Early B10 Power Rankings.....wow

[DanL53]

Iowa could finish as low as 10th, especially if JBo got hurt. I think there are three groupings going into the season: MSU, 9 teams competing for 2-10, and 4 teams who will probably be at the bottom. My prediction for Iowa would be a LOT better than 10th. There is reason for all of the 9 teams chasing MSU to be optimistic, if the season goes their way.

I think the Iowa coaching staff has done a much better job than most outsiders give them credit for, but we also get the plenty negativity from a portion of the Iowa "fans" whenever we lose during the season. I have never understood why many fans don't recognize that there are two teams competing, and sometimes the other team is the main reason that your team didn't play as well as you had hoped.

Good to get back to basketball talk.

I see more of a separation in that pack of nine than you do. And of course this is just opinion. But can we really imagine Illinois, Penn State or even Indiana finishing second? I see them as NCAA Bubble type teams just trying to finish in the top seven.

I'd say the same of Wisconsin with all the attrition. But history has thumped me square in the head with those guys too many times to be that gutsy. So I'll include them in my second tier. Which even that I see a slight divide.

Michigan State is really good..just has to play like it.

Minnesota, Northwestern and Iowa return the talent and had results last year that tells me all three are roughly equal and most likely to see 2nd through 4th.

Michigan, Purdue, Wisconsin, Maryland lost some talent. Yes, they have some coming in. Until proven otherwise because promise of talent isn't talent, I'm seeing them around the 5th through 8th spot. But yes, all four are dangerous.

Indiana, through horrible attrition, I think the likely 9th place.

And then the bottom tier which everyone seems to agree is Ohio State, Nebraska, Rutgers and frankly I'd put Illinois and Penn State both in there as around 11th and 10th.

 

[SDHawkDoc]

sparty is the clear favorite.

After that there's a lot of teams in the mix.

minny and nw look most likely to be in the top 4 mix, but they've also failed to live up to expectations multiple times so it wouldn't be terribly surprising to see them falter.

As for the Hawks, they have plenty of reason for optimism with what's coming back, as well as some significant unanswered questions.

Of course since it's an Iowa site some on here are going to take umbrage at a tenth place selection. I don't see them dropping that low.
I really don't have a problem with it, though, as it should be motivating for the team to prove them wrong.

 

[DanL53]

sparty is the clear favorite.

After that there's a lot of teams in the mix.

minny and nw look most likely to be in the top 4 mix, but they've also failed to live up to expectations multiple times so it wouldn't be terribly surprising to see them falter.

As for the Hawks, they have plenty of reason for optimism with what's coming back, as well as some significant unanswered questions.

Of course since it's an Iowa site some on here are going to take umbrage at a tenth place selection. I don't see them dropping that low.
I really don't have a problem with it, though, as it should be motivating for the team to prove them wrong.

I take umbrage with a 10th place guess because it is an insult. It's that nuts. And the guy should be fired. UNLESS Bohannon goes down, but then can't we say the same of many teams?

Edit to add, you are right...it should be motivation and if it's motivation for the guys playing why shouldn't it be motivation for fans to be ticked off as well?

 

[hawk-i bob]

If I was a reasonable other school poster it would go something like:

last year your team finished 10-8 tied with MSU, Michigan & Northwestern considering 10 of your games were against teams that finished 5th or higher...your 4-6 record against those teams wasnt unreasonable considering your starting lineup consisted of 3 freshman & a sophomore. Your road wins against Maryland & Wisconsin showed alot...***and another road win against Minnesota was (well) ... 11-7 would have been better.

your team didnt make the NCAA because of your non-conference start and of course your loss against Indiana in the BTT pretty much nailed your fate...yet there was still talk of a Last 4 In possibility. Someone respected your 4 game win streak to finish the B1G and that in itself bodes well for your upcoming season.

yes losing the scoring of Jok will hurt next year but the return of 4 starters along with the natural improvement of everyone should allow for those points to be recovered.

the addition of 2 bigs should help improve your rebounding & defending the post...and allow your 4 star power forward a little more freedom.

based that your team went 10-8 last year...a reasonable poster would say you certainly are in line to win even more B1G games. That doesnt equate to a 10th place prediction.

