I think Desontes success will depend on Fran allowing him steady minutes despite some turnovers. He will have much more patience with Harding because his game looks so much like Jordans. You can't pull him off the court if he makes some mistakes, and with his speed he will have them.
Ben Krikke-- 6'9 F COMMITS to IOWA / Rienk Mast-6'9 C visiting 4/6-7 / BJ Mack-- 6'8 C visiting 4/17-19
- Thread starter HawkHoops80
- Start date
I wouldn't expect Krikke to replicate Rebacca from last year. Remember it took Rebacca a year to get to this position. I don't remember for sure, but am pretty sure Fillip and Krikke have numbers that were pretty much the same before transferring. Only advantage for Krikke is I am pretty sure MVC is a better conference than where Fillip came from. So that may give him a leg up.
I do think he seems to be a good PF, but even if his rpg are the same next year, 5.9 is not going to be a big help in that area. We still need a C with experience.
I do think he seems to be a good PF, but even if his rpg are the same next year, 5.9 is not going to be a big help in that area. We still need a C with experience.
I thought Bowen was doing fine until that Rutgers game. Rutgers' pressure really gave him problems. He didn't look solid against it at all and I think it spooked Fran a bit. I think with an offseason to get stronger and learn more about the game, he will be okay. He can put the ball in the hoop, just needs to get stronger I think.
There are rim protectors and and there are paint protectors. In the college game the paint protector is nearly as valuable. Without the necessary lateral quicks, a big man is neither a rim protector or a paint protector.
The disappointment with Krikke is mostly a commentary on Fran. He clearly isn't modifying his formula to address its defensive deficiency. I suppose there's still a chance that Fran has chosen to equip these unathletic players with the defensive fundamentals built through daily valuing, teaching, emphasis, and accountability. But I'll believe that when I see it.
Fran is what he is as a coach. It would make sense for me to not expect something that he hasn't shown to be in the cards. But it would also make sense for a millionaire coach at that level to address a 13 yr program deficiency. Especially when the deficiency is viewed as the most important part of the game by 95% of his peers
The disappointment with Krikke is mostly a commentary on Fran. He clearly isn't modifying his formula to address its defensive deficiency. I suppose there's still a chance that Fran has chosen to equip these unathletic players with the defensive fundamentals built through daily valuing, teaching, emphasis, and accountability. But I'll believe that when I see it.
Fran is what he is as a coach. It would make sense for me to not expect something that he hasn't shown to be in the cards. But it would also make sense for a millionaire coach at that level to address a 13 yr program deficiency. Especially when the deficiency is viewed as the most important part of the game by 95% of his peers
Another big and give nimmers the last scholly. If we strike out, give it to Brauns.
Did you know that Iowa had the 18th best defense in the country in 2014-15? The 2012-13 team was 23rd defensively. The 2015-16 team was 25th defensively.
Fran has had good defenses when his players were actually athletic enough to guard people. During that period of time, we had guards who could stay in front of people in Gesell and Clemmons as well as quite a bit of size to contest shots around the hoop (especially that 2014-15 team, which was gigantic).
It's not a "13 year program deficiency". More of a 6-7 year program deficiency. Krikke certainly doesn't look like a guy who is going to help us address the defensive problems. Brauns might, though. He blocked shots at a pretty good clip during his first three years. Hopefully we can land Minor too, who could really help us in that regard.
I am inclined to agree that DB becomes a good distributor. He is skinny and needs to muscle up and he will find quite a few old fashioned 3 point plays.
Very high on Desonte.
All those highly ranked defenses you mentioned were during Adam Woodbury’s time at Iowa and that’s not a coincidence.
Yep. I also think Gesell/Clemmons played a major role in that too. Good defensive players all who were limited on offense.
I don't think a 64 year old successful coach is going to change his style at this point.
I think a greater commitment to pressing and trapping would feed the up tempo we prefer and strive to force on the other teams is probably the best answer. But Fran is really high IQ for a coach and my take is he constantly thinks he's playing a complex game with switching up defenses with players that never really learn one basic defense. But our best defense is pressing and trapping and that should be Frans commitment.
I think a greater commitment to pressing and trapping would feed the up tempo we prefer and strive to force on the other teams is probably the best answer. But Fran is really high IQ for a coach and my take is he constantly thinks he's playing a complex game with switching up defenses with players that never really learn one basic defense. But our best defense is pressing and trapping and that should be Frans commitment.
