Brock Harding

[Mohawkeye]

you didn't notice how many times his man would get by him while he would try to slap the ball away from behind? This is the epitome of bad defense. Forces others on the team to rotate & put them in a bad position. A good defender keeps his man in front of him. Brock gambles too much. Yes, he will get an occasional steal, but more often than not this creates a 2 on 1 situation in the lane. This will cause Freeman to cover for him & we know how that worked out, 2+ fouls on our big guy in the first half & sitting on the bench.

Brock lacks some fundamentals that he must clean up to be successful in the Big10. Don't let his flashiness blind you. This is Big10, not YMCA.

I didn’t see that. For the most part, I thought he kept his man in front of him. He is a crafty defender and knocks a lot of balls loose. Does he gamble a bit much? Perhaps, but I’ll tell you that a shorter player almost always has to take more calculated risks than a taller player.

 

[RocknRollface]

now that we only have 2 guards on the roster (Harding and Dix), I think Brock will have to start (not that it's a bad thing)

I'm betting at least half the time Fran will have Dix as the only guard on the floor.

 

[SDHawkDoc]

And mid range even though no one likes those shots anymore

Yes. Great PGs can beat their guy at the 3 line, then see that the path to the basket is blocked and he is in a wide open spot 10-15 feet from the bucket and drills it.

 

[Willin]

Brock is a baller. I just wish he was about 3 inches taller.

"No more rhyming, and I mean it."

 

[the notorious r.d.m.]

Brock is a baller. I just wish he was about 3 inches taller.

I wish he had a girl who looked good, he would call her

 

[Tenacious E]

I wish he had a girl who looked good, he would call her

He would call her 👍obese muffins?

 

[LukaDuka]

I didn’t see that. For the most part, I thought he kept his man in front of him. He is a crafty defender and knocks a lot of balls loose. Does he gamble a bit much? Perhaps, but I’ll tell you that a shorter player almost always has to take more calculated risks than a taller player.

go back and review the video... Brock got beat more than he should for someone of his quickness. & our perimeter players cannot let their guys get to the paint and put Freeman in foul trouble. That's key to our defensive success.

 

[IllQChawk]

his entire year of highlights in 1:30 or less.... now put together all the times he got burned on defense. Probably twice as much time... right @IllQChawk... lol

If you say funny boy.....

 

[BirdistheWord]

you didn't notice how many times his man would get by him while he would try to slap the ball away from behind? This is the epitome of bad defense. Forces others on the team to rotate & put them in a bad position. A good defender keeps his man in front of him. Brock gambles too much. Yes, he will get an occasional steal, but more often than not this creates a 2 on 1 situation in the lane. This will cause Freeman to cover for him & we know how that worked out, 2+ fouls on our big guy in the first half & sitting on the bench.

Brock lacks some fundamentals that he must clean up to be successful in the Big10. Don't let his flashiness blind you. This is Big10, not YMCA.

I watched pretty much every game (maybe missed a few minutes here or there). I remember a small serving of what you describe. I remember him being fairly effective if unspectacular. One of our more heady defenders (low bar mind you). As I said, consistent effort and just gritty enough. He did get backed down by larger guards occasionally but thought he showed very good quickness in general.

 

[Dr. Phil Seuss]

go back and review the video... Brock got beat more than he should for someone of his quickness. & our perimeter players cannot let their guys get to the paint and put Freeman in foul trouble. That's key to our defensive success.

FMC hasn’t put an effective on ball defender out there not named Joe T. Harding is going to be a good PG. Kid has the heart of a lion and is a perfect fit for a school with Iowas identity. I don’t give a F how much he got torched. The entire program has played bad defense for many many years.

 

[Andrew Houk]

I'll write up an article on this at some point but during the last 18 games of the season, the offense was actually better when Harding was on the court (1.19 points per possession with him vs. 1.13 without him). But the defense was worse with him on the floor (1.27 points per possession with him vs 1.12 points per possession without him). So people criticizing his defense have a pretty strong case. Hopefully he improves in this area and I will say that he does have good quickness. Can he use his quickness to offset his size disadvantage?

 

[Mohawkeye]

I'll write up an article on this at some point but during the last 18 games of the season, the offense was actually better when Harding was on the court (1.19 points per possession with him vs. 1.13 without him). But the defense was worse with him on the floor (1.27 points per possession with him vs 1.12 points per possession without him). So people criticizing his defense have a pretty strong case. Hopefully he improves in this area and I will say that he does have good quickness. Can he use his quickness to offset his size disadvantage?

