Weakness Revealed

W

WinOneThisCentury

Well-Known Member
Nova is a team like MSU...they play defense with a lot of physical play and shoving. When the refs are letting that go, you have to be strong to the basket at all times. You have to take the ball to the rim and handle the hand check. To me, only Marble does this well. Even in the post, our big men don't take the ball hard to the glass and take the contact. This is a weakness, but it's something they can improve. We missed so many bunnies tonight.. You have to gather and go up strong with two hands, not with weak one handed crap. The other piece to this is the lack of a post presence. Someone has to be able to post someone up and make a move or force a double. It was non-existent tonight.

We still should have won this game. Other than the "strong to the basket" issue, the only other thing that bothered me is that the team wasted several possessions when they were up 12-15 points. We had alot of quick shots and turnovers that were a result of rushing things. Fran should have been adamant that they use some clock and move the ball and make Nova continue to work on the defensive end. We helped them out and kept them within reach when they were really struggling.

All this being said, I'll tell you right now, Nova doesn't have another shooting night like that all season. Just won't happen. I'd love to know their three percentage in the second half.
 
MSU is way, way more physical than Nova. Nova simply played some of the best man to man defense for about a 4-6 minute stretch while hitting some well defended 3s. Plus Iowa was racking up fouls, Nova wasn't.
 
WinOneThisCentury said:
Nova is a team like MSU...they play defense with a lot of physical play and shoving. When the refs are letting that go, you have to be strong to the basket at all times. You have to take the ball to the rim and handle the hand check. To me, only Marble does this well. Even in the post, our big men don't take the ball hard to the glass and take the contact. This is a weakness, but it's something they can improve. We missed so many bunnies tonight.. You have to gather and go up strong with two hands, not with weak one handed crap. The other piece to this is the lack of a post presence. Someone has to be able to post someone up and make a move or force a double. It was non-existent tonight.

We still should have won this game. Other than the "strong to the basket" issue, the only other thing that bothered me is that the team wasted several possessions when they were up 12-15 points. We had alot of quick shots and turnovers that were a result of rushing things. Fran should have been adamant that they use some clock and move the ball and make Nova continue to work on the defensive end. We helped them out and kept them within reach when they were really struggling.

All this being said, I'll tell you right now, Nova doesn't have another shooting night like that all season. Just won't happen. I'd love to know their three percentage in the second half.
Click to expand...

Say what? Vill shot 42% from the field, 66% FT and 36% from 3 point land.
IA shot 42% from the field, 66% FT and 45% from 3 point land.

That is not exactly shooting the lights out.
 
The game (the whole tournament) was officiated in a way that favored Nova's physical style and they seized the opportunity. White resorted to his drive game but, after taking a couple shots to his face, wasn't right all night and maybe even a little gun-shy. When he and Dev did go to the rim, usually didn't get the bucket, just the throws and, unfortunately, they missed too many. Mel had a really sub-par game and, with exception of McCabe, the bench was quite complacent and soft.

So, you have little production in the paint from Iowa, nullifying it's length / size advantage and a key strategy -- get to the line. Yes, Gabe had a stretch where he blocked and scored but you can't "rely" on him beyond a short-term spark. Not to mention, he's worthless defending the 3, which is where Nova took their attack and, unfortunately, got hot. When Fran countered with an outside strategy, Clemmons didn't bring his "A" game on either end of the floor during a crucial stretch -- t.o., foul, slow to close on the 3. Then, a lot of quick threes by Jok and Dev, right after entering the game, gave Nova more opportunities.

Not worried in the least by this loss in terms of some inherent weakness that will now doom the Hawks. Both teams were relentless. Hawks weren't overwhelmed by athleticism or poor perimeter defense. They weren't out of sorts adjusting to an outside strategy. While they were a little bullied, that's more on the officiating, that I don't think will be the norm going forward. The bottom line, they just didn't produce at the right times last night.

It's a matter of Nova being underrated rather than Iowa being overrated.
 
Obviously we don't handle the physical type pressure very well. This was a game we needed though to toughen up prior to Big play. Will be a tough turnaround for ND game.
 
JonDMiller said:
They're one of the 25 best teams this year. That will play itself out. This is predictable sky is falling, November loss post knee jerk reaction.
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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.
 