3 good years out out 13 is a program deficiency that has spanned 13 years. 1 out of every 4+ years does not move the needle.
Regardless of how you look at it, anyone defending Fran on the defensive side of the ball is clueless. Watch Iowa play. Then watch any number of other random teams play. Which team does not look like the others on the defensive end? If you don't see the difference, I don't know what to tell you other than look at the numbers over 13 years
He is no longer visiting according to SOURCES!! Lol
Anywho, it looks like Virginia is the next destination for Mr Minor.
Fran was really high on Dasonte a year ago, too. That's why I was surprised with his lack of playing time & Fran's short leash.
Dasonte played in just 26 of 33 games; he started once. He had 25 turnovers and 26 assists.
His averages in those 26 games:
9.3 minutes
3.1 pts.
1 assist
1 turnover
2.3 FG attempts
His Shooting:
25-50 (50%) from 2 point range
4-11 (36%) from 3
..............................................................
29-61 (48%) Overall
19-28 (68%) FTs
81 career points
IDK. Krikke looks like he has some game and can help the Hawks right away I think. Really good footwork inside, nice touch around the basket and he's got that 12 ft shot in his toolset - of course, all that from a highlight reel.
He does look like a "Fran guy" - length, scoring vs. rebounding and defense.
I guess we'll see.
Those items are not mutually exclusive! LOL Difficult to find apparently, but there are guys out there.
Yeah if Iowa strikes out on both Mack and Minor, I can see Fran riding with his current frontcourt. It's basically what happened last year, Iowa struck out and Fran went forward with Rebraca eating the bulk of minutes as the featured big.
Krikke essentially replaces Rebraca. Braun and Freeman would fill in backup big minutes that Kris covered down on during stretches this past season. Mulvey still a question mark.
I wouldn't be content with that. Krikke will be a major piece offensively but Iowa's defense is going to get wrecked if he has to be utilized as the main big like Rebraca.
They're recruiting Minor and getting a visit.
Im with you in that I want a defender at the 5, hopefully that's Minor, but a good defender at the 5 will only improve the defense marginally.
The formula for improving defense is to practice it and require it for playing time. I doubt Fran does much of the former and I know he doesn't do the latter.
I just accept that Iowa isn't going to play good defense under Fran.
So that said getting the best scorer out of the mvc at a position of need is a very good thing.
In the end, yeah it'll most likely be more of the same, top offense bad defense, short post season.
At least this way we'll get our hopes up in January/February
I'm sensing we're thinking that since Krikke committed while Mast didn't on his visit last weekend that Mast is no longer an option if we don't get Minor or Mack - even if he choses IA over NE (or anyone else for that matter).
Any thoughts on that appreciated...
Any thoughts on that appreciated...
Last edited:
Minor is going to Virginia, folks. He will not be taking a visit to Iowa
It was mostly Woodbury’s screen defense and his help defense.
If you pay attention to the way Frans teams usually defend screens it random and chaotic. You have guys doing different things every time. Generally putting Iowa in a ball screen means your guard will get into the paint.
That wasn't the case with Woodbury. It was the same hard hedge every time that sent the ballhandler away from the basket.
Yes Gessel and Clemmons were good defenders but not because they were more athletic than guys like Perkins and Ulis, it's because they played with more focus.
Perkins is clearly more athletic than either of them but he doesn't play with effort and focus half the time. And why would you when you're just getting picked off with screens all the time with out help.
Wait. Are we talking about the same Perkins? The obvious best defender on the team?
Maybe the best when he tries, but he slacks off mentally too much. I like what I've seen of Dix on defense, I think he will be our best perimeter defender going into next year. Honestly, can't do much worse than Connor and Ulis, both were not good on the perimeter. Connor was a good help defender and good positionally near the basket.
Agree, but I think dealing with the physicality was Bowen's main problem, and might also be for Harding. Both are very talented, but will need to get stronger and learn to deal with playing through contact. I didn't get much feel for Bowen's outside shot. Harding has one of the quickest releases I have seen, and seems to have great quickness. Both will need to withstand being posted up, against some players. Nimmers is a wild card. The overseas trip should help them and the rest of the team.