Using team metrics to measure individual defense is pretty specious. If he’s playing then he’s either playing with back ups or tired starters. You would expect some drop off. I’ll say this, I think he’s already a better defender than Bohannon. Not that that’s saying a lot. Will he ever be a plus defender? No.

 

[HoustonREDHawk]

I'll write up an article on this at some point but during the last 18 games of the season, the offense was actually better when Harding was on the court (1.19 points per possession with him vs. 1.13 without him). But the defense was worse with him on the floor (1.27 points per possession with him vs 1.12 points per possession without him). So people criticizing his defense have a pretty strong case. Hopefully he improves in this area and I will say that he does have good quickness. Can he use his quickness to offset his size disadvantage?

Good info. I would guess the stats have a lot to do with who he would have replaced and who he most often played with. Dix and Tony (most of the time) are better defenders than Harding, although he was better than I expected. Anyone who played most when Patrick was on the court will have a worse defensive number.

 

[SDHawkDoc]

I'm not sure the deep dive into Harding as a defender amounts to much for a team that has barely paid lip service to defense for several years now. As a one on one defender, I didn't see anything that would suggest he's an upgrade at the position defensively. But, even if he's marginally worse, how noticeable will that be on a team that plays little to no defense across the board? The best player the Hawks have returning is a minus defender and we know he'll be getting max minutes.
If Iowa as a team makes it to 100 in team defensive efficiency next season that would be a massive improvement. Think about that; they need a massive improvement to go from terrible to garden variety bad on the defensive end.
It's a low bar, a very low bar, but as long as Harding keeps his guy in front of him most of the time he'll be valuable to Iowa as long as he is a consistent threat to break down the opposing D with drive and dish AND he can score consistently from the perimeter.

 

[Mohawkeye]

I'm not sure the deep dive into Harding as a defender amounts to much for a team that has barely paid lip service to defense for several years now. As a one on one defender, I didn't see anything that would suggest he's an upgrade at the position defensively. But, even if he's marginally worse, how noticeable will that be on a team that plays little to no defense across the board? The best player the Hawks have returning is a minus defender and we know he'll be getting max minutes.
If Iowa as a team makes it to 100 in team defensive efficiency next season that would be a massive improvement. Think about that; they need a massive improvement to go from terrible to garden variety bad on the defensive end.
It's a low bar, a very low bar, but as long as Harding keeps his guy in front of him most of the time he'll be valuable to Iowa as long as he is a consistent threat to break down the opposing D with drive and dish AND he can score consistently from the perimeter.

I actually think the best returning player is a helluva defender and makes everyone else play better defense. Freeman is the key to this team. Sandy is just the best scorer.

I do think you can see in the last two recruiting classes an intent to recruit better & more athletic defenders.

 

[HoustonREDHawk]

I actually think the best returning player is a helluva defender and makes everyone else play better defense. Freeman is the key to this team. Sandy is just the best scorer.

I do think you can see in the last two recruiting classes an intent to recruit better & more athletic defenders.

Freeman was not a great defender, but he was a hell of lot better than Krikke or Patrick. The interior defense with a stronger, more experienced Freeman and Dembele/Traore will be light years better than last year. Dix is the best all-round defender on the team. Payton is not a great defender, but can be better with better defenders behind him. Harding/Thellwell won't provide the physicality that Perkins brought (most of the time), but I think they can generally stay in front of the guy they are guarding. Just getting the rebound after a missed shot will be a HUGE upgrade in the defense.

 

[Knothole Hawk]

He has sufficient quickness to match up with most PGs. He'll always be at risk of being posted up.
I think he needs to add some muscle mass; 10 lbs. would help with the banging that he'll take.
As noted, it's the outside shot that needs the most improvement. Being a threat from the perimeter will be critical to his success.

Outside shot doesn't need much improvement, considering he shot 37.5% from the 3 point range as a freshman.

 

[fivecardstud14]

Outside shot doesn't need much improvement, considering he shot 37.5% from the 3 point range as a freshman.

His volume will certainly go up. Only shot 40 three pointers last season.

