I Actually Don’t Feel too Bad......

[HawkRose]

A lot of good points here. I think Iowa didn't play well for many of the reasons listed and they still had several opportunities to get back into the game. My biggest disappointments is that Iowa is a veteran team but panicked when Gonzaga grew the lead. Too many bad shots were taken when they should have been going through Garza more.

This. At the beginning of Zags run in first half our missed shots were Joe T 3, 2 Nunge outside shots, 2 Murray runners early in the shot clock. we need to learn to take our time and get key players touches.

I was also extremely dissapointed in Jbo’s effort. He was careless all day, We can’t have that from a senior leader.

 

[24 so far]

This. At the beginning of Zags run in first half our missed shots were Joe T 3, 2 Nunge outside shots, 2 Murray runners early in the shot clock. we need to learn to take our time and get key players touches.

I was also extremely dissapointed in Jbo’s effort. He was careless all day, We can’t have that from a senior leader.

We lost this game in the first half and looked bad doing it. JBo was awful and Nunge had a decent start then missed everything and took too many shots while doing it. They got what they deserved in the end I guess. Figured they would lose, but not the way they did.

 

[papabeef]

I agree. We couldnt make open shots, they couldnt miss, questionable officiating..... i like our chances in a rematch

nothing wrong with the officiating . have a decent 3 pt and free throw shooting day and we probably win . pretty hard to win with jbo , fredricks and connor having really bad day .

 

[CO_hawk]

We get a steal and Jbo throws it right back to Gonzaga. 4 on 1 on a rebound and Gonzaga ends up with it. Lose ball, no Hawkeyes go for the tie up.
Those things stand out to me.

 

[papabeef]

We lost this game in the first half and looked bad doing it. JBo was awful and Nunge had a decent start then missed everything and took too many shots while doing it. They got what they deserved in the end I guess. Figured they would lose, but not the way they did.

nunge was by no means perfect but played very well , did miss a couple bunnies .

 

[sober_teacher]

I thought there were several stretches where we played solid defense but Gonzaga just couldn’t miss at times. And I highly doubt we go 4/22 from 3 again. A lot of those misses were good looks.

 

[RocknRollface]

Free throw shooting and 3pt shooting need to be better against a team like Gonzaga. Frankly, our defense was fine and good enough to win the game. But if you’re going to play olé defense and give Gonzaga open looks, then you need to be able to crash the boards. That was what I was most disappointed in today. There was a stretch in the second half where we had a fantastic opportunity to really tighten the game up and Gonzaga was crashing the offensive boards and scoring quite a few second chance points.

3pt shooting aside (because every team is prone to poor shooting games), Gonzaga’s seven point advantage in second chance points and Iowa’s 12 missed free throws were well more than the difference in the game. With as experienced a team as we have, the poor free throw shooting is, quite frankly, unacceptable

Yes, people bitching about the exact same defense this team always plays are missing the point.

Gonzaga averages 93 a game.

Theres no scenario where anyone let alone Iowa stopps them from scoring.

Iowa shitt the bed on offense and rebounding.

I think they paniced when zags hit all those 3s and started taking bad rushed shots. Frans line change didn't help either.

Gonzaga was baiting them into letting the nonshooters chuck it up and they took the bait. Pat and Jack always take the bait. They need to stop.

Keegan usually doesn't make bad decisions but he looked goofy today too.

Iowa has enough weapons where no one can stop them from getting good looks.

 

[24 so far]

They played man probably half the game.

Neither really worked.

Im more disappointed in the offense the first half.

All those long stretches of play without Garza touching the ball.

Iowas offense needs to be able to make up for their lack of athleticism on D. But we had everyone except the good shooters taking all the shots.

A little bit better shooting, better free-throw shooting, and much better rebounding and Iowas


Yes, people bitching about the exact same defense this team always plays are missing the point.

Gonzaga averages 93 a game.

Theres no scenario where anyone let alone Iowa stopps them from scoring.

Iowa shitt the bed on offense and rebounding.

I think they paniced when zags hit all those 3s and started taking bad rushed shots. Frans line change didn't help either.

Gonzaga was baiting them into letting the nonshooters chuck it up and they took the bait. Pat and Jack always take the bait. They need to stop.

Keegan usually doesn't make bad decisions but he looked goofy today too.

Iowa has enough weapons where no one can stop them from getting good looks.

For a stretch there we had guys that shouldn't be shooting that much that were, but our "good" shooters weren't all that great today either so probably didnt matter. I'd still rather have those "good" guys shooting on a bad day either way however.

There really isn't any reason Iowa couldn't beat Gonzaga in a rematch, not concerned about that at all. Shoot bad with our Defense and you'll lose plenty. We shoot just OK and it's tight. We can do that.

 

[RocknRollface]

We missed 13 free throws they missed 10. Basically a wash.

One has no correlation to the other.

 

[The Governator]

While I obviously would have preferred the win, I don't think the sky is falling by any means. They averaged 5 made 3's per game coming in and hit 13. We averaged 12 prior to this game and only had 4. They shot out of their mind while we had an off day and we still had a chance to get back in it.

