Defense remains the core problem

[srams21]

the reason those numbers aren't quite as good as the Pomeroy numbers for Iowa's defense is they aren't adjusted for strength of opponent. But even the adjusted numbers don't tell a great story in terms of defensive efficiency.

Gotcha. Thanks for the heads up.

I am just not a believer in this staff's ability to teach defense and fundamentals of the game. I have seen far too much from too many different players and classes over Fran's nine years. But, maybe it is just this group of guys. I don't know.

 

[doughawk]

This staff is the core problem of this group.

All we heard after last year was the focus on defense...defense this and defense that. At this point, Fran dropping "phenomenal" and "tremendous" is equal to the words of "subpar" and "crap".

I agree 100%. They have had 9 years to build this program.
Fran and staff must go now. They can't recruit enough top quality Big 10 players. They can't coach defense.
Nepotism is bad and about to get worse with the second kid about to arrive. Team chemistry is bad and nepotism doesn't help, only contributes.
fran's teams are always soft physically and fragile mentally. Those are losing traits for athletics.
It is sad when our only jumper and leading shot blocker is a former walk on who is stoop shouldered and looks like an accountant. Fran's team is terrible at protecting the rim and how many uncontested layups do we give up per game ? At least 5.
We have so many guys who are one dimensional. Cook can only dunk, Bohannon can only shoot 3's, only Joe can drive to the basket, rebound, and shoot any type of shot well.
We go long stretches where our offense ignores Joe all together and don't pass him the ball. Our offense needs to run thru him because defenses have to respect his ability to drive, shoot a three, or pass.
We will never win big games if we are going to recruit and play the Dailey's, Connor's, Baer's, Kriener's who wouldn't play for the good teams in our league. A couple wouldn't play at all. It's all the coach's fault.
We can afford the buyout for both Barta and Fran.

 

[L. Wade Childress]

They are defensive efficiency rankings linked here.

Care to address the question?

I had never seen that data set, and it doesn’t seem to be as comprehensive as pomeroy.

 

[srams21]

I had never seen that data set, and it doesn’t seem to be as comprehensive as pomeroy.

Doesn't change the fact that Iowa has struggled mightily from a defensive standpoint 3 years in a row. What are your thoughts on that?

 

[HaydenHawk8]

I went back and looked at all the preseason stuff on Iowa. All of them said in order for Iowa to improve was to fix their defense. Iowa finished the regular season at 233! That’s not good! I can’t imagine what we were last year probably around 290 I’m guessing so I guess we did improve, but we are still behind all other Big Ten teams by a lot! Next closest is PSU at 108. Wow

 

[L. Wade Childress]

Doesn't change the fact that Iowa has struggled mightily from a defensive standpoint 3 years in a row. What are your thoughts on that?

As I said earlier, I think it’s more a product of the players, particularly the current juniors.

I doubt that Fran has drastically changed his defensive concepts since 2016.

 

[EpenesaEpenesa]

16 points in 42 seconds? Not sure I could do that against air

 

[srams21]

As I said earlier, I think it’s more a product of the players, particularly the current juniors.

I doubt that Fran has drastically changed his defensive concepts since 2016.

So I would imagine you think next year will be more of the same then?

 

[L. Wade Childress]

So I would imagine you think next year will be more of the same then?

I would hope that fran evaluates how he is teaching defense in light of his current roster.

That said I still think that we will be a fourth to sixth place team in the Big Ten next year, barring some significant roster changes.

 

[Ihawkhoops]

I went back and looked at all the preseason stuff on Iowa. All of them said in order for Iowa to improve was to fix their defense. Iowa finished the regular season at 233! That’s not good! I can’t imagine what we were last year probably around 290 I’m guessing so I guess we did improve, but we are still behind all other Big Ten teams by a lot! Next closest is PSU at 108. Wow

Don't rain on the parade of the Fran apologists. They are celebrating this "big" improvement on defense. For those of us who are not delusional going from awful to terrible isn't what I would consider an improvement. When you allegedly make something a point of emphasis and you have this crack staff of basketball lifers you should be able to do better.

 

[HaydenHawk8]

Don't rain on the parade of the Fran apologists. They are celebrating this "big" improvement on defense. For those of us who are not delusional going from awful to terrible isn't what I would consider an improvement. When you allegedly make something a point of emphasis and you have this crack staff of basketball lifers you should be able to do better.

Oh I know, they are always there with the #’s to say we’re just fine with Fran as our coach. I just pulled these from the NCAA website this morning. No way Fran preached defense in the off season. How you can be this bad is beyond me. The only way it can be this bad is a combo of poor coaching and even worse players.

 

[DodgerHawki]

I had never seen that data set, and it doesn’t seem to be as comprehensive as pomeroy.

The raw efficiency numbers aren't as comprehensive as the Pomeroy stats, at Pomeroy adjusts for competition and include pace numbers (how many possessions per game). Iowa's defense has improved this year, but is still the worst in the conference by quite a bit. The offense has dropped off from very good/elite to just above average in the recent games, so you end up with a bad team.

 

[srams21]

The raw efficiency numbers aren't as comprehensive as the Pomeroy stats, at Pomeroy adjusts for competition and include pace numbers (how many possessions per game). Iowa's defense has improved this year, but is still the worst in the conference by quite a bit. The offense has dropped off from very good/elite to just above average in the recent games, so you end up with a bad team.

That's the thing with playing with this bad of defense. Your offense has to be top-notch every single game and even then (such as the Nebraska game) you will lose some.

Good defensive teams can get through poor shooting slumps (and every team goes through those) but really bad defensive teams such as the Hawks have to be hitting on almost all cylinders offensively or else you get the last four games.

 

[HawkLand]

Lol good gosh man if you were on the Titanic you would be complimenting the staff on the close up view of the bottom of the ocean before you realized you were sunk. Three reasons: 1) Fran and his assistants will be here. 2) Those guys will be doing the recruiting / player development. 3) Iowa's guards can't defend mid+ level guards and we suck on the boards.

Other than those 3 things it should be seamless.

I’m not sure if the comment was deserved, but it made me laugh anyway.

 

[RocknRollface]

It's a personnel issue.

Bohannon can't defend.

Garza has slow feet and can't jump. He's a center that averages 4 boards per game.

Its strange watching Garza move. He moves like he weighs 500 lbs.