 

[HoustonREDHawk]

Good to get back to basketball talk.

I see more of a separation in that pack of nine than you do. And of course this is just opinion. But can we really imagine Illinois, Penn State or even Indiana finishing second? I see them as NCAA Bubble type teams just trying to finish in the top seven.

I'd say the same of Wisconsin with all the attrition. But history has thumped me square in the head with those guys too many times to be that gutsy. So I'll include them in my second tier. Which even that I see a slight divide.

Michigan State is really good..just has to play like it.

Minnesota, Northwestern and Iowa return the talent and had results last year that tells me all three are roughly equal and most likely to see 2nd through 4th.

Michigan, Purdue, Wisconsin, Maryland lost some talent. Yes, they have some coming in. Until proven otherwise because promise of talent isn't talent, I'm seeing them around the 5th through 8th spot. But yes, all four are dangerous.

Indiana, through horrible attrition, I think the likely 9th place.

And then the bottom tier which everyone seems to agree is Ohio State, Nebraska, Rutgers and frankly I'd put Illinois and Penn State both in there as around 11th and 10th.

I would include Illannoy in the bottom grouping, probably at the top of that group. PSU has some nice pieces and will probably be playing for their coach's continuation there, so I am not sure they are at the bottom of the middle group, where most would put them. IU lost their most "talented" players, but might be a better team than last year. Miller is a much better game and development coach than Tan Tommie, and they will have some nuts and bolts players, like Hartman and Morgan, who might not look impressive, but do what it takes to win. I haven't taken the time to really educate myself on the other teams, and BlockM's discussion of some of their additions might make UM more of a threat for the top part of the middle grouping than I thought. I am a big fan of their coach...

It should be a fun season for Hawkeye fans, but those expecting a 16-2 or even a 14-4 record, might need to take off their black & gold glasses, and realize the competition is going to be pretty tough.

 

[hawk-i bob]

If I was a reasonable other school poster it would go something like:

last year your team finished 10-8 tied with MSU, Michigan & Northwestern considering 10 of your games were against teams that finished 5th or higher...your 4-6 record against those teams wasnt unreasonable considering your starting lineup consisted of 3 freshman & a sophomore. Your road wins against Maryland & Wisconsin showed alot...***and another road win against Minnesota was (well) ... 11-7 would have been better.

your team didnt make the NCAA because of your non-conference start and of course your loss against Indiana in the BTT pretty much nailed your fate...yet there was still talk of a Last 4 In possibility. Someone respected your 4 game win streak to finish the B1G and that in itself bodes well for your upcoming season.

yes losing the scoring of Jok will hurt next year but the return of 4 starters along with the natural improvement of everyone should allow for those points to be recovered.

the addition of 2 bigs should help improve your rebounding & defending the post...and allow your 4 star power forward a little more freedom.

based that your team went 10-8 last year...a reasonable poster would say you certainly are in line to win even more B1G games. That doesnt equate to a 10th place prediction.

I should add of the 4 10-8 teams...Mich State had the best record vs teams 5th or higher...6-4...Michigan had the toughest schedule going 6-6..NW had the easiest & only managed 3 wins in 8 tries.

Iowa also defeated all 3 top 3 teams..Purdue..Wisc & Maryland...and should have moved Minny down to 5th (10-8) which would have put Iowa to 4th at 11-7.

 

[CanadaHawk]

Iowa could finish as low as 10th, especially if JBo got hurt. I think there are three groupings going into the season: MSU, 9 teams competing for 2-10, and 4 teams who will probably be at the bottom. My prediction for Iowa would be a LOT better than 10th. There is reason for all of the 9 teams chasing MSU to be optimistic, if the season goes their way.

I think the Iowa coaching staff has done a much better job than most outsiders give them credit for, but we also get the plenty negativity from a portion of the Iowa "fans" whenever we lose during the season. I have never understood why many fans don't recognize that there are two teams competing, and sometimes the other team is the main reason that your team didn't play as well as you had hoped.

