CMac goes down early. Iowa has 15 turn overs for the game leading to 11 easy points for Rutgers which kept them in the game.
CMac
- Thread starter jonesy5960
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it’s unfortunate that Iowa fans under appreciate this kid. Iowa fan based used to be much more basketball literate than they are these days.
Well we have an Illinois HS coaching legend that posts here now. He is also an alleged English teacher, but can barely form a proper sentence without an error. An Illinois HS coach who applied for only one college job, in central Iowa of all places, because it was better for his family.
Have to say at the end of the game, I felt better when he brought the ball in. The defense was really tough and he kept his head. Smart move bringing him in for that play.
Yeah today was apparent what Connor brings. Our inability to feed Garza today was ridiculous.
I guess Connor really is the only guy who can consistently feed the post.
But its also apparent what he doesn't bring which is inside D, rebounding and shooting.
Hawkeyes had 9 blocks and won the rebounding by 1.
Theres good and bad to what Connor brings.
Well said Rock and Roll. Also, we brought him in for the pass but the last thing you want is a bounce pass right under your own basket. Joe W made a nice grab on that. That was an ugly inbound play.
I very much so appreciate him. Amazing facilitator, smart player, helps coordinate the offense and plays a 1 to 4 when need be.
If Connor doesn't go down, Keegan doesn't get 23 minutes. If Keegan doesn't get those 23 minutes the Hawks likely lose this game.
Iowa won a road game against a ranked team for the first time in I think 3 years. Keegan got 23 minutes because CMac went down. Maybe things worked out exactly like they needed to for Iowa to win this game.
You don’t know this. We must have had 5 or 6 turnovers trying to get the ball to Garza. I bet that’s at least cut in half with Connor. I love Keegan and he deserves every minute he gets. I hope he gets more. But Connor is a central cog to this teams offense and it showed today.
Not disagreeing Rock and Roll, and we called time out to run that play. Yes, we missed Conors passing but agree that it meant more minutes for Murray. And he’s earned them. It’s definitely a trade off as the rest of the team didn’t seem to realize we have the best player in College basketball out there today.
This may or may not be the case. Keegan just played 21 minutes against Northwestern, so he has played more than 20 minutes in each of the last two games.
He played 9 minutes against Minnesota just 2 games ago. That doesn't happen with starters. If he gets more minutes who knows what happens in that game. I think Connor is a very good role player. No more no less. Glad he's on the team. Keegan is a difference maker. The relative roles between Keegan and Cmac need to be reversed in my opinion.
I can appreciate your opinion. I would be concerned about where the scoring would come from if Connor and Keegan had their roles reversed though. We saw the issues we had last year scoring with Joe T and Connor on the floor at the same time for long periods of time. I expect that we will see Keegan continue to play 20 plus minutes a game as long as he keeps performing at this level. This is a good issue to have right now.
We don't know any of this. Injuries and weird stuff happens. Who knows. Conor could have busted out of his shooting slump and hit 2 or 3 3's. Rutgers did a much better job of making it hard to feed the post, they are a very good defensive team. They challenge every pass and playing at home Johnson was allowed some things in the post reaching around and poking passes that usually get called fouls.
I like what Conor brings to the team. He doesn't care if he shoots or not. You need some guys like that on your team to be good. But Murray for sure forced himself into more minutes. He can do things that other people on the team can't do. His ability to play man defense on Harper down the stretch was huge. His ability to get loose balls and finish in transition was also huge.
Ulis is also an interesting case. He arguably played better backup PG minutes than Toussaint has played at any time this year. No out of control turnovers or shots. Just got the ball to people where they needed it.
Its shocking how poor everyone else is at making a post feed.
JBO and Ulis had a couple the rest of the team just wouldn't throw the ball.
Joe Weiskamp essentially refuses to pass the ball to anyone.
You have no way of knowing how many minutes Keegan plays if Connor doesn’t get hurt.
It’s very likely that Nunge doesn’t get anywhere near 19 minutes and Keegan gets close to 22, which he had 21 minutes last game.
It’s also likely that Garza scores more than 25 points and Iowa doesn’t turn the ball over 15 times. This game probably doesn’t come down to a last second shot.
