Freeman and Harding Alert !

[IllQChawk]

At 6pm tonight Owen Freeman and Brock Harding and the Moline Varsity Basketball team begins their quest for the Illinois State Championship. Next March, it will have been 72 years since Moline finished 2nd in 1951. Moline plays a very good Milwaukee Lutheran team from the subdivision of Honey Creek Parkway in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Game begins at 6 with the streaming broadcast starting at 5:45. It is part of the Kevin Brown Memorial Tournament of Champions that brings in teams from all over the country.
For those Hawkeye basketball fans that what to listen to the game here are the instructions.
Go to QCSportsnet.com. scroll down the page until you see the names in BLUE of the local high school teams that are on the page. Click on Moline Maroons, on the next page click on Listen Live, on the third page click on the go button.
P.S., the Moline game is the second of 4 games, if the first game runs longer then anticipated the broadcast will also start later then the 5:45. Another thing, some of you expect perfection from the radio broadcaster doing the games, this is a high school game with amateur broadcasters and they make mistakes and get excited during the broadcast, but they do the best they can. ENJOY, I know I will....

 

[BustingNarratives]

If any Hawk fans would like to see Harding and Freeman in person I would suggest they attend a game at Moline's Wharton Field House. Think of Hoosiers but in a 6,000 seat gym. One of the best HS venues in the country. The atmosphere should be electric this year.

 

[chaneccooms]

 

[kceasthawk]

If any Hawk fans would like to see Harding and Freeman in person I would suggest they attend a game at Moline's Wharton Field House. Think of Hoosiers but in a 6,000 seat gym. One of the best HS venues in the country. The atmosphere should be electric this year.

Played there in 1976. Pretty cool venue indeed.......

 

[IllQChawk]

Moline lost to a very hot shooting Milwaukee Lutheran team 90 to 80. Moline got down by 26 in the first half and battled back to within 7 but could get no closer. Brock Harding finished with 34 and Owen Freeman had 18 although I had him with 21, but not being there and trying to staying up with the broadcaster was chaotic at best. Great opponent, they made a ton of 3's and had Moline on their heals all game. Good learning experience, we'll see if Moline can learn from this lose against Carmel, Indiana on Saturday night.

 

[General Tso]

If any Hawk fans would like to see Harding and Freeman in person I would suggest they attend a game at Moline's Wharton Field House. Think of Hoosiers but in a 6,000 seat gym. One of the best HS venues in the country. The atmosphere should be electric this year.

Used to love going to thunder games at Wharton. The Mark ruined the whole experience. Wharton was an early coaching stop for Red Auerbach and playing stop for Bob Cousy back when the Quads had an NBA team.

Wharton Field House - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

 

[IllQChawk]

Played there in 1976. Pretty cool venue indeed.......

The court is not the same as it once had an elevated floor and was very bouncy, but Moline a number of years ago lowered it to ground level and took away it's uniqueness. The building is the same though and the inside was repainted a few years ago.

 

[BXY]

.

 

[Franisdaman]

 

[Titanhawk2]

Never realized we had signed two kids from same school

 

[LaQuintaHawkeye]

Never realized we had signed two kids from same school

Pretty sure Owen transferred to Moline and that’s how Harding was discovered by Fran. Or they played on the same summer league team. Either way Owen was committed first.

 

[Franisdaman]

Owen to Brock. Get used to it, Hawk fans.

 

[HoustonREDHawk]

Bowen, Ulis, and Harding gives Iowa deeper and quicker PG depth than I can remember, and Tony might still be the starting PG.

 

[Mohawkeye]

Crazy you can have two division 1 power conference recruits on you high school team and still not win.

 

[SSG T]

Never realized we had signed two kids from same school

Freeman is from Kankakee, went to Bradley Bourbonnais HS. He's played AAU ball with Harding for a while now. He transferred to Moline this summer.

 

[Franisdaman]

 

[SSG T]

Crazy you can have two division 1 power conference recruits on you high school team and still not win.

It appears the team they played is one of the 2-3 best in Wisconsin.

 

[Mohawkeye]

View embedded media

Nice video on Freeman. I wouldn’t be shocked if he started for us next year at center. Seems very well rounded and fairly athletic.

 

[Franisdaman]

 

[Hawks2405]

Wisconsin Lutheran has Kon Knueppel who has multiple D1 offers, including Iowa. He is a top 100 player. They are a very good team.

 

[HoustonREDHawk]

Nice video on Freeman. I wouldn’t be shocked if he started for us next year at center. Seems very well rounded and fairly athletic.

Based on what we have seen from our back up centers, I would be very disappointed if Freeman doesn't start. An experienced big from the transfer portal could change that.

 

[IllQChawk]

I wasn't able to go see the game in person. but for those that did, I'd be very interested what defense Moline deployed in the first 2 periods, zone or man to man. Allowing the other team to score 10-3 pointers before the half, seems pretty crazy to me. Making 13 of 23 treys is going to win you lots of games at the high school level.

