Iowa played their best man to man defense of the season in the second half against a very talented team. Hope they build on that. It is very hard to rebound out of zone and that was part of the problem in the first half. Thought it was funny that tv announcers didn't notice the switch to the man to man and kept talking about the zone.
Defense in 2nd half
- Thread starter mepohawk
- Start date
Wonder if that Arizona fan and the guy behind him knew their heads were inside the D? And, what about the guy hiding behind the fence?
Defense can be Desire also, though Athletic helps. Still MIGHTY Proud of Hawk Players.Hawks Tough! That includes us fans.
Glad somebody posted this. I noticed the same during the game. That was hands down the team’s best defensive effort all season, and man, it was fun to watch. That’s all heart.
This is true but frustrating as well. We know they are capable but don’t show it enough this season. Playing good defense doesn’t require a ton of skill but more effort and attitude.
Who was the coach that in the non-conf a few years back said Iowa’s mentality was weak. Basically saying they allow one end of the floor to dictate the effort level on the other? I hate to say it but it’s true with this years team. If their offense is flowing and going well they play better defensively. You saw the other day a train wreck first half on both ends of the floor. Now they got their offense going in the second and coincidentally the defense got better.
We have read, and maybe written, posts about athleticism-the need for a PG-individual players-etc-etc. when we look at the shortcomings of this team.....I think the real answer to our problem is right here in this thread.
This team needs to play with the intensity, desire, confidence, attitude that they are not going to allow the other team to beat them or impose their will.......defense and rebounding (as stated) are based heavily on effort and desire.....DESIRE coming first to produce the effort. THAT to me is the key component with this team. Don't misunderstand, I don't think these guys are lazy (anything but-I think they work very hard) I just believe that players can think they are playing hard all the time...but they aren't playing as hard as they can. I am a Fran supporter so I don't say this with an agenda to get our coach fired.....but it is the coaches job to teach and push players to play as hard as they can all the time......my opinion (and I have zero expertise) is that this problem shows up in our rebounding and our defense.
I think when you look at the top flight coaches (Izzo, Coach K, Calipari) in terms of success.....is that they get their top flight talent to play exceptionally hard..all the time. They play hard with an intensity aimed at imposing their will to play the game and execute their style of play.
I think the difference between playing hard.....and playing as hard as they can, is small but significant. I think players most often feel that they are playing hard...but they aren't playing as hard as they can.
Not to pick on Tyler Cook...but as an example...just think if Tyler Cook played with the intensity of Garza or Baer.
Last edited:
Barkley said that we turned the game with our zone, but too late. We did slow them down with the zone but the rally was spurred by our man to man.
Tennessee was playing on their heels at that point so the man worked.
I doubt we could have success in man for the whole game.
Tennessee was playing on their heels at that point so the man worked.
I doubt we could have success in man for the whole game.
Tennessee did their part to help the defense. We sat behind one of their fans in the Iowa section and he called it at the half. They changed their offense, slowed it down, stopped cutting and moving as much. The Iowa defensive intensity helped with that process as well.
It's hard to know what to take away from that game. Fran's teams seldom start well and that is hard to figure. They always seem overwhelmed and unprepared for the energy of the other team. Iowa misses bunnies other teams don't Iowa has multiple defensive lapses and other teams are locked in our shooters.
There was a point around the 5-7 minute mark in the first half when Fran called a TO I believe and they got Kriener open on that slip screen set 4-5 times in a row and I think he made 1 basket and was 2-4 or something like that from the line. TN looked completely lost on defense against that. Great call but why does it take getting down 20 to figure this stuff out? Had Iowa been able to make some bunnies and identify Schofield I don't think the first half gets out of hand.
There was a point around the 5-7 minute mark in the first half when Fran called a TO I believe and they got Kriener open on that slip screen set 4-5 times in a row and I think he made 1 basket and was 2-4 or something like that from the line. TN looked completely lost on defense against that. Great call but why does it take getting down 20 to figure this stuff out? Had Iowa been able to make some bunnies and identify Schofield I don't think the first half gets out of hand.
