Uncertainty Surrounds '24-25 Iowa Hoops Season

Here is the roster as of 3-29-2024. At this point the scholarship roster is mostly sophomores (4) and freshman (2). There are really only 2 upper class men; Dix and Payton Sandfort with significant playing time. It is going to be another season of boys against men in 24/25.
24-25Roster-3-29-24.jpg
 
Yes, there is a air of uncertainty concerning next season

If everyone returns who is eligible, we should be improved from last season

One would think, Freeman should get more floor time and he has improved getting
silly fouls called on him

Harding will get much more playing time and if the offense has more Motion along
with the fast breaks Iowa does so well, we should be perhaps better than last season, maybe

Dix and Peyton certainly should be even better, maybe Dix will shoot the ball much more
as I scream at the TV every game: SHOOT, JOSH

Brocks D reminds me of Gabby Marshall

They play off the opponent with arms extended and follow the opponents moves quite well

Whomever they are guarding seldom attempts a shot despite the height disadvantage

As usual being a Rabid Hawkeye fan for seemingly forever, I look forward to next season in
every sport
 
Hope we won't be watching Hawks lose in the NIT and Clones make a deep run in the NCAA Tournament
But As yogi always said "Looks like Deja Vu all over again"
 
Almost everyone is underselling next year's MBB. Freeman will dominate some Big Ten games. He may be old school but he's a hell of low post player. P McC's minutes were mostly wasted this year. Did some good things but I think that just opens up more time for Pr or perhaps Koch. Ladji and Tadjo will fill those minutes more usefully needed at the 4. Tony is a real loss, but we have another guy coming along that might fill that role as well, Josh Dix. Josh may score differently than TP but the baskets all count the same. Brock is going to be a brilliant PG. Biggest problem is size, not quickness or speed. Everybody knows D isn't an Iowa thing but Brock will need help when larger players back him down, and defensive rotation is not a strength of Iowa's. At the same time Brock's penetration and court vision will also generate a lot of fouls and open some guys that the court vision allows Brock to find.

We want to take the best players possible but the returning sophs and juniors, and haven't mentioned Py at all, but Iowa has the foundation of a good team.​
 
I feel Harding will be the real key to next year. He flashed some brilliance, but we need a consistent effort from him. With his size, our opponents will try and exploit that. If he can shine at a B1G level, then I like our chances of at least being decent.

I've always felt college bb players improved the most between their freshman and sophomore years. I remember when BH Armstrong, I wondered why we'd recruited him but he turned out OK.

I'll give Brock the benefit of the doubt until proven otherwise.
 
Zstatman said:
I feel Harding will be the real key to next year. He flashed some brilliance, but we need a consistent effort from him. With his size, our opponents will try and exploit that. If he can shine at a B1G level, then I like our chances of at least being decent.

I've always felt college bb players improved the most between their freshman and sophomore years. I remember when BH Armstrong, I wondered why we'd recruited him, but he turned out OK.

I'll give Brock the benefit of the doubt until proven otherwise.
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That's built in to my optimism. I assume most of the freshmen will take a significant step forward. Acie Earl looked retarded as a freshman, tripping over the lines on the court. My other premise is Py reaches for an AA spot. The improved maturity, being the senior leader and his great diversity will really explode as a senior. Peter Jok kind of year but more points and rebounds, surrounded by better and more mature players than all those freshmen on Jok's senior team.
 
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Zstatman said:
I feel Harding will be the real key to next year. He flashed some brilliance, but we need a consistent effort from him. With his size, our opponents will try and exploit that. If he can shine at a B1G level, then I like our chances of at least being decent.

I've always felt college bb players improved the most between their freshman and sophomore years. I remember when BH Armstrong, I wondered why we'd recruited him but he turned out OK.

I'll give Brock the benefit of the doubt until proven otherwise.
Click to expand...
He can’t play 40 minutes. Nor can anyone else.
 
We need defense in Basketball and offense in Football. Until that happens it will be more of the same ole, same ole.

You cannot sustain prolonged tournament runs or make it to the football playoffs without being well balanced on both offense and defense. Apparently both head coaches are hell bent to prove otherwise. Hopefully Lester can bring some magic to the football program. I hope he knows CPR.

Not sure what can be done to invigorate the defensive side of the game in basketball at this point.

It was great defense and Lester’s offense that got Iowa to its last final four in basketball. It you didn’t play defense for Lute, you didn’t play. Lute was a master chef who could take each player and formulate the strength of each player

Past history validates my above statements. You cannot run and hide from historical facts. “Without change nothing changes”. Should make bumper stickers and teashits that state this.

