An early look at the Big Ten, in shorthand.

[HoustonREDHawk]

Defense was pretty good during the Gesell, Woody, Sapp, Uthoff ... years. With the offensive firepower on this team, if we can even get back to that level, the Hawks will be pretty darn good.

 

[HawkAttackDial911]

Obviously there was a typo in the years. 2017 JUST ended. Let's try this....every dang year since McCaffery has been here..Defensive, offense, and RANK.

By the way, Power 5 is really a football term and the Big East, Atlantic Ten...and several other schools and even conferences would like to have a word with you. Fran's first season here? 15 of the top 30 Defenses WERE NOT from your Power Five.

This is the first seven years under Fran. Adjusted Defensive Efficiency, Adjusted Offensive Efficiency, rank, and finally how other conferences outside the Power Five finished in the top 30 ADE.

58 -152-88-15
206-40-102-18
25-56-29-15
77-5-22-14
33-30-23-10
30-25-22-9
122-43-71-12

First off, that's one heck of a showing for conferences like the Big East, Atlantic Ten, and others, to have better than 44% of the top 30 spots the last seven years. Again, Power Five is a Football Term.

Next, you can see where that typo came from...I knew it the second I saw it, but just for the record the poster meant 2013, 2015, 2016.

Lastly, while our offensive rankings are better, I'm not seeing a vastly tilted emphasis in the results. That middle year where our defense finished 77th? We were in the low 30's until the infamous "collapse".

Oh, and this is all KenPom. Where did you get that #200 from last season?

I used this site which appears to show defensive efficiency per possession. KenPom appears to be calculate defensive efficiency per 100 possessions. They should both scale the same but don't. I have no idea why they are different but KenPom is a widely reputed so their data may be better. Based upon KenPom, the Woodbury, Uthoff, Gesell, Clemmons years were great. Last year was bad.

In my opinion, Power 5/no Power 5, you want to be in the top 50 in these categories. Only 68 teams get invited to the dance. Even when Iowa as ranked 25th in defensive efficiency, they were 5th best in the Big 10 conference. They really need to bump that efficiency back up into the top 50 to really compete.

 

[EduNeerHawk]

Whether is be 2nd or 7th..IMO there isnt anyone in the B1G other than maybe MSU that has a 'better' collection of roster talent. This is the best group of players on one team that we have had in a long time.

The quicker we come together as a team (overseas will help) and place as much emphasis on defending as scoring...the quicker we become another high(est) upper conference team.

The effort got better as the season progressed. It is very easy to be fooled & equate tenacity on D to experience/playing together. I'm not saying the efforts on defense were what they should have been...but I've spent some time watching replays the last couple months from last year & 2015. The Indiana game at home last year was later in the year (the tenacity on defense was terrific we ran on defense with purpose...) the execution was horrible for the most part.. Compared to 2016 (Woody & the guys) to 2017...

I agree good things will happen with a much better executed defense.

This thread has been a great read and I'm enjoying the thoughts. I tend to side more with what Bob and Dan are saying but their thoughts are in my wheel house too but it's good stuff all around none the less.

This team played very well for a bunch of "wet behind the ears" naive BB players when Peter was out. That's what I saw and I have zero reason to believe they are not going to improve their skill/play quite a bit on both ends of the floor this year.

Like Bob is saying above and all that matters to me too, I agree "IMO there isn't anyone in the B1G other than maybe MSU that has a 'better' collection of roster talent."

These are a smart bunch of BB players and you witnessed this when Peter was on the bench. And adding Nunge and Garza is only going to help in a BIG way on offense, defense and rebounding.

Now we just saw Kreiner lead the way in PTL who flashed improvement in a BIG way....it's all good and Pemsl is on the mend.

It's a BIG, LONG and very talented roster. Again, see Bob's thought above...."the quicker we come together as a team (overseas will help) and place as much emphasis on defending as scoring....the quicker we become another high(est) upper conference team."

 

[RocknRollface]

We have no idea how much Fran does/does not emphasize defense vs. offense. Just because a team plays fast doesn't mean they can't play defense. The beauty of tempo-free stats is it allows you to see how good/bad a team is defensively, as raw points per game isn't a very good defensive metric. Teams can hold down the score just by playing slow and holding the ball on offense. That doesn't make them a good defensive team. Wisconsin is an example of a team that plays slow and is also very good on defense. That makes playing them very difficult, as being behind by 8 points feels like you are behind 15 to most other teams. It makes the late Iowa comeback in Madison last year all that more remarkable.

