Highlight White. Aaron White becoming a fan favorite
- Thread starter Franisdaman
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Miss that dude. We need his toughness and leadership on this team. Too bad some players didn't like him because he was too competitive.
The Ginga Ninja was pretty awful on defense his first few years as a hawk. We remember senior Aaron White, but underclassman Aaron White had some bumps on the road.
He is my favorite Hawk, but Garza and a few others have similar potential to impress and reach success!
He is my favorite Hawk, but Garza and a few others have similar potential to impress and reach success!
Few underclassmen didn’t have bumps in the road. Hopefully for the sake of Hawkeye basketball he is surpassed, but for now he’s my obvious choice as Player of the Fran Era
I hope he gets an NBA look before his career is over
By far Fran's best recruit out of high school. When one finishes 2nd all time in scoring at Iowa after 4 years, I'd say that Fran did OK.
By far Fran's best recruit out of high school. When one finishes 2nd all time in scoring at Iowa after 4 years, I'd say that Fran did OK.
Tyler Cook is clearly Fran's best recruit out of high school. If Tyler stays 4 years would be on pace to finish ahead of White in scoring.
What White did was amazing as he was never really the primary scorer. He was the consumate garbage man, and that's what made him special.
Tyler is going to go overseas to play professionally and to get away from our dumpster fire. He said coming out of high school he would only be here 2 years
Whatever, all of his dunks have amounted to very little success on the court.
Ive seen many thousands of less athletic players win more games.
I'm saying Aaron is Fran's best player at Iowa. The 2 years things was supposed to mean that he isn't leaving because he's Fran's best, it's because he had that mentality coming in that he would leave after 2, regardless of if he was good enough
Yep. Think of it as the best of each country's individual pro leagues featuring (currently) 16 teams total (some countries have multiple teams though, for instance Spain has 5). Aaron plays for Zalgiris, which is in Lithuania and is one of the 11 "A" licensed (permanent) members of the league.
It's not a reach to say it's the second best pro league in the world. They play a 37 game Euroleague schedule plus Lithuanian league games every year.
It's his first year with the team and is definitely a move up.
He was a special player for us. Looks to be the same for his international team. Glad to have met him once downtown walking around, nice kid.
What was kinda weird with white was he finally decided to start shooting from the outside with only a few games left in his career. As it turned out he should of started much sooner.
he had a knack around the basket; and he got fouled alot; crazy that he is #2 on the all time Iowa scoring list
While I hope that Tyler stays at Iowa, I'm not sure that his leaving wouldn't be the best thing for everyone involved. For all his explosive power around the hoop, he can be a black hole on offense, and has issues in the team concept on both ends of the floor. Just have this feeling that if we used Nunge as a stretch four, and let Garza play on the block we'd be more effective. I'd use a solid dose of Kreiner at the four and five. Fill in minutes at the four with Baer or Pemsl when we can go smaller.
As for comparing White and Cook, Tyler needs to occupy the ball to get his points, while Aaron did most a lot of his scoring by cleaning up the glass. He was also one of the best free throw shooters for a big in Iowa history, and had a knack for getting to the stripe.
Yeah, I'm guessing Cook leaving wouldn't be addition by subtraction as it relates to the Iowa basketball team and their win totals next year. Does Cook have areas to improve on...absolutely. Would we be a better team with him in the lineup...absolutely! The guy averaged 15 and 7 as a sophomore and is only getting better. I understand why Iowa fans would try to convince themselves that we would be better off without Tyler Cook, but that is just people taking crazy pills.
Your entitled to your opinion of course. Sorry if you think anyone who doesn't agree is crazy. For the record, I said I hope he stays, but I'm not convinced that as a group in the team concept, the offense wouldn't run smoother without Cook, and we couldn't be any worse defensively. I still see Nunge as a very similar player to Utoff, and think the offense would run better with a true stretch four who can score from anywhere on the floor, and I think he could potencially be a much better defender. Its not far fetched to see Nunge duplicating those 15 and 7 numbers, not to mention the chance for a more defined role for Kreiner spelling Nunge and Garza. The open scholly would give the staff the chance to rework the roster away from the current one with too many bigs and not enough quality guards. Along with Wagner and Ellingson's departure they have a chance to straighten out this current mess. On top of it all, I have some doubts that Cook really wants to stay at Iowa, so maybe its time to make lemonade out of the lemons. Just one guys opinion of course.
The thing is we have way to many post players and "stretch" 4s.
Cook and Garza together make for a truly awful defensive combination and thats reality. Despite all the points they score the team still gets blown out half the time.
They're both posts who, in order to be on the court and have a chance to have their teams be regularly susscesful need to play next to a good defensive and rebounding 4/5.
The defensive problems are obviously far from being just their fault but their weaknesses really compound eachother.
Im not saying Cook should leave, he shouldn't, but overall I dont think it would be that big of a deal either.
Best case would be if the nba people tell him the truth that you will never set foot on an nba court with that kind of D and he wakes up and decides to get better.
So you’re saying we have too many 4’s, so it wouldn’t be a big deal if the best one left? Not sure that makes much sense. And KC, the crazy pill comment was a movie quote that I think applies quite well to the faction of fans that suggest we are better off without Cook. It seems to me people making that comment are just trying to rationalize Cook leaving.
Yes, but I don't think it will happen. He's been in Europe now for a few years. It looks like he's carving out a nice career over there. But just like the convo that is happening about Cook, the NBA is a different beast. Even the guys deep on the bench for a team may have been stars in college. Aaron isn't quite big enough to be an NBA PF, and he isn't quite skilled enough to be an NBA SF.