Are we mad yet? Remember that cute statement. Yes the offense has improved drastically since Lickliter left, but the defense has digressed since Lick left. Gotta give Lickliter credit as he did teach good defense. The over all program under Lick was brutal to watch.

I’ll take Fran ball over taking a LICKing any day. History speaks volumes in both cases.
 
The Big Ten is really down in men's basketball. For that matter men's college basketball is down as well, U Conn and the 71 dwarfs would aptly describe the just completed tournament. When Northwestern and Nebraska are tourney teams and Ohio State and Michigan aren't tells you a lot. USC and UCLA begin competition in the Big Ten this fall and neither were in the tourney. So is the state of men's college basketball.

Iowa and Fran will find it difficult to get much out of the transfer portal to fill the void. The really good experienced portal players are going to drift off to teams like Kansas. Fran went to the portal to get centers that had 1 year of eligibility left, but Krike was not much help in conference play. He might be wiser to go through the portal for players that will be juniors this fall and gain them some experience. The pool of players with the covid year will be through the system after the 2024/2025 season ends and Iowa will catch up age wise. I think you have to write off the 2024/2025 season as a year to develop players.
 
BigD said:
We need defense in Basketball and offense in Football. Until that happens it will be more of the same ole, same ole.

You cannot sustain prolonged tournament runs or make it to the football playoffs without being well balanced on both offense and defense. Apparently both head coaches are hell bent to prove otherwise. Hopefully Lester can bring some magic to the football program. I hope he knows CPR.

Not sure what can be done to invigorate the defensive side of the game in basketball at this point.

It was great defense and Lester’s offense that got Iowa to its last final four in basketball. It you didn’t play defense for Lute, you didn’t play. Lute was a master chef who could take each player and formulate the strength of each player

Past history validates my above statements. You cannot run and hide from historical facts. “Without change nothing changes”. Should make bumper stickers and teashits that state this.

Are we mad yet? Remember that cute statement. Yes the offense has improved drastically since Lickliter left, but the defense has digressed since Lick left. Gotta give Lickliter credit as he did teach good defense. The over all program under Lick was brutal to watch.

I’ll take Fran ball over taking a LICKing any day. History speaks volumes in both cases.
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At least with basketball you know in order to improve defense you have to give up some offense. Both because of the extra effort on defense and more practice time spent on it. With football there is no excuse at all because they're two different groups of players.
 
If no one else leaves and our core is

Freeman
Harding
Dembele
Pryce Sandfort
Dix
Peyton Sandfort
Koch
Tadjo

Just that, nothing else, that's likely a top half of the conference roster - but with how the B1G is right now, that's not a for sure punch your ticket roster, it's likely on the bubble again like this season. If Iowa wants to go further and compete, they are going to need supplementary players that can spell the core and not be too big of a drop off. I personally think Pryce takes a giant leap in year 2.

I would take a starting line up right now of
Soph Harding
Jr. Dix
Sr. Pey Sandfort
Tadjo/Koch/Ladji/Pry Sandfort
Soph Harding

Over last years starting lineup almost any day of the week. Sure, we lose Tony off there, but you replace him with a pretty decent player in Dix - and you lose Patrick but you replace him with either Dembele or what's behind door # 2 and 3 with the Freshman.

It's not a leap to say next years team could be better than this years. Again, they need to get some supplemental players both at guard and in post.
 
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InGoodCo said:
If no one else leaves and our core is

Freeman
Harding
Dembele
Pryce Sandfort
Dix
Peyton Sandfort
Koch
Tadjo

Just that, nothing else, that's likely a top half of the conference roster - but with how the B1G is right now, that's not a for sure punch your ticket roster, it's likely on the bubble again like this season. If Iowa wants to go further and compete, they are going to need supplementary players that can spell the core and not be too big of a drop off. I personally think Pryce takes a giant leap in year 2.

I would take a starting line up right now of
Soph Harding
Jr. Dix
Sr. Pey Sandfort
Tadjo/Koch/Ladji/Pry Sandfort
Soph Harding

Over last years starting lineup almost any day of the week. Sure, we lose Tony off their, but you replace him with a pretty decent player in Dix - and you lose Patrick but you replace him with either Dembele or what's behind door # 2 and 3 with the Freshman.

