Defense

[Mohawkeye]

Obviously, our defense is not where it needs to be. Early season game, it’s understandable. But also predictable under Fran. That said, I feel like our team defense has potential for improvement. A couple take aways::

Josh Dix continues to be our best man defender. He’s versatile and that’s going to be crucial because every great defense needs that one guy that can lock down a scorer. He can do that.

People are going to laugh, but Pryce Sandfort is a pretty good defender. Much better than his brother, he moves his feet and can stay in front of guys his size. And he’s long enough to be disruptive even if you get by him. Had a nice block.

Brock Harding is never going to be a consistent plus defender, but he’s very disruptive. He forced 3 turnovers, and I’m not sure if that includes where he got someone to miss a a last second shot because he altered their rhythm. He would have had a 4th steal at mid court, but tripped over his own feet. He also had two blocked shots, although only credited for one.

Drew Thiewell is just what the doctor ordered. Great anticipation and smart defender. I want to see more.

Negatives: Payton is still an awful defender, routinely gets beat. Dembele has slow feet and needs to work on rebounding position. He gets away with a lot of reaching, but that wasn’t working last night with quicker players.

 

[Hawksfinal4]

Good assessment imo.
I’ll add that the bench will be much better backing up the starters. At the 5, you’ll have Owen, Ladji and Even, this year and all should play better this year. Some mistakes sure but it’s early. Payton, Cooper and Seydou at the 4 and 3, Pryce Josh and Drew at the 2 and the 1. Should be fun how it all shakes out. Goal is to win every game, (never happen), but the tournament is a long way off yet, so I’m going to stay positive for quite awhile yet.

 

[RagnarLothbrok]

Obviously, our defense is not where it needs to be. Early season game, it’s understandable. But also predictable under Fran. That said, I feel like our team defense has potential for improvement. A couple take aways::

Josh Dix continues to be our best man defender. He’s versatile and that’s going to be crucial because every great defense needs that one guy that can lock down a scorer. He can do that.

People are going to laugh, but Pryce Sandfort is a pretty good defender. Much better than his brother, he moves his feet and can stay in front of guys his size. And he’s long enough to be disruptive even if you get by him. Had a nice block.

Brock Harding is never going to be a consistent plus defender, but he’s very disruptive. He forced 3 turnovers, and I’m not sure if that includes where he got someone to miss a a last second shot because he altered their rhythm. He would have had a 4th steal at mid court, but tripped over his own feet. He also had two blocked shots, although only credited for one.

Drew Thiewell is just what the doctor ordered. Great anticipation and smart defender. I want to see more.

Negatives: Payton is still an awful defender, routinely gets beat. Dembele has slow feet and needs to work on rebounding position. He gets away with a lot of reaching, but that wasn’t working last night with quicker players.

Almost every season someone chimes in about how the defense has potential to improve and be respectable.

It’s not going to happen.

 

[RocknRollface]

Almost every season someone chimes in about how the defense has potential to improve and be respectable.

It’s not going to happen.

6 or 7 years ago that used to be me. Now I get it.

You can't be good at something you don't try to be good at.

Frans teams are always good at one thing and bad at the other because that's the way he prepares them to be.

 

[Hawk_4shur]

This is not going to be a lock down defensive team that holds opponents under 60. It's just not

But I'd be pretty happy if they could just keep the easy buckets to a minimum. I tired of watching wide open 3's and easy layups.

 

[LukaDuka]

Obviously, our defense is not where it needs to be. Early season game, it’s understandable. But also predictable under Fran. That said, I feel like our team defense has potential for improvement. A couple take aways::

Josh Dix continues to be our best man defender. He’s versatile and that’s going to be crucial because every great defense needs that one guy that can lock down a scorer. He can do that.

People are going to laugh, but Pryce Sandfort is a pretty good defender. Much better than his brother, he moves his feet and can stay in front of guys his size. And he’s long enough to be disruptive even if you get by him. Had a nice block.

Brock Harding is never going to be a consistent plus defender, but he’s very disruptive. He forced 3 turnovers, and I’m not sure if that includes where he got someone to miss a a last second shot because he altered their rhythm. He would have had a 4th steal at mid court, but tripped over his own feet. He also had two blocked shots, although only credited for one.

Drew Thiewell is just what the doctor ordered. Great anticipation and smart defender. I want to see more.

Negatives: Payton is still an awful defender, routinely gets beat. Dembele has slow feet and needs to work on rebounding position. He gets away with a lot of reaching, but that wasn’t working last night with quicker players.

I appreciate your optimism & glass half full attitude. But just need to look at Fran's track record & shake your head. If the D is to improve, it will take the players attitude adjustment, focus & desire to lock it down. Really disappointed in giving up 12 offensive boards. Getting this down to less than 6 per game should be the goal. This in itself would probably reduce scoring by 8-10 points per game. Iowa is going to need to average more than 90 to win games this year.

Focus on rebounding, box out!

 

[Max_Rebo]

Almost every season someone chimes in about how the defense has potential to improve and be respectable.

It’s not going to happen.

 

[Mohawkeye]

Almost every season someone chimes in about how the defense has potential to improve and be respectable.

It’s not going to happen.

I appreciate the sentiment but I feel this angle has been discussed ad nauseum. I’m curious as to what people think about this team and these players, from a defensive perspective, without the Fran slant.

 

[RagnarLothbrok]

I appreciate the sentiment but I feel this angle has been discussed ad nauseum. I’m curious as to what people think about this team and these players, from a defensive perspective, without the Fran slant.

I guess my first question would be why would you separate Fran from the discussion?

 

[HawkeyeGenius]

Defense isn't all of a sudden going to change at this point under Fran.

 

[RocknRollface]

I guess my first question would be why would you separate Fran from the discussion?

That would be missing the forest for the trees.

 

[BrewHawk]

TAMC's RPI last year was 313.

They hung with us for a decent amount of time.

What happens when we play good competition?

 

[BrewHawk]

I appreciate the sentiment but I feel this angle has been discussed ad nauseum. I’m curious as to what people think about this team and these players, from a defensive perspective, without the Fran slant.

Well, they're slow, get beat off the dribble and then have to scramble to try to make up for overhelping (against a bad team).

We have no quality depth behind Owen and he's going to continue to get in foul trouble (or the dreaded two foul jail).

Other than that, things are looking up!