We are back.....again

2 fun things from being at the game:

First, the crowd was dying to get into it and loud. No idea how it sounded on tv, but it was quite loud out of the gate and they desperately wanted to get rowdy...was so fun to again silence a home team, with many leaving at half. Also, decent student section there.

Second, we were up in 419 and every pause in action with no crowd or intercom noise was a frustrated MU fan yelling "FOOLS - you should've recruited Brady!!" And at one point the massive section of family Brady had at the game heard it and started cheering. Too good.
 
I stated at the end of last season that I thought we'd struggle to get back to the NCAA's this season because we wouldn't have a bench. If Iowa keeps progressing and last night's performance against Marquette is an example of how this team will play the rest of the season, we will be in the NCAA's and be a 9 or 10 win B1G team. We looked very good, last night. Granted Marquette is young and didn't play well, but we completely man handled them.
 
ArvadaHawk said:
I stated at the end of last season that I thought we'd struggle to get back to the NCAA's this season because we wouldn't have a bench. If Iowa keeps progressing and last night's performance against Marquette is an example of how this team will play the rest of the season, we will be in the NCAA's and be a 9 or 10 win B1G team. We looked very good, last night. Granted Marquette is young and didn't play well, but we completely man handled them.
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I think depth is overrated in college BB. If your top 7 or 8 are good, you will be fine. Sure it might cost you in 2 or 3 games with fouls, you are fine. I think Iowa is gonna stick with mainly a 8 man rotation: Gesell, Clemmons, Jok, Utoff, Woody, Uhl, Ellingson, and the hot hand of Wagner/Jones.
 
There was a great sequence in the first half against the zone where Woody flashed to the high post got the pass and immediately skipped it to Pete in the corner for a wide open three. That was the play of somebody who's been playing in this offense for over three years now, no hesitating whatsoever, it's just second nature when you get the ball in that position, you know right where you're looking first. You know where your guards are going to be, just flash, catch the ball and move it.

I also can't believe Wojo stayed in the zone that long. To me, that's the type of the game where I come out of half and I'm playing man to man and I'm finding five guys who want to defend hard no matter how deep in my bench I have to go. The game is over, I would be making a point that if you want to play here, you're playing defense.
 
It was obvious that the Hawks out classed to Marquette team. I saw a lot of great things. We will be difficult to match up against. Go Hawks
 
Wojo after the game comments (from link http://www.scout.com/college/marquette/forums/2850-mens-hoops/14306350-wojo-after-iowa):

That was unacceptable…we got outplayed in every phase.

We wanted to attack the paint with ball passing…we shot way too many jump shots.

Our defense has been poor…I would like to play man to man…I think our offense has affected our defense

I don’t want to talk about being young any more….I have seen 17 or 18 yr. olds play their butts off…not tonight.

We have had a bunch of turnarounds…5 games in 9 days…need to be fresh..but after a game like this you have to go back to the drawing boards..

[Positives tonight?]None

People are game planning for Henry…this is new…we have to help him better…and he has to play games…

I never had the pleasure of meeting David Gavitt…everyone who talks about him…says he is an innovator…

Our fans were phenomenal tonight…we appreciate their support…and they are hungry…I hope they stick with us...we will play hungrier
 
SpecialKHawk said:
In case you missed it Marquette has a ton of talent and Ellenson is a lottery pick. Yada, yada, yada ya just got smoked and the lottery pick got 3 pts on 1-8 shooting.

Welcome to the big leagues WOJO. This is not Duke anymore.
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I had never seen Ellenson play, but from the way the were hyping him I sure expected more. He showed nothing in that game.
 
Much like the football team, perhaps we have underestimate this group. To me it look like this is a top 20 team ... and could finish anywhere from 3rd to 5th in the B1G. It will all depend on how the bench (young guys) develop as the year progresses.
 
Great game. It's going to be fun to see the team grow and continue to rise in the B1G.

Starters were dominant tonight. Our backcourt struggled at time last year and it's nice to see players like Gesell/Jok/Clemmons starting to put the pieces together. I thought Gesell had a great floor game, but one thing that I really liked late in the first half was when he nailed a three without hesitation with a hand in his face. I don't think he would've taken a shot like that last year and Mike's playing with a lot of confidence right now. If he keeps playing like this, one of the All-B1G teams is not out of the question though competition will be fierce.

