This team is better than last year's.

glidinghawk said:
Texas has about 4 guys between 6'8" and 6'11" and weigh 240 to 260 pounds, plus some talented guards. Watch out. The last time Iowa played a game at MSG was against a very large Baylor team with some talented guards, and the Hawkeyes lost by about 20.
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Texas is a good team.
 
HawkeyeMike23 said:
We've played Hampton and North Dakota St lets slow our rolls here. If we knock off Texas then maybe you can start this argument.
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I agree it is too early to tell, but as Jon points out, we have certainly looked better both statistically and with the eyeball test through the first two games:

http://hawkeyenation.com/forum/show...s-This-year-v-Last-year&p=1360953#post1360953

Hampton and NDSU >>>>>> UNC Wilmington and Omaha last year. UNC Wilmington was a horrible, horrible team, and we made Omaha look good (they finished 5-9 in the Summit league).
 
I just hope, and by saying this now I'm attempting to send a message, that this positive mood about the team doesn't drastically change if they go out and lose to Texas. Make no mistake, Texas is a very good basketball team. I wasn't able to watch their games in entirety, but from the highlights I saw they look incredibly tall, long, and athletic. Miles Turner was a big time recruit and they have him coming off the bench. That should tell us enough about their quality of players.

I guess my point is losing to Texas is going to be far from the end of the world. The fan base doesn't need to bail on the team if that happens. Sorry this has become a bit of a sore spot for me because our fan base has been so flaky lately. I realize it's not just the Hawkeye fan base, but I think having some perspective on a big game like this is wise going into it.
 
lightning1 said:
I think you may be right and that's based on the fact that we don't have 4 guys standing around waiting for 1 guy to score. I also think it bares noting that White is playing the 4 and Uthoff is playing the 3.
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For this fact alone I think this team IS better than last year's. It will be more difficult for opposing teams to know who to defend; generally there will be five players on the floor who can score or create opportunities for others. We didn't have that advantage as much last year.

So far Clemmons appears to be much stronger running the point and a threat to score. Hope he can continue that against tougher competition and in the conference. Olesani has really impressed; is best off the bench or could he start in place of Woody?
 
I'm still worried about our half-court offense against higher-end teams that apply a lot of ball pressure. We lack a back-court shot creator. I think we are going to need to play through our frontcourt in half-court sets against good teams.

I think our reduced depth will actually help us this year. To me, this year, 7 guys have played like rotation players, Jok and Dickerson need to step up their game to get rotation minutes, and Uhl is probably a year away. I see an 8 maybe 9 man rotation, which should allow more continuity.

Defense should be better if we run Gesell and Clemmons as the guards all year.
 
drew003 said:
I'm still worried about our half-court offense against higher-end teams that apply a lot of ball pressure. We lack a back-court shot creator. I think we are going to need to play through our frontcourt in half-court sets against good teams.

I think our reduced depth will actually help us this year. To me, this year, 7 guys have played like rotation players, Jok and Dickerson need to step up their game to get rotation minutes, and Uhl is probably a year away. I see an 8 maybe 9 man rotation, which should allow more continuity.

Defense should be better if we run Gesell and Clemmons as the guards all year.
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Me too, everyone wants to rush to a judgment based on games against Hampton and NDSU, but let's see what happens against teams that force you to execute good, halfcourt offenses to score. White always does well in games against competition like this, we're going to outrebound these smaller teams all the time. People want to complain about Marble playing hero ball, but he had to at times because he was out there with MG, who couldn't create or shoot, White who disappeared when things got physical, Uthoff and Oglesby, who have shown to be hesitant to shoot in the past. Clemmons looks much better this year but I'm still not sure I trust his ball handling/passing against a real aggressive defense. If this team is consistently creating good looks against Texas and Syracuse/Cal then I'll start to buy into the fact that they may be better than last year.
 
Several guys have stepped up their games early. Woody and Gabe are both playing excellent ball. Clemmons has been a different guy this year, to his credit. Uthoff has looked comfortable and of course White is a baller. I'm really looking forward to seeing how these guys play in NYC.
 
After two games, you would have thought the '70 team was awful!

Going into the Big Ten schedule the Hawks were only four & four.
 
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I had great seats last night and this is what I took away as my biggest concern - Physical Toughness. It may sound dumb. But, we had a ton of plays that we just didn't go up strong enough to the rim on and let lesser/weaker players get their hands on the ball or disrupt our shot. I think Texas will be a good indication on if my observation has any merit, as they will be big and strong. I would love to see someone just want to rip the rim off the hoop, especially Gabe.
The other thing I noticed is just how fast Dickerson is and how much we have missed this type of player the last few years that can create. I couldn't help but think how much Ulis could have potentially helped us. I hope Dickerson can help, I'm just not sure if he has the Big Ten type of skill set yet we shall see.
 