 

[IllQChawk]

Reminder: Owen Freeman and Brock Harding plays Carmel, Indiana at 5pm tonight on QCSportsnet.com.
Internet broadcast starts at 4:45. Just a reminder for those that what to listen.
I know, I know Iowa's radio broadcast starts at 5.

 

[HawkHoops80]

Just finished catching up on yesterday's Purdue game. If you haven't gotten a chance to watch them yet, they have a freshman PG that's starting that looks and plays eerily similar to Harding--Braden Smith. He even has a similar recruitment where he was thought to be a talented mid-major player due to being a bit small, but then Purdue took a chance and he committed immediately.
Watching Smith honestly make me feel so excited for Brock to get here. There are times on the defensive end where his height has a negative impact, but his PG skills are so damn good you can live with it. Hopefully Brock is able to replicate Smith's start to the year.

 

[IllQChawk]

Just finished catching up on yesterday's Purdue game. If you haven't gotten a chance to watch them yet, they have a freshman PG that's starting that looks and plays eerily similar to Harding--Braden Smith. He even has a similar recruitment where he was thought to be a talented mid-major player due to being a bit small, but then Purdue took a chance and he committed immediately.
Watching Smith honestly make me feel so excited for Brock to get here. There are times on the defensive end where his height has a negative impact, but his PG skills are so damn good you can live with it. Hopefully Brock is able to replicate Smith's start to the year.

Yah, I noticed that to, almost could be a identical twins, good shooter, plays tenacious defense, crafty as all hell, and a great distributer of the ball. Going to be a headache for the Big Ten for the next 3 years plus. Brock won't get that chance because of the point guards that is ahead of him. Hope to see maybe 1 or 2 years of him directing the offense.

 

[IllQChawk]

Moline won their first game of the year 63-54. Owen Freeman finished with 26 and Harding 14. After 2 games against teams from out of state, Harding s averaging 24 PPG and Freeman is averaging 22 PPG. Freeman gathered a ton of rebounds in this game against Carmel but the game was just too fast for me to keep track of. P.S. The Sunday morning paper said he had 14 rebounds and 3 blocks.

 

[mazda1]

We need a physical power forward in addition to all the bigs we have coming. Portal HELP please.

 

[IllQChawk]

For those Iowa fans that live close to the Quad-Cities, tomorrow night is going to be Owen Freeman's and Brocks Harding's first home game of the year against the Galesburg Silver Streaks at 7pm in the old venerable and historic Wharton Field House. Come early as it will likely be a sellout.
As with the first 2 games, if listening to the game is a better option, follow my instructions to QCSportsnet.com. at the beginning of this thread.

 

[HawkRugged17]

For those Iowa fans that live close to the Quad-Cities, tomorrow night is going to be Owen Freeman's and Brocks Harding's first home game of the year against the Galesburg Silver Streaks at 7pm in the old venerable and historic Wharton Field House. Come early as it will likely be a sellout.
As with the first 2 games, if listening to the game is a better option, follow my instructions to QCSportsnet.com. at the beginning of this thread.

Great image for Galesburg ...

 

[owenhawk]

Based on what we have seen from our back up centers, I would be very disappointed if Freeman doesn't start. An experienced big from the transfer portal could change that.

I think it will be imperative for Fran to get an experienced C/PF next year. Even if Freeman is ready to step-in and start, would be nice to have a strong, athletic veteran big man by his side and those two could start at the C and PF spots.

Unless I see a lot more from Josh O and/or Mulvey, I'll just assume the will be nothing more than back-ups or be transferring after this year.

I think the team will be set at 1 - 3 positions and won't be targeting the portal there but definitely need to try and bring in some big guys.

 

[hawksense]

It’s still quite possible that someone in the program develops into a serviceable center body by next year. Hell, even this year!

 

[HoustonREDHawk]

It’s still quite possible that someone in the program develops into a serviceable center body by next year. Hell, even this year!

Remove the 'quite', and I might agree.

 

[IllQChawk]

It’s still quite possible that someone in the program develops into a serviceable center body by next year. Hell, even this year!

Josh only has this year and next, to transform his body to where he could help Iowa on a more expanded role. Not sure if that is any more possible then Iowa winning the Big Ten. He does appear to have some skills but other then pretending to be a brick wall he can't play but a few minutes without running out of energy.
Mulvey on the other hand, has no excuse to fail. The kid has skills but doesn't seem to have the motivation to push himself to make Fran take notice and use him more. For whatever reason he hasn't shown he wants to take on a bigger role then just sitting on the bench and acting as a cheerleader. Still has 2 years left, but playing experience is a big part of gaining confidence and Riley can't gain confidence playing as little as his does. Too bad Garza's father can't be hired to push him to be better, what a waste so far.
In the end, lets hope one of them can be capable of providing Iowa with some extended minutes before their eligibility is exhausted, but then maybe that would be the best for everyone.

