ADVERTISEMENT

*****Iowa vs Illinois Game Thread*****

This does happen. Just more often to people that aren’t real pg’s. Patrick is not a ball handler. He’s just a guy who can dribble against average pressure. When teams get agressive with him, his ball handling is poor.
He doesn’t even look comfortable dribbling with no pressure. Watch him, he has all these random high dribbles for no reason. It’s really wierd.
Look, he’s a good off guard, just not a pg.
I agree that he's not a pure point guard, but Tony averages 2 turnovers and 2 steals per game. Considering how much he handles the ball, it's not a problem. The problem today was 5/14 shooting, not turnovers.
 
  • Like
Reactions: longliveCS40
I'd love to see Harding on the court in crunch time, but Perkins offense is more important then putting Harding and Perkins at guards, if Fran did that, Iowa would need either or both of Dix and Payton playing the 3, 4 spot. That put's Freeman as Iowa's only post player guarding the frontline as Payton plays the wing to get off his 3 point shots. As much as Krikke is a defensive liability, Iowa needs his offense, that leaves Brock sitting on the bench and playing under 10 minutes a game.
Picking up Krikke from the portal and promising him starter minutes was a mistake by Fran for valuing his offensive game and not caring about his defensive deficiencies. Just another reason I don't trust Fran using the portal to make Iowa better, does he even use his assistance to give him advise. I think not, they're probably all yes men..!
 
  • Like
Reactions: BirdistheWord
I agree that he's not a pure point guard, but Tony averages 2 turnovers and 2 steals per game. Considering how much he handles the ball, it's not a problem. The problem today was 5/14 shooting, not turnovers.
Turnovers at that level don’t come from bringing the ball up the court. They come from driving and having to make decisions. Iowas pg’s don’t get turnovers because they are perimeter passers while waiting for pindowns and cross screens. When the shot clock runs down we have no effective penetrator. That also kills us at the end of games when the defense stiffens. It’s kind of like Iowa football defenses Achilles heel prior to the cash position. When teams got into scenarios where that had 4 plays to get 10 yards our bend but don’t break philosophy struggled.

Fran hates when pg’s penetrate and mess up his motion. That’s why we rarely have a real pg playing.
 
I'd love to see Harding on the court in crunch time, but Perkins offense is more important then putting Harding and Perkins at guards, if Fran did that, Iowa would need either or both of Dix and Payton playing the 3, 4 spot. That put's Freeman as Iowa's only post player guarding the frontline as Payton plays the wing to get off his 3 point shots. As much as Krikke is a defensive liability, Iowa needs his offense, that leaves Brock sitting on the bench and playing under 10 minutes a game.
Picking up Krikke from the portal and promising him starter minutes was a mistake by Fran for valuing his offensive game and not caring about his defensive deficiencies. Just another reason I don't trust Fran using the portal to make Iowa better, does he even use his assistance to give him advise. I think not, they're probably all yes men..!
I think we’d get a ton more clean 3pt looks with that lineup. Harding Perkins sandfort dix and freeman would do well in that regard. You would think you at least try it. Well we know why he won’t. Who am I kidding.
 
Same thing.

3 TOs in last 5 minutes today.

When I say handle pressure I mean someone who can drive the ball and create looks against a physical half court defense when the reffs are swallowing the whistle at the end of games.

Most of the time that's a pg. Keegan was that guy, I don't think Kris was ever really that guy.

Dix yeah, but a 5 can't really be the go to guy.
Kris was definitely that guy last year. He had to take a ton of shots late in the shot clock and at the end of games.

A big guy can be your go to at the end of games but I agree you have to have ball handlers that are at least competent enough to feed them the ball. Luka was a clutch guy that they looked for late in games. He often drew double teams leaving someone an open look. I think Freeman will garner similar attention in the future.

A future roster of Harding, Dix, Freeman, possibly Dembele, and a shooter, possibly Pryce looks solid to me. I do think the future looks bright with the core of Harding, Dix, and Freeman.

Sandfort was supposed to be our go to at the end of games but he just is too streaky this year.
 
I think we’d get a ton more clean 3pt looks with that lineup. Harding Perkins sandfort dix and freeman would do well in that regard. You would think you at least try it. Well we know why he won’t. Who am I kidding.
agree and this is why I feel FM willingly sacrifices team success for his children. Pathetic and proves he lacks character IMO.
 
Kris was definitely that guy last year. He had to take a ton of shots late in the shot clock and at the end of games.

A big guy can be your go to at the end of games but I agree you have to have ball handlers that are at least competent enough to feed them the ball. Luka was a clutch guy that they looked for late in games. He often drew double teams leaving someone an open look. I think Freeman will garner similar attention in the future.