BirdistheWord
HB Legend
Not sure why you are drafting off my post. Either an error on your part or you vastly misunderstood my many posts in this thread which are quite complimentary of CMac, but also realize we have some younger guys that are critical if we are going to maximize our ceiling.
Actually, Ulis played great, 4 assists, 3 rebounds, 2 points and zero turnovers. I do agree that we did not do a great job of feeding Garza but Rutgers was one of the better low post teams we have come up against so not all on the passing.
Wasnt it Wieskamp that fed Garza in the post right before the half for an easy two?
Nunge got minutes at the 4 before KM.
He did have some good blocks and a 3 but allot of weird turnovers or near turnovers.
Not sure, but Weiskamp is really playing with a bad case if tunnel vision right now. Making allot of poor decisions to force shots when its not the right play.
I like him taking it to the hole but he doesn't have to shoot every time he touches it.
No one knows any of this for sure. It's surely a coincidence that Keegan got the most minutes of the hear when CMac goes down 3 minutes into the game. I suppose it could also be a coincidence that Garza had his second highest scoring game and most efficient scoring game in the last 4 by far and it was on the road against a top 25 defense. I suppose this could all be a coincidence.
The most minutes by one minute in his 11th college game of his career. You nailed it Jonesy!
Second highest scoring game in the last four???? Good lord guy
Just responding to your comment about it being likely that Garza scores more than 25 points if Connor was in the game. Garza has been struggling scoring the 3 prior games (shooting 43%) and a lot of that has had to do with quick double and triple teams fron defenders dropping off of Connor. Other teams have figured this out. Tonight he shot 82%. Again, I'm sure this is all a coincidence.
I agree, which is the reason for my comment. The second unit with Joe T, Connor, Patrick, Nunge and one of the starters may have a tough time scoring. Keegan gives that second unit a better scoring option and could open the offense up more for the other players since the defense cannot sag off of him like they do with Connor.
He's a solid role player. Iowa beat a top 14 team on the road without him tonight. Something they haven't done in maybe 3 years. If you believe that he should be getting 25-30 minutes per game vs Keegan Murray and maybe another guard like Aaron Ulis getting a chunk of those minutes I would beg to differ.
And I’m just responding to your speculation that you have no idea what would have happened if Connor didn’t get hurt. It’s laughable that you come in here and post it as facts. Then say you’re just posting facts.
Rutgers chose not to double Garza on most possessions because they have Johnson. But no, you’re probably right that they didn’t double Garza because they respected Nunge’s scoring ability that much.
Rutgers probably saw what was very evident to anyone with eyes and Dakitch couldn’t stop repeating. Iowa could not feed the post. There was no need to double Garza when Iowa couldn’t get the ball into him. Garza also had plenty of efficient games, this season, when Connor has played too. Today’s game was more of the norm from Luka, not the exception by any stretch.
Im not sure how Piekle would have opted to defend Garza had Connor been in.
It didn't appear the plan was to double even when Connor was into start but rather heavy ball pressure to take away the pass, which is their MO. And they're good at it.
I remember seeing Mathis up tight on Connor behind the line at the start and thinking thats weird.
But I'm assuming eventually they would have sent the double.
They didn't have much of a chance this game. Most of the time if Luka got the ball he shot it pretty quickly.
Ah.. My concern right now is that we are a weak defensive team with the starters we have in there. Keegan is an instant upgrade defensively.
Like I said, you don’t understand the game. Conner leads the nation in turnover to assist ratio. He is the best post passer on the team, maybe the country. Did you happen to notice all the turnovers we had trying to get the ball to Garza? End of argument.
We do understand the game. Playing devils advocate, do we win this game game with Conor getting His usual stat line of 5 pts, 3 rebounds and 4-5 assists vs being forced to play Murray more and getting his 14-9? Plus the 7 rebounds from Nunge. Rutgers is a physical team. That’s 16 rebounds from the 4 position that replaced Conor. Might still have won but Guessing we would have been slaughtered on the boards going small. Who knows, maybe we would have gone big with Conor healthy. It’s a win.
