What are we looking at for next year?

[HawkeyeWalker]

If we make the Tourney it'll be a great year. Top half of B1G.

No, I don't believe that should be the ultimate goal or ceiling. But with this much inexperience and unknowns...can't expect a ton.

 

[drew003]

Starters...Williams, Jok, Baer, Wagner and Cook/Uhl is my best guess. I will be changing my 12-6 sig/prediction for this year to 10-8 for next ear.

We need more ballhandling than that in my opinion. I'd go Williams, the best of Moss/Fleming/Bohanon/Hutton, Jok, Uhl or Jones, Wagner or Cook.

I think Wagner or Cook need to be on the floor for all 40 minutes, to provide defense, rebounding, and athleticism. They should be paired with a big that can stretch the floor. Baer stays in a similar role as a backup wing.

The team has major concerns with both ballhandling and interior play/rebounding. Making the NCAA tournament would be a major accomplishment.

 

[WindsorHawk]

Surprised you're on so soon after a loss Windsor.

I'm staying away from the doomsday threads. And the SFA vs. ND game is good.

 

[Xerxes]

I'm looking forward to next year. New players. Hopefully a new toughness and progression. This team deserves credit for what they accomplished but at the same time, at the end the last 4 years it felt like we were watching the same exact team. There was just never any progression. The only difference was won they played. The lost to good teams they played: Baylor, Tennessee, Gonzaga, & Villanova (3 of them blowouts) and beat middling teams they played in the NIT, Davidson and Temple.

 

[ClintonIAfan]

To me this reminds me a lot of the team going into the 1990/1991 season. From the previous team they had lost 4 starters off of it's original roster. 2 of those starters went to play in the NBA. Yet the young players a lot of freshman and sophomores had the opportunity to step up and they did. Iowa improved their record and made the NCAA tournament despite those losses because guys stepped up. They can do that again.

 

[Hawk4Fan]

While we have yet another disappointing seasons end it makes me wonder who is going to start next year, who is going to be the team leader and will we be good enough to get to the NIT or better.
Of course Jok will start and be the number one option on offense. Uhl, I think he needs to make a huge leap in basketball IQ in order to be dependable. Will Baer start or is he to valuable coming off the bench. Will this years freshman or next years freshman be quality starters? Any thoughts?

Next year will be a below .500 year and missing the NIT, that is how bad it will be

 

[Tierney]

We need more ballhandling than that in my opinion. I'd go Williams, the best of Moss/Fleming/Bohanon/Hutton, Jok, Uhl or Jones, Wagner or Cook.

I think Wagner or Cook need to be on the floor for all 40 minutes, to provide defense, rebounding, and athleticism. They should be paired with a big that can stretch the floor. Baer stays in a similar role as a backup wing.

The team has major concerns with both ballhandling and interior play/rebounding. Making the NCAA tournament would be a major accomplishment.

Fran already has done a good job with far less talent than he will have next year. There will be a lot of players with little to no experience in playing in games, but they will have been in the coaching system for at least a year. I think they should be fun to watch next year. Iowa will have a lot of guys that will be able to finish a layup, with the possible exception of Uhl, which they had trouble with this year. The big guys are going to be a lot thicker than Woodbury and Uthoff , and I think we will see athleticism we haven't seen at Iowa since the first year when Tom Davis was here. The Iowa team next year should really get stronger as the season goes on. Baer was impressive today. I thought Villanova pretty much man handled Iowa with their strength and athleticism today. Next year might be a different story.

 

[drew003]

Fran already has done a good job with far less talent than he will have next year. There will be a lot of players with little to no experience in playing in games, but they will have been in the coaching system for at least a year. I think they should be fun to watch next year. Iowa will have a lot of guys that will be able to finish a layup, with the possible exception of Uhl, which they had trouble with this year. The big guys are going to be a lot thicker than Woodbury and Uthoff , and I think we will see athleticism we haven't seen at Iowa since the first year when Tom Davis was here. The Iowa team next year should really get stronger as the season goes on. Baer was impressive today. I thought Villanova pretty much man handled Iowa with their strength and athleticism today. Next year might be a different story.