I was going to post the same thing. Give Iowa credit, but when Tennessee started to slow things down, they started missing shots and were careless with the ball. I thought they started taking the air out of the ball too early.
It's clear that the defensive woes are more about effort than skill for this team. It's quite frustrating to see them play periods of defense that are about as good as anyone outside the elite defensive teams but only do so in a few games a season, and even then only for a half or small periods during a game.
As others have mentioned, it's a mental thing. I can see where over the years it's hard for the team to get up for defense when Fran routinely mentions that defense isn't an issue, we just need to score more. We really need an assistant dedicated to defense and keeping the players engaged and energetic on the defensive end.
As others have mentioned, it's a mental thing. I can see where over the years it's hard for the team to get up for defense when Fran routinely mentions that defense isn't an issue, we just need to score more. We really need an assistant dedicated to defense and keeping the players engaged and energetic on the defensive end.
good post Perry.
some observations...at the beginning of the year some of us talked about performing better defensively from the previous year (2018). The team did exactly that...lowering opponents scoring average by nearly 5 pts per game. We were in general better but still fair to say we had some games & parts of games we got it handed to us....people on the sideline can debate that as to why. I tend to look at what the opponent was doing as to what we were not.
Our 3 point defense was better. Holding the opponent to 32% compared to 37% in 2018. *some will say hitting 3's is someone luck* but still we were better by % defensively. Some of that was the addition of JoeW in the lineup who I would suspect will get even better...defensively.
Inside the arc..our defense was not better...opponents shot 51% in 2018...53% in 2019. One can point fingers (Garza is too slow & helps out too much), Cook is not aggressive enough. Kriener was probably our best interior big man playing 14 minutes per game...next year we will miss the effort of Nicholas as he led the team in steals & blocks
& led in rebounding per minutes played.
Baer 8.5
Cook 8.1
Kriener 7.4
Joe W 6.1
Garza 6.0 *** Luka was at 9.6 in his freshman year. I wonder if his injury ever got back to 100%.
Last edited:
Good stuff....and again, I claim no expertise, but your comment on Joe W is spot on. He appeared to me, to be our best perimeter defender by quite a bit. I think Maishe was pretty good, but Joe seemed to be the best at keeping the players in front of him and not letting them get to the basket.....I HOPE Patrick can provide some of that as well with his length/height and lateral quickness.
As big of a loss as Baer's production on the floor was....it's his off the floor intangibles that I worry most about losing. Maturity, promoter of team unity, chemistry, etc.....
Even more than the zone, Iowa’s 2nd half D was helped by making shots of their own. Then, they didn’t have to play as much transition D vs Tennessee.
Also, ‘when a team is making everything, force them to do it only from the outside in the 2nd half’: from the defensive bible according to Tom Izzo.
Also, ‘when a team is making everything, force them to do it only from the outside in the 2nd half’: from the defensive bible according to Tom Izzo.
Cook moved his feet more in the second half of the game than he normally does in several games. Except for Williams, most of the UT team, including Bone who is a great PG, didn't want any part of Tyler for the last 15 min of the second half.
JBo also played with a toughness we haven't seen much. Weesy is just a great all-round player, who played an incredible second half... This was against one of the most talented teams in the country.
JBo also played with a toughness we haven't seen much. Weesy is just a great all-round player, who played an incredible second half... This was against one of the most talented teams in the country.
Iowa flipped the script in the 2nd half, but so did UT. They didn't look like the same team either - I think they were planning to cruise to a W.
It was odd. They hit six 3s in the first half, then missed two 3s to start the second half and never even shot another one until 2 minutes were left when the kid they called for the bogus foul on the JBo 3 followed it up by hitting one himself. Then they missed another two in the last minute and then made their only attempt in OT. I know their coach wasn't happy the game against Colgate for shooting 26 3s and actually giving up the lead, but it's completely bizarre in 2019 basketball at any level for a team to go 16 minutes without even attempting one.