The bench progress has been really encouraging through these first couple of games. It's been 3 games in a row now where Uhl has looked to get his own shot. He's starting to understand that people can't guard him. Jones has progressively looked more comfortable out there with each passing game. Opponents know that he'll shoot from anywhere given space. The next step is using the ball fake to get to the rim.

I will also say that either Marquette didn't watch one second of Iowa film or their coach is terrible at communicating a gameplan. Both are equally damning.
 
Hawk1960 said:
Much like the football team, perhaps we have underestimate this group. To me it look like this is a top 20 team ... and could finish anywhere from 3rd to 5th in the B1G. It will all depend on how the bench (young guys) develop as the year progresses.
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If we shoot the 3 anywhere close to the way we shot it last night we'll be tough to beat period. Just hoping we can keep up the good shooting, I think we will because we have shooters. The 3 point shot is the key to this team I believe.
I was happy with our rebounding last night, that would be my other concern.
 
bogeyman said:
If we shoot the 3 anywhere close to the way we shot it last night we'll be tough to beat period. Just hoping we can keep up the good shooting, I think we will because we have shooters. The 3 point shot is the key to this team I believe.
I was happy with our rebounding last night, that would be my other concern.
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After last night I am much more confident in Jones, Uhl, and Wagner's ability to play interior defense and rebound for extended minutes if/ when Woody gets in foul trouble.

As I was sitting in the Bradley Center I couldn't help think how far this program has come in just a few short years. Pretty cool.
 
jjh4hawks01 said:
Mike Gesell is going to play at a whole new level this season, just sit back and enjoy.
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He seems to get it now. It looked last night like he knew when to shoot on his drives and when to pass. The only critique i had was he loved the mid range a little too much even though it wasn't falling in the second half. That said, he can it that, needs to hit that and we were up by so much that everyone was shooting every open shot they could ( and there were plenty)
 
bcl20 said:
I felt like all he did was yell "PLAY HARD!!!!" a lot.
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Yeah it's too soon to pronounce the Wojo era a failure. He's finding out it's harder to win when you don't have better talent than your opponent. The only place he's ever coached is Duke, where they get the best of the best.

If he can actually coach, there's enough talent on the Marquette roster for that team to be decent. Marquette had no concept of good shot/bad shot. I'm sure they've been instructed to work the ball through Ellenson and Fischer on offense. Losing by 30 points can get that message through more clearly than the coach can sometimes.

Mike Brey is a former Duke assistant and he's been very good at Notre Dame. Amaker resurrected his career at Harvard after not doing so well at Michigan. Dawkins era at Stanford is yet to be determined. But Wojo will need to be more instructive than "play hard" if he expects his team to improve.
 
DodgerHawki said:
Yeah it's too soon to pronounce the Wojo era a failure. He's finding out it's harder to win when you don't have better talent than your opponent. The only place he's ever coached is Duke, where they get the best of the best.

If he can actually coach, there's enough talent on the Marquette roster for that team to be decent. Marquette had no concept of good shot/bad shot. I'm sure they've been instructed to work the ball through Ellenson and Fischer on offense. Losing by 30 points can get that message through more clearly than the coach can sometimes.

Mike Brey is a former Duke assistant and he's been very good at Notre Dame. Amaker resurrected his career at Harvard after not doing so well at Michigan. Dawkins era at Stanford is yet to be determined. But Wojo will need to be more instructive than "play hard" if he expects his team to improve.
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Marqutte looked like one of the worst coached major conference team I've ever seen. Horrible three point shooting team who shot a ton of them, big man who is supposed to be great but apparently never has seen a double team and no attempt to pass even though we played a lot of zone.
 
sorry to point out the obvious but this is a marquette team that lost to belmont and needed overtime to beat IUPUI. They might get better as the year goes on but right now they're really bad.
 
Its getting nit picky when you critique a blowout win, but I think Iowa might struggle in rebounding this year. They didn't really pound the glass very hard from what I saw...gave up a few easy put backs.

Hopefully Martquette figures it out and starts winning to make Iowa's SoS look good. That being said, Iowa has enough quality opponents coming up...so it should take care of itself.
 
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