Cook looks lost on defense

[JRHawk2003]

HE looks out of position and like he is not sure where to go. Slow on rotations. Does not move feet when in man.

This team is defensively challenged in general and forced to play zone a lot, but Cook stands out. Its like he never played any defense in high school. An Hakeem like first drop step in the post, but defense and free throws are holding him back.

 

[texashawkeye87]

HE looks out of position and like he is not sure where to go. Slow on rotations. Does not move feet when in man.

This team is defensively challenged in general and forced to play zone a lot, but Cook stands out. Its like he never played any defense in high school. An Hakeem like first drop step in the post, but defense and free throws are holding him back.

His D is definitely still very suspect. Energy levels on O vs. D are night and day it seems.

His FTs will come along as he has pretty good form. I don't think he's far off from more consistency.

 

[mazda1]

His attitude is similar to Jok's, but his ability to rise in the moment isn't there. Needless to say the offensive production isn't close either.

All the one and done nonsense talk probably hasn't helped him. Right now I'm starting to wonder if Uhl should get more of his minutes and I was very down on Dom at the start of the year.

 

[Hawk493]

He is very weak. Looks not interested in the defensive side. Easily gets ball knocked out of his hands. Has a good outside shot, but doesn't take it. Everyone dares him to shoot it. He needs to start taking some of those. Will really open up his game. Out of all the youngsters, he's biggest disappointment...not saying he's bad. Just had high expectations.

 

[zachbacker54]

Hmmmmmm...

 

[EastIowaHawk]

I think that one of the problems our bigs have is that if they get two fouls, they sit. Fran will pull a big guy as soon as the fouls get two or over. Players want to play, but I bet if Fran just stuck with his best guys and let them stay in longer, they might play tougher. We have too many good, young big guys, so they sit half the game or even more if they have fouls. Minny played eight or nine guys; we played 11 and it hurt us.

 

[EastIowaHawk]

Don't worry; Cook'll be in the NBA next year. A one and goner. (Source: about a hundred posts on this site from October- November). I like the kid, but he's 18 or 19 and needs experience so he can find his way. The BIG TEN has 20-25 bigs who are as good as he is, or better.

 

[Fan In Black]

That is the exact word I would use to describe him on D. Lost.

 

[Hawk_4shur]

He's a freshman. A year from now he has a great chance of being a sophomore.

 

[kcgolfer]

He obviously had very poor coaching in high school. His rebounding is abhorrent, his defense is no where good enough and he acts like he doesn't care - just wants the ball. If he isn't careful or serious about getting better, his minutes will dwindle.

 

[ipiteu2]

He seems slow to rotate and gives up the baseline too easy for reverse layups. I wish he could a least a couple times cut off the baseline and get the ball handler trapped under the basket, which seems to happen quite often with our ball handlers.

 

[CanadaHawk]

Swanigan looked a little lost at times last year too.

 

[Section8]

He obviously had very poor coaching in high school. His rebounding is abhorrent, his defense is no where good enough and he acts like he doesn't care - just wants the ball. If he isn't careful or serious about getting better, his minutes will dwindle.

If the two big guys coming in next year are more fundamentally sound than the current front line, minutes will shrink. That's IF.

 

[HoustonREDHawk]

Cook has looked lost on the defensive end all year. I thought that would improve, but he still looks like a wooden Indian with a swivel on his his neck.

 

[bagdropper]

I'm not worried that he will become a good enough defender once he sets his mind to get better at it. To me, defense has to be a "want to" thing. You gotta want to be good at defense to actually be good at defense.

In some ways, his body language reminds me of Uhl. Thinking more than just playing I guess I'd call it.

 

[ZumaHawk]

I think that one of the problems our bigs have is that if they get two fouls, they sit. Fran will pull a big guy as soon as the fouls get two or over. Players want to play, but I bet if Fran just stuck with his best guys and let them stay in longer, they might play tougher. We have too many good, young big guys, so they sit half the game or even more if they have fouls. Minny played eight or nine guys; we played 11 and it hurt us.

EastIowaHawk......This makes sense to me that they don't want to get in foul trouble. I've said this before. How about this idea? Instead of having our bigs worry about foul trouble maybe Fran should tell them to get 10 times more aggressive and play them whether they get in foul trouble or not. Heck we have Cook/Pemsl/Kreiner which equals 15 fouls. Instead of playing timid they can all play aggressive. If Cook has 4 fouls in the first half big deal. We can't have him in the game late anyway as he can't make a FT. Same with Pemsl. If Kreiner needs to finish out the last 4 minutes of play at least he can shoot Ft's. Instead of Cook getting 20 minutes of timid play we could get 20 minutes of all out aggressiveness. Just a thought!!

 

[RocknRollface]

If hes worried about foul trouble he should just not even play.

Thats a ridiculous way of looking at defense.

I dont understand whats going on with Frans players sometimes.

If it were up to me I wouldn't even play him untill he atleast gave some sort of effort on defense.

 

[hawk-i bob]

great thread & post...well Mr Cook its your turn..

very weak...
not interested..
good outside shot but doesn't take it (ya lets have Cook take OS shots away from Jok, JBo,Ellingson,Moss ...just to name a few).
biggest disappointment..
doesn't care...
if he isnt serious about effort...minutes will dwindle..
minutes will shrink..
Kriener can shoot free throws (ya that 64% is impressive..nothing against RK but the last 4 min of the 1st half at Minny wasn't his finest).
wouldnt even play him -- til some sort of effort.

For the life of me sometimes I wonder why any 4**** recruit considers Iowa.

Whatever we do lets not give the young man a little slack considering he is a freshman who also happen to lose 6-7 non-conference games (experience) prior to the B1G games.

A number of you guys go way overboard ...

 

[goodbyebobby]

Swanigan looked a little lost at times last year too.

Yes. And everyone wanted Ellingson to transfer last year as well. He will be fine.