This one is on the staff

Why can't a loss be on the entire team? Why can't it be because the other team played well? Why does it have to be on the coaches or on the players.
 
In defense of the OP, Shonn Morris or maybe it was Gus, who remarked Iowa seems to be playing out of control all night. If you don't think a coach can and should have an affect on that then you don't know basketball.
We too often drove the ball but were way out of control with no where to go. Ogelsby was effective in the 2nd half with drives and pull-up jumpers. Others were forcing it way to deep or were out of control, even Matt at times.

I too thought we played to their strengths, not ours most of the night.

A couple of things that I am curious about:

1. Does anyone think Fran can do more situational substituting toward the end of ballgames?

2. I would love to see pass more and dribble less in our half court offense. And reversing the ball is always effective. It would free up shooters without having to always set the perfect screen. Devyn has made huge strides but too much dribbling without going anywhere. With his size he can be effective when he drives to the lane and puts up his shot all in one motion, but I believe this only happened once today. ?? He seems much more comfortable and effective doing this than as a straight-up shooter. Kind of like his old man.

I realize we are a few players short and help is on the way. Having a true center would have possibly neutralized Leonard today.

And before you call me an idiot, etc. I am a huge Fran fan. I love the intensity he brings to the game and believe he will be successful.
 
How to fail at a message board debate in two easy steps.

Step 1) Admit the other team has better athletes.

Step 2) Blame loss on coaches.
 
Sorry but this falls mostly on the players. Fran can't get out on the court and sink the shots himself. We saw what Iowa could do against Indiana and Wisky ... The players were making shots ... Illinois played 'ok' but it was enough to silence the Hawks today.

Hopefully next year we will learn to get over this road bug and play as tough on the road as we do at home ...
 
Sorry but this falls mostly on the players. Fran can't get out on the court and sink the shots himself. We saw what Iowa could do against Indiana and Wisky ... The players were making shots ... Illinois played 'ok' but it was enough to silence the Hawks today.

Hopefully next year we will learn to get over this road bug and play as tough on the road as we do at home ...

I don't disagree with this.

I just scratch my head with all the dribbling at times. If you are not going to set some bone-shattering screens to get your best shooter open (see Indiana under Bobby Knight) then don't you need to be passing the ball around quickly and confidently?
 
I blame this one on the staff as well...when McCaffery kept turning the ball over and Speraw and Dillard kept missing wide open shots, I got so pi$$ed off that I swore I'd never watch another game...til the Hawks play at Nebraska...

Yeah... you're one of "those guys." It's easy to blame McC, Speraw and
Dillard but anyone with a brain would investigate further and see that the
real problem can be traced back to Norm Parker being unable to fulfill his
coaching duties for nearly an entire season...

Everyone thinks he retired voluntarily but insiders know that A.D. Barta
finally just got tired of his negative influence on the men's basketball program.

It makes total sense... several years of decline in the program...

Hair Boy... GONE
Lick... GONE

The one constant through that era is Norm Parker... he was here through it all!

DAMN HIM!
 
Probably was due to Alford again?

I would imagine if you presented those questions to the coach, he would have pretty good answers to each and every question.

For instance, 17 turnovers are simply too many. If they make 8 turnovers the chances of winning go up tremendously.

They played good defense...unfortunatel, their offense was off. Players could not hit open shots or any shots. Iowa was outrebounded...what happens if Iowa rebounds better? and so on.s

Iowa simply does not have the players this year. Iowa needs everyone to being playing well (or most of the team) to win. If someone is not shooting well, it is up to someone else to pick up the slack. Iowa does not have a lot of options with players this year. Get more depth and better quality personnel and Iowa will have more options in games like this.
 
we looked like donkey poo...and we still had a legitimate chance at winning the game. That's a step forward from years past.

This might be the truest thing I've read so far. We had an awful night offensively and had nobody that could defend or out-rebound Leonard, yet we were still within striking distance late in the 2nd half. When we're complaining about not winning in Champaign like it's a birthright you know we've made strides as a program.
 
I want to believe we're turning a corner...but games like these make the cynic in me say "we caught lightning in a bottle with gatens vs indiana and wisconsin"

That wisky team that beat OSU last night would have 30 pointed us.

It is what it is...I know nothing more about this team than I did 3 months ago.
 
