Hawkeye Women's Hoop season
- Thread starter IowaNiceHawk
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68 points in one half? Did our girls even go down to the other end of the court?
Quite amazing. Iowa probably would have been wise to not try and make this one up. Stunning lack of defense.
MD is at another level from the rest of the BT. I hope Lisa pulls the starters after 3. Iowa has tomorrow off then 4 games in 9 days.
Maryland talent advantage is huge. I am guessing every player on their team would start for Iowa. Defense is not good , Maryland can do no wrong and, as often times happens.. the aggressive team with the talent is getting the benefit of the doubt from the refs. Add it all up and it is a rout!
Agree, but I would love to see just one of the travels called that Maryland's gals seem to do every time they pump fake and drive.
Two Maryland players collided as one was dribbling ... I half way expected a foul to be called on Iowa!
I always wondered how well teams could shoot from 3 in a game if they weren't guarded. Looks like I got my answer today.
111-93 final. Taiwo played extended minutes but not a lot of minutes for the bench. This was not a game we were expected to compete but extremely dissapointed in Bluder for not going to her bench for extended minutes. I really think Bluder needs to retire.
I referenced a rout above but actually (leaving aside the lack of defense) the Hawkeyes showed some admirable stick-to-id-ness and maintained offensive intensity to avoid embarrassment in my mind.
I loved Iowa's effort. With Maryland not missing it would have been easy to get pissy and quit. The offense was terrific. I loved we scored off the Maryland press. Sixteen turnovers isn't terrible with Maryland pressing most the game, and as fast as the game was. Maryland is a Top 10 team with much more size and quickness. They're going to get open shots. If they ain't going to miss, not much can be done.
It was a 14 point game with six minutes left. Technically a ball game. Maryland still had their starters in and was still pressing.
This seems like an overreaction. The program has had more success in the last few years than it has since the 90s. Recruiting is also better now than it has been in a long time. I'm not sure Coach Bluder will ever lead Iowa to a Final Four or National Championship, but how many coaches around the country would?
What I do know is that things could be a whole lot worse. If Coach Bluder retires, there's no guarantee a new coach would do better and significant risk that he or she would do worse.
Iowa's success has been limited under Bluder. We have 2 big ten tournament titles one sweet 16 and one Elite 8. There were also several years where we lost our 1st round game or were one and done.
Bluder has had success recruiting but for the most part it hasn't translated to on court success outside the Elite 8 run.
Bluder has been at iowa for more than 20 years now. I realize that if she left it might be another Dr Tom scenario. Perhaps she could turn the program over to Jan Jensen for a few years and we bring in a defense minded assistant who can be groomed as the coach in waiting to keep continuity and avoid defections.
I realize we lost a lot the past two seasons but the staff has also failed to build any depth and it's glaring. And way the defense had been exposed in the past two games and most of the season makes me so sick.
A change is risky but waiting is also risky. The further removed from the Elite 8 run, the harder it's going to be to attract coaches or players.
Bluder went 39-13 (.750) the last 3 years combined in conference play, with back-to-back 14-4 conference seasons. That's pretty rarified air, even if it's not C Vivian level. While Bluder has more than earned her right to see how far she can go with Clark as the bell cow, I hope she is not lulled into optimism by the high recruiting rankings of the next 2 classes. Unless Ediger and Affolter, or perhaps a transfer or late recruit, can provide immediate and substantial help on the defensive end, next year will be another defensive disaster, though hopefully Iowa has fallen as far as they can go. Iowa is currently ranked 224th on defense by herhoopstats advanced metrics (in comparison to the previous 5 years of 86th (2020) 54th (2019), 52nd (2018), 59th (2017), and 143rd (2016). The current group, as a whole, simply lacks the athleticism necessary to be a solid defensive team.
I think this off-season will be huge in determining the ceiling for the Clark era at Iowa. Does Clark want to be a great all-around player instead of just a great offensive player? Athletically there is a whole lot of room for her to grow into a good defender. She can also cut down on her turnovers some by just not forcing things as much.
Can Czinano stop being a defensive liability? I don't think her lateral quickness will improve much, but she can get better at positioning and being more aggressive as a shot-blocker. Just allowing the team to return to a regular 2-3 zone would be a huge benefit, but she has to put in the work to make that happen.
Can Martin become closer to the player we saw against Penn State than the player that disappears for entire games sometimes? Can Warnock become as good at defending as she is at rebounding?
Maybe the biggest question of all: can the coaching staff focus on and improve the defense? Other than turnovers, the offense is about as good as its going to get. There are ways to make a team defense better than the sum of its parts, but only if everyone buys in and wants to be good at it.
I really hope they make a lot of improvements on the defensive side of things in the off-season. We've never been a defensive team but this season we are awful. I think we also are really missing the home-court advantage as oftentimes the team would feed off of the crowd's energy on the defensive side of things. The bench hasn't really developed much but I see potential in Tomi. I feel like year we really needed more of those early preseason games in order for the younger players to get more minutes and development. Are any of the incoming freshmen defensive-minded that anyone knows of?
The last time Iowa's game at Michigan got delayed two years ago, Iowa lost the game and it contributed to Iowa not winning the Big Ten regular season championship. Maybe Iowa can return the favor this time.
Cook will be out for the BTT. If anyone else turns out positive then hopefully it's within the next couple days because then it could impact Iowa's ability to compete in the NCAA tournament. Hopefully all test negative.
Iowa has the opportunity to finish the regular season strong after this needed ranked win. They should easily beat Wisconsin this weekend then they have the opportunity for another top 25 win at Indiana next week.
The game time for Indiana is now listed as 3:30 on the Big Ten website.
The Big Ten office definitely has work to do. Oddly, that is the only game scheduled as of now from Monday-Thursday next week. I presume more makeup games will be added by the conference. At this point, the total games to be played by each team ranges from top four teams Rutgers with 12 and Michigan with 13 at one end, to Iowa at 19 along with bottom feeders Minnesota with 19 and Wisconsin with 20 at the other end. Everyone else will play 16-18. Third place Michigan and fourth place Rutgers have not played each other all season. They better play a doubleheader next week.
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Everyone cross your fingers no one else tests positive 🤞
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