Iowa now #21 in Kenpom rankings. Discuss.

[Obviously Oblivious]

That’s a lofty slot for these Hawks in the early season.

Can this squad find a way to grow and sustain their rising reputation?

 

[HawkLand]

It’s just nice to be there after playing well with a solid schedule. I always hated having pretty good teams that were always digging themselves out of a computer ranking hole due to incredibly soft schedules.

 

[Hawkfan_08]

I would not be shocked to see the Hawks ranked next week and the following. I never would have guessed we would be sniffing the top 25 this year with what we lost (including Bohannon) and the brutal early schedule.

Instead: we lose to two ranked teams and a team with 1 loss. Iowa picks up wins against a ranked TTU team in a neutral site, a Cincy team that will float inside the top 100 on a neutral site, an ISU team on the road, Minnesota at home.

Not too shabby.

 

[hawkiniowacity]

Rising reputation? We dropped from 20 to 21 after tonights game.

 

[HeRKeYHoPeFuL]

The defense has jumped up to #88... Our two biggest areas of improvement this year seem to be that our defense is much better, and our ball security (this game should be our worst for turnovers). Our offense is so highly rated because we're getting shots and rebounding well enough to by hyper efficient when we are getting shots. Our defense has really done a better job this year of forcing turnovers, which when you combine the two is why our statistical profile is so strong.

 

[Chishawk1425]

The defense has jumped up to #88... Our two biggest areas of improvement this year seem to be that our defense is much better, and our ball security (this game should be our worst for turnovers). Our offense is so highly rated because we're getting shots and rebounding well enough to by hyper efficient when we are getting shots. Our defense has really done a better job this year of forcing turnovers, which when you combine the two is why our statistical profile is so strong.

I agree a few too many open 3s but the. D is vastly improved..

 

[HeRKeYHoPeFuL]

Yeah, they're still over-helping some, but with Frederick, Evelyn, and Toussaint they can actually recover out to the shooters sometimes this year to take a few open looks away.

I'd say Joe W has also arrived on the defensive scene. From my eyes, I thought Frederick was our best perimeter defender (well, excluding Toussaint, as he hasn't played as many minutes yet), but Joe W has been on the opponent's best player this year and has really performed well.

 

[perryhawk]

The defense has jumped up to #88... Our two biggest areas of improvement this year seem to be that our defense is much better, and our ball security (this game should be our worst for turnovers). Our offense is so highly rated because we're getting shots and rebounding well enough to by hyper efficient when we are getting shots. Our defense has really done a better job this year of forcing turnovers, which when you combine the two is why our statistical profile is so strong.

Mike Decoursy (sp?) even talked about how good we were playing on defense tonight! When's the last time we heard a neutral announcer say that?

 

[H4wkfan4life]

underrated