Yeah... you're one of "those guys." It's easy to blame McC, Speraw and
Dillard but anyone with a brain would investigate further and see that the
real problem can be traced back to Norm Parker being unable to fulfill his
coaching duties for nearly an entire season...

Everyone thinks he retired voluntarily but insiders know that A.D. Barta
finally just got tired of his negative influence on the men's basketball program.

It makes total sense... several years of decline in the program...

Hair Boy... GONE
Lick... GONE

The one constant through that era is Norm Parker... he was here through it all!

DAMN HIM!

Norm is only doing to the basketball program what Kirk wants him to do...
 
So go back and look at where roughly 1/3 of our TO's came from--trying to run against IL. There are teams you can run and press against and teams you can't. Pretty obvious IMO, that IL, because of superior athletes, is not a team we should be running or pressing against. Add to this we have a nonexistent bench for the most part and are playing guys major minutes, it makes even less sense.

I did not expect to win in Champaign, but thought IL gave us multiple chances to close the gap, but each time we did we came out with pressure after a TO and we gave up easy baskets, committed fouls or both.
 
Taking Gatens out of the equation, the team shot 31% (1-11 from 3), I would say this one falls on the players. There were plenty of good looks that just weren't knocked down when they needed to. How many layups did White, Basabe and McCabe miss? Give Leonard credit though, on the shots he wasn't actually deflecting, he was still disrupting. Illinois played great defense yesterday and Iowa couldn't handle it. However, outside the first 5 minutes or so, they played right with them. If they could have hit some timely shots, they could have made it a game.
 
When you are -8 on the glass and commit 17 turnovers, saying that 'this one is on the staff' is one of the more questionable things I have read on here.

That said, I thought Iowa pressed about two too many times. I would have also liked to have seen them play a zone against the worst three-point shooting team in the Big Ten when Leonard was going off inside.
 
So go back and look at where roughly 1/3 of our TO's came from--trying to run against IL. There are teams you can run and press against and teams you can't. Pretty obvious IMO, that IL, because of superior athletes, is not a team we should be running or pressing against. Add to this we have a nonexistent bench for the most part and are playing guys major minutes, it makes even less sense.

I did not expect to win in Champaign, but thought IL gave us multiple chances to close the gap, but each time we did we came out with pressure after a TO and we gave up easy baskets, committed fouls or both.

Mike Krzyzewski says he does not change his offense to match up with other teams, he forces them to adjust to him. I understand that Illinois is more athletic than Iowa but why would you want them to run an offense that is out of their comfort zone just to match up better? I think a slow down, half court offense would have been a disaster for Iowa and would have given them even less of a chance to win. They are still developing and despite the match ups, you still have to stick to the game plan.
 
I respect everyone's opinion, but thought last night's gameplan was pretty poor. At this point in the season there aren't going to be any surprises (Basabe or Brommer going for 15 or Cartwright being hot from 3). IL has struggled in the half court during their tailspin, which has frustrated Leonard and led to guys jacking 3's.

Defensively they were so focused on Gatens we needed to make them play 25 seconds of D in order to get guys open looks, which we did for Oglesby in the 2nd half. Guys missed shots, made poor decisions, got intimidated by Leonard etc., but I think we gave them at least 6-8 easy baskets via our press. The press also put us in bad rebounding position, which led to two of those volleyball possessions where 2-3 IL guys got tips and we finally fouled or they scored.
 
Mike Krzyzewski says he does not change his offense to match up with other teams, he forces them to adjust to him. I understand that Illinois is more athletic than Iowa but why would you want them to run an offense that is out of their comfort zone just to match up better? I think a slow down, half court offense would have been a disaster for Iowa and would have given them even less of a chance to win. They are still developing and despite the match ups, you still have to stick to the game plan.

I never said slow down offense, I am referring to us running without purpose. When you don't have guys that can finish, running makes no sense. Who was capable of finishing against Leonard or Paul last night? Answer--nobody. Racing ahead rifling passes into the seats made no sense IMO. If it's there, you have to take it, but it wasn't and we tried to force it.
 
Illinois is pretty good at defense. I think Iowa would have struggled regardless of tempo. I suppose the pressing could be construed as confusing but it's not like Illinois lit up the scoreboard and they did turn it over 17 times so I don't think it's really the reason Iowa lost.
 

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