The doubting of Iowa has been earned by the finishes of the 2013-14 and 2015-16 teams. The athletic ability of this team is better and the depth other than PG. Barring injuries, that's where this team will be made or broken. Solutions: either CW emerging as a backup PG; or BE as backup point with CW or Dailey coming on as a dependable defender without glaring liabilities.

WI's rep was earned under Bo, and through this last year, his players still ran the team. Gard is good, but he hasn't proved he's a continuation of Bo with his own players. Got to say WI is going to have a slump under the current circumstances of losing so many seniors.

 

[DodgerHawki]

and I would suggest to you (maybe its your angst that Blue Boy has suggested that you have) that both of them are no more rational fans about Iowa BB than the man in the moon.

I didnt debate where Iowa would finish next year in this entire thread...dont care. What I dont appreciate is other school posters telling us this..

Tied for 5th in the standings, but nobody thinks they were the 5th best team.

are you a nobody Dodger?

let me help your Blue & Red friends...how's this....

For a young team Iowa got better & better as the season progressed in the B1G..they knocked off NCAA teams Michigan.... Wisconsin & Maryland on the road. Beat a talented Indiana team who had underachieved all year. As with any other team starting 3 freshman...Iowa was up & down...however one could argue in the last half of the B1G ...Iowa proved it deserved its 5th place finish.

but oh no no ...nobody thinks we were the 5th best team...why? cause Blue Boy says so?

I don't even get what we are arguing about. I wouldn't take offense to one sentence from a poster from another team, but that's just me. The morass in the middle of the Big Ten was just that, teams from about 4 through 10 or 11 were very similar. KenPom and Sagarin say Iowa wasn't the 5th best team in the league. They did finish tied there in the standings, so good on the Hawks. All I was trying to say was that a person can see where people who are not Iowa fans are not as optimistic about Iowa's chances as we fans are. That's it.

 

[DodgerHawki]

With respect. Many on here didn't consider me rational back when I was arguing the merits of keeping our assistants, not putting a time frame on McCaffery, trying to explain that when the state of Iowa goes through a drought from 2013 to 2016 with no top 150 players from Iowa that recruiting SHOULD suffer, and along with that we had many young players taking minutes that wouldn't be gone for years. (Many posters still don't get that connection).

With respect. Many current posters still believe Iowa mails it in at the end of the year, when in fact we have won more Big Ten games the second half of the season than we have the first.

With respect. I've constantly been told my predictions of how Iowa will finish are too optimistic, but I'm a heck of a lot more accurate than many who say it.

With respect. MD2020igan and Red87 come one here and sell Iowa short all the time. And Oh, Hell No Iowa isn't going to finish tenth. Nor Ninth. Nor Eighth. That's nuts.

Reasonable aint just because someone says it is DodgerHawki. I do like your posts and I'm not posting this to start a fight. But these two fella's aint reasonable. And they've NEVER come close to overestimating the Iowa Hawkeyes, have they.

I don't really care if Red and block are "reasonable," whatever that means. They generally bring data or stats to back up their opinions, which is what I like. They are basically saying the same as the national pundits, which is that Iowa is a bubble team that could be outside the tournament this year. CBS has us 10th, Lunardi has Iowa out in his Bubble Watch now (I know ridiculous). The great part is the team gets to prove the naysayers wrong and I think it's good that the coaches and players can point to the rankings that aren't that high on Iowa and use that as motivation.

 

[RocknRollface]

From the outside I could see someone thinking we're losing our top scorer, we aren't a good team defensively, and we lack size in the middle. We had problems getting the ball off the defensive glass most of the year, have no real back up point guard, and have no go to superstar.

We are in the PTL mode thinking our bigs will rectify the size issue and help the defense and rebounding. We believe we will have no problem replacing Jok's scoring.

We expect J Bo not to wear down and to put up the same numbers with increased defensive pressure. We are counting on significant contributions from our 2 freshman who come in without top 50 type billings.

I don't agree with 10th, but we have a lot to do to challenge for the top 3. It's the season for optomistic thoughts and I love our potential, but there are likely some bumps in the road ahead.

