B1G season.
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If we play better basketball the second part of the season we're winning it all. At this point Kenpom has us at number 2. Improvement means we're way better than everyone
 
This year's team is senior laden group that have been through a lot......I need to take a peek at the roster, but I do not think that was the case 2 years ago. If you are not loaded with McDonalds All-Americans having a team with a lot of upperclassman with experience is what you need to have a "special" season.
 
Iowa just collapsed defensively that year. I don't really see that happening this year. We've already played most of the good teams.
 
ehhhh, I was wrong; Basabe, Marble and McCabe were seniors. Olesani and White were juniors, so that team did have a lot of upperclassman in leadership roles.
 
Long ways to go, but 1) need to sweep the home games and that goes without saying. No losing home games, and in fact need to beat teams like PSU and MN senseless. 2) Need to beat the bad teams on the road incl PSU, IL. At Mich, at OSU, atIU, can definitely win them all but a 2-1 split ok 1-2 not so great.

I would like to say 15-3 at this point, and that may be good for outright or at least a tie. 14-4 maybe.
 
Still areas we can improve on as individuals and team which could make this team really scary.Keep getting better Hawks.
 
Stanzi said:
I knew they were ranked, but I didn't remember them being top 10. I guess I must have blocked out that season after the epic collapse.
Click to expand...


We lost to Villanova, ISU, and Wisconsin. They were 3 of the 8 teams ranked ahead of us and we blew all 3 games. Then we beat #3 OSU on the road and pounder a good Michigan team at home. At that point we looked like we might be the best team in the country who got unlucky 3 times. There were absolutely no signs of things going south. We definitely didn't help matters with defense but every team we played shot out of their minds.
 
In the stretch they played all games that were tough asids from Illinois at home. That end of season was still weird and unexpected. I have to think that a not very good Zach McCabe playing a lot and an offense that relied too much on Marble was a factor but I don't know. That season was weird and statistically it's hard to see it happening again
 
bcl20 said:
In the stretch they played all games that were tough asids from Illinois at home. That end of season was still weird and unexpected. I have to think that a not very good Zach McCabe playing a lot and an offense that relied too much on Marble was a factor but I don't know. That season was weird and statistically it's hard to see it happening again
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Barring something behind the scenes that we weren't aware of, McCabe and Marble were the biggest issues. McCabe wasn't a bad player, but his role became too prominent down the stretch as Fran leaned on him more than he should have. And with Marble, the other players on the floor were too often willing to just wait for him to make something happen. That's not necessarily his fault, but it was a big reason for the offense going stagnant for long stretches of time.

This year's team doesn't have that problem. Uthoff and Jok are very, very effective at scoring within the offense, but can also create for themselves when necessary. Gesell has been excellent at running the floor game by taking care of the ball, getting to the rim and either finishing or finding the open man. Clemmons has turned into perhaps the Big Ten's best perimeter defender and is a very solid scorer when he needs to be, and he's also good at setting up teammates and taking care of the ball. Woody, true to the old adage about big guys taking longer to develop, has finally become the kind of player we all hoped we were getting when he committed four years ago. His post defense and rebounding are critical, he's done a much better job of staying out of foul trouble, and his offense has come around, too.
 
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A couple other "mores" forgot to mention -
more chemistry;
more respect for each other

For starters, McCabe wasn't very "likeable", anyway. (I kid, ;))

If memory serves, weren't there rumors of some fooling around with another's that caused a bit of locker room drama between key players? Not this team. Uthoff and Gesell have put a ring on it.

These intangibles will go a long way toward keeping the sights on the prize.
 
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