Where is this narrative of young talent coming from? I think we will have one Top 150 player on the roster next year (Cook). Agree we should be more athletic, so the ceiling might be higher on a few of these kids, and I think it's the type of team that can improve as the season goes on.

 

[ArvadaHawk]

Baer plays better the more he plays... So yes he should start.

I agree with this. Baer seems to be a rhythm player and for that, you need to be on the floor.

 

[STILLBUSTER]

The pros:

Fresh faces that had a year to watch, learn and get hungry.
- Having Gesell and Woodbury play from day-1 was, in some ways, a curse. They didn't get the benefit of "unlearning" some of the bad habits and, frankly, dumb decisions, they could get away with against Sioux City, IA basketball competition due to their size and ability. They were simply average to 1-dimensional, and, usually, overmatched at this level.

Size, more athleticism and scoring in the back court.

Much more athleticism and "position" skill / attitude at the 5.

I think the team will be tougher, in general, with Baer, Wagner and a true 4/5 physique in Cook.

Cons:

Inexperience.

Once again, no true 5
- Cook will have to start as a true freshman. He'll be much more gifted and aggressive than Woody ever dreamt of but he's still only 6'9 and just 1 guy.
- Uhl? ... God help them!
- Wagner? ... attitude - check; size - uncheck
- Jones? ... who knows? More of a big 3 than a tough 4, let alone, a 5.

Will get crushed on the boards.

Primarily reliant on the perimeter offense, which requires at least 3 consistently good shooters (Hawks have 1).
- Just by the law of averages, it's unreliable and a much larger margin for error than having an inside-out game. Even worse without any aggressive offensive rebounder and a strategy that has everyone running back on D after jacking up a shot, rather than even looking for an offensive board.

I'd expect 6 to 7 wins in conference and around .500 -- looking a lot like Nebraska. I would say Penn State but Iowa won't be anywhere near as tough as PSU.

Note: I said expect. I did NOT say "hope for", or "be happy with".

Would Iowa accept a CBI bid? Should they?

 

[brozley]

Flemming had a better pull jumper at the end of the game than MG had his whole career at Iowa. The team may actually benefit from having 5 guys in the starting lineup that can score on their own and won't be Afraid to shoot.

 

[Milldaddy]

Im guessing.

1 - Williams or a 5th year PG if we can get one
2 - Jok
3 - Dale Jones
4 - Uhl
5 - Cook/Wagner

Baer will be first off the bench, I don't see him as a starter. He is to limited athletically imo.

We will be more athletic than we were this year, and it will be the 'Jok show.' I am expecting a 7-10 seed in the tourney, anything less would be dissapointing.

 

[NikeHawk21]

Im guessing.

1 - Williams or a 5th year PG if we can get one
2 - Jok
3 - Dale Jones
4 - Uhl
5 - Cook/Wagner

Baer will be first off the bench, I don't see him as a starter. He is to limited athletically imo.

We will be more athletic than we were this year, and it will be the 'Jok show.' I am expecting a 7-10 seed in the tourney, anything less would be dissapointing.

I agree on Baer. I really like his energy and mistake free ball off the bench. Here is what I got.

1. Williams
2. Moss
3. Jok
4. Uhl
5. Cook

Baer, Wagner, Jones, & Hutton first off the bench. Either Ellingson or Fleming will have to step up as a shooter. I really like the athleticism this team will have. I'm really excited for this team, especially after seeing the confidence Christian Willaims has been shooting with lately, already an upgrade from what we have.

 

[PCHawk]

I agree on Baer. I really like his energy and mistake free ball off the bench. Here is what I got.

1. Williams
2. Moss
3. Jok
4. Uhl
5. Cook

Baer, Wagner, Jones, & Hutton first off the bench. Either Ellingson or Fleming will have to step up as a shooter. I really like the athleticism this team will have. I'm really excited for this team, especially after seeing the confidence Christian Willaims has been shooting with lately, already an upgrade from what we have.