 

[HIWILLE]

Don’t want to start a new thread on this but Last night went to Davenport West vs Iowa City West scrimmage to check out Jake McCaffery. He didn’t shoot real well but finished with 15 points. The kid that stood out was Davenport West Junior point guard Jermilyn Gardner who finished with 21 pts. If there is a quicker PG then this kid in Iowa High schools please tell me who. It was a tight game till the end as Iowa city west prevailed 56–51.

Fran and his wife was there but left at the end of the first quarter I believe. I’m Thinking he may have went to Bettendorf to watch Cade Wilkins and if so Cade didn’t disappoint as he finished with 27 points. Bettendorf beat Cedar Rapids, Washington, 72–66.

 

[BBHawk]

Don’t want to start a new thread on this but Last night went to Davenport West vs Iowa City West scrimmage to check out Jake McCaffery. He didn’t shoot real well but finished with 15 points. The kid that stood out was Davenport West Junior point guard Jermilyn Gardner who finished with 21 pts. If there is a quicker PG then this kid in Iowa High schools please tell me who. It was a tight game till the end as Iowa city west prevailed 56–51.

Fran and his wife was there but left at the end of the first quarter I believe. I’m Thinking he may have went to Bettendorf to watch Cade Wilkins and if so Cade didn’t disappoint as he finished with 27 points. Bettendorf beat Cedar Rapids, Washington, 72–66.

Jack.

 

[owenhawk]

Josh only has this year and next, to transform his body to where he could help Iowa on a more expanded role. Not sure if that is any more possible then Iowa winning the Big Ten. He does appear to have some skills but other then pretending to be a brick wall he can't play but a few minutes without running out of energy.
Mulvey on the other hand, has no excuse to fail. The kid has skills but doesn't seem to have the motivation to push himself to make Fran take notice and use him more. For whatever reason he hasn't shown he wants to take on a bigger role then just sitting on the bench and acting as a cheerleader. Still has 2 years left, but playing experience is a big part of gaining confidence and Riley can't gain confidence playing as little as his does. Too bad Garza's father can't be hired to push him to be better, what a waste so far.
In the end, lets hope one of them can be capable of providing Iowa with some extended minutes before their eligibility is exhausted, but then maybe that would be the best for everyone.

After seeing in person Fran getting so frustrated with Riley in the Omaha game, I am assuming it is an ongoing issue to try and motivate him and have him play with toughness/energy.

He was literally screaming at Riley every possession there was a miss to "REBOUND".

I think that might be one of the hardest part of coaching for these college coaches - trying to figure out if a kid is going to be self-motivated, going to be able to handle the mental adjustments and obstacles at a higher level, and just overall have that "drive". They can have all the physical skills and ability and size but you really are never going to fully know if they have that other piece.

 

[IllQChawk]

Just returned from the Moline/Galesburg game. Fran and his youngest son Jack was in attendance and saw Moline whip Galesburg by the tune of 91-32. Moline starters only played until 5 minutes remaining in the 3 quarter with Owen netting 23 on 14 of 14 FG attempts and 1 of 2 at the line. All but 1 field goals attempted were made around the basket. Brock finished with 22 and probably by his own admission had an off night shooting 3 from around the basket but missing a bunch of bunnies that just weren't finished, 4 of 10 from beyond the arc, and also was 4 of 4 from the line. Not much else to say as it was a mismatch from the beginning.
PS: yes, Freeman had 11 FG not 14 and I had him with 11 attempts but that could be wrong also. Such is the life of a 74 year old, problem is, Moline does not release the players statistics to the general public after the games.

 

[HIWILLE]

I just got home myself from there and I thought both are pretty damn good players but like you said competition was not good. Both are Very Very quick and can’t wait to see them both playing for Iowa. I think you meant 11 of 11 FG attempts tho. 😉

 

[IllQChawk]

Moline plays again tomorrow Dec. 3 at 2:30pm in Urbana, Illinois. streaming broadcast begins at 2:15pm on QCSportnetcom. Urbana is 0 and 4 on the season so far.

 

[goodbyebobby]

Just finished catching up on yesterday's Purdue game. If you haven't gotten a chance to watch them yet, they have a freshman PG that's starting that looks and plays eerily similar to Harding--Braden Smith. He even has a similar recruitment where he was thought to be a talented mid-major player due to being a bit small, but then Purdue took a chance and he committed immediately.
Watching Smith honestly make me feel so excited for Brock to get here. There are times on the defensive end where his height has a negative impact, but his PG skills are so damn good you can live with it. Hopefully Brock is able to replicate Smith's start to the year.

Smith seems much bigger.