A future roster of Harding, Dix, Freeman, possibly Dembele, and a shooter, possibly Pryce looks solid to me. I do think the future looks bright with the core of Harding, Dix, and Freeman.

Sandfort was supposed to be our go to at the end of games but he just is too streaky this year.
we have no one with exception TP sort of who can break down a defense or create their own shot.
 
we have no one with exception TP sort of who can break down a defense or create their own shot.
I will also add, Tony played some defense on Shannon and he got 7 defensive rebounds. Iowa the team got 21 and Illinois had 14 offensive rebounds. Getting 21/35 defensive rebounds is not very good and is why we didn't get a lot of stops and Perkins was only guy that really got a lot of defensive boards.. Perkins is the one guy on the team that can play above the rim. Freeman does block a lot of shots and is great, but I wouldn't call him a sky walker. Illiniois has 3 or 4 guys crashing the rim for offensive rebounds that are above the rim players, more muscled, quicker.

I like this Iowa team---lot of skill. We are weak in defending in the paint and rebounding in the paint. Next year it will be addition by subtraction in that area and hopefully Dimbele develops. We still need perkins and better overall team athleticism/muscle. A lot of the success next year depends on Perkins returning because Fran is doubtful to bring in a quality guard from the portal based on the fact that he never has at Iowa. Evelyn Bakari was a bench player.
 
You're funny! Why would you want Iowa to win the next 3, so they could get into the playoff games in Dayton and either lose there or in the first round. Iowa is not good enough to win 3 of the remaining games and even if they win 1 game in the BTT you want Iowa to get a 8th or 9 seed so even it they win the first round game they get a number 1 seed, so you can bitch that Fran didn't get to the 2nd week again. OK.
Me, this team is not strong enough or savvy enough to do any good in the NCAA's and I'd rather see them get into the NIT and at least get 1 home game and maybe make a run giving the 4 freshmen more post game experience, but hey knock yourself out thinking Iowa has a chance to get into the round of 64 or whatever, you'll blame everything on Fran either way.
Mohawkeye LOVES fran, so don't think you have to worry about him being unhappy with Fran if the team made it to NCAA and was 1 and done. A lot of Fans are pretty happy just making the NCAA and winning 1st game sometimes.

I'd always rather see Hawkeyes win final 3 and make NCAA. Eventually it is possible that Fran will get lucky and some other team will knock off a high seed and Iowa will have a winnable game to make sweet16. I think that would be Fran's ceiling because he doesn't focus enough on defense in his system.

Wisconsin won the NIT last year and there was a lot of talk about how it jumpstarted them this year....but then they lost a bunch of games because their talent is not as good as Illinois.
 
Kris was definitely that guy last year. He had to take a ton of shots late in the shot clock and at the end of games.

A big guy can be your go to at the end of games but I agree you have to have ball handlers that are at least competent enough to feed them the ball. Luka was a clutch guy that they looked for late in games. He often drew double teams leaving someone an open look. I think Freeman will garner similar attention in the future.

A future roster of Harding, Dix, Freeman, possibly Dembele, and a shooter, possibly Pryce looks solid to me. I do think the future looks bright with the core of Harding, Dix, and Freeman.

Sandfort was supposed to be our go to at the end of games but he just is too streaky this year.
Iowa needs guys in the mold of Jahmir Young, Ace Baldwin, Tyson Walker, Boo Buie, Chuky Hepburn.

Guys who can put the ball on the floor against physical man defense, get around the defender and make the defense react.

Kris may have had to take the last shot often but he's not a guy who fills the type of role the above guys do.

The problem is I'm not sure how many of those guys Fran would even let play.
 
we have no one with exception TP sort of who can break down a defense or create their own shot.
Dix created his own shot on at least 5 or 6 occasions tonight. The majority of his 20 points were on self-created shots.

Everyone needs to understand that this was a really good athletic team that Iowa faced tonight on their home court. Iowa lost because Freeman was totally dominated down low and Freeman, Sandfort and Perkins were a combined 10/30 shooting while Hawkins did whatever he wanted to do, scoring 18 above his season average. Meanwhile, their star point guard Shannon Jr was held to 12 points and 3 assists, 10 points below his season average. Tonight wasn't really a guard problem. It was more of a physical/skill mismatch at the forward positions.
 
Iowa needs guys in the mold of Jahmir Young, Ace Baldwin, Tyson Walker, Boo Buie, Chuky Hepburn.

Guys who can put the ball on the floor against physical man defense, get around the defender and make the defense react.

Kris may have had to take the last shot often but he's not a guy who fills the type of role the above guys do.

The problem is I'm not sure how many of those guys Fran would even let play.
It would be great to have someone like that but I disagree that Kris and Keegan weren't those guys. They didn't bring the ball up the court but they often set up a clear out for them. That was our offense on many possessions and worked a lot with