Iowa State is legit. Crooks is almost like a cheat-code on the offensive end, Brown is really good, and they defended their asses off.
Both teams left a ton of points on the FT line. I don't know if this is a regular thing for ISU, but FT shooting is a legit weakness for this Hawkeye team.
Chit Chat appears to have picked up where she left off, which was very encouraging. I do cringe every time she hits the floor, she might have to be judicious with throwing herself into the fray. She has been doing so much damage from deep and from mid-range that she doesn't need to attack all the way to the iron that often.
A couple of Iowa's young'uns were not ready for prime-time on the road: Heiden, Hays, and Deal. They will grow from this experience.
I completely under-estimated McCabe going into the season, I was just anticipating a continuation of last year's player. She is no longer a liability on defense, she is our 4th leading scorer, 4th leading rebounder, she has 2x as many 3FG as the next highest player on the team, and she has half as many TO as the next closest player from the regular rotation. She opens things up with how aggressively she is hunting for 3s this year, and she seems to be a leader out there. Tremendous growth, a testament to her hard work and resiliency.
Stuelke...I just don't know. Works her butt off, great defender and rebounder, team leader. Absolutely no craft in scoring around the rim, and no outside shot. I cannot believe she has not built either of those skillsets over 4 years. I am sure it is not for lack of effort, but she just does not have the natural fluidity necessary to be a great scorer. Contrast that with Journey Houston...much smaller, much less explosive, but clearly has the dexterity, fluidity, and body-awareness to do clever things around the rim to score. Oh well, she is still a critical part of this team, and I anticipate some big moments from her through the course of the season.
Overall, I would love to see a rematch with ISU in the tournament. ISU was the better team, but I think Iowa is far from their potential (no doubt ISU feels the same about their team). As great as Crooks is offensively, she is a liability defensively. Iowa never attacked her or made ISU pay for that, like they have the past 2 seasons. ISU totally dictated the tempo of the game, and Iowa didn't get enough stops on defense to run. On the offensive end, Iowa had a hard time attacking Crooks because ISU's other four players were so active and disruptive. Heiden should be able to give as good as she gets from Crooks, utilizing her superior speed to stress ISU's D, but between foul trouble (quit getting stupid reaching fouls!) and inexperience, we made life easy on Audi on that end. Crooks played 36 min, and if we stressed her on that end, there is no way she could rack up those kind of minutes.
The Rodriguez absence is very disappointing, first because she would make our team better now, but second because these sorts of games are critical for her figuring out how to play Iowa basketball. I hope she can get well, soon, and come back without too much rust.
Both teams left a ton of points on the FT line. I don't know if this is a regular thing for ISU, but FT shooting is a legit weakness for this Hawkeye team.
Chit Chat appears to have picked up where she left off, which was very encouraging. I do cringe every time she hits the floor, she might have to be judicious with throwing herself into the fray. She has been doing so much damage from deep and from mid-range that she doesn't need to attack all the way to the iron that often.
A couple of Iowa's young'uns were not ready for prime-time on the road: Heiden, Hays, and Deal. They will grow from this experience.
I completely under-estimated McCabe going into the season, I was just anticipating a continuation of last year's player. She is no longer a liability on defense, she is our 4th leading scorer, 4th leading rebounder, she has 2x as many 3FG as the next highest player on the team, and she has half as many TO as the next closest player from the regular rotation. She opens things up with how aggressively she is hunting for 3s this year, and she seems to be a leader out there. Tremendous growth, a testament to her hard work and resiliency.
Stuelke...I just don't know. Works her butt off, great defender and rebounder, team leader. Absolutely no craft in scoring around the rim, and no outside shot. I cannot believe she has not built either of those skillsets over 4 years. I am sure it is not for lack of effort, but she just does not have the natural fluidity necessary to be a great scorer. Contrast that with Journey Houston...much smaller, much less explosive, but clearly has the dexterity, fluidity, and body-awareness to do clever things around the rim to score. Oh well, she is still a critical part of this team, and I anticipate some big moments from her through the course of the season.
Overall, I would love to see a rematch with ISU in the tournament. ISU was the better team, but I think Iowa is far from their potential (no doubt ISU feels the same about their team). As great as Crooks is offensively, she is a liability defensively. Iowa never attacked her or made ISU pay for that, like they have the past 2 seasons. ISU totally dictated the tempo of the game, and Iowa didn't get enough stops on defense to run. On the offensive end, Iowa had a hard time attacking Crooks because ISU's other four players were so active and disruptive. Heiden should be able to give as good as she gets from Crooks, utilizing her superior speed to stress ISU's D, but between foul trouble (quit getting stupid reaching fouls!) and inexperience, we made life easy on Audi on that end. Crooks played 36 min, and if we stressed her on that end, there is no way she could rack up those kind of minutes.
The Rodriguez absence is very disappointing, first because she would make our team better now, but second because these sorts of games are critical for her figuring out how to play Iowa basketball. I hope she can get well, soon, and come back without too much rust.
