Well, here we go...

[judzeehawk]

I'm not discouraged by this loss at all. Yeah, it sucks, but if we're still in it at the end of the game with one of the best teams in the country when our best player doesn't contribute, just about everybody's shot is off, and we can't hit free throws to save our lives, I'll take it. I don't think we'll have many, if any more games like that this year.

^^^^ This ^^^^

 

[skinnykilmer17]

You can't "if they would have" when we were terrible too.

The difference being, their shots were pretty much uncontested where ours weren't it seemed. They had a good scouting report on Jok and Uthoff and executed it well. Nothing came easy for those two.

 

[DDThompson]

Listened to WHO. Couldn't really tell what was happening.

 

[skinnykilmer17]

Listened to WHO. Couldn't really tell what was happening.

I see what you did there.

The over/under for Bobby correcting Dolph was 12x.

Over or Under?

 

[Hawkeyes5]

If there was ever going to be a good loss this would have to be one where everyone moves on. Now get back to our winning ways on Sunday. Heading to the game with several family and friends. Who else will be there? Go Hawks!

 

[PCHawk]

The difference being, their shots were pretty much uncontested where ours weren't it seemed. They had a good scouting report on Jok and Uthoff and executed it well. Nothing came easy for those two.

I agree to an extent. They probably had more open looks than we did but it seems like we missed ever open look we had. They did do a really good job on Uthoff but if his shot was falling it wouldn't have really mattered. When he's on does he really care how close someone's guarding him?

 

[hawkdrummer1]

I see what you did there.

The over/under for Bobby correcting Dolph was 12x.

Over or Under?

Dolph is getting worse... reminds me of Zabel (god bless him) in his later years.

As for the game, coulda won it. But a loss at Maryland is no shame. The concern moving forward is did they provide a formula for other teams to copy.

I was listening to the XM radio broadcast from the Maryland network, even their guys thought Woody's 5th foul was a terrible call.

 

[homes]

That's why no Big Ten team has gone undefeated in the conference since the 1976 Hoosiers. It's really, really, really, really hard to do. Bad games happen. I don't expect this to linger, at all.

 

[homes]

Listened to WHO. Couldn't really tell what was happening.

Perfect description of Dolphin's call of a game. When listening to him, you're pretty sure he's at the game, but not absolutely certain.

 

[WindsorHawk]

Ahmad didn't see the court in the second half and I'm not sure why. Bottom line is if iowa loses on the road to a top 10 team when uthoff isn't hitting anything, it's not that bad of a loss

Wagner played briefly. We were struggling to score and Uhl has more upside on the offensive end. Wagner (and hopefully Williams) should benefit greatly from additional playing time and experience over the next 10 games.

We went 7-1 during the stretch that I had hoped to go 4-4. So 9-1 is very realistic down the stretch. We are going to play some bad teams the rest of the way. We only lost by 6 last night playing the way we played. It appears to me that even on a relatively bad night only Indiana and Michigan at home have a realistic chance of beating us...if we stay healthy. Maryland matches up with us better than any other team in the conference IMO.

 

[WindsorHawk]

mg does not disappoint the last two minutes of a game, especially against athletic teams.

Uthoff couldn't make a basket last night. It didn't help that he posted up his defender multiple times in the 2nd half and we didn't give him the ball.

But Gesell was worse IMO. His passing was bad. His decision making was bad. His free throw shooting was bad. I doubt either of them plays this poorly the rest of the season. And it's highly unlikely it will happen in the same game again.

 

[WindsorHawk]

Game on boys & girls. We are still in 1st & still ahead of Maryland

I can't see us worse that 15-3 if we stay healthy. I think 16-2 is more likely. So Maryland may very well have to go undefeated the rest of the way for a shot at being co-champions. Below are their most dangerous games.

@ OSU (letdown after last night's win?)
Purdue (can beat anyone on a given night)
@ Purdue (probable loss IMO)
@ Indiana (toss up)

Maryland will have a tough time in the state of Indiana. I think a split at best. They are likely looking at 15-3 or 14-4.