DP5555 said:
I just hope, and by saying this now I'm attempting to send a message, that this positive mood about the team doesn't drastically change if they go out and lose to Texas. Make no mistake, Texas is a very good basketball team. I wasn't able to watch their games in entirety, but from the highlights I saw they look incredibly tall, long, and athletic. Miles Turner was a big time recruit and they have him coming off the bench. That should tell us enough about their quality of players.

I guess my point is losing to Texas is going to be far from the end of the world. The fan base doesn't need to bail on the team if that happens. Sorry this has become a bit of a sore spot for me because our fan base has been so flaky lately. I realize it's not just the Hawkeye fan base, but I think having some perspective on a big game like this is wise going into it.
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I agree. Not beating Texas doesn't necessarily reflect poorly on this team, unless they get blown out, but I don't think that will happen. Iowa looks better than that. I'm not sure they will win, but I do fully expect them to be competitive.

Here is what I dread: Iowa having a 5 point lead with 4 minutes to go... And losing. If that happens, there will almost certainly be a "here we go with this crap again" theme on this board.

That's the real question in my mind - has this team learned how to finish games against good opponents?
 
bogeyman said:
I had great seats last night and this is what I took away as my biggest concern - Physical Toughness. It may sound dumb. But, we had a ton of plays that we just didn't go up strong enough to the rim on and let lesser/weaker players get their hands on the ball or disrupt our shot. I think Texas will be a good indication on if my observation has any merit, as they will be big and strong. I would love to see someone just want to rip the rim off the hoop, especially Gabe.
The other thing I noticed is just how fast Dickerson is and how much we have missed this type of player the last few years that can create. I couldn't help but think how much Ulis could have potentially helped us. I hope Dickerson can help, I'm just not sure if he has the Big Ten type of skill set yet we shall see.
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I 100% agree with that. They better play strong with the ball and go up strong against Texas in the paint or its gonna be a long night.
 
I think it will be more difficult for teams to prepare for Iowa this year compared to last year. Last year, opponents planned their defense around stopping RDM. Once they were able to, the offense just looked stale. This year, it seems like we have a few scorers who can carry the load on different nights. If White gains most of the attention in a game, JU and others will have more open shots.
 
acharipar35 said:
I think it will be more difficult for teams to prepare for Iowa this year compared to last year. Last year, opponents planned their defense around stopping RDM. Once they were able to, the offense just looked stale. This year, it seems like we have a few scorers who can carry the load on different nights. If White gains most of the attention in a game, JU and others will have more open shots.
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If Clemmons can continue to hit the outside shot the way he's been, I view that as a bonus that will make them even tougher to guard. Between Clemmons and Uthoff.. And I still think Gesell has a jump shot hiding in him somewhere.. And if White can show the ability to hit some jumpers as well.. But worst case, we would have Woody & White in the paint, with some guys who can shoot it from outside. This team feels more balanced to me so far. Plus you bring in Oglesby & Jok at times, and we should always have at least 2-3 good outside shooters on the floor at all times, with a good inside presence.
 
djwoody98 said:
Several guys have stepped up their games early. Woody and Gabe are both playing excellent ball. Clemmons has been a different guy this year, to his credit. Uthoff has looked comfortable and of course White is a baller. I'm really looking forward to seeing how these guys play in NYC.
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Iowa played 2 games at the Garden last April . One was great, one was bad. I think they will play well Thursday. We may see the Twin Towers play together more in this game.
 
bogeyman said:
I had great seats last night and this is what I took away as my biggest concern - Physical Toughness. It may sound dumb. But, we had a ton of plays that we just didn't go up strong enough to the rim on and let lesser/weaker players get their hands on the ball or disrupt our shot. I think Texas will be a good indication on if my observation has any merit, as they will be big and strong. I would love to see someone just want to rip the rim off the hoop, especially Gabe.
The other thing I noticed is just how fast Dickerson is and how much we have missed this type of player the last few years that can create. I couldn't help but think how much Ulis could have potentially helped us. I hope Dickerson can help, I'm just not sure if he has the Big Ten type of skill set yet we shall see.
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It's not just on the offensive end, there are a lot of rebounds that we should be getting cleanly but are letting smaller players knock away and the ball gets batted around more often than it should before we control it.
 
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