I think there's a lot to learn from yesterday by both players and staff. In the grand scheme of things, this won't hurt our resume come tournament time.

I love that Fran got this game on the schedule to test our mettle and get things worked out now rather than playing a weak non-con. I still think it's going to be one hell of a fun season.

 

[kceasthawk]

Suggs shot out of his mind. Gonzaga is not usually a good 3 point shooting team. He was the difference tonight. That said Fran better be stressing if they don't learn to play some transition D they are gonna see more of this.

I think most of us bought into a false narrative there about the Zags not being a good shooting team. The national media sold that up big time as well. The Fact is Gonzaga had only played THREE games. Kispert is a really good shooter. Suggs had been hurt for one of thse games and had only 5 or 6 threes so far this season. They had pounded everyone so bad they never really shot much from outside in the first three games, but they are obviously more then capable. Coach Few lamented they hadn't been able to practice much as a team but their a veteran team, and the two weeks they probably were in the gym alot individually working on their own shot. They are not a one trick pony.

 

[Hawk-A-Doodle-Doo]

It was all about perimeter shooting. That was the ENTIRE reason for the loss. Gonzaga missed about the same number of free throws. Rebounding was close enough not to be a primary factor, especially offensive boards. Overall shooting percentage was close. Blocks, steals, turnovers, total fouls...none of them dramatically favored Gonzaga...and in fact several at least marginally favored Iowa. Gonzaga's advantage in fast break points was negated by our advantage in post scoring.

At the end of the day, there was but one stat, and one stat only, that monumentally favored one team over the other...and that was 3-point shooting. The fact we were able to make anything resembling a competitive game out of it in the second half while putting on that full 40-minute exhibition of putrid outside shooting, should tell all of us that we actually are right there.

 

[hwk23]

Gonzaga is quick which always gives us problems, but, we shot it horribly from the field and from the ft line, rebounding was awful. We can and will be better at both. We win this game with only average numbers. We’ll get them next time. Pretty good experience for our guys.

Iowa wins if they shoot their average % from three, narrowly. On the other hand, Gonzaga shot much better than their average from 3. If both teams shoot their average from three Iowa wins by 10+.

 

[RocknRollface]

I think most of us bought into a false narrative there about the Zags not being a good shooting team. The national media sold that up big time as well. The Fact is Gonzaga had only played THREE games. Kispert is a really good shooter. Suggs had been hurt for one of thse games and had only 5 or 6 threes so far this season. They had pounded everyone so bad they never really shot much from outside in the first three games, but they are obviously more then capable. Coach Few lamented they hadn't been able to practice much as a team but their a veteran team, and the two weeks they probably were in the gym alot individually working on their own shot. They are not a one trick pony.

They're not a good outside shooting team besides Kispert, who didn't hit many of their 3s. They didn't shoot well in the second half.

Suggs was hitting step back 3s. That's not a consistent way for almost anyone to shoot.

No one said they were a one trick pony. I could make a list if 50 things that they are legitimately great at on offense, (like easily best in the country)and that list wouldn't include outside shooting.

Ayayi alone is so phenomenal at the things he does it blows my mind.

 

[littlez]

We basically never had the game under double digits the entire 2nd half. Nowhere near that simple to say if we shoot better we win. In fact that’s ridiculous. They scored whenever they needed to.

 

[RocknRollface]

We basically never had the game under double digits the entire 2nd half. Nowhere near that simple to say if we shoot better we win. In fact that’s ridiculous. They scored whenever they needed to.

Well, it entirely depends on how much better of shooting we're talking.

Gonzaga scored as often as they were capable of that day.

They didn't choose to pass up points just because they didn't "need" to.

They tried to score as often as they could.

In fact if Iowa shoots better it leads to less transition baskets for the zags.

 

[BirdistheWord]

Gonzaga looks like a #1 team. While Iowa did not play great, we are a Top Ten team, with room to grow.

I thought the effort was good, maybe not fantastic on defense but about par for the course.

As has been mentioned, Our 3 Point and FT shooting killed us. If we could have made 70% on FT's and hit 2-3 more 3 pointers, would have been a different ball game.

Takeaways:

Need to continue to ramp up JT with gradually more minutes, we will desperately need him to play well in the tourney against more athletic teams

JoBo may have to adjust his role to more of a spot up shooter and some point duties, he will get his touch back but struggles to dribble, pass and play D against top teams, more quality than quantity

I thought Nunge launched a few too many 3's but otherwise played very well, he needs more minutes to help with rebounding and defense

Keegan will need to play a large role by tourney time, his athleticism, hustle and shot blocking are critical

 

[BirdistheWord]

Well, it entirely depends on how much better of shooting we're talking.

Gonzaga scored as often as they were capable of that day.

They didn't choose to pass up points just because they didn't "need" to.

They tried to score as often as they could.

In fact if Iowa shoots better it leads to less transition baskets for the zags.

Great point. Our poor shooting led to an avalanche of rebounds for them as well as a well stocked buffet table of fast break points.