wundergrape
Well-Known Member
Ken Pomeroy disagrees with your assessment, but you're super smart, so...
Top 10 for the first time since 2002 - wow
- Thread starter hawkeye12345
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Ken Pomeroy disagrees with your assessment, but you're super smart, so...
okeefe4prez
Well-Known Member
Well, Ken Pomeroy's opinion and $2.51 will get you a cup of coffee.
tm3308
Well-Known Member
This. Not to mention the fact that the Big Ten was way down back then, compared to what it is now. Michigan State was down (22-12, 8-8), Wisconsin was down (19-12, 9-7). Iowa, Ohio State and Illinois were head and shoulders above everyone else in the conference. This group faces better overall competition.
wundergrape
Well-Known Member
It might get you a cup of coffee. It will get me the informed opinion of the best and most accurate statistician in college basketball.
Get me a latte while you're at it.
okeefe4prez
Well-Known Member
Yeah, you and Ken Pomeroy are totally right. The conference got way better when Burke, Oladipo, Zeller, Hardaway and DeShaun Thomas left for the NBA and the best players from Illinois graduated. Perhaps other conferences sustained bigger losses than the B1G which makes the B1G look relatively stronger, but I assure you, the B1G this year is a shell of what it was last year, while Iowa has made some improvements year over year.
That's how deep teams need to roll, though. I admit a 2-for-1 is never a good trade off but the point was simple: We can use some one dimensional play as long as that dimension is either A- Responsible for more points, or B- Responsible for allowing fewer. I'm not exactly sure what we need with scorers dominating the floor but there's a reason Uthoff isn't playing 25 MPG. He's not a slug defensively but he is inferior to Basabe, who in turn is inferior to the offensive ability of Uthoff. We're blatantly using Woodbury's minutes to develop a great C under opposing teams' noses, so what's the damage in using pure excellence on the defensive side? It's a better option to have than to not have. What Olaseni does can be matched with Woodbury or a smaller lineup if necessary. What Hansen did so well can't be matched.
Furthermore, I don't get what you mean that he kinda just stood there and waited for the blocks to come to him. He was aggressivve defensively. I added a letter to aggressive because that word alone doesn't describe how we went at people in the lane. He could rotate and so what if he lacks foot speed, he's only out there because we're trying to shut down another slow guy who also happens to be a great scoring threat. I don't know what more I can say without putting on a game.
wundergrape
Well-Known Member
You are aware that players leave conferences every year, right?
You are aware that Keith Appling, Gary Harris, Devyn Marble, Yogi Farrell, Aaron White, Glen Robinson Jr, Nick Stauskas, Adrian Payne, Tim Frazier, Rayvonte Rice, Andre Hollins and Sam Dekkar are all still in the league, right?
You are aware that Noah Vonleh, Zakari Irvin, Derrick Walton, Troy Williams, Kendrick Nunn, Stanford Robinson, Jarrod Uthoff, Kendall Stevens, Marc Loving and Malcolm Hill all started playing in the league, right?
I would agree that the B1G is not as good as it was last year. Last year it was far and away better than any conference in the nation. This year its still tough, but so is the ACC and Big 12.
But 2005-2006 is on another level. Not a single B1G team made the Sweet 16. The 3 best teams in the conference did the following: Ohio St got blasted in the 2nd round by a 7 seed, MSU lost by 10 in the 1st round, and Iowa lost to a 14 seed in the 1st round.
okeefe4prez
Well-Known Member
Well, this late season meltdown was worse than Alford's in 2006. I just hope Fran can pull things together before the BTT, which is when I've always said the real season begins anyway.
imported_ankle23
Well-Known Member
i don't know if it was in this thread, or not, but some of the people with 'irrational exhuberance' comparing this team to 86/87, etc............the level of nba talent iowa had on that team, and how much better the big 10 was at that time compared to now (and yes, that is saying somthing).........
iowa fan needs to give it time. talent and development doens't happen over night.
Need talent. Need wins to get talent. This is only our 2nd season of having an attention-getting amount of wins - i.e. give it time.
okeefe4prez
Well-Known Member
Agreed. That 2006 team was special because we had great in state talent that all wound up in Iowa with Horner, Brunner and Haluska. What a phenomenal class that was. Of course, they needed time to develop, but we can't expect that every year. Thing about basketball, though, is that so much of the talent side comes from innate, God-given athleticism (and shooting ability) and while a great coach can develop a strong team, to have a truly standout player, he's gotta just have that athleticism and innate shooting ability. Unfortunately, we haven't landed the level of across the board athleticism we had on that '87 bince Raveling left and I just don't know that Fran is gonna be the guy who can get it done. We need to land a true baller like a Ronnie Lester or a Roy Marble and have a great supporting cast before we can ever really compare a team to that '87 team. Sadly, with the one and done movement, even when we land a legit baller like Ricky Davis, we will immediately lose him, so we may never have the pleasure of seeing a team that compares to '87 ever again because of how rare it is for Iowa to land that caliber of ball player.
okeefe4prez
Well-Known Member
I ain't gonna lie, I'm a little troubled by the fact that the best player on the team was a Lick recruit. We'll see what the new guys bring next year, but my optimism is somewhat muted right now.
hawkeye12345
Well-Known Member
Calling marble a lick recruit is the same as calling Gatens an Alford recruit. Both would be hawkeyes regardless of the coach IF said coach wanted them.
Gatens, that is absolutely true. Marble, not even close.
Is that why Fran had to re-recruit Marble after he took the job and is on record saying that Marble almost decommitted on 2 occasions after Fran took the job? And after the 2nd time he told Fran he was staying Fran still called him every single day until Marble showed up on campus in the summer before his freshman year.
okeefe4prez
Well-Known Member
This team couldn't hold the 06 team's jok.
