Are the ‘21-‘22 Hawkeyes…
- Thread starter BlackNGoldBleeder
- Start date
Certainly not at this point, that was a very good team last year. They are, however, much better at some of the things last year’s team struggled with.
I was sitting here pondering that same thing. I think it's the d. We can still score, but I never am watching and think, "boy, I hope we don't give up a 15-0 run soon."
Can I answer in a month?
This team has more balance and more diversified skill sets. They’ll also have more athleticism on the floor and greater depth. I think most fans instinctively will say no because Garza was a once in a lifetime Hawkeye.
I think the correct answer is we don’t know yet. This team hasn’t played anyone worth a shit. With that said, I think this team has a higher ceiling. JBo is better at the 2 and Keegan is a significant upgrade over CMac at the 4.
Let's not forget joew was pretty decent too!!
Yes. Because that’s the correct answer. But it’s an interesting question that would have seemed laughable three weeks ago.
It's all about finding enough shooters which it seems we might have!! :knickonwood:.
Yep. That was one of two big question marks coming into this season. I think this team has enough shooters to be effective. Scoring won’t be an issue.
Unfortunately, the 5 position is still a big question mark. I was hoping Josh O would be more developed at this point and capable of playing a bigger role. That doesn’t appear to be the case. Depending on the opponent, some nights you might want to have a front line of the Murray twins and PMac with the hope their length and athleticism can make up for the lack of a true center.
At this point, depending on the opponent, I would like to see a rotation of:
JT/Ulis
JBo/Perkins
PMac/Kris
Keegan/Kris
Rebraca/Keegan
Those eight are your core. Then you can throw in Sandfort to bolster 3 point shooting and Connor to stabilize the second unit. Mulvey/Josh O if there’s foul trouble with the bigs.
Thankfully it appears we could do km km and pm without sacrificing range. Don't really trust any of our "bigs" so far.
No, but they are better built to make a run in the tournament
Too soon to tell but right now it looks like this version can compete with anyone. The offense looks to be fine with a lot more scoring options than last year.. When it's clicking it's a thing of beauty.. Keagan is going to get his more often than not while approaching Luka's numbers. The starting D should be a lot better than last year's, but the last couple of games give me less confidence that they can make that jump in defensive consistency that I was hoping for. Unlike last year the defensive talent is there. The question is will Fran be able to draw it out of them.
Really looking forward to the Virginia game. Will get some answers then.
True but we’re probably going to have a lot tougher first game because we likely won’t be getting a two seed… if they make it
They are not a better team. I do think they are closer to the ideal Fran ball style though.
They’re top 10 right now in turnover %. Surprising because this team is built more on slashing. That playing style normally leads to more turnovers than they way we played last year. It’s been a pretty good start for both Joe and Ahron.
It’s the Garza effect. His consistent dominance disguised a lot of flaws last year and there were several wins that may have been losses if he doesn’t dominate. I’m sure many of the players would have told you that they knew Garza would carry the load and thus they didn’t have to give 100% at all times. Who needs offensive sets, just get it to Garza.
This squad doesn’t have that mammoth safety blanket and so everyone on the court can have the mentality that THEY might be the X factor at any given point. Plus, they know they have to trust each and every one of their teammates to bring it, not just wait for one dude to take over. This squad may have a better team vibe all season.
This squad doesn’t have that mammoth safety blanket and so everyone on the court can have the mentality that THEY might be the X factor at any given point. Plus, they know they have to trust each and every one of their teammates to bring it, not just wait for one dude to take over. This squad may have a better team vibe all season.
No way and not close. But this TEAM is more exciting and the potential for improvement is enormous. And Keegan Murray is an absolute joy to watch.
I am not going to overreact to blowing out Alabama State
Just like I am not going to overreact when we lose a football game
I agree on the Nunge point, this team would be significantly better with him, but that’s not the way things went. The couple things I’m interested in are seeing how Keegan does when we face a good, athletic team with a strong D that focuses on him. He’ll get bottled up sometimes and I want to see how he fights through that. The positive there is that he can get points a lot of ways and doesn’t just have to be the focus of offensive sets.
I also want to see how Iowa handles the good bigs they see. Iowa may not be able to get top bigs in foul trouble as much as Luka was able to, which could leave a rim protector in the game and/or an offensive force on the other end. On the plus side, there aren’t a ton of those guys in college hoops anymore, but Iowa will play a few.
I also want to see how Iowa handles the good bigs they see. Iowa may not be able to get top bigs in foul trouble as much as Luka was able to, which could leave a rim protector in the game and/or an offensive force on the other end. On the plus side, there aren’t a ton of those guys in college hoops anymore, but Iowa will play a few.