I dont know that were counting in significant contributions from freshman, in fact it would surprise me if it happens.

I think they'll have some good moments.

 

[Ronman]

For the past four seasons, we have graduated 1st Team All-B1G Players and every year we wonder how we can possibly replace them. But every season, we've managed to do it and I suspect this year will not abberate from that practice. I will be surprised if we don't score more points per game this season than we did last season with Peter.

 

[DanL53]

For the past four seasons, we have graduated 1st Team All-B1G Players and every year we wonder how we can possibly replace them. But every season, we've managed to do it and I suspect this year will not abberate from that practice. I will be surprised if we don't score more points per game this season than we did last season with Peter.

+1

And I hope the guys take the mindset that the ball is the message and the basket is the receptacle of the other team that we wish to shove it in.

 

[And1Hawk]

Besides what we do I am most interested in seeing what Underwood does year 1. I think his hire might be the sneaky good best hire in the league this past offseason along with Indiana upgrading with Miller over Crean.

The reason I say this is IL has been saddled with slow, boring, monotonous half-court grind it out coaches since Bill Self left. Underwood is an up-tempo, fast break scoring coach. This is exactly what IL has needed for a long, long time. IL talent needs to get and up down the court. We look no further than Illinois product Moss who is awesome in the open court transition game. Win or lose if Underwood can get it cranked up year 1 I think IL will retain more talent from the state and also put their talent in a better position to have success than the walk-it-up, drain the shot clock approach of the last 2 coaches. Could be some fun games with Fran and Underwood. First team to 100?

 

[DanL53]

Besides what we do I am most interested in seeing what Underwood does year 1. I think his hire might be the sneaky good best hire in the league this past offseason along with Indiana upgrading with Miller over Crean.

The reason I say this is IL has been saddled with slow, boring, monotonous half-court grind it out coaches since Bill Self left. Underwood is an up-tempo, fast break scoring coach. This is exactly what IL has needed for a long, long time. IL talent needs to get and up down the court. We look no further than Illinois product Moss who is awesome in the open court transition game. Win or lose if Underwood can get it cranked up year 1 I think IL will retain more talent from the state and also put their talent in a better position to have success than the walk-it-up, drain the shot clock approach of the last 2 coaches. Could be some fun games with Fran and Underwood. First team to 100?

My view on Underwood is that he and Martin at Missouri are going to get in some powerfully big bidding wars for recruits. They won't make good neighbors.

I just hope that Illinois gets caught before they screw us out of anything important on down the line.

 

[SirIllini]

"I just hope that Illinois gets caught before they screw us out of anything important on down the line."

Hahaha Spoken like a true rube.

I wouldn't worry. Nothing will be able to derail the basketball juggernaut that McCaffrey is building at Iowa. And if something does... you can rest assured that it was fixed. You literally can't lose (which is exactly why losers gravitate to this particular world view).

Carry on...

 

[joelbc1]

Wow is right. 10th? I have us a lot higher than that.

Really> How much higher?
Other B10 teams got much better this off season too.....Maryland, Penn State, Michigan State, Minnesota, NW and Purdue are all pretty solid. 10th might be a tad low....but the conference is not chopped liver.

 

[Eternal Return]

No mention of Cook as an impact player in the conference this year? The author will be regretting that omission by the end of January.

 

[seer_hawk]

From the outside I could see someone thinking we're losing our top scorer, we aren't a good team defensively, and we lack size in the middle. We had problems getting the ball off the defensive glass most of the year, have no real back up point guard, and have no go to superstar.

We are in the PTL mode thinking our bigs will rectify the size issue and help the defense and rebounding. We believe we will have no problem replacing Jok's scoring.

We expect J Bo not to wear down and to put up the same numbers with increased defensive pressure. We are counting on significant contributions from our 2 freshman who come in without top 50 type billings.

I don't agree with 10th, but we have a lot to do to challenge for the top 3. It's the season for optomistic thoughts and I love our potential, but there are likely some bumps in the road ahead.

