What if Bryce had been healthy all year?

tm3308

tm3308

Well-Known Member
Over the last 2 1/2 weeks, Bryce was better than ever before. He had 42 assists and just 14 turnovers over the last 6 games of the year, and finished the last two with a ridiculous 5.25/1 ratio. He also shot 41% from the field over that span, but took fewer shots than last year, making him much more efficient.

How much better might this team have been if he hadn't had all the nagging injuries holding him back until a couple weeks ago?
 
We may have been dancing though he did look like hot garbage at times this year.
 
we would have won at least 2 or 3 more games. marble would have made even bigger leaps being on the wing more. basabe probably also has a better yr as i think part of his problem was marble didnt have the team running as much as bc would have and that is where he is best.

this is why i believe iowa will do better next yr. we will have two true pgs and marble can be on the wing where he will flourish and take over the #1 scorer spot from matt.
 
bcl20 said:
We may have been dancing though he did look like hot garbage at times this year.
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I really think many of us (myself included) underestimated the impact of the injuries. First the concussion, then his hamstring, then his ankle. He looked bad for much of the year, save for a short burst or two, like the first Wisky game (which was soon followed by the hamstring injury).
 
tm3308 said:
Over the last 2 1/2 weeks, Bryce was better than ever before. He had 42 assists and just 14 turnovers over the last 6 games of the year, and finished the last two with a ridiculous 5.25/1 ratio. He also shot 41% from the field over that span, but took fewer shots than last year, making him much more efficient.

How much better might this team have been if he hadn't had all the nagging injuries holding him back until a couple weeks ago?
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I thought about this a lot while watching how well BC played today. It definitely made a difference, although I'm not going to play the game of how many games we "should" have won.

BUT, I hope everyone tempers their expectation for the non-conference season, because we saw this year how tough it is when your point guard is struggling, and the freshmen are going to struggle from time to time. I love the way our frontcourt is shaping up for next year, but the backcourt is definitely going to be a work in progress.
 
Foval21 said:
we would have won at least 2 or 3 more games. marble would have made even bigger leaps being on the wing more. basabe probably also has a better yr as i think part of his problem was marble didnt have the team running as much as bc would have and that is where he is best.

this is why i believe iowa will do better next yr. we will have two true pgs and marble can be on the wing where he will flourish and take over the #1 scorer spot from matt.
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The past couple weeks have gotten me even more excited for Marble, as well. Over the same 6-game stretch, he shot 59% from beyond the arc. Granted, today's performance skews that. But if you throw out today's display and look at just the 5 games previous, he shot 43%. In an offseason where improving his outside shot is likely to be a main focus, he could be in for a pretty serious improvement. If he shoots 35% or better, he could be scary good next year.
 
i see 4 players averaging 10+ pts per game next yr and 2 pgs around 5 assts per game (bryce was just short of 5 and hurt, devyn was 3.5 or so and isnt a true pg).

marble - 16 pts
white - 14 pts
ogelsby - 12 pts
basabe - 10 pts (and he wont start)

gesell and clemmons about 20 min each and about 5 assts per game which would be 1 per 4 min for each. i feel they will have us playing at the tempo we had tonight most of the time.

on another post my estimate of next yrs stats had 11 man rotation and 82 pts per game.
 
TheeHawkeye said:
Lol him playing like **** at times wasn't his injury. It was just him playing like ****. So glad he's gone.
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So when he finally has nothing wrong with him, and starts playing well (even better than last year), that's just a coincidence?
 
tm3308 said:
So when he finally has nothing wrong with him, and starts playing well (even better than last year), that's just a coincidence?
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He made some bad choices at times that had nothing to do with injury, the time this really stood out was the game at Northwestern. That said, he's better than people have giving him credit for and I think it's because of high expectations because of last year. I do know that of the seniors playing today, he's the one who played like it was his last game.
 
TheeHawkeye said:
Lol him playing like **** at times wasn't his injury. It was just him playing like ****. So glad he's gone.
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Wow. That is a bit unnecessary.