 

[Mohawkeye]

Freeman was not a great defender, but he was a hell of lot better than Krikke or Patrick. The interior defense with a stronger, more experienced Freeman and Dembele/Traore will be light years better than last year. Dix is the best all-round defender on the team. Payton is not a great defender, but can be better with better defenders behind him. Harding/Thellwell won't provide the physicality that Perkins brought (most of the time), but I think they can generally stay in front of the guy they are guarding. Just getting the rebound after a missed shot will be a HUGE upgrade in the defense.a

We will disagree. Freeman is an excellent defender, best interior defensive player since Woodbury. He blocks a lot of shots, disrupts others and covers a large imprint. He’s quick enough to recover from a hedge. He needs more strength and to learn to foul less, but his defense as a freshman going against upperclassmen was impressive.

 

[HoustonREDHawk]

We will disagree. Freeman is an excellent defender, best interior defensive player since Woodbury. He blocks a lot of shots, disrupts others and covers a large imprint. He’s quick enough to recover from a hedge. He needs more strength and to learn to foul less, but his defense as a freshman going against upperclassmen was impressive.

I will agree that for a freshman, Owen was very impressive on both ends. He and Dembele both need a lot of work on not over-hedging, and Freeman needs to not reach, which gave him unnecessary fouls. I believe that the combination of Freeman and Dembele/Traore can be the best interior defense since Woody. Maybe better if they hang around for 3 more years.

 

[SDHawkDoc]

Being better than Krikke is a very low bar. He was one of the worst guys at the 5 defensively that I've seen. Freeman wasn't great, but he was certainly competent defensively. And being competent on the defensive end made him MUCH better than Krikke.
Will they be better as a team on D? Almost certainly. Whether it will be enough to make a difference in wins and losses remains to be seen. I'll believe it when I see it on the floor in meaningful games.

 

[LukaDuka]

Iowa gave up 11 offensive rebounds per game last year. Not sure how many of these resulted in points by the other team, but I'm guessing 50% or more resulted in a score. I think the team will be much better rebounding next year. If they cut this down to under 7 offensive boards (37% improvement), this alone could improve our points allowed by 6-10 points per game.

Pmac was always out on the wing, trying to run out for easy baskets rather than get in the paint and rebound. It will be interesting to see if his replacements do the same. If so, this could be by Fran's design. Let's hope not. We need at least 4 guys hitting the defensive boards. And all 5 blocking out. Eliminate 2nd chance points!

 

[Knothole Hawk]

Brock was the only guard I watched that consistently was swiping at the ball, while opposing bigs were trying to back down our bigs. It gives the opposing big one more thing to think about while trying to play bully ball down low. It's a little thing, but one of many small things that need to happen if you want to improve your defense as a team.

 

[Ronman]

It's hilarious to me that many of you think that McCaffery doesn't care about or teach defense. But once the whistle blows, he can't take the court himself to improve the players' performance. Do you expect him to sit down everyone who gets beat on D? Do you realize what happens when we get down to out last players on the bench? We would all love to have nothing but a squad of players that could play McCaffery's offense and still be defensive stoppers, but those players are hard to find ....and sign at Iowa.

 

[Ladell-hawk]

I'm betting at least half the time Fran will have Dix as the only guard on the floor.

now that we only have 2 guards on the roster (Harding and Dix), I think Brock will have to start (not that it's a bad thing)

Drew Thelwell will be the starting point guard and will get a lot of minutes.

 

[RocknRollface]

Drew Thelwell will be the starting point guard and will get a lot of minutes.

Probably to start the year, but if he can't hit 3s consistently Fran will have a hard time sticking with him.

Fran will always revert to whatever lineup scores the most.

Expect a lot of Dix + 2 Sandforts.

 

[HoustonREDHawk]

It's hilarious to me that many of you think that McCaffery doesn't care about or teach defense. But once the whistle blows, he can't take the court himself to improve the players' performance. Do you expect him to sit down everyone who gets beat on D? Do you realize what happens when we get down to out last players on the bench? We would all love to have nothing but a squad of players that could play McCaffery's offense and still be defensive stoppers, but those players are hard to find ....and sign at Iowa.

Don't disagree with much of what you say, but if Fran really cared about defense, he would have sat down with Patrick and told him he had to participate on both ends of the court and also hit the boards. Lack of effort has always been something that a coach should never tolerate IMO.