New Story ***Hawkeyes land Chicago PG Ahron Ulis***
- Thread starter Blair Sanderson
- Start date
Whelp, you were completely right. Powell just committed to Houston.
I'll remain cautiously pessimistic about this class as a whole, but at least Ulis looks like a solid get.
Happy to have him. Fran is doing what everyone asked for, finding more athletic, playmaking point guards. We have 2 now.
Connor is a tough, smart player, who makes the right passes and plays physical defense. His shooting, although he makes free throws, wasn't good, and he is not quick enough to stay in front of the quicker PGs. His size, positioning, and physical play make up for a lot of his lack of quickness. He was in the game at crunch time because he understood what needed to be done and he made very few mistakes. Besides, it was his freshman year. I hope he becomes our back up PG, but he is a valuable player.
I am going to say we have three with CJ Fredrick. Hopefully he proves me right.
Next year we will have JoBo, CMac, CJF, Touissant, and Ulis at the 1 and 2. Gonna be tough to get everyone minutes. I would assume that Ulis wont see meaningful minutes until 2021. If Jobo comes back this year, that could change.
And that will be a great problem to have. Think of what we did this past season with our limitations at the 1 and 2.
Ulis really gives Iowa some depth and competition at PG going forward. If his 3-pt shot gets better, I could see him playing beside Toussaint to give Iowa a nice back court, sort of like what we may see this year with Toussaint and Evelyn.
2020-21 (as of now, assuming Bohannon redshirts and Wieskamp returns):
Bohannon (RSr.) - PG/SG
Pemsl (RSr.) - PF
Till (RSr.) - SF/PF
Garza (Sr.) - C
Nunge (RJr.) - PF/C
Connor (RJr.) - PG
Wieskamp (Jr.) - SF/SG
Fredrick (RSo.) - SG
Patrick (So.) - SF
Toussaint (So.) - PG
Ulis (Fr.) - PG/SG
??? (Fr.) - PF/C?
??? (Fr.) - SF?
Five guards, including four PGs, with Wieskamp able to slide over to SG as needed. Bohannon, Joe W. and hopefully CJ will be primary 3-point shooters. Ulis will have time to acclimate to the college level, either playing limited minutes or redshirting. Three experienced post players, as well as Till (we'll see how he develops), but no one behind them for depth. Any incoming big man (hopefully Foster) will get immediate minutes.
Bohannon (RSr.) - PG/SG
Pemsl (RSr.) - PF
Till (RSr.) - SF/PF
Garza (Sr.) - C
Nunge (RJr.) - PF/C
Connor (RJr.) - PG
Wieskamp (Jr.) - SF/SG
Fredrick (RSo.) - SG
Patrick (So.) - SF
Toussaint (So.) - PG
Ulis (Fr.) - PG/SG
??? (Fr.) - PF/C?
??? (Fr.) - SF?
Five guards, including four PGs, with Wieskamp able to slide over to SG as needed. Bohannon, Joe W. and hopefully CJ will be primary 3-point shooters. Ulis will have time to acclimate to the college level, either playing limited minutes or redshirting. Three experienced post players, as well as Till (we'll see how he develops), but no one behind them for depth. Any incoming big man (hopefully Foster) will get immediate minutes.
I agree...Fran did have problem recruiting quality PGs as well as stocking enough of them on the roster. That is why we ended up with Ellingson and Dailey as our backup PGs one year. I like that Fran has at least started getting guys with potential that can develop. Whether Fran has a good eye for underated, athletic PG talent is TBD and will make or break Fran's run at Iowa.
So there is a potential for 5 more scholarship players? Amazing.
Iowa badly need some interior players in this class - all of the current interior players except Nunge are upperclassmen. Foster would sure make a nice start to filling that need.
Did Connor’s rough baseball season eliminate any likelihood of him switching over to baseball full time after a year of playing next to Pat? I still see that as a possibility, which would potentially allow Bohannon to return as starting PG in 2020 with Toussaint backing him up, and Ulis to redshirt
Fredrick sounds like he can be a primary ball handler (much like Bohannon) but may be more effective off the ball if his shooting is as good as advertised
Fredrick sounds like he can be a primary ball handler (much like Bohannon) but may be more effective off the ball if his shooting is as good as advertised
It seems that Bohannon might play more of SG when he comes back. And I have read where Ulis said the staff told him they think he can play both Guard roles. So with those 2 and Frederick, you have guys that can be combo guards and be interchangeable.