 

[WindsorHawk]

My only criticism of Fran is that his sphincter seems to get a little tight or something in close games down the stretch. Do his substitution patterns and bench coaching change?? Does he process fast enough? Think ahead through scenarios?

I disagree with all of this. We have an elite team this year and should beat pretty much anyone we play by double digits IMO. If a team is close at the end of the game then we aren't playing well. If we haven't played well for 38 minutes it seems far fetched to me to assume that Fran can wave a magic wand and get his team to suddenly flip a switch and do amazing things over the last 2 minutes. It stands to reason that when a team plays bad it's going to carry through to the end of the game. See Uthoff's 3 that was 2/3 of the way down and didn't fall.

 

[bcl20]

I can't see us worse that 15-3 if we stay healthy. I think 16-2 is more likely. So Maryland may very well have to go undefeated the rest of the way for a shot at being co-champions. Below are their most dangerous games.

@ OSU (letdown after last night's win?)
Purdue (can beat anyone on a given night)
@ Purdue (probable loss IMO)
@ Indiana (toss up)

Maryland will have a tough time in the state of Indiana. I think a split at best. They are likely looking at 15-3 or 14-4.

I think Purdue matches up very well with Maryland. If we have another decent big we win last night. We could shoot over Purdue. I'm not so sure Maryland can and Purdue can shut down the paint vs anyone.

 

[ForeverHawk]

Don't want to be too critical here, but I don't understand why Wagner didn't see the court. Uhl was way overmatched.

At least give him a 3-4 minute stretch to see how he does. Uhl was getting schooled.

If Fran gives us another one of those, "Looking back I should have played Player X more", I am going to pull out the rest of my hair.

Maryland missing all of those 3 pt shots kept us in the game. If they hit 30% in the 2nd half it's a 12 -15 pt win.

Iowa missed a bunch of threes as well, so I look at that as a wash. Had Iowa played remotely good, I thought Iowa could have won by 10. Next game is the biggest game IMO. Need to take care of business against NW and not have a let down.

 

[WindsorHawk]

Iowa missed a bunch of threes as well, so I look at that as a wash. Had Iowa played remotely good, I thought Iowa could have won by 10. Next game is the biggest game IMO. Need to take care of business against NW and not have a let down.

We should beat Northwestern by 15 according to Sagarin.

 

[BigD]

We played pretty mediocre and had many chances to take that game and only lost by 6. Gesell has really disappointed the last few games. He can't be so inconsistent in March. Hope he gets it turned around quick cause this team needs him

*Four years in a program and we are talking about improving in the next two months?

•Several post about how after Woody fouled out our lack of size on defense really hurt us. I commented on this at the beginning of the season and the lack of recent recruiting that has failed to come up with a B1G to play center field under the boards after Woody is gone. There we a few apologist trying to rationalize how it wouldn't be necessary as the game has changed and the B1G in the middle is a thing of the past. The 6'6" to 6'8" guys just are not going to cut it defending under the basket. How did that work for ya last night?

Gesell and vital free throws at the end of games......... all I can say is just damn!!!

 

[NEIChawk]

I think Mike has a weird motion to his shots and free throws....it's not a fluid motion like I think he should have, I guess...I have to turn away when he's at the line, scary, man

 

[PCHawk]

*Four years in a program and we are talking about improving in the next two months?

•Several post about how after Woody fouled out our lack of size on defense really hurt us. I commented on this at the beginning of the season and the lack of recent recruiting that has failed to come up with a B1G to play center field under the boards after Woody is gone. There we a few apologist trying to rationalize how it wouldn't be necessary as the game has changed and the B1G in the middle is a thing of the past. The 6'6" to 6'8" guys just are not going to cut it defending under the basket. How did that work for ya last night?

Gesell and vital free throws at the end of games......... all I can say is just damn!!!

There are a lot of ways to win at basketball. A lineup of Clemmons, Gesell, Jok, Uthoff, and Uhl could beat a top 10 team like Maryland on a lot of nights. Just not last night.

 

[Niemo]

Stupid thread title.