B1G is closely scouted, and if a player struggles against physicality, guess what they are going to get a big dose of?
I think that's because of the 2 foul rule. Perkins was a much better defender 2 years ago. I'm still not sure that Perkins didn't play through an injury this year. It's definitely weird that he seemed to regress defensively this year.
I agree with your overall point that we don't have a consistent way of defending perimeter screens and that this is a major problem (perhaps the biggest one). I'm glad you brought this up because I've been thinking about this for a while. I disagree with a few fine points though. Yes, it's true that Woody used a hard hedge that was generally pretty effective. A number of other good defenses utilize this same approach but it is by no means the only way. I know Virginia uses a hard hedge at least some of the time (don't watch them enough to know if it's 100% of the time). But there are other good defensive teams who don't have their big man go past the level of the screen. I read an article with Kelvin Sampson this year where he detailed how their big only goes to the level of the screen. We tried hard hedges with Garza early in his career and it was a disaster, he simply lacked the necessary lateral agility. So we switched to more conservative hedges at the level of the screen or slightly behind it.
Rebraca has decent lateral agility so I don't think he was the problem with our perimeter screen defense. Rather, I think the problem is that we are inconsistent about when we fight through screens vs. when we switch. We have a ton of plays where one guy thinks we are switching but the other guy doesn't and we end up with 2-on-1 and one player undefended. We also have a lot of plays where we switch into a matchup that's very disadvantageous for us. I feel like good defensive teams either (1) fight through all screens with great determination or (2) switch everything. Switching everything requires a very athletic big man and guards who are big/strong/athletic enough to not get obliterated in the post. I'm not optimistic about Fran's (or any other coach's) chances of recruiting such athletes to Iowa. We certainly can't play that kind of defense with the personnel that we currently have. So that means fighting through more screens.
Overall I think our defensive plan is too complex and that Fran has too many "switch this but not that" rules baked into each game's defensive game plan - it leads to hesitancy (making us even slower) and coverage busts. We should simplify into "fight through all screens except for emergencies (i.e. guy defending ball gets completely wiped out by the screen) or other unusual situations (end of game when the other team needs a 3, no time left on the clock etc.)". Importantly, we would still hedge on screens and help each other. It's just that the expectation should be for the guy being screened to fight through and get back to his man, rather than taking the easy way out and switching. I also feel like we might want to scrap the zone and spend more practice time focusing on man-to-man defense, or commit to going 100% zone. As it stands, we are kind of jack of all trades but master of none. Good defensive teams play defense one way and master playing it that one way. Those teams also only recruit guys that can play that style of defense at a high level. That often means going after uber-athletic players who lack offensive skills (I live in San Diego and know that this certainly describes SDSU). Fran is clearly more agnostic in that regard: I think he brings in the best players he can, regardless of whether their abilities shift more towards offense or defense (lately, the people who want to play for Iowa usually have had a lot more offensive skill than raw athleticism). I don't think we can be great defensively with the personnel groups that we've had during the last 6-7 seasons. But I do think we could get a lot better if we simplify what we do defensively and drill in the habits that go with playing defense that way (fighting through screens, boxing out and gang rebounding etc.). Personally, I'd like to see us switch to a pack line defense and commit 100% to that.
I wasn't saying a hard hedge is the only way, theres multiple ways, but that was the only times Fran teams have effectively defended screens.
Switching is the best way if you can get away with it because it forces the opponent to play iso and thats not usually an effective way to play in college because players aren't usually talented enough.
This past season was a cluster of any and every way possible. Your correct that there's way to much variety and it just leads to confusion vs doing one thing well.
Rebraca was pretty mediocre in screen defense, as was everyone, but its hard not to be when you're main objective is avoiding fouls. Contrast that with Woodbury who would usually pick up a foul or two a game defending screens. Lack of viable front line depth made a bad situation considerably worse this year.
Im not sold on the idea you can just fight through it, you need some level of help from the screeners man.
Drop coverages works ok if you have a shot blocker and you're willing to settle for giving up the medium range 2, which isn't a bad way to go most of the time.