That's a pretty pessimistic take (CBS's) considering where we've finished the last 4-5 years under Fran. Last year we tied for 5th, and although Jok is a big loss, he's the only real loss. How much did the competition lose, and how much do incoming players negate that? How much does experience mean to our large sophomore class?

Despite the apparent weaknesses you mention, we did pretty well last year. IMO our front court looks talented without the freshmen contributing much. Also last year we got 2 on the B1G freshman team with Cook being the only highly rated recruit. Some of that was available playing time, but if the freshmen didn't compete we would have been in the bottom half of the conference last year. I really think the CBS writer isn't giving Fran and the Iowa players due respect.

 

[chuck285]

No mention of Cook as an impact player in the conference this year? The author will be regretting that omission by the end of January.

What is your prediction for Cook? Points - rebounds - assists - and fouls?
Will he lead the team or league and any of they categories.

 

[CanadaHawk]

What is your prediction for Cook? Points - rebounds - assists - and fouls?
Will he lead the team or league and any of they categories.

Cook averaged 11.9p/5.2rb as a frosh and came on strong later in the season. That, and some demonstrated growth in his game this summer, indicate he's ready to make a jump in production. How much may depend on carrying over some shooting to the regular season. IF he reaches as high as 15/7 and the team finishes well, he could get some league mention.

 

[HoustonREDHawk]

Cook averaged 11.9p/5.2rb as a frosh and came on strong later in the season. That, and some demonstrated growth in his game this summer, indicate he's ready to make a jump in production. How much may depend on carrying over some shooting to the regular season. IF he reaches as high as 15/7 and the team finishes well, he could get some league mention.

15/7 seems like a good prediction for Cook's numbers this year. This could be a year where no one on the team averages more than about 15 ppg, and 7 or 8 guys could average more than 7/8 ppg.

 

[perryhawk]

Cook averaged 11.9p/5.2rb as a frosh and came on strong later in the season. That, and some demonstrated growth in his game this summer, indicate he's ready to make a jump in production. How much may depend on carrying over some shooting to the regular season. IF he reaches as high as 15/7 and the team finishes well, he could get some league mention.

15/7 seems like a good prediction for Cook's numbers this year. This could be a year where no one on the team averages more than about 15 ppg, and 7 or 8 guys could average more than 7/8 ppg.

This is a task (rebounding) where Tyler could be a game changer if he decided he wanted to dominate. With his power, explosiveness, and hands he just needs to decide that this is a priority. If he really went after offensive boards he could increase his scoring significantly.

 

[hawk-i bob]

Iowa could finish as low as 10th, especially if JBo got hurt. I think there are three groupings going into the season: MSU, 9 teams competing for 2-10, and 4 teams who will probably be at the bottom. My prediction for Iowa would be a LOT better than 10th. There is reason for all of the 9 teams chasing MSU to be optimistic, if the season goes their way.

I think the Iowa coaching staff has done a much better job than most outsiders give them credit for, but we also get the plenty negativity from a portion of the Iowa "fans" whenever we lose during the season. I have never understood why many fans don't recognize that there are two teams competing, and sometimes the other team is the main reason that your team didn't play as well as you had hoped.

I dont think the article picked Iowa 10th based on JBo getting hurt.

 

[Eternal Return]

What is your prediction for Cook? Points - rebounds - assists - and fouls?
Will he lead the team or league and any of they categories.

He could possibly lead in points, but I think the Hawks will be too balanced for that to matter. I don't think it will be stats specifically for Cook, but how his presence not he court affects his game. i expect a big jump in consistency this year and more steady, reliable minutes throughout the year as long as he can stay out of foul trouble. We'll see.

 

[CanadaHawk]

He could possibly lead in points, but I think the Hawks will be too balanced for that to matter. I don't think it will be stats specifically for Cook, but how his presence not he court affects his game. i expect a big jump in consistency this year and more steady, reliable minutes throughout the year as long as he can stay out of foul trouble. We'll see.

Yes, for Cook I expect him to be a force that a defense has to specifically prepare for, regardless of his total stats, freeing other teammates to operate. That will be his best function for this team.

 

[Ronman]

What is your prediction for Cook? Points - rebounds - assists - and fouls?
Will he lead the team or league and any of they categories.

