Weakness Revealed

[ForrestEvy]

Interesting analysis. Hawks are definitely a work in progress. I don't feel FM has been great at teaching defense yet [poor close outs, big guys leave their feet too easily, too much dribble penetration, hardly any ball denial]. This doesn't make Iowa different from a lot of teams, but the elite teams do these things. Hawks are dependent on shooting a good percentage to win.

 

[bogeyman]

We're fine guys. We'll be a good team. We have the same issue we had last year - we don't really have a go to guy or at least another half court scorer to go with Marble. There is a reason Fran was going hard after Ulis, he knew we needed a guy who could beat his man any time off the dribble. Therefore we may go through long stretches like the 2nd half where we just don't score, which unfortunately beat us several times last year. If we have a guy that can consistently beat his man, at the very least you get to the line to stop the bleeding. It is what it is, we have 10 deep of very good players but just don't have that one stud. Defense will really be the key for us all year, as offense can have a bad night but defense never should.
I do think Mike ran the offense way better than Clemmons FWIW. Clemmons looks very hesitant out there and just is waiting to pass and is very little threat to do something with the ball.

 

[ibahawkeye]

Interesting analysis. Hawks are definitely a work in progress. I don't feel FM has been great at teaching defense yet [poor close outs, big guys leave their feet too easily, too much dribble penetration, hardly any ball denial]. This doesn't make Iowa different from a lot of teams, but the elite teams do these things. Hawks are dependent on shooting a good percentage to win.

Interesting take considering we are leading the nation in Opp FG% at 34% and 21st in the nation at holding opponents to 61 points per game.

Field-Goal Percentage Defense | DI Men's Basketball Statistics - NCAA.com

In anticiaption of the competition argument...

We finished 3rd last year in the B10 in Opp FG% and 27th in the nation.

 

[bcl20]

Nova hit some tough/lucky shots and our good free throw shooter had a rare rough night. Teams don't go undefeated in this sport, if you are going to lose, you might as well lose in the way we lost (even if it hurts more). You can't walk out of that game saying we're not good. Unless you are stupid of course.

 

[Johnnyhawkeye]

We took our foot off the accelerator and fell into their tempo in the second half with a lead. We stopped pressing, allowed them to dictate the tempo on offense, didn't use our size advantage and pound it inside with a big lead. Once we decided to go back to OUR style of play it was too late and Nova took the momentum, we only stayed in it because we went back to what was killing them in the first half. We can't stop playing our game period! Fran needs to stay on the offensive at all times, we had the depth and rest we should have buried them in the 2nd half.

 

[PCHawk]

Interesting analysis. Hawks are definitely a work in progress. I don't feel FM has been great at teaching defense yet [poor close outs, big guys leave their feet too easily, too much dribble penetration, hardly any ball denial]. This doesn't make Iowa different from a lot of teams, but the elite teams do these things. Hawks are dependent on shooting a good percentage to win.

I'm not sure there is a team out there that relies less on shooting a good percentage to win than Iowa does.

 

[HomerChampless]

Iowa didn't take the foot off the accelerator... they went cold. Then Marble backslid and seemed bent on not making any assists during that time... even when he went cold. Iowa's 'athletes', White and Basabe and McCabe, tried to be physical and take it to Nova... All were recipes for disaster. Iowa stopped running plays and playing as a team... and Iowa fell apart.

 

[FCAS]

Sorry Jon, you are just flat wrong. This team has fundamental weaknesses that will prevent from doing anything real in the NCAA. Marble is a nice fairly skilled player who wants to be the go to guy but just doesn't have the talent needed to get it done consistently in crunch time. He is a very boaderline NBA guy and everyone else is too scared to do anything in crunch time so the defer to him. That will be our undoing in the end. We are a decent team that probably finishes top 5 in Big Ten, makes the tourney, then maybe wins 1 game and that will be it. Not terrible, but nothing to really write home about either.

Jon said Iowa was a top 25 team. Let's assume that he means somewhere between 16 to 25. Now let's compare that with what you say.

"This team has fundamental weaknesses"" --> Virtually all college teams (other than maybe the top 5) have weaknesses. That's the nature of today's college game. Teams ranked 16-25 will have weaknesses.

"We are a decent team that probably finishes in the top 5 in the Big 10" --> Isn't it likely that the Top 5 teams in the Big 10 will be ranked in the Top25?

"Maybe wins 1 game in the tourney" --> If the seedings are correct, then teams ranked 16-25 are expected to win about 1 game in the tourney.

So how is Jon flat wrong?

 

[Skeets77]

Why isn't White being more aggressive offensively (He's looking like Harrison Barnes at North Carolina out there). Ridiculous. Going to Marble isn't going to work unless we balance out on O. Guys posting down low and utilizing White more.

 

[hawkfan33]

This season is going to come down to Uthoff becoming a consistent secondary threat. If he can become a 15 ppg type of guy, Iowa has a shot to do some real damage. If not, we'll be an upper half of the B10 team who gets a 7-10 seed in the tournament. Not a bad worst case scenario considering where the program has been.

 

[Knight78]

Iowa didn't take the foot off the accelerator... they went cold. Then Marble backslid and seemed bent on not making any assists during that time... even when he went cold. Iowa's 'athletes', White and Basabe and McCabe, tried to be physical and take it to Nova... All were recipes for disaster. Iowa stopped running plays and playing as a team... and Iowa fell apart.

I don't know what game you watched, but I saw them walking the ball up the court. That's definitely taking the foot off the accelerator. If we had kept running and pressing like we did until about 5 minutes left in the first half, 'Nova had no chance. Instead we kept up the "walk it up the floor and run our sets" game. 'Nova made a mini-run right before half time because we let them back in this way. It continued in the second half except for our surge... and guess what? We pressed and ran during that surge and then slowed down again after we got a small lead.

The problem is that when we get in a half-court game, White and Basabe are incredibly average and McCabe needs someone to drive so they can dish to him. White and Basabe thrive in the running game offensively. In the second half, we had some scoring droughts, but think about it: we got the scoring droughts when we slowed tempo and were forced into the half-court game. When we made that run, we even scored in transition after they made a basket, before they could set their half court defense.

We have to run, run, run. When we get tired, sub. Then run, run run. We do this and we can beat almost anyone. We don't do this and we can get beat by almost anyone.