You need three reliable scorers
- Thread starter drh1150
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Kris, Tony, Patrick and Payton for sure. Others will contribute but those 4 are willing and able to take the shot in crunch time.
Kris averaged 9.7 last year. I think he’s a pretty safe bet.
Fran said they have multiple scorers on this team.
Kris, Tony P., PMac and Payton would be at the top of my list. He said Connor has really improved his shooting, practicing all summer. My gut tells me that Bowen will be a good scorer also,he's putting up 700 shots/day.
I think our biggest improvement should be on defense. Perkins, Ulis, and Bowen will greatly improve our perimeter defense. With Kris, Patrick and Payton we have really good length on the wings. In the post Rebracca will need help from Big O or Riley. Bottom line, defense wins championships!
Kris, Tony P., PMac and Payton would be at the top of my list. He said Connor has really improved his shooting, practicing all summer. My gut tells me that Bowen will be a good scorer also,he's putting up 700 shots/day.
I think our biggest improvement should be on defense. Perkins, Ulis, and Bowen will greatly improve our perimeter defense. With Kris, Patrick and Payton we have really good length on the wings. In the post Rebracca will need help from Big O or Riley. Bottom line, defense wins championships!
I hope this is right. With respect to JBo, not having him on the court should help the D.
The problem is in the middle - even good defenders have a hard time preventing penetration into the lane. Once they get there, what kind of a shot will they have? A layup? A short jumper? Or, will they have to deal with a shot blocker?
Per usual, I think this team is going to have to score a lot of points. I think they can.
Exactly my thoughts. Do we really think Connor has improved shooting? There would have to be some major mechanic changes to his shot for that to happen. If he makes it to a 35% 3 point shooter this year I will be surprised.
If anyone is likely to take a huge step forward, its definitely the 7th year 25 year old!
I hope he does well but if I have to watch the 3rd straight year of a guy taking minutes away from players who are clearly better than him, I may scream. Who am I kidding.. you know its going to happen
My take based on Fran’s brief comment in the recent press conference is that Josh is ahead of Riley at this point.
Limited data point so we’ll see.
Scoring won't be an issue. Who are our top defenders?
I predict you are going to be quite surprised.
He shot 36% in Big Ten Season, Big Ten Tournament, and NCAA play last year.
Who knows if it will continue into this year but maybe if his body is in better shape and not dealing with as many injuries it's possible that he can be in that range.
That being said, I don't think CMac needs to score a lot to have value and that is not what they are counting on him for. He just needs to semi-consistently hit the open 3 as he did the last 25 games of the year.
I think Kris, PMac, Perk, and Sandfort all avg double figures.
I never worry about Fran's teams struggling offensively. They will be able to put up pts. My worry always is can the maintain their intensity defensively and with this team, will they be able to defense the middle consistently.
Boy that'd be quite the jump from...34%, which he was last season. Damn near impossible!
Last year Kris, Tony, Patrick and Payton all had games where they scored when Iowa needed a bucket.
All i know is Tony, PMac, Sandfort and Kris should easily play the most minutes. Will be interesting to see how everything else shakes out
There are at least 4 go to guys when you need a bucket.
When it comes to potential All B1G players this season Fran mentioned 3 names yesterday: Kris, PMac and Tony.
Also yesterday, everyone was talking about Payton and how much he has improved. He also grew an inch from last season. He's going to be really good for us. He has that quick release and is not afraid to pull the trigger.
When it comes to potential All B1G players this season Fran mentioned 3 names yesterday: Kris, PMac and Tony.
Also yesterday, everyone was talking about Payton and how much he has improved. He also grew an inch from last season. He's going to be really good for us. He has that quick release and is not afraid to pull the trigger.
Do you think we will be better defensively than last year?
Iowa finished last season with the #4 offense & the #80 defense in the nation.
Here are Iowa basketball finishes in Kenpom adjusted defense the past four years (out of 358 teams):
2019- 111
2020- 97
2021- 75
2022- 80
No Team has made the Final Four in the Last 11 years with a Defense Ranked Worse than 70th in the Nation. This did not bode well for these Sweet 16 teams in last year's NCAA Tournament: Purdue (#89), Michigan (#78) and Miami (#123).
@EvilMonkeyInTheCloset wants to win a National Championship. The defensive standard for eventual national champions during the last 11 years is even higher; each national champion has finished #22 or better. All but three title-winning teams in the last 11 years finished the season ranked in the top 10 in defensive efficiency; 2022 national champion Kansas finished # 17. None have been more inefficient than Baylor, which entered the 2021 tournament ranked 35th but finished 22nd, according to Pomeroy.
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If you are gonna rag on a kid, at least get your facts straight. But who are we kidding; we know that's not going to happen.
For the record, this is not Connor's 7th year; it is his 6th. And he's not 25; he turned 24 on July 13.
Josh, based on this Q & A from yesterday:
Q. How important is it to get something from your two post players this year?
FRAN McCAFFERY: Well, it's going to be really important against certain teams. It won't be as important against other teams. But as you know, you look around our league, there's some pretty imposing 5 men. Not only in terms of talent but physical size. You look at Edey and Dickinson in particular, those guys, Cliff. There's just a number of guys that are a handful. I thought Josh last year when we needed him to step up in those situations produced well, whether it was against Kofi, whether it was against Edey, he was good. Riley has got to get there.