I too think this recruit is evidence that C McC will move into the 2 or 3 spot. Connor will be a junior in 20-21 on a team that will have Jordan and Joey T at point guard and at least one incoming freshman, Ahron, at that position as well. Jordan is light years ahead of C as a PG. If Joey T is half as good a PG as his hype, and highlights, say Joey T will also be way ahead of C in PG skills. Assuming, for the sake of argument, Ahron red shirts that still does not leave many minutes at PG.
Not to be misunderstood, C does possess all the intangibles you seek in a player: smart, knows where to be and how to get there, what to with the ball, etc... C's physical, tough and a good leader when he's on the floor.
But...……..
his shooting was horrendous as a freshman. C had only two games over .500, neither in 2019, and only a handful of games where he was at .500 by virtue of going 1-2. Probably the worst shooting percentage any Iowa guard, that played regular minutes as part of the usual rotation, in my memory. For context, Johnny Lickliter, playing only 175 minutes and even that because there was literally no other reserve point guard on the team, managed to shoot 10-35 from 3; C was 6-29. From a kid that has spent his career since probably 12 years old facing the basket 20.7% is a head scratcher, especially for a good athlete and coaches kid.
You just cannot give the defense a free safety able to roam a 20 foot area of the court because his man has only a 1 in five chance to make a shot outside of a layup range. I think C will dramatically improve that percentage but I would also not bet the farm on it because his form is U-G-L-Y (that's right it ugly).
Not to be misunderstood, C does possess all the intangibles you seek in a player: smart, knows where to be and how to get there, what to with the ball, etc... C's physical, tough and a good leader when he's on the floor.
But...……..
his shooting was horrendous as a freshman. C had only two games over .500, neither in 2019, and only a handful of games where he was at .500 by virtue of going 1-2. Probably the worst shooting percentage any Iowa guard, that played regular minutes as part of the usual rotation, in my memory. For context, Johnny Lickliter, playing only 175 minutes and even that because there was literally no other reserve point guard on the team, managed to shoot 10-35 from 3; C was 6-29. From a kid that has spent his career since probably 12 years old facing the basket 20.7% is a head scratcher, especially for a good athlete and coaches kid.
You just cannot give the defense a free safety able to roam a 20 foot area of the court because his man has only a 1 in five chance to make a shot outside of a layup range. I think C will dramatically improve that percentage but I would also not bet the farm on it because his form is U-G-L-Y (that's right it ugly).
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How come Ulis FT% is a sign of shooting potential while Connor is a lost cause?
That is where he played in baseball. And why would you want to lose him in basketball, where he was a valuable player on a pretty good team.
Uh, are you sure you read what I wrote?
What part of
Not to be misunderstood, C does possess all the intangibles you seek in a player: smart, knows where to be and how to get there, what to with the ball, etc... C's physical, tough and a good leader when he's on the floor.
made you think "lost cause"?
I even went so far as to say
I think C will dramatically improve that percentage
when it came to C's obviously awful shooting percentage. Not sure how you get to "lost cause" from that optimistic statement.
I'm one of C's most vocal defenders but even a fan cannot ignore the inability to shoot dramatically offsets all of C's other skills because it frees up a defender to clog passing lanes and get a good jump on passes. I'm not more confident that his shooting will improve because C really has a bad shooting form, all wrist, no upper body or arm strength, unsquared shoulders and a kind of weird little kick. If C's shooting does not improve to the Anthony Clemmons range C's utility will dramatically diminish.
Didn't really mention Ahron's shooting at all, indeed I'm assuming he won't play until C's a senior so any projection about Ahron's shooting, good or bad, at this point would be somewhat speculative, especially given the lack of video on the kid. I think I said "assuming for the sake of argument" that Ahron would RS his freshman year because he'll be buried on the roster. Plus, even his coach said Ahron needs to work on shooting.
Although, to answer your point, Ahron won't need to be a great, good or even average shooter to be more accurate than C McC; he just cant be worse than John Lickliter.
