Tyler Cook Pulls Name Out of NBA Draft, Returning to Iowa

BigD said:
Surprised you didn’t mention Wieskamp in your thought process. With out him those are the same players you had last season.

I would give up one of our BIgs for a point guard who can lock down a defender, lead a fast break, distribute the ball, and score about ten to fourteen points a night. Then Fran would have a B1G caliber team that can compete for a conference title. That’s the piece of the puzzle that is missing.

Hopefully Weiskamp brings some chemistry to this team that can get us over the top. Would like to see that chemistry show up in on defensive side of the ball. We all know he can shoot the ball.
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I do believe that Joe will contribute right away.....

We shall see.....

:cool:
WinOneThisCentury said:
I don't think there is any doubt this team has the potential to be an NCAA tourney team. Let's face it...they scored enough points to be last year. Offense certainly won't be the issue. If we are going to be an NCAA tourney team we need the following to happen.

1) Connor Mac needs to take the reins of the point guard role and rotate Jobo and Moss from 1 to 2...it could be a great rotation. It's a defensive upgrade. Dailey will get fewer minutes, but we need a defensive stopper at guard...or at least someone who doesnt' get broken down with penetration every trip down the floor.

2) We need to be tougher period...at every position. To say last years team was soft would be an incredible understatement. We played alot of young players who were getting their feet wet last year. Well, they are wet now and hopefully they come back and try to flip the script on intensity and toughness. We have a ton of fouls to give in the front court...let's play physical.

The talent is there...offensively you have four guys that can get 20 on any given night (Jordan, Moss, Cook, & Garza), plus a top 25 freshman coming in who is a scorer. Can they be a physical defensive team who battles on the defensive end? If they can...then this is an NCAA team with Cook back.
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Last season in the Colorado game. Connor showed defensive ability, despite being hampered by health issues. One sequence he was guarding the Bullalo star guard very well. He played him tightly without the ball preventing him from receiving a pass. That is a concept that has been unknown the last few years, among almost every other aspect of playing strong D for the Hawks.....

:cool:
 
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Great news about Cook returning.

However, for Fran himself and any Fran lobbyists; he himself has stated that Bohannon is one of the top guards in the country and Cook is one of the top players in the country and potential first round draft picks next year. With a nucleus such as that, there's no reason we should have gone 14-19 last year and shouldn't have any issue making the tournament this season. The bar is set, and done so by Fran himself, so there's no more time for excuses.
 
I was wrong. I was in the "he's gone regardless at this point, he clearly doesn't want to be in college." I wasn't crowing about it but came by to say I was wrong.
 
I said after the loss to Mich in the BTT that this team would be a tournament team next year with Cook returning.

I really believe the team has the talent. They showed it as freshman and the roster is so much better now with Garza, Nunge, Weiskamp and I think Connor can provide some value as a better defender than JBo.

I'm also banking on the team having some extra motivation off of last year as well as Cook and maybe Moss working towards goals of playing in the league.
 
thedukeofearl said:
I do believe that Joe will contribute right away.....

We shall see.....

:cool:



Last season in the Colorado game. Connor showed defensive ability, despite being hampered by health issues. One sequence he was guarding the Bullalo star guard very well. He played him tightly without the ball preventing him from receiving a pass. That is a concept that has been unknown the last few years, among almost every other aspect of playing strong D for the Hawks.....

:cool:
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I agree with CMac's potential... Another thing to consider, even if he was completely identical to JBo athletically, his extra 5-6 inches of height allows for a much larger margin of error when guarding smaller guards.

Everyone assumes Connor was playing more reps last off-season than Christian Williams because he's the coach's son, and this ultimately led to CWil's transfer and hurt us tremendously after CMac's unlucky season. But, is it not just as fathomable that CMac was better than CWil in multiple facets of the game? If we were talking about any other top 100 recruit that was expected to contribute and take time away from an incumbent player as a true freshman the narrative would be much different. We had a young team that was in dire need of guard help. Everyone is returning and we add two guards that can contribute immediately. 'Tis the Season for over-hype, let's enjoy it!
 
hawkewilly said:
I agree with CMac's potential... Another thing to consider, even if he was completely identical to JBo athletically, his extra 5-6 inches of height allows for a much larger margin of error when guarding smaller guards.