If a player doesn't have what would be considered a great all-around game in college, they better be elite at something(defense, rebounding, shooting, etc). That is how guys like Ryan Bowen and Reggie Evans carve out long careers in the NBA without being stars. Even Jared Reiner, who led the Big Ten in rebounding one year, only played parts a few NBA seasons by being a good rebounder and defensive player for a 2nd or 3rd string center. The only thing that Aaron would be considered elite at is drawing fouls and dunking. But there are tons of guys who can do that coming out of college every year.
That's too bad because he's probably my 2nd or 3rd favorite Iowa player of all time. If he'd been born 30 years earlier he probably would have been on an NBA roster at this point in his career. The NBA game is just different now and there are way more great international players which makes it harder for guys like him to find a spot.
I understand what your saying, i just don't agree that Iowa would be any worse without Cook then they were last year. Yes, he's our most explosive athlete, but he also contributes to many of the negatives about last years teams play. I'm also not convinced that Cook has more long term upside then Garza, Nunge, or maybe even Kreiner when it comes to total basketball skill set. Many people keep saying that Cook will become a much better perimeter shooter, and free throw shooter with more practice. Maybe he will, and maybe he won't. There's no certainty in that. Some guys just don't have the shooters eye, or hand eye coordination. I've said this before, "I hope Tyler stays and works his ASS off". " I hope he becomes an AA, and 1st round draft pick". I just have no expectation that he will become that player, nor will I be bent if he heads on down the road.
It actually makes allot of sense. Because the guys behind him dont suck, Baer, Kreiner, Pemsl Nunge, they've mostly just playing out of position.
Nunge and Kriener both have allot of offensive ability.
I agree with you. All good points and Aaron is one of my all time favorites too. When you stop and think about it, and I have, isn't it something how the NBA gets solid international players and we send some of our players overseas? I'd rather see our favorite players play here but if they don't have what the NBA teams require, then it is a blessing for them to compete overseas. Kevin Pangos, one of my favorites who played for Mark Few at Gonzaga, and is from Canada, is a teammate of Aaron's.
Suggesting there won't be a drop off, or minimal drop off going from Cook to Baer, Kriener, Pemsl and/or Nunge is nuts, but if it makes losing Tyler Cook easier to handle, I guess do what ya gotta do.
back to the original point of this thread, great to see Aaron White have success in Lithuania. He is playing for a great franchise with fantastic fan support. White is carving out a great career regardless of whether he suits up in an NBA game.
Define drop off.
Points? More than likely.
Defensive stops, rotations, rebounds, turnovers, spacing, ball movement?
Wins?
Points, wins, drawing double teams, creating opportunities for others as a result of constant double teams. Anticipated improvement in all facets of the game going from a sophomore to junior as he has a higher ceiling than any of the other players mentioned. Look, I don't disagree that Baer, Pemsl and Kriener can be nice role players, but I think that is their ceiling at this level. The suggestion that simply replacing Cook with any/all of them and it not negatively impact our teams potential is naive at best. If you don't see a major gap between Cook and the others mentioned, I don't know what else to say? I guess we're reaching the point of agreeing to disagree. I think its pretty obvious that if you surveyed 100 D1 coaches and asked them if you would rather have Cook or any of the others...it would be unanimous. Additionally, I think its fair to say we have a much better chance of being a tourney team with Cook than without. There is a reason almost every broadcast crew referenced Cook and his abilities, athleticism, attention paid by opposing defenses and pro potential...I don't think you heard that once as it relates to the others. I'm not trying to eat our own, just being realistic when comparing a player like Cook with the others. I get why Iowa fans are creating the narrative that we will be fine without him, but if we're being honest, we have a much higher ceiling as a team WITH him. I don't think there is any doubt about that. It reminds me when Ricky Davis declared as a freshman and quite a few folks said he had no chance, we're better off without him, etc. I'm not suggesting Cook will be drafted in the 1st Rd like Davis, but I see parallels as it relates to Iowa fans trying to suggest we're better off without him.
I'd agree with the ceiling on Baer and probably Pemsl. We certainly know what Nick is at this point. I'm talking about Nunge's ceiling, and it certainly possible that it could be higher then Cook's if Jack was playing a position more suited to his talents. As far as Kreiner, he obviously not the athlete that Cook is, but I don't believe we've seen his full skill set brought to bare yet as well. I see him as an excellent complimentary player filling in for the Garza-Nunge duo.
He had that TC mentality of throwing everything down any time he got a chance!
The baseline alley-oop dunks were the shiz-nits!
Cook has no where near the potential of Ricky Davis.
Iowa was terrible with him last year and not a small part of it was his fault.
He doesn't creat opportunities for other when doubled, he turns it over. Double teams take him out of the game.
You're seeing all the good and hoping all the bad somehow disappears. Some of it might but he is a really bad defender, playing next to another really bad defender. Its very difficult to win that way.
I agree that the best team Iowa could field next year would have Cook there. But at the 5 IMO. Baer at the 4, Wieskamp at the 3.
I would love it if Cook stayed and played the 5 next year but thats not going to happen because Garza is going to play 5 no matter what.
Again, he and Cook are a very poor combination defensively and both would be better not playing with eachother.
You cant just look at individual peices you have to look at the whole.
With Wieskamp, Baer, Garza Iowa will improve over Baer, Cook Garza. That I am nearly sure of. That gives you significant defensive improvment at 2 spots.
Im not trying to justify anything because I dont think this team will be very good with or without him unless the guard situation does a 180.
Not having Garza in the best five category tells me all I need to know about your observations and opinions as it relates to this team and the talent within.
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