...is with Iowa players moving their feet and staying in front of their man. Not just this game but in a lot of them.
Greatest Improvement I've Seen...
- Thread starter BlackNGoldBleeder
- Start date
Adding in CJF, JT, BE and Connor having a year under his belt all replacing Moss, JBo, Dailey have had a massive impact.
There's nothing wrong with Joe W, but he went from maybe the Hawks best wing defender last year to maybe the worst this year. And that's a good thing.
Their switching has been better and smoother this year as well. Nowhere near as many guys open because a switch was missed (2 guys on one offensive player with the next guy over wide open).
I think Luka is in better shape and is moving better, although he is still far from quick on defense. At the other positions, we replaced pretty lousy defenders (especially at the 4) with pretty good ones. Connor is playing better than I thought he could, on defense in particular. I'm pleasantly surprised how much moving him to the 4 has helped the team on both ends. Except for Luka, we are playing more like the positionless BB that Fran sometimes talked about.
No more part-time defensive effort and execution guys. CJF is there to compete every possession. Same for Joe T. Connor, same. Garza, same. Buncha dudes competing and it’s contagious up and down the roster.
Saturday going to be interesting. PSU is going to try to punk these guys with physical high-effort D.
I’ll be there fourth row man I cannot wait.
Saturday going to be interesting. PSU is going to try to punk these guys with physical high-effort D.
I’ll be there fourth row man I cannot wait.
The other thing you might notice if you go to the games, is the amount of talking on defense. You cannot guard very well as a team without communication and this team seems to be in constant communication about what they are doing. This is what good teams do.
Stopping the ball far better this year than anytime in the previous three seasons.
Joe T, CJ and CMac all stop the ball well. Joey W is sufficiently athletic to be a decent ball stopper. Garzilla seems to be getting more blocks and killing good drives more often that he has previously.
Not yet great defenders but the offensive firepower is pretty impressive and we can win scoring contests if we just don't give up 90.
Joe T, CJ and CMac all stop the ball well. Joey W is sufficiently athletic to be a decent ball stopper. Garzilla seems to be getting more blocks and killing good drives more often that he has previously.
Not yet great defenders but the offensive firepower is pretty impressive and we can win scoring contests if we just don't give up 90.
Have folks also noticed that Garza isn't always staying on guards following a switch anymore? It looks like the team has figured out that it's better to just have him show while the guard recovers before scrambling back to the post.
Possibly the biggest defensive adjustment I've noticed scheme-wise this year, and it seems to be paying big dividends, as we aren't getting Garza mismatched on the perimeter, we aren't having guards get abused in the post following switches, and the combination of those are then keeping us out of foul trouble.
Looking at Kenpom, there's some weird things going on this year.
Overall, across CBB, it looks like everyone is playing a bit faster, but being less efficient.
The Hawks are currently 3rd in ORtg at 114.8 (pts per 100 possessions), they were 15th last year at 117.4.
They are 91st in DRtg at 95.5, they were 111th at 101.3 last year. 95.5 last year would have put them at 33rd.
They are 128th in AdjT (tempo) at 71.2, last year they were 84th at 69.5.
A funny thing with their tempo stat, their average possession length is 43rd, their opponent's poss length is 271st. Which means the Hawks are pushing the tempo and their opponents are slowing them down. Maybe it's philosophical, maybe it's strategic, don't know.
One thing I noticed on their defensive stats, they're pretty good at getting steals, but really bad at forcing other turnovers (double dribbles, offensive fouls, bad passes that go out of bounds, etc). Nothing else really sticks out as bad, everything is just kind of average. Last year they were bad at getting turnovers, bad at interior defense (that includes guards getting to the rim, so on the perimeter defender) and bad at giving up offensive rebounds.
Overall, across CBB, it looks like everyone is playing a bit faster, but being less efficient.
The Hawks are currently 3rd in ORtg at 114.8 (pts per 100 possessions), they were 15th last year at 117.4.
They are 91st in DRtg at 95.5, they were 111th at 101.3 last year. 95.5 last year would have put them at 33rd.
They are 128th in AdjT (tempo) at 71.2, last year they were 84th at 69.5.
A funny thing with their tempo stat, their average possession length is 43rd, their opponent's poss length is 271st. Which means the Hawks are pushing the tempo and their opponents are slowing them down. Maybe it's philosophical, maybe it's strategic, don't know.
One thing I noticed on their defensive stats, they're pretty good at getting steals, but really bad at forcing other turnovers (double dribbles, offensive fouls, bad passes that go out of bounds, etc). Nothing else really sticks out as bad, everything is just kind of average. Last year they were bad at getting turnovers, bad at interior defense (that includes guards getting to the rim, so on the perimeter defender) and bad at giving up offensive rebounds.
Oh, and early (maybe before) in the season I made the point that they didn't need to be great defensively, just get to good and maintain their offense. I made point of that by saying to be elite they need the difference between ORtg and DRtg (AdjEM) to be around +20, being good would be around +18. They are currently at +19.26...they were +16.02 last year.
MD finished last year at 19.29, and a record of 23-11 (20-9 regular season). Iowa's projected record this year...20-11, so pretty darned close to what MD did last year. As I said in another thread, if they can flip a couple of their projected toss up losses (almost all of their toss up games are projected losses) and not have any upsets, they can have a fantastic year, maybe 22-9/23-8 and 12 or 13 B1G wins.
MD finished last year at 19.29, and a record of 23-11 (20-9 regular season). Iowa's projected record this year...20-11, so pretty darned close to what MD did last year. As I said in another thread, if they can flip a couple of their projected toss up losses (almost all of their toss up games are projected losses) and not have any upsets, they can have a fantastic year, maybe 22-9/23-8 and 12 or 13 B1G wins.
It's strategic. We are pushing the tempo looking for open shots in transition, and our press, as mentioned several times during each game by the announcers, is meant to slow the opposition down and provide them with only about 15-20 seconds to run their offense instead of the full shot clock.
But looking at opponents, a lot of times it's philosophical on their part to run a lot of clock to try to limit possessions. Of the good teams Iowa has played, a bunch of them play slower. TTU, SDSU, Cuse, Minn, Mich. The bad teams have been split, but I'd think Iowa is good enough to force them to play a certain way strategically.
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