23 scoreless minutes in the ncaa tournament. Played more minutes than Kris, Joe T, Sandfort and Tony. Mind-boggling. Something something glue guy
They were cursed in that game. Tony played less minutes because he fouled out. Kris couldn't throw it in the ocean. Joe T was off, rattled by the Richmond PG. Sandfort same as Kris. Those 3 were a combined 3 for 14. That's a bad game for all statistically, and not a good game for comparisons.
I wish that Kris had played more but it wasn't because of CMac. NO ONE other than PMac could hit anything that game. If Kris would've showed any signs of life, he would have played more.
Here’s the thing: we all know the blueprint. So does everyone else.
I don’t see a lot of things changing. Ever. And I’m not labeling it all bad.
We will score. Efficiently. We will defend in stretches.
There will be scoring lapses and bonanzas.
In my mind, this team will be fine and I hope we outscore people. That is the objective. I just feel that pushing the offense is Frans objective. He welcomes the challenge and thinks we’re better most of the time. I agree with his strategy. It worked last year, so why not?
Long answer, I think Kris, Tony, Filip, Peyton and Patrick provide plenty of double figure options and others may surprise. Offensively, we’re good. Defensively, I don’t think they care as much. The personnel may provide better self motivated defense, which is great. Just don’t look to remake the blueprint.
I don’t see a lot of things changing. Ever. And I’m not labeling it all bad.
We will score. Efficiently. We will defend in stretches.
There will be scoring lapses and bonanzas.
In my mind, this team will be fine and I hope we outscore people. That is the objective. I just feel that pushing the offense is Frans objective. He welcomes the challenge and thinks we’re better most of the time. I agree with his strategy. It worked last year, so why not?
Long answer, I think Kris, Tony, Filip, Peyton and Patrick provide plenty of double figure options and others may surprise. Offensively, we’re good. Defensively, I don’t think they care as much. The personnel may provide better self motivated defense, which is great. Just don’t look to remake the blueprint.
I'm actually more open to CMac getting minutes this year as long as it doesn't affect minutes of our top 4 players (Kris, PMac, Tony, Sandfort). Figure Rebraca will get the 5th most minutes but I'm not as sold on the rest of our depth as I was last year.. so I figure we'll need him more and I probably won't get as frustrated with him taking minutes of other players because of it. Hopefully Ulis or Bowen step up in a big way
Only if he shoots at least 35% from three. Otherwise we are right back where we were last year.
I see 4 guys that will be double digit scorers and then a couple others that will be close. This will be a more spread out scoring team instead of a dominate scorer like we've seen.
Kris Murray
Tony Perkings
Patrick McCaffery
Payton Sandfort
Those guys will be double digit scorers
Filip Rebracca
Dasonte Bowen
will be in the 7 to 9 ppg range
Connor McCaffery
Ahron Ulis
Josh Dix
will be occasional double digit scorers but average in the 5 to 7 ppg range
Mulvey and Ogundele will not get enough consistent minutes to produce big numbers, but they will be valuable in games where we need size to battle in the paint.... otherwise I see a lot of smaller ball lineups with Sandfort and C-Mac getting more PT, and possibly Dix
Kris Murray
Tony Perkings
Patrick McCaffery
Payton Sandfort
Those guys will be double digit scorers
Filip Rebracca
Dasonte Bowen
will be in the 7 to 9 ppg range
Connor McCaffery
Ahron Ulis
Josh Dix
will be occasional double digit scorers but average in the 5 to 7 ppg range
Mulvey and Ogundele will not get enough consistent minutes to produce big numbers, but they will be valuable in games where we need size to battle in the paint.... otherwise I see a lot of smaller ball lineups with Sandfort and C-Mac getting more PT, and possibly Dix
I don't care who plays as long as he is making the team better!
I was really hoping that it would be Riley, but if Fran believes that Josh is ahead of Riley, so be it, as long as Josh doesn't make a fool of himself on the court. That's my only worry. Rebraca needs a backup and I really don't want to see Kris playing center.
CJ Fredrick as Redshirt Freshman 10.2ppg, Jordan Bohannon as last true freshman 10.9 ppg, one may also argue Joe Wieskamp at 11.1 ppg but he played mostly the SF but that's pretty interchangeable in Frans offense.
But i didn't pick any freshman to average double figures either?
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Dude, the whole team outside of PMac played absolutely horrible in that game (Keegan's stats looked good but he wasn't his usual attacking self). I can cherry-pick stats too - Tony led the team in TO's in less minutes and CMac led the team in Assists. The whole team played like hot garbage.
CMac isn't a "scorer". That is not why he plays and I am not sure if you ever played but that isn't the only way to judge players on a good team. You need role players that are willing to do other things to have a good team. CMac played the 8th most minutes on the team - the EIGHTH. He's not taking minutes from starters and being the 8th in minutes is appropriate for a role player off the bench who isn't a big scorer but who is a leader, can play multiple positions well (both offensively and defensively), who is the best passer on the team, and is willing to do a lot of the dirty work.
Just because you don't understand that there are "glue" guys and that intangibles to matter doesn't mean it isn't true.
Yup, just realized that. I thought you double-digit guess was for the names below it the first time I looked. My bad.
Connor isn't going to turn into some dynamic scorer. It's possible that he could shoot a decent percentage as a function of being the 4th or 5th scoring option on the floor. You saw that towards the end of last year.
I agree with this. If he can knock down open threes with some degree of consistency... That's perfect. I'm not super hopeful, but he did have a great stretch late last year. So I guess it's possible and I'm rooting for him.
