Defense

[CentralIAHawk]

As folks are starting to predict lineups, positions and ultimately success...it seems that most people have offensive performance in mind. And with Fran's teams, there is no doubt that offense is a critical piece. However, I think it is important to remember that defense tends to determine success; and specifically, how well Fran's teams defend tend to determine wins and losses...as all of his teams seem to be able to score.

Because of that, I am excited for the new season for this reason primarily:

We seem to have lost 3 starters from last year's team (including Jbo for now), and those 3 were by far our worst defenders. Our best 2 starting defenders return.

And many of the new guys coming in are talking specifically about defense. I've heard all 3 guards (Evelyn, Toussaint & Frederick) talk about defense being both a strength and a focus. Honestly, that has been our achilles heel for 3 years now: Jbo and Moss just play very, very poor defense. I can't imagine what it must've been like for the guards on those teams coming to play us, they had to be salivating.

If these guys can make shots, then I think we have a chance at a very fun year.

Go Hawks!

ps, not knocking anyone, especially Jbo. Love him, just talking about strengths and weaknesses.

 

[SDHawkDoc]

I'll have confidence in the talk about attention to defense when I actually see attention to defense.

They did improve by at least demonstrating last year that they understood there is a part of the game called defense. That's some progress. Getting within a few ranking points of the next worse defensive team in the B1G would be a solid next step.

 

[Ihawkhoops]

Fran will have quickness at the guard position for the first time since Clemmons and Gesell. It will be interesting to see how that impacts team defense. Effort has not been the issue as much as athleticism or lack thereof. Iowa should be able to apply ball pressure on D and have a couple guys capable of going north-south with the ball.

 

[Hawk_4shur]

Agreed - defense has a chance to be improved.

But, obviously, another weakness of the team in the last few years - turnovers. Interestingly enough, the 3 absent starters were the top 3 (bottom 3?) in turnovers last year. Some of that is simply because Cook, Jbo and Moss had the ball in their hands for a big portion of the game, but all 3 were guilty of lots of boneheaded plays with the ball.

It really is a pretty big team makeover. Hopefully, it's a positive one.

 

[DanHawkPella]

Agreed. Given comments that Fredrick is decent defensively, and Evelyn perhaps as well, people may be surprised how well we do without those 3.

 

[owenhawk]

As folks are starting to predict lineups, positions and ultimately success...it seems that most people have offensive performance in mind. And with Fran's teams, there is no doubt that offense is a critical piece. However, I think it is important to remember that defense tends to determine success; and specifically, how well Fran's teams defend tend to determine wins and losses...as all of his teams seem to be able to score.

Because of that, I am excited for the new season for this reason primarily:

We seem to have lost 3 starters from last year's team (including Jbo for now), and those 3 were by far our worst defenders. Our best 2 starting defenders return.

And many of the new guys coming in are talking specifically about defense. I've heard all 3 guards (Evelyn, Toussaint & Frederick) talk about defense being both a strength and a focus. Honestly, that has been our achilles heel for 3 years now: Jbo and Moss just play very, very poor defense. I can't imagine what it must've been like for the guards on those teams coming to play us, they had to be salivating.

If these guys can make shots, then I think we have a chance at a very fun year.

Go Hawks!

ps, not knocking anyone, especially Jbo. Love him, just talking about strengths and weaknesses.

I agree with a lot of what you say but Garza is not a good defender. Of last year’s starters, Wieskamp was by far the guy I trusted most defensively. Garza is a borderline great offensive weapon for the college game but defensively, he has been a liability.

 

[hooper56]

When you cannot keep the opponents ball handler in front of you it makes team defense really hard. I love JBo but he struggles to contain the better guards in the B1G. He has improved but too often they go right past him. If our newcomers can improve in this area because of their quickness, it is a very good sign for the hawks.

 

[SDHawkDoc]

I agree with a lot of what you say but Garza is not a good defender. Of last year’s starters, Wieskamp was by far the guy I trusted most defensively. Garza is a borderline great offensive weapon for the college game but defensively, he has been a liability.

A significant liability. And in no way due to lack of effort; he looks to be working as hard or harder than anyone on the court.
He can't really help having severely limited foot speed, quickness and leaping ability. Those things are what they are.

He has to get a lot smarter on court as to positioning and efficient movement and energy expenditure. That could take him from being a sub par defender to at least approaching average.

 

[Hawk94Mn]

The only starter who will be limited defensively will be Garza and he probably will improve in positioning and not over helping (his biggest flaw). All of our guards (1 and 2’s) will likely be able to play good on ball defense, even CJ has good size for a guard.

Joe and Patrick will be great wing defenders. Pemsl and Kriener are good defenders and Nunge has added some serious muscle which should help him.

I think the team will be a below average defensive team which should be good enough for a team that will have no shortage of offense. Its amazing how different the team will look when we were originally projected to return all 5 starters from last year. If the freshman come along quickly and Joe W takes on superstar status, the sky is the limit.

 

[mazda1]

My biggest concern about this years D is getting the ball off the D glass. I think we will be improved against the dribble drive by foes wings and point guards, but the 4 spot is a ?.

Our lack of quickness at the 4 may cause us to give up a bunch of put backs and extend other teams possessions. This is where I expect to miss the athleticism of Cook.

