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Aaron White career is the best crystal ball: Bye Jok

Despite the loss of PJ's scoring, that is much less an issue than improvement on defense. With multiple individuals and as a team.
 
I didn't read the post but doesn't most every team in the country get better when they lose All-Americans?

He was an all American talent on one side of the court. The remaining players should be fine. I don't know about "better" but this team will be fun to watch once again. Now, the JUNIOR year for Cook, Pemsl, Bohannon... that's the one to win a B1G championship.
 
He was an all American talent on one side of the court. The remaining players should be fine. I don't know about "better" but this team will be fun to watch once again. Now, the JUNIOR year for Cook, Pemsl, Bohannon... that's the one to win a B1G championship.

Big Ten Champs, a more likely scenario considering we'll add a redshirt frosh in Connor and Wieskamp will arrive as well. Looking at that roster, wow. But if anything, I've learned that stuff happens, and the key to that Big Ten Championship is just keep fielding teams that could do it. And this 2017/18 team could do it. The 1979/80 Hawkeyes should have been better than their 1978/79 selves who were the last group to share a Big Ten crown. But we all know what happened.

I have always thought that the year Matt Bullard became Hawkeye eligible and Ray Thompson arrived had better tools than Dr. Tom's first squad as well. But things happened.

So while I agree with your on paper assessment, I'm all in to try to take the pot this season. A reason I think to hope the new guys outplay their experienced counterparts and earn playing time right now, this year. Let's take our best shot at it while we have the chance.

Of course, this is all hyperbole as I'm sure McCaffery will do nothing if not try to win every single game this year, next year, and every game we are in while he is our coach. Heck, let's take two, this year and next! :)
 
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I simply want to see more effort on D, by everyone. I think we can score, but can we even slow down the other teams?
 
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Rim protectors help, but 90% of defense is effort and moving your feet.

I'd say even more so the defensive rotation was poor last year. Seemed like Iowa was a step behind when rotating off guys when someone drove or switching on man. Zone lot of times seemed like we were just slow and communication wasn't as good compared to previous teams senior class. But that's good thing as a young team lot of this can be corrected and improved upon.
 
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That's why rim protectors help. They make an offense hesitate so defensive feet don't have to move quite so fast.

I look at a shot blocker like icing on a cake for a good defensive team.

They cant make up for poor perimiter D and bad rotations.
 
Iowa's defense will almost certainly be better, just by the replacement of Jok. The interior defense will improve next year from experience and maybe by the addition of Luka. Still, the perimeter on-ball defense needs to improve dramatically for Iowa to have a top defense. Pete and JBo were awful at on-ball defense.
 
In one season, 2011/12 to 2012/13, Iowa jumped from 206th in Adjusted Defensive Efficiency to #25.

We finished #122 last season and I think the similarities are such that we can expect improvement again.
 
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In one season, 2011/12 to 2012/13, Iowa jumped from 206th in Adjusted Defensive Efficiency to #25.

We finished #122 last season and I think the similarities are such that we can expect improvement again.

Wasnt 12/13 the Woodbury, Gessel, Clemons freshman season?

That would be the reason for the jump. 3 new starters.
 
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