I don't want to predict stats for Mr. Cook, but I do expect many more "WOW!" moments from him this season.

 

[HerkysDad]

I believe Jok's injury last year and the need to play the underclassmen more will pay dividends this year. They all performed admirably and worked as a team instead of how to feed it to Jok. If the new guys meld well with this group, it should be exciting!

 

[hoffmkr]

My expectations went up today. The Big10 schedule added another win for Iowa based on home/away and one-of games.

 

[perryhawk]

Just watched an interview with Ryan K and he said the team has seen and read the CBS article picking them 10th in the league.

He said that they were not happy about it and felt that they weren't given credit as teams they beat last year were predicted to finish higher in the league.

Chip on shoulder.

 

[Legend12]

Good thread, guys.

 

[Gopher Rube]

 

[BioHawk]

So, it seems the experts knew a lot more about this team than we did.

 

[jwardelt]

Good thread, guys.

Agreed. Would read again.

 

[NorthDSMHawk]

Regional powerhouse.

 

[Legend12]

With respect. Many on here didn't consider me rational back when I was arguing the merits of keeping our assistants, not putting a time frame on McCaffery, trying to explain that when the state of Iowa goes through a drought from 2013 to 2016 with no top 150 players from Iowa that recruiting SHOULD suffer, and along with that we had many young players taking minutes that wouldn't be gone for years. (Many posters still don't get that connection).

With respect. Many current posters still believe Iowa mails it in at the end of the year, when in fact we have won more Big Ten games the second half of the season than we have the first.

With respect. I've constantly been told my predictions of how Iowa will finish are too optimistic, but I'm a heck of a lot more accurate than many who say it.

With respect. MD2020igan and Red87 come one here and sell Iowa short all the time. And Oh, Hell No Iowa isn't going to finish tenth. Nor Ninth. Nor Eighth. That's nuts.

Reasonable aint just because someone says it is DodgerHawki. I do like your posts and I'm not posting this to start a fight. But these two fella's aint reasonable. And they've NEVER come close to overestimating the Iowa Hawkeyes, have they.

Ol’ Dan was a special one, wasn’t he?

 

[SSG T]

Ol’ Dan was a special one, wasn’t he?

What happened to him?

 

[HoosierInHere]

Wow!! I can't believe the delusion in this thread...this made my day

 

[Legend12]

What happened to him?

He loved to brag about his predictions....until they were horribly wrong and people started mocking him.

 

[CanadaHawk]

Wow!! I can't believe the delusion in this thread...this made my day

I stand by what I predicted about the 2017-18 team before that season started. This was basically that the team fortunes would revolve around PG and Cook would average about 15/7. Iowa ended up having no depth at PG and the starter often operated on one foot. Baer was also hampered all season by his hand injury. Cook did average 15.3/6.8. Without injuries/defection, the rest of Fran’s tenure shows his team would have been a little better than the 2016-17 team record-wise. Their record was 10-8.

Therefore, barring injury, I’m predicting this team to finish above .500 in the B1G and go to the dance. Because of the amount of scorers on this team, I think Cook’s upper scoring limit is about 18ppg, but think he’ll likely get above 8rb per. Laugh away, but please bookmark for the end of the season.

 

[HoosierInHere]

I stand by what I predicted about the 2017-18 team before that season started. This was basically that the team fortunes would revolve around PG and Cook would average about 15/7. Iowa ended up having no depth at PG and the starter often operated on one foot. Baer was also hampered all season by his hand injury. Cook did average 15.3/6.8. Without injuries/defection, the rest of Fran’s tenure shows his team would have been a little better than the 2016-17 team record-wise. Their record was 10-8.

Therefore, barring injury, I’m predicting this team to finish above .500 in the B1G and go to the dance. Because of the amount of scorers on this team, I think Cook’s upper scoring limit is about 18ppg, but think he’ll likely get above 8rb per. Laugh away, but please bookmark for the end of the season.

Lots of excuses for a team that was in the lower tier of the conference. You act like they were just a few games away from being good.

I will bookmark I am pretty sure they will b in the bottom tier again