******Iowa St vs Iowa Game Thread******

[LukaDuka]

Ok

I think the questions about the in-game coaching--game planning was actually excellent by Iowa--besides timeout usage was lack of giving the starters more rest by going deeper into the bench or giving the bench more minutes. When asked about that in the post game presser, Fran was a bit snippy saying the team didn't have tired legs, but shooting seemed to contradict that. In fairness, I don't know the status of Traore's ankle, but feel the Hawks need his athleticism on the floor. The big question on Fran has to be recruiting and balanced roster construction. I think the excellent game plan gave the Hawks a good chance to win against a bigger, more athletic and experienced team. While defense and rebounding are certainly not strengths, that is as much like a recruiting issue as a coaching issue.

Defense & rebounding are definitely coachable. And it requires effort. Iowa doesn't do either well. Although I thought their first half defense was as good as I've seen, they were helped with ISU 1-9 three point shooting. Dembele was much more active on the boards last night. He needs to bring that effort every game & play him 18-20 minutes, especially if he can hit the three's like he did.

And I still didn't like have Harding & Thelwell playing all those minutes. They needed the extra ball handler, but if Ladji can hit those three's it opens the lane for Freeman. Fran needs to figure out line ups and rotations.

 

[CyberJJ]

Defense & rebounding are definitely coachable. And it requires effort. Iowa doesn't do either well. Although I thought their first half defense was as good as I've seen, they were helped with ISU 1-9 three point shooting. Dembele was much more active on the boards last night. He needs to bring that effort every game & play him 18-20 minutes, especially if he can hit the three's like he did.

And I still didn't like have Harding & Thelwell playing all those minutes. They needed the extra ball handler, but if Ladji can hit those three's it opens the lane for Freeman. Fran needs to figure out line ups and rotations.

Agreed with most of your points. Defense and rebounding can be taught up to a point, but there is an upper limit based on the athleticism of the players you have. Fran and staff have not showed great competence in teaching those two parts of the game, just suggesting that his recruiting and the type of player he targets and/or is able to get to commit also provides and upper limit in those two areas. I agree with you their first half effort last night was as good as I have seen, but they seemed gassed late in the game. That too can be part of the coaching effort in number of players in the rotation (also impacted by recruiting), minute management and time out usage.

 

[MesaClone]

Take it easy clone..your team can still get unlucky in NCAA tourney and be bounced out early. This is thread on Iowa, not for you to pump up your team and make your feel better.


Building a roster is part of coaching. The end result is what defines coaching. Fran didn't lose the game based on his 2hrs of bench coaching. He lost it in roster construction and a flawed system that doesn't emphasize defense.

Of course they could get bounced...no team is free of that risk. As for this thread, its about basketball...and the discussion has bounced between analysis of Iowa and its Thursday night opponent Iowa State. Not sure why that's an issue for ya.

Your last paragraph, couldn't agree more.

 

[kceasthawk]

Dr. Tom had NBA players: Marble, Lohuas, BJ, Gamble all on the same team I believe. Much better talent than Fran has brought in.

I believe the good Dr. inherited most of those future NBA players or draftee's from some guy named George Raveling. Marble, BJ, Eddie Horton, and Kevin Gamble (a high school team mate of Ed Horton) were not "brought in" by Tom.

 

[skydog0784]

I liked the starting lineup change and shortened rotation except Fran took it to the extreme. We needed a Top 8, not 7 effectively. You can't go at the pace and intensity with three guys going 39, 36 and 31 minutes.

In addition to better use of timeouts; Trarore, Dembele, and Pryce (only getting 4 minutes is inexplicable (unless he was sick or something that I missed)) needed to spell our exhausted players more. Heck, I thought Tadjo played okay at MI and could have banged around down low for awhile.

 

[CyberJJ]

Take it easy clone..your team can still get unlucky in NCAA tourney and be bounced out early. This is thread on Iowa, not for you to pump up your team and make your feel better.