Not knowing all the in's and out's of this NIL and Swarm - I wish Iowa would offer everything they could to get Ryan Nembhard to at least be interested. Fran Mac's offense is a perfect fit for his game. Guy reminds me of Dre Woolridge w/o the big hops. I realize rumors say he goes to Gonzaga or Arizona but it's worth a try. His game fits nearly perfect for Iowa's offense, and I don't think he would have a hard time earning the starting job. Hunter Sallis the Gonzaga transfer would also be a great fit for Iowa's style of play. Plus he has at least 3 years left.
Last edited:
I hate drop coverage. The guy defending the screener has to come out and help in some way, otherwise you're going to give up (at minimum) an uncontested pull-up jumper.
Nope. Drop coverage gives up pretty much only the pull-up J from 2pt range.
It would do a team like Iowa good because the drop man takes away the straight line drive for a lay-up.
Meanwhile the guy on the ball is fighting over the top of the screen to contest a 3.
Analytically these days, it makes a lot of sense. The whole offensive analytic strategy to shoot only lay-ups and 3's is completely overblown, misunderstood, and terrible for the game. But when it comes to defending lay-ups and 3's, it makes more sense. Plus the fact that modern players are being over taught "lay-ups and 3's only" makes them less comfortable hitting the pull-up 2.
Wisconsin has run "drop coverage" for years. Damn solid defense every year. Marble got going on the pull-up against them one game. And I remember Stauskas for Michigan torching the drop. But for the most part, Wiscy has gotten a heck of a lot of mileage out of the drop.
Even more importantly is containing the ball at all times.
None of this will happen, mind you.
A season or so ago I was able to resign to the fact that Franball is what it is. Will never be good defensively. But real good offensively, so just enjoy it for what it is. But I just can't anymore.
With the consistently good offense, if the D were even below average I would have no problems at all. But that's not what we're dealing with here folks. The D is consistently atrocious.
Iowa plays at too high of a level, and Fran is paid far too much money for this level of negligence. Honestly, it's completely offensive to me.
I get that my rant doesn't do any good. If it gets to a point where much of the Hawkeye fan-base is calling for Fran's head, I will back off. I wouldn't want to choose to add to a negativity that could potentially hurt the team. But until then, I just can't help myself
I get what you are saying on drop coverage and basically agree but as we have seen so many times in the last 25 years....opposing teams seem to shoot lights out from the arc and 15 ft in vs iowa even when they are not good shooting teams like auburn.
Are you sure wisky does not hedge at all?
Are you sure wisky does not hedge at all?
All the Elite 8 teams played elite defense. Defense wins championships, especially when teams are playing in large neutral site arenas. Defense is constant, offense generally languishes.
Miami had a defense that was ranked in the 130s on KenPom for defense prior to the tournament and was the worst ranked defensive team to make the Final 4 since the Kemba Walker UCONN team. Miami won their non-Drake games by scoring 85+ points, not by elite defense.
This was true 20 years ago but not anymore. The last 8 college basketball champions were all top 10 offenses, not defense. Baylor ('21), NC ('17), Duke ('15) for example all had defenses outside the top 20.
Wiscy's hedge man is below ball-level, hence "drop" coverage.
A guy would get hot from 3 vs Dr. Tom's zone, or after breaking the press, and Davis wouldn't really adjust. Little different game back then and he would kind of live and die with his style of D. And some open 3's were a weakness of his defenses.
Teams get hot vs Fran because Iowa is playing overall bad defense. They don't contain the ball, which leads to premium looks for shooters after the defense has been broken down. Teams come into a game feeling confident that they will get good looks against Iowa. Playing against Iowa's defense is literally a breath of fresh air after getting pounded on and suffocated all season long in the Big Ten. Teams feel like it's their birthday. Sometimes a few weeks worth of a struggling grind on offense all gets taken out on Iowa.
It isn't that teams get lucky over and over against Iowa. It's more that teams feel that it's their God-given right to score against Iowa. There is no curse from the bball gods. It is the curse of a failure to prepare
If you are satisfied with our defense, fine. Sweet sixteens will be hard to come-by with our D.
Not what either one of us were saying--no one should be happy with the defensive effort. It just doesn't mean that we need to make up myths that only elite defensive teams win in March--Miami is example A. Miami had a worse defensive ranking than Iowa had in the previous 4 seasons ('19-'22) and made the final 4.
Latest posts
-
-
Brauns, Mulvey Taking Advantage of Added Minutes Down the Stretch- Latest: Eliot Clough
-
-
-