The Sky is Falling LoL. This team will be fine and with our depth we will be in the hunt every game.Bottom line if we make our FT's there is no OT.
 
This game boils down to one thing and one thing only. That 30 second stretch where they went supernova from behind the arc and got 9 quick points. Those don't happen, we win. Period.
 
WinOneThisCentury said:
Nova is a team like MSU...they play defense with a lot of physical play and shoving. When the refs are letting that go, you have to be strong to the basket at all times. You have to take the ball to the rim and handle the hand check. To me, only Marble does this well. Even in the post, our big men don't take the ball hard to the glass and take the contact. This is a weakness, but it's something they can improve. We missed so many bunnies tonight.. You have to gather and go up strong with two hands, not with weak one handed crap. The other piece to this is the lack of a post presence. Someone has to be able to post someone up and make a move or force a double. It was non-existent tonight.

We still should have won this game. Other than the "strong to the basket" issue, the only other thing that bothered me is that the team wasted several possessions when they were up 12-15 points. We had alot of quick shots and turnovers that were a result of rushing things. Fran should have been adamant that they use some clock and move the ball and make Nova continue to work on the defensive end. We helped them out and kept them within reach when they were really struggling.

All this being said, I'll tell you right now, Nova doesn't have another shooting night like that all season. Just won't happen. I'd love to know their three percentage in the second half.
Click to expand...

Iowa was called for several charges for going strong to the basket. This wasn't the problem.
 
HamburgersAreYummy said:
".....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 boarderline 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.
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Fair assessment. Someone else has to be able to reliably compliment Marble. We have depth. We don't have leadership. Marble is the only one that seems to want to be 'that guy'.
 
hwks1 said:
Fair assessment. Someone else has to be able to reliably compliment Marble. We have depth. We don't have leadership. Marble is the only one that seems to want to be 'that guy'.
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Gesell is showing leadership and guts in the crunch.

Unfortunately, he fouled out when the big crunch hit.

Basabe was timid last night for most of the game.
 
Weaknesses as I see them (purely an amateur fan)

#1--If we don't transition, and, Marble is kept in check in the 1/2-court game, we struggle.
#2--We seem to get out-athleticism'd for rebounds
#3--No set offensive plays through our two centers
#4--See #1...Jok/Uthoff may pick up some of this slack, but for now, sans Marble, no self-generated scorers on this team.

Is this a death knell? Hardly.

But it is what it is.

Iowa opponents will see the tapes, and try to box us into this corner (#1)
Conversely, Iowa staff will try to coach Iowa out of #1.
As far as #2 - #4 go, #2 is what it is, #3 might come around with player development and I hope #4 comes to fruition.
 
jo12208 said:
Say what? Vill shot 42% from the field, 66% FT and 36% from 3 point land.
IA shot 42% from the field, 66% FT and 45% from 3 point land.

That is not exactly shooting the lights out.
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Can you find Nova's 3 point percentage in the second half. That's what I'm talking about. To my memory, they went on a 3 point tear the whole half. They had to be above 50% from three in the second half.

And to the other poster, yes we were charged with some charging fouls...but if you look at some of our takes to the basket (mostly White and Basabe), we missed bunnies due to some contact and defensive pressure and I didn't think our player took the extra step and powered to the basket, taking it to the glass or rim. This way, you really draw the foul or score. We let them off the hook on some of those drives.

Fran has to get someone who can be consistent in the post. It opens up the three lanes and forces teams to change the outside pressure if someone down low starts scoring. I thought this was the year Woodbury starts being that presence, but he hasn't shown any consistency yet. In big games against big, physical defenses, with no low post options, it's going to put a ton of pressure on our outside shooting to keep us in games. Even then, teams will pressure the outside shooters. Is our penetration game good enough? It was in the first half last night...not so much in the second.
 
jo12208 said:
Say what? Vill shot 42% from the field, 66% FT and 36% from 3 point land.
IA shot 42% from the field, 66% FT and 45% from 3 point land.

That is not exactly shooting the lights out.
Click to expand...

They shot 41% from behind the arc and hit 12 threes in the second half. They got hot.
 
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