Building a roster is part of coaching. The end result is what defines coaching. Fran didn't lose the game based on his 2hrs of bench coaching. He lost it in roster construction and a flawed system that doesn't emphasize defense.

Agreed. His gameplan was excellent, and I thought he schemed for the talent he had. Great spacing and offensive flow. I question the lack of timeout usage to give his players a blow, especially if you are only going to play eight overall, yet still have key starters with >35 minutes of floor time. They looked gassed to me at the end of the game.

 

[Jimmy McGill]

I am not seeing it. Was a huge Fran fan early on. But his teams have been mediocre at best. Move to Butler Fran.

 

[HoustonREDHawk]

Besides getting murdered on the offensive boards, there were a couple of plays where Iowa had a chance to open up a sizable lead, but we were outhustled or sloppy with the ball and gave away the opportunity. I remember one in particular about midway through the second half, when Iowa was up by 9 and ISU turned it over. Two Iowa players were heading down the court with no defender, but Harding turned the ball over near half court. ISU hit a quick 3 and a potential 11 pt lead became just 6. I can't remember the details of some other opportunities. I give ISU credit, they never stop giving 100% effort, and have the green light to be aggressive.

 

[LukaDuka]

I believe the good Dr. inherited most of those future NBA players or draftee's from some guy named George Raveling. Marble, BJ, Eddie Horton, and Kevin Gamble (a high school team mate of Ed Horton) were not "brought in" by Tom.

But he did coach them to better success than George did.

 

[hawkjt]

Besides getting murdered on the offensive boards, there were a couple of plays where Iowa had a chance to open up a sizable lead, but we were outhustled or sloppy with the ball and gave away the opportunity. I remember one in particular about midway through the second half, when Iowa was up by 9 and ISU turned it over. Two Iowa players were heading down the court with no defender, but Harding turned the ball over near half court. ISU hit a quick 3 and a potential 11 pt lead became just 6. I can't remember the details of some other opportunities. I give ISU credit, they never stop giving 100% effort, and have the green light to be aggressive.

Critical play where refs missed Lipsey over and back that resulted in a 3. Refs also blew another call that resulted in another 3.
Bricks 3 open court turnovers cost us 8 points.

That was a razors edge game that Hawks could have easily won.
Fran only had one unused timeout in the end and I suppose he always want to keep one for end game situations.
Could have used the one taken w 12 seconds left 3 minutes earlier to rest his shooters who shot tired down the stretch.

 

[HawkLogic]

Of course they could get bounced...no team is free of that risk. As for this thread, its about basketball...and the discussion has bounced between analysis of Iowa and its Thursday night opponent Iowa State. Not sure why that's an issue for ya.

Your last paragraph, couldn't agree more.

I don't go to ISU boards so my issue is a bunch of posts by ISU fans where they try to complimentary when in reality they just want to pump themselves up about how great ISU is. I don't think your posts were egregious, but again, I'm not a fan of Iowa fans going to Other boards and posting or of other fans coming here.

 

[Hawks2405]

Besides getting murdered on the offensive boards, there were a couple of plays where Iowa had a chance to open up a sizable lead, but we were outhustled or sloppy with the ball and gave away the opportunity. I remember one in particular about midway through the second half, when Iowa was up by 9 and ISU turned it over. Two Iowa players were heading down the court with no defender, but Harding turned the ball over near half court. ISU hit a quick 3 and a potential 11 pt lead became just 6. I can't remember the details of some other opportunities. I give ISU credit, they never stop giving 100% effort, and have the green light to be aggressive.

That was also a 2nd missed call by the refs that ended up being a big swing for them. Harding made a horrible turnover, but the ISU player stepped on the mid-court line and it should have been our ball and they hit a 3 on that possession. Ref also botched one where it was clearly off of the ISU guy and they gave them the ball where they hit another big shot. Those calls matter in these types of games.