It's not a leap to say next years team could be better than this years. Again, they need to get some supplemental health both at guard and in post.
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I think we can get to the NCAAs with just the players on the roster. We're looking for depth, not starters in the portal.
 
InGoodCo said:
If no one else leaves and our core is

Freeman
Harding
Dembele
Pryce Sandfort
Dix
Peyton Sandfort
Koch
Tadjo

Just that, nothing else, that's likely a top half of the conference roster - but with how the B1G is right now, that's not a for sure punch your ticket roster, it's likely on the bubble again like this season. If Iowa wants to go further and compete, they are going to need supplementary players that can spell the core and not be too big of a drop off. I personally think Pryce takes a giant leap in year 2.

I would take a starting line up right now of
Soph Harding
Jr. Dix
Sr. Pey Sandfort
Tadjo/Koch/Ladji/Pry Sandfort
Soph Harding

Over last years starting lineup almost any day of the week. Sure, we lose Tony off their, but you replace him with a pretty decent player in Dix - and you lose Patrick but you replace him with either Dembele or what's behind door # 2 and 3 with the Freshman.

It's not a leap to say next years team could be better than this years. Again, they need to get some supplemental health both at guard and in post.
Click to expand...


I think Pryce slides into the Pmac role and is actually better. Harding is the one where I struggle with. I don’t know if he is a starter, getting 25+ minutes a game or a good role player getting 10 minutes a game.
 
InGoodCo said:
If no one else leaves and our core is

Freeman
Harding
Dembele
Pryce Sandfort
Dix
Peyton Sandfort
Koch
Tadjo

Just that, nothing else, that's likely a top half of the conference roster - but with how the B1G is right now, that's not a for sure punch your ticket roster, it's likely on the bubble again like this season. If Iowa wants to go further and compete, they are going to need supplementary players that can spell the core and not be too big of a drop off. I personally think Pryce takes a giant leap in year 2.

I would take a starting line up right now of
Soph Harding
Jr. Dix
Sr. Pey Sandfort
Tadjo/Koch/Ladji/Pry Sandfort
Soph Harding

Over last years starting lineup almost any day of the week. Sure, we lose Tony off their, but you replace him with a pretty decent player in Dix - and you lose Patrick but you replace him with either Dembele or what's behind door # 2 and 3 with the Freshman.

It's not a leap to say next years team could be better than this years. Again, they need to get some supplemental health both at guard and in post.

Can Fran have back-to-back “rebuilding years”? It is really hard to justify, given the current climate. I am saying that as a Fran guy.
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I think that depends on how next year unfolds. If by the end of the year Harding and the two freshmen look night and day better than the beginning of the year and we barely miss the tournament due to too many early season losses, another year would be a lot more understandable. But if we look like a bubble team at the beginning of they year and still look like a bubble team at the end of the year, it would really look like our roster is just full of bubble players.

We need Harding to look like he's well on his way to being Fran's best point guard and hopefully the two freshman will look like freshman White and freshman Cook. If all 3 of those things happen, and Dix and Freeman show at least some improvement, we would be fighting for a top 4 finish. That's a lot of if's.
 
PCHawk said:
At least with basketball you know in order to improve defense you have to give up some offense. Both because of the extra effort on defense and more practice time spent on it. With football there is no excuse at all because they're two different groups of players.
Click to expand...

Agree 100%
 
PCHawk said:
I think that depends on how next year unfolds. If by the end of the year Harding and the two freshmen look night and day better than the beginning of the year and we barely miss the tournament due to too many early season losses, another year would be a lot more understandable. But if we look like a bubble team at the beginning of they year and still look like a bubble team at the end of the year, it would really look like our roster is just full of bubble players.

We need Harding to look like he's well on his way to being Fran's best point guard and hopefully the two freshman will look like freshman White and freshman Cook. If all 3 of those things happen, and Dix and Freeman show at least some improvement, we would be fighting for a top 4 finish. That's a lot of if's.
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It always feels like Fran is getting off to a slow start in B1G play. Every year, it is like he has to overcome a 0-2, 0-3 start. I actually need to do the homework, to see if that is actually true, but man, it feels that way.
 
I don’t know guys. The way we played three of the last four games, I was left just shaking my head.

Freeman is the type that can dominate but he just needs to quit getting into foul trouble. Sanford can shoot, and Harding and Dix showed moments of greatness but needs to be a little more consistent.

What we are missing is another muscle guy in the post to help freeman out. A Reggie Evans type of guy. I thought someone had pointed out earlier this year that we have that type of player coming in. That would be very helpful if true.
 
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