I think we would have been better off bringing Clemmons off the bench from the beginning. I don't see any way that Willaims is a downgrade from either starter this year.

 

[SteveGarvey]

The ceiling with the underclassmen next year will be higher than the seniors this year. More athleticism for sure. But much less experience, of course. I'm thinking a bottom half B1G finish but hope to see improvement as the year progresses.

 

[Milldaddy]

I agree on Baer. I really like his energy and mistake free ball off the bench. Here is what I got.

1. Williams
2. Moss
3. Jok
4. Uhl
5. Cook

Baer, Wagner, Jones, & Hutton first off the bench. Either Ellingson or Fleming will have to step up as a shooter. I really like the athleticism this team will have. I'm really excited for this team, especially after seeing the confidence Christian Willaims has been shooting with lately, already an upgrade from what we have.

Yeah right now its a toss up of who starts at the two or three, whichever one Jok doesn't play. I was really impressed with Jones willingness to shoot the ball, and make shots, granted it was against lesser competition.

 

[smhawk]

Doesn't seem Wagner has much confidence in his offensive game, if it wasn't a easy lay up he didn't seem to want anything to do with the ball near the rim once it was in his hands.

I don't think Ellingson going to magically wake up and start shooting well ingame. At least Ogelsby who was a similar player seemed to have some good defensive IQ and would find some decent assist here and there, not sure I seem him doing the same with similar playing time.

Williams potential shined in the inidana game. He won't have the easy buckets mike did vs slow guards but seems like he'll have better ability finishing with contact or around shot blockers. I just hope his turnovers don't get out of hand.

Excited to see what Hutton, Moss, Cook, Riener?, and Bohannon can bring to the table. Potential to be much deeper of a team. The top expectation can't be any more than a 7 seed, which will setup for another tough 2 seed if they can win. How does the Bigten recruiting classes look coming in?

 

[AlmaMaterIowa]

Jok - He will need to learn how to get open because he's going to be smothered next year.
Uhl - He's shown some flashes, but he drifts along a lot, not sure whether he'll ever be reliable, but he has the potential to be good.
Wagner - If he could just grow 2-3" he'd be fantastic. As it is, I think he's going to be one of the Hawks better players next year.
Baer - He'll only get better. Last year he worked on improving his basketball skills. This year he'll work on his body.
Fleming - If he can make 3s, he'll play. If not, he won't as that appears to be what he'll be able to add.
Williams - I didn't think he'd add much, but with the demise of Ellingson, he's shown some talent. I don't feel as bad about the point guard position next year, although I'm sure we'll witness a lot of growing pains.
Jones - Hoping for a healthy return. They'll need his offense next year.
Ellingson - He'll need a Clemmons type re-boot or otherwise he's done at Iowa.
Hutton - Wild card.
Moss - See Hutton.
Bohannan - He'll probably play because Williams won't be able to handle the PG position on his own.
Cook - He was wise to come to Iowa because he's going to get a lot of minutes. He may end up starting right out of the blocks.
Pemsl - He was Iowa HS good, but is he Big Ten good? He's got the body size.
Kriener - Another big body, but he'll need a year or two I think.

 

[WindsorHawk]

I think we would have been better off bringing Clemmons off the bench from the beginning. I don't see any way that Willaims is a downgrade from either starter this year.

I don't think Williams will average more points than Clemmons. He won't be as strong. He won't have as much experience. And I can't imagine he will defend as well. Clemmons defense on Forbes is a big reason we swept MSU...all IMO of course.

 

[Bigtenchamp]

Im guessing.

1 - Williams or a 5th year PG if we can get one
2 - Jok
3 - Dale Jones
4 - Uhl
5 - Cook/Wagner

Baer will be first off the bench, I don't see him as a starter. He is to limited athletically imo.

We will be more athletic than we were this year, and it will be the 'Jok show.' I am expecting a 7-10 seed in the tourney, anything less would be dissapointing.

Why do you think baer is limitied athletically?

He is tall and quick... in today's game he got a offensive rebound and went up with easy and dunked it.

I know you've seen Woody try to dunk...

Baer is not un-athletic... he is just skinny.