Way, way. way to early to say something like this. Last years team got a #2 seed in the NCAA tournament. This team might not even make the field. Let's put on the brakes here. We beat a very bad basketball team tonight. It was fun, but we haven't played anybody with a pulse. Talk to me after we play Purdue and Illinois in December. You likely will be singing a very different tune.
This year’s team is going to be exciting to watch. They’ll get run out of some games, but they’ll run it up on some people also.
I don’t see this team going 14-6 in Big Ten play, and I don’t think they can be consistent enough on offense or rebound defensively well enough to win more games over an entire season. Nor do we have a big man who can consistently put other teams in foul trouble or that we can feed if the jump shots aren’t falling. Our inexperience off the bench could also prove troublesome if we get into foul trouble ourselves
However, guard/perimeter play rules in March and our backcourt is more capable of slowing down other teams’ backcourts on defense, which could help avoid thrashings like we saw against Oregon. Teams outside of the Big Ten also typically lack the big man presence that many Big Ten teams have, which stands to benefit Iowa from a rebounding perspective. The tournament is 1-7 games, and the hottest teams can make a run (see: Oral Roberts and UCLA last year). If Iowa is peaking at the right time, it could be us, whereas we didn’t have the athleticism in our backcourt to generate open looks/scoring outside of Luka against more athletic teams
I was excited to see this team d up and stop downhill attacking since we struggled last year. I think Perkins and Ulis have been upgrades there but we are still giving up far too much. KM is an ELITE shot blocker but that can't be a hope or something to depend on. So, defense needs improving still.
On the flip side, I didn't see this offense coming. I figured that JB would be improved since he is healthy but we are hitting bombs everywhere. I hope we won't live and die by the three but go ahead if you want to make 20 in a game again.
Fun team to watch.
On the flip side, I didn't see this offense coming. I figured that JB would be improved since he is healthy but we are hitting bombs everywhere. I hope we won't live and die by the three but go ahead if you want to make 20 in a game again.
Fun team to watch.
Thank you Suterman. Literally there were 2 people on last year's team who have played minutes in the NBA this year and people are throwing out there "we might be better." This year's team probably has another NBA player in Keeg. Murray. And I like this team, they have some interesting parts. But they haven't played anyone worth a darn yet. They need to play a real opponent and see how good they are.
We went 1-2 against those 2 teams last year so even dropping both won't be that surprising. If we could manage to beat Indiana for a change that would be nice. They've been our downfall seemingly every year since their arena fell apart before our game.
B1G was way overrated last year and got smoked in NCAA tourney. So far this year Wisconsin looks like garbage (great!) and Illini got smoked by Marquette. Granted Cockburn was out, but that doesn't bode well for B1G having great out of conference record, which will mean fewer Bids. Iowa needs some marquee wins before B1G and then needs to finish in top6 range of conference to get to NCAA.
I think this year's team has ability to improve a lot as season progresses....last year Keegan was the only new guy Fran played big minutes and Fredrick/CMAC/JoeT were injured and Nunge went down completely. THat was upperclassmen dominated team and just didn't improve a lot as season went along and was a poor defensive team that lived and died by zone defense.
So long answer, there is possiblity if all goes right that this team gets to NCAA tourney and if they get there, they
might be able to make sweet16 if they can play some solid defense. More likely scenario is they probably don't even make NCAA tourney.
Kris Murray needs to play more. Keegan is headed to NBA if he doesn't cool off.
I think this year's team has ability to improve a lot as season progresses....last year Keegan was the only new guy Fran played big minutes and Fredrick/CMAC/JoeT were injured and Nunge went down completely. THat was upperclassmen dominated team and just didn't improve a lot as season went along and was a poor defensive team that lived and died by zone defense.
So long answer, there is possiblity if all goes right that this team gets to NCAA tourney and if they get there, they
might be able to make sweet16 if they can play some solid defense. More likely scenario is they probably don't even make NCAA tourney.
Kris Murray needs to play more. Keegan is headed to NBA if he doesn't cool off.
I don't know if we're better than last season. Luka was the model of high performance consistency and JoeW was great. Obviously this season Ulis, Perkins, Kris and even Keegan have all kicked it up a notch (Keegan, several notches). I guess we'll see when the real bullets start flying. I do know that the B1G has done us no favors with the schedule: Starting with maybe the two best teams in Purdue and Illinois and finishing with two road games at Michigan and Illinois.
To be fair I Illinois lost by 1 to Marquette. Still a bad loss for them even with kofi out.