Everyone assumes Connor was playing more reps last off-season than Christian Williams because he's the coach's son, and this ultimately led to CWil's transfer and hurt us tremendously after CMac's unlucky season. But, is it not just as fathomable that CMac was better than CWil in multiple facets of the game? If we were talking about any other top 100 recruit that was expected to contribute and take time away from an incumbent player as a true freshman the narrative would be much different. We had a young team that was in dire need of guard help. Everyone is returning and we add two guards that can contribute immediately. 'Tis the Season for over-hype, let's enjoy it!
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I hope Connor can be just kind of a floor general. He's not going to be a creator but if we have him playing some minutes with combo of Moss, Dailey and Joe, Cook or Garza, we have some options for some guys who we need to carry the scoring load and Connor will be a better defender.
 
Connor is 6'5 and solid...he's not a thin guy. He moves well and he appeared to play a pretty physical game when he was in there briefly early in the season. After watching our guards play defense...i'm saying he's an upgrade. He was a four star player right...with a high basketball IQ...we need a physical presence in the back court. We got pushed around alot in the back court. When the opposing coach (Beilein) was berating his point guard for not penetrating late in the game...that tells you something. They were getting it every single time and he wanted him to continue to take advantage of a clear weakness. Connor better be an upgrade on defense or we should not have recruited him.
 
tksirius said:
I gotta feeling we'll be in the NIT and then we'll hear more of the "on the right trajectory" comments :rolleyes:along with the "next year we're gonna be a veteran team, so we need to give Fran an extra year, plus we can't afford the buyout...."
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tksirius said:
What if he barely misses the NCAAs and you think Iowa should've been in? Do you think Fran should be gone no matter the scenario, as long as we miss the NCAA tourney?
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I think he should be gone now, not sure how missing a 3rd straight NCAA is gonna change my mind?
 
hawkewilly said:
I agree with CMac's potential... Another thing to consider, even if he was completely identical to JBo athletically, his extra 5-6 inches of height allows for a much larger margin of error when guarding smaller guards.

Everyone assumes Connor was playing more reps last off-season than Christian Williams because he's the coach's son, and this ultimately led to CWil's transfer and hurt us tremendously after CMac's unlucky season. But, is it not just as fathomable that CMac was better than CWil in multiple facets of the game? If we were talking about any other top 100 recruit that was expected to contribute and take time away from an incumbent player as a true freshman the narrative would be much different. We had a young team that was in dire need of guard help. Everyone is returning and we add two guards that can contribute immediately. 'Tis the Season for over-hype, let's enjoy it!
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The most important aspect of Connor's game to me was ball movement. Majority of the time he would move the ball immediately, without hesitation. Most of our half court offense was standing around watching Jordon attempt to dribble away from double teaming to get an open shot. When Connor was running the show the ball was usually in constant motion. He is a very savvy ball player and sees the whole court. At least that is what I saw during his limited action.....

The possibility exists to have a very exciting offense, inside and out. We will certainly have to slice the turnovers in half, at least. There were many games that we as a chance to win at the end, even though giving the ball away 15 to 20 times. Most of the time we didn't get a shot off. Somehow we were still in the game as the clock ran down.....

Cut the turnovers and play some damn D, and we could be dangerous on the road to The Dance.....

Once again, mere musing running through an idle mind.....

This was supposed to be in reply to hawkewillies comment, Kindle and all that toying with me.....

:cool:
 
Some on here way overestimate the O. The half court is not good. A slow team with a lot of transition points is the result of releasing early which also means a lot of easy 3s and other points from 4 on 3 or 5 on 3. Its just not as simple as one might think to play better D. Thankfully the Big wont be strong this year.
 
HawkGold said:
Some on here way overestimate the O. The half court is not good. A slow team with a lot of transition points is the result of releasing early which also means a lot of easy 3s and other points from 4 on 3 or 5 on 3. Its just not as simple as one might think to play better D. Thankfully the Big wont be strong this year.
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Yeah at times it sure seemed that way I get why you feel that way. Yet they scored over 90 pts 13 times and were held under 75 pts 13 times. Don't ask me why I remember that stat. Must be the lucky 13 number being attached to it. The rest were all in between. I can't remember how many games we lost scoring over 90 but it was more than 1 or 2. I can't help but think that an improved D will only help their offense because we didn't seem to get a ton of easy fast break points last yr due to the lack of turnovers forced. Getting long rebounds and turnovers and pushing the ball is something I hope we can do more of because as you mentioned our half court O can get bogged down and have some tough stretches.
 
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