It's less about a specific "Joe in for Connor" argument. More so about who should be on the floor at a given time. Last night, Connor should have had fewer minutes and Joe should have had more.
Fran hates Toussaint
- Thread starter Chicagoherky71
- Start date
If you think Joe should have played more and Connor less, then it is a Joe in for Connor argument. As I mentioned, Iowa could not afford to have three players in the game who were 5’3” or less due to Maryland’s height.
Maryland won the rebound battle in the first half. Fran knew Iowa needed to turn this around in the second half, which is why I believe Connor played a majority of the final ten minutes. Iowa was able to win the rebound battle in the second half and also the game.
I thought Joe should have played more in the second half and would have liked to see him in at the end of the game. I would have had no problem with Joe being in for Jordan or Arhon. Joe did play 12 minutes in the second half though, so I do not think it is the issue that some are making it out to be.
Connor had an awesome 1 rebound in total.
So your argument for more Connor is that he is excellent at blocking out and prevented offensive boards that the terps would have otherwise gotten?
If you want to make it about Joe specifically for Connor, them I'm going with Joe without hesitation. I don't care that he's giving up height. Perkins for Bohannon until shooting free throws at the very end.
Connor does a lot of little things that don't always show up in the box score. And that justified him playing a couple years ago when he was also not much of a scoring threat shooting 34% from the field - but also shooting a respectable 34% from 3, and 78% from the free throw line.
Doing a lot of little things, however, does not justify playing someone that is shooting 21% from the field, 18% from 3, and 60% free throws. He's the only player on the team with a player efficiency rating in the single digits (https://www.sports-reference.com/cbb/schools/iowa/2022.html). He's been terrible all year. If he could be just a "below average" shooter, I wouldn't mind him playing. But he's one of the worst shooters in the country this year. Connor has the worst shooting percentage of any Big 10 player with more than 100 minutes played. The next closest is Jaheam Cornwall for Penn State who shoots 25%. Cornwall is also a senior who averaged 14 PPG last year on 44% shooting, so he at least has a track record of being an efficient scorer.
Doing a lot of little things, however, does not justify playing someone that is shooting 21% from the field, 18% from 3, and 60% free throws. He's the only player on the team with a player efficiency rating in the single digits (https://www.sports-reference.com/cbb/schools/iowa/2022.html). He's been terrible all year. If he could be just a "below average" shooter, I wouldn't mind him playing. But he's one of the worst shooters in the country this year. Connor has the worst shooting percentage of any Big 10 player with more than 100 minutes played. The next closest is Jaheam Cornwall for Penn State who shoots 25%. Cornwall is also a senior who averaged 14 PPG last year on 44% shooting, so he at least has a track record of being an efficient scorer.
I am not making this a Joe versus Connor argument. I have said that I would have liked to see Joe play more, but it would have had to come at the expense of Jordan or Arhon.
Could Joe, Jordan or Arhon have guarded Hart or Scott, who are both 6’8”? I would have been OK with Kris getting more minutes instead of Connor in last night’s game.
I'm good with that.
Connor should be getting fewer minutes overall, and last night. Kris playing more would be preferable.
It's up to Fran to manage his minutes and I'm one of those who finds his decisions odd, to put it kindly.
That Joe T. sat for such a long stretch in the second half just should not have happened.
Connor is currently 9th in average min played. He received more minutes last night because that particular lineup was working down the stretch. How often does everyone complain here about going away from a lineup that was working? JoeT came out with about 8 min left and a 1 point game I believe. The line up of Uhlis, Perkins, Connor, Keegan and Rebraca built a 10 point lead by the 5 min mark. Fran stuck with that lineup to hold on to the game because it was effective. That may not be the case every night but it was last night.
Oh hell yeah, why worry about little things like points, rebounds, assists, shooting percentages, on-ball defense, etc when the key to winning basketball has ALWAYS been off-the-ball defense.
He better because he barely shows up in the box score. Last night was the very rare quadruple single(single as in 1) stat line.
1 point
1 rebound
1 assist
1 steal
Although he did add 3 fouls.
JoeT had 4 rebounds so the thing about Connor getting rebounds is bogus. I think Sandfort should be playing more minutes. I have watched him whenever he is in. I think he plays pretty good defense - got beat a few times on backdoor cuts, etc. But so does connor. Payton shoots FT at 92% and fg at 40% but 3pt at 35%. All way better than Connor. If this had been happening all season, he wouldn't be an inexperience freshman, but a decent freshman with much more upside. JMHO
My point about rebounding is that Iowa needed Connor’s height (or Kris’) in the game to defend and box out the three Maryland players who were 6’8” or taller. Joe did a good job rebounding and playing defense against Maryland’s 5’11” point guard. Iowa would have struggled rebounding with three players in the game who were 6’3” or shorter when Maryland had four players on the floor who were 6’5” or taller though.
Trying to say Connor was taking Joe’s minutes last night would not be correct in my opinion. Connor was taking minutes from Kris and Payton though. There may be teams that Iowa plays where the other team is shorter but than Maryland and then this argument could be used.
last 2 minutes? That might explain the end of game.
Down the stretch is going to be those last 8 to 10 minutes... which is what we were talking about.
I think Connor deserves about 5-10 mins a game and hate his dad's nepotism but he deserves to have his name spelled correctly after 5 years in the program. If you dipshits need to defend him at least learn his name
Again, more head scratching decisions by Fran when it comes to Joe T first half against wisky. He's on fire to start, then sits for a very long stretch. Ulis not effective and Bohannon his usual defensive liability and not producing any perimeter offense.
Yeah I watch off the ball…PMac and CMac constantly get beat on the back cut and never have good rebounding position.