I made the original post in a different thread commenting on Ulis’ FT percentage, but in no way feel Connor is a lost cause. Opposing teams/fans already can’t stand him, and he did most things outside of shooting reasonably well for a freshman. Shooting even picked up a bit towards the end of the year. His improvement is going to be slowed quite a bit with the time he has and will dedicate to playing two sports though. If he continues to play beyond next year, I wouldn’t be surprised to see him spend more time at the 2, as Deplorable said
I was just curious if there was any update to his plans following a rough baseball season, especially since the new recruit plays his position
My post was very positive about Connor, so maybe you responded to the wrong person? I never said his shooting was a lost cause, just that it WASN'T good. It definitely wasn't. I didn't like his stroke and his shot was very flat, but hopefully that will improve.
It’s all good. Connor looked confident and smooth taking a huge shot at a key moment of the Cincinnati game. I have no doubt that his issues are mostly mental last season.
Actually C McC's shooting got progressively worse as the season progressed. I think everyone was surprised that he took and hit that shot against the Bearcats. The previous game, Michigan, C was 1-5; 1-6 against Bucky two games before Cincy.
If you remember the Cincy defender had backed 6-8 feet literally daring C to take a shot.
But, freshmen become sophomores and C is a good athlete, hard worker I'm told and probably knows his shooting deficiencies better than any of us. Plus he seems to be rather on the high end of competitiveness as a personality trait and it has to burn his ass to see defenders six feet away from him. To be effective opposite Jordan or Joey T C is simply going to have to get that percentage up to 30. As I said, I think he will do it but the shooting form creates reservations.
Plus, C's going to have another guy, CJF sharing the roster for three years and CJ has a good looking shot with a very quick release.
If you remember the Cincy defender had backed 6-8 feet literally daring C to take a shot.
But, freshmen become sophomores and C is a good athlete, hard worker I'm told and probably knows his shooting deficiencies better than any of us. Plus he seems to be rather on the high end of competitiveness as a personality trait and it has to burn his ass to see defenders six feet away from him. To be effective opposite Jordan or Joey T C is simply going to have to get that percentage up to 30. As I said, I think he will do it but the shooting form creates reservations.
Plus, C's going to have another guy, CJF sharing the roster for three years and CJ has a good looking shot with a very quick release.
His 3 point shoot actually was better not “progressively worse” as the season progressed. Statistically WAY better.
That is not what happened on that play at all.
Do you enjoy must making stuff up, or are you so old and senile you think that is what happened?
here's the game by game link.
https://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/player/gamelog/_/id/4277950/connor-mccaffery
here's a rough breakdown
1st ten games 1-7 = 14.2%
2nd ten gams 0-4 = 0 %
rest of the season 5-19 += 26.3%
so, the shooting 3pt shooting did improve from laughable to just very bad. you'll notice a couple of games, however, surrounded by long stretches of bad shooting, kind of inflate the average down the stretch. gotta give the kid credit for not doing much of what he doesn't do well, a very unappreciated quality.
the larger point remains the same, however. a 36.1/20.7 field goal shooter is simply unable to keep defenses offense honest.
After reading your original post I DID go through the game by game stats and why I said your “progressively worse” was inaccurate. You could even say the last 5-7 games were “not bad”.
Agree that Connor has not shot the ball well. His handle (for his size) and passing are definitely above par- which has kept him on the floor. I do think he’ll shoot better this year- partially motivated by playing with his brother. However, he’ll always do not quite as well as he could because of doing 2 sports, which could also be contributing to his injuries. This is why I think BE and JoeT have opportunities this year to start over Connor and, if they can shoot adequately (and one well), then over CJ too.
I have a feeling connor will be much improved in all phases of the game
Welcome Ahron, nice to have a Ulis join the Hawks. You'll like Iowa City, the people and the school.
It's great to be a Hawk!
It's great to be a Hawk!
With this young backcourt you have to like idea of having a 23 year old grad student as an option. Based on the video and reports thus far, if Bakari doesn't start the coaches should be prepared to go to him right away if the younger guys struggle early in games.
BirdistheWord
HB Legend
BirdistheWord
HB Legend
Yes, he is kind of a SF/SG tweener, but for arguments sake you are correct. I was responding to the debate about how we are going to find minutes for our future log jam at guard.
The challenge is that Ulis, Jobo, Tous, and CJF are not nearly as big as Weezy. But I could envision any combination of 3 of those guys on the floor.
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