Iowa Men's Basketball announces full 2019-20 schedule
- Thread starter Blair Sanderson
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Exactly, and since it's a neutral site game instead of a road game this time, it seems pretty unlikely that Penn St. will be in the top 50 to give the game that status again.
If you want to be a championship program, this is the type of schedule you should be playing. You gain nothing playing cupcakes.
That’s not entirely true. You gain wins.
My younger cousin is a freshman playing for Cal Poly this year from Roselle Catholic in NJ, oh how I wanted Iowa to recruit him, now I’ll at least get a chance to check him out against my Hawks!
But what if you win the national championship playing cupcakes in the regular season?
I think that 18/19 wins against that schedule with getting to 20 wins in the B10 tournament puts us in pretty solidly......that schedule is very very tough....and if the selection committee is consistent with what they have said and done in the past we should not be on the bubble. Hopefully if that is the case, we are ready to play and well seasoned against tough competition and can make a run! LETS GO HAWKS!
My main concern is we've seen Iowa have great starts to a season only to fall flat during the final month or so of the season. Whether it's because of a lack of depth, wearing down the starters or the fact the league has figured out Iowa's offense and defense schemes, but three years of Fran's 9 have turned sour without the coaching staff knowing how to fix what's broken. That concerns me more then whether Iowa has the talent to make the NCAA tournament.
This team could be the deepest team that Fran has assembled, but again, Fran has struggled "in his mind" to keep everyone happy, which in the past has not worked all that well. If he can play a minimum of 8 to 10 players the bulk of the minutes and work the others in as needed or if injury's happen, I think we should be alright.
Again, when Iowa has struggled Fran has a history of playing the same players game in and game out, without changing the lineup to give those players that need a rest a break.
Two months can't get here quick enough!
This team could be the deepest team that Fran has assembled, but again, Fran has struggled "in his mind" to keep everyone happy, which in the past has not worked all that well. If he can play a minimum of 8 to 10 players the bulk of the minutes and work the others in as needed or if injury's happen, I think we should be alright.
Again, when Iowa has struggled Fran has a history of playing the same players game in and game out, without changing the lineup to give those players that need a rest a break.
Two months can't get here quick enough!
I posted this exact estimate in another thread yesterday. Get to 20 wins, however it happens, and we're dancing. This schedule is unreal.
I would venture to say that all but a few teams have rough patches late in the year.
Who was the last National Champion who played a cupcake NC schedule?
Tough NC schedule gets you prepared to play for Big 10 and National Championships. Iowa has had bench players get lots of minutes against the Savannah States of the world and zero minutes or contributions vs the upper echelon of Big 10 teams. Who would bring an engaged crowd, Savannah State or Syracuse?
Playing Savannah States allows FM to mix and match his lineups to prepare for Syracuse. Savannah State last season allowed every roster player to score a point, including Michael Baer who hit a three pointer in the last seconds of the game. Savannah State also brought in 12,500 fans last season, which I’m sure many were at their first Hawkeye game. It was a great crowd with the students being gone on Christmas vacation. Probably brought in a lot of fans who may not be able attend a big game.
If you honestly think it’s possible for Iowa or any school to schedule nothing but Syracuse type teams all non-conference long, then I don’t know what to tell you. I really don’t. Do you really think Iowa can schedule a home game vs P5 conf teams and not expect them to want anything from Iowa in return? There’s no real point in talking about this.
In the past, even when Fran had a lot of experience returning, he scheduled soft. Finally this season we will see the type of schedule worthy of a team with our experience. There are still cupcakes, 5 to be sure. Those are the games to build your bench. You missed my point.
Sorry I missed your point.
I don’t disagree Iowa has had a soft schedule at times in the past. I don’t think FM plays(played) the RPI game very well either. I’m sure FM has said on many occasions that the B1G schedule was usually good enough (not in so many words).
I thought you were wanting Iowa to replace cupcakes with P5 schools. That’s how I read your reply. Iowa plays 5 cupcakes out of 30+ games and two which they have no control over (Las Vegas Invite). I don’t think a weak schedule will be a problem this year.
https://msuspartans.com/schedule.aspx?path=mbballShow me a team with fewer.
Edit: hell, show me a team with only 5!
Charleston Southern is their chief cupcake -- Oakland, Eastern Michigan and Central Michigan -- are all Michigan teams that MSU has played for years, like Iowa used to do with Drake and UNI. 4 at home and 1 on the road.
https://mgoblue.com/schedule.aspx?schedule=1555
UM has their five cupcakes: App State, Elon, Houston Baptist, Presby, UMass Lowell. All 5 at home.
So, 2, both with 5? Look around at some of the blue bloods and you will see that 5 is by far the exception, not the rule.
The last time Iowa played a schedule this tough, they reached number 3 in the country (and after losing 3 non-conference games to eventual NCAA tourney teams at that), so anything is possible. Granted that team was likely better than this team, but they were still picked to finish 8th in the B10 that year and miss the tournament, so preseason expectations will probably be similar. I honestly don't know where Iowa will be picked this year going in. That team was also senior laden and ready for that competition though, this year's may end up without any of it's 3 anticipated seniors with Bohannon injured and Cook and Moss gone. If you knew they weren't going to be on the team, maybe Fran would've scheduled differently.
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