So you are saying he had some bad games that had nothing to do with injuries? I don't know how you would know how his injuries affected him... but we will say you are right and he had some bad games.

You are glad he is gone because he had some bad games? Gatens had off games... are you glad he is gone too? Players are going to have bad games. It happens. BC proved that he is capable of being a good player when he is healthy. There is really no need to talk about him like that... It just makes you sound like an ***.
 
TheeHawkeye said:
Lol him playing like **** at times wasn't his injury. It was just him playing like ****. So glad he's gone.
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Let me ask you this, if you and your buddies go down to the court to play a pick up game do you always make your shots? Are you 100% shooter? Do you never turnover the ball? Plain and simple Basketball is a game of rhythm and sometimes its just not there. Unlike football or some other team sports it can be much more on one guy. Even in the pros the "superstars" have their off nights that's just the way it is, the difference is some more than others.
 
remohawk said:
Let me ask you this, if you and your buddies go down to the court to play a pick up game do you always make your shots? Are you 100% shooter? Do you never turnover the ball? Plain and simple Basketball is a game of rhythm and sometimes its just not there. Unlike football or some other team sports it can be much more on one guy. Even in the pros the "superstars" have their off nights that's just the way it is, the difference is some more than others.
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Right. And a guy like BC (whether people believe it or not) was a very important piece to the team. His actions and play at the PG position are magnified.

When he plays well... Look at how the team plays.
When he has a bad game... Look at how the team plays.

If BC has a bad game... it is easier to see, whereas a guy like Gatens can get away with playing below his potential and it might not hurt the team as much, because then White and Marble are expected to pick up the slack on the scoring side of things... and they usually did if Gatens wasn't hitting.

If BC is having an off-game... well then what? Move Marble to PG? That completely changes the dynamics of our offense. We didn't have a true PG outside of BC so his play was under a microscope the entire season. Btw, I thought Marble did a good job at taking over the PG when we needed him to. It is tough to ask someone to play PG when they are used to playing on the wing.

A better example might be May. If he had a bad game, which he had many of this season due to injury, it did not hurt the team AS MUCH as when BC had a bad game. BC and May struggled with injuries all season, but BC seems to take a lot more heat than May and I believe that is because we have more depth/talent at his position than the PG position.

BC deserves more respect and better treatment from Hawk fans as a whole. It's pretty embarrassing to see people rip on him as much as they do... no matter what he does. Like someone said earlier... Out of the seniors... he was the one that played the most like it was his last game. He gave it everything he had. And that isn't a knock against Gatens, because he just couldn't find his stroke, unfortunately, and that happens.

Was BC the best PG that Iowa has ever had? No, but he contributed and did his best and played pretty good basketball when he was healthy. There is definitely no need to make dumb comments like "I'm glad he is gone" or anything along those lines. Even if that is your opinion... sometimes it is better to keep your opinion to yourself. If you don't have a filter... you will find that life is substantially harder.
 
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Hindsight is 20/20, but the concerns myself and many others voiced after not securing a PG for this season came to fruition. You put even a serviceable PG on this team that could have stepped in when Cartwright got hurt and I think we are probably 3-4 games better. Marble did an admirable job, but at the end of the day he struggled to guard smaller, quicker players and his PG duties took him out of score and attack mode as the season wore on.

Cartwright certainly finished the season on a high note and even generated some unexpected offense for us in the NIT.
 
If BC would have been healthy, I don't think Marble would have had a break out season like he did. Much of that came from the PG position while BC was out. DM gained a lot of confidence playing the point. It bodes well for the future. Marble will be able to lighten the load of the freshmen guards next year if needed. I think there was a silver lining for sure with BC being out some this year.
 
I think a healthy BC and Iowa wins at Penn State and possibly at Illinois. Switch those games into wins and Iowa may have been dancing. These last couple of games BC has looked as healthy as he has been all year and reminded me of the BC we seen last year. Those of you that complain about him playing like crap some of those game, did you notice all the times when he came off the court or went into the huddle wincing in pain? He played through a lot of pain through out the year.
 
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