Fran has had some good defensive teams. 2013, 2016 and 2017 were all top 30 defensive teams in terms of defensive efficiency. Iowa had tall guys who could protect the rim with enough length on the perimeter to contest 3-point shots and generally keep guys in front of them.

Last year, at times, the defensive effort was lacking. Mostly because new players have no idea how hard they have to play and how together they have to play to stop teams at this level. It did get better, and the defensive improvement keyed Iowa's late surge. The last 3 games (BTT and the two NIT games) was a relapse into terrible defense but some of that was to be expected given the age/experience of most of the players.

I have some issues with how Fran chooses to defend the pick and roll and in the post, but those aren't really big things. If the effort and understanding of team defense improve to make Iowa just above average on defense, the team will have a very good year.

I understand the concept of efficiency stats.

I feel extreemly comfortable saying that if Fran were die hard about defense certain players wouldnt have played as much as they have in the past.

Also, coaches that have a primary focuse on defense usually play a slow brand of offense for allot of obvious reasons. Wisconsin, Virginia ect. Not always but usually.

I also understand that the majority of the defensive struggles last year had nothing to do with Frans coaches.

 

[DanL53]

This thread has been a great read and I'm enjoying the thoughts. I tend to side more with what Bob and Dan are saying but their thoughts are in my wheel house too but it's good stuff all around none the less.

Thank you, I agree that I got lucky and started a great thread. But everybody's thoughts are just as valuable as mine, I just talk a lot. So I'll talk a lot more. Top reasons I think about Hawkeye Basketball when I want to feel good:

1) Because for many years, thinking about Hawkeye Basketball was getting to be a chore. Kinda what makes a guy sick, I guess? Quite the opposite now.

2) As excited as I've been watching Iowa get better with guys committing to rebuild the program, like Woody and Gesell and may they have great post Iowa basketball lives...as thrilled as I was last season looking at the young talent....all that, the FUTURE promises to be even better!

3) To be clear. The future is today. But beyond this season which reminds me of the part in a western where the good guy first figures out he can draw pretty quick. Beyond that, just light my pancakes on fire I'll eat 'em anyway I feel like we could WIN the Big Ten in 2018/19. We could be that good! Depends on what happens at Michigan State but they have much to think about with 2 and dones and possibly even a one and done.

4) And climbing into the crows nest to look even further into the horizon, we've got a close to if not 5 star coming in 2019...and we're way ahead in the recruiting game with many teams in the B1G short on players in 2017/18, and other teams trying to fill roster spots for 2018! LOL, we've got things so in hand we've got a four star player playing BASEBALL.

5) And lastly, for sure, we are doing things right. We haven't had an issue off the court in years. No way we are cheating, we look at a lot of players but the ones who end up at the Bag Man U's? One can kind of see a pattern where we get them in for a visit and then things kind of go...well we used to call those misses.

We do things so right, we actually took advantage of the NCAA rule about a coach being able to have his kid walk-on, not because we were so determined to add talent, but because it's just how it worked out. What do I mean? Again, we added an extra guy but turned around and are redshirting Connor! LOL!!! We don't even take advantage of a rule to take advantage of a rule! And, player retention? The ones that do leave...they don't do it out of anger, half or part of 'em are still Hawkeyes in their guts! And grade problems? Sh!t...opposite. We have smart college students who happen to play basketball!

There are my top five for why Iowa Hawkeye Basketball is one place I go in my head to have a great day. It feels like, nice guys win, redemption. It is awesome. And it sure aint because we happen to have a group of seniors ready to give us one great year...nah, we're going to be good for years to come. Good enough to have a great season soon. One to measure with the Fab Five, The Six Pack, Lute's team, Dr Tom's first year.

How about this!?!? Maybe soon we'll have a fantasy final eight tournament...those four teams verses FOUR of Fran's future offerings? We could be on that kind of role folks. A never seen before streak of kick a$$ Iowa basketball! Believe it! And have a great freagin' day Hawkeye Fans! We sure as hell waited long enough to deserve it.