 

[hawkjt]

We did have strong season last year,right?
Moss led the team in steals and TC led in rebounds but we are better off with guys who have never played before?
Big assumption.
Moss did a good job against strong players in the tourney.
I question Pat being a great wing defender as a frosh. Can he stay in front of quick wings like Langford of IU?
Big Ten is not Iowa City High

 

[HawkNole09]

Let’s say you want to put your best defensive unit out on the floor to challenge shots, resist penetration, and rebound. Who’s your best perceived five?

I’d go:
PG Joey T-Nizzle
SG Evelyn
SF Wheezy
PF Kriener
C Nunge

 

[owenhawk]

A significant liability. And in no way due to lack of effort; he looks to be working as hard or harder than anyone on the court.
He can't really help having severely limited foot speed, quickness and leaping ability. Those things are what they are.

He has to get a lot smarter on court as to positioning and efficient movement and energy expenditure. That could take him from being a sub par defender to at least approaching average.

Exactly right. It’s never a lack of effort with Garza.

 

[anon_wic6m41528ao4]

We need to get back to rebounding. We were 8th in the league last year. Teams like Michigan State drubbed us on the boards (42 to 26 in Carver).

Fran's teams usually excel at this, and the addition of a few bigs should help.

 

[The Deplorable Sleeping Dog]

The McC teams have been a mixed bag defensively and good rebounders. Obviously the last two seasons were obviously historically bad (2018) and really bad (2019). Pretty sure the coaches know this weakness.

Now that the basic core of the last three seasons has been turned over I think we'll soon know if my theory that Iowa was defensively a sum that was actually less than the total of its parts was right.

Jordan improved defensively. While I think the criticisms of Jordan are exaggerated but he still got beat too often. That weakness could be minimized by a good help post defense. However, TC and Luka were bad help defenders. TC was OK individually but just lacked much awareness outside of the man he was guarding. All three guys really needed to be on the court most of the minutes so that structural defect was just baked into the cake.

Isaiah was as wildly inconsistent defensively as in every other area of his game. Sometimes he would ball hawk and man up but when he got lost there was no one to cover his lapses...which sometimes were recognizing the open wing 3 shooter simultaneously with the net splashing. Who was in the back end directing the defense and sending defenders to the open spots-like Woody? No one is the correct answer.

Luka is a kid that works hard and I think he'll improve defensively, and hopefully gain a voice that can help direct the other, especially younger, guys. Ryan is a good defender whose improved every area of his game every season and needs to be more vocal as well. Cordell is salty, if he's not lost too much quickness he will be a good post defender for a 4 man-not a wing defender of course. C McC will surrender some quickness but he's a very big point guard and willing to mix it up-not that easy to get around a guy 4 inches taller even with superior quickness. Joey W is just a good player and is also already a pretty good defender.

The five newish players (cuz no one really knows what Jack can do, spent so much time in the wrong position as a freshman) are question marks. I'm sure there will head scratching freshmen mistakes for the three freshmen. This is tougher comp than Bakari has previously faced. Just assuming they'll be better than TC, Isaiah, Jordan and the Baer is perhaps a bit too much optimism, but I'm going to be optimistic until proven otherwise.

 

[AJBHawkeye]

Where did we rank in the B1G in blocked shots? Our guards would get blown by off the dribble, and I feel like Luka or Tyler never really denied or challenged people to make them fear going to the rim.

 

[DodgerHawki]

Where did we rank in the B1G in blocked shots? Our guards would get blown by off the dribble, and I feel like Luka or Tyler never really denied or challenged people to make them fear going to the rim.

Iowa was 190th in the country last year in block % (defense). Iowa's 2-point defense was abysmal, 299th in the country. Opponents shot 53.5% on 2-pointers. Part of that is not having shot-blockers (our best was Baer, a forward). If Iowa wants to make an improvement on defense, it will have to come on not giving up as many layups and dunks. Period. Iowa was the only Big 10 team that allowed over 100 points per 100 possessions (adjusted). The defense last year was merely bad, as opposed to historically bad the previous season. The offense was good enough last year to make Iowa a decent to good team, even with a bad defense.

Iowa does not have the athletes to be a great defensive team. But they do have enough to not be this pathetic on defense. The only 2 teams near them in defensive efficiency in the league were Illinois and Nebraska, who were both awful last year. The effort was okay last year. It needs to be great for Iowa to be more than bad. Guys need to sit if they don't give effort. Defense needs to be rewarded, it needs to be taught well in the framework of what the team is trying to do. Easier said than done.

 

[SDHawkDoc]

"defense last year was merely bad, as opposed to historically bad the previous season"- DodgerHawki
Agree completely. The D was still bad last year. It was simply the garden variety kind of bad that lumped Iowa in with a large number of other teams as opposed to the complete and utter failure of the prior year.
So, yes it was improvement. Have to keep it all in context, as you clearly identified.
I think it's unlikely they can make a similar leap this next season. My hope would be that they make it to number 75 or so in D efficiency.

 

[The Deplorable Sleeping Dog]

"defense last year was merely bad, as opposed to historically bad the previous season"- DodgerHawki
Agree completely. The D was still bad last year. It was simply the garden variety kind of bad that lumped Iowa in with a large number of other teams as opposed to the complete and utter failure of the prior year.
So, yes it was improvement. Have to keep it all in context, as you clearly identified.
I think it's unlikely they can make a similar leap this next season. My hope would be that they make it to number 75 or so in D efficiency.

C'mon brother, give the right dog credit for the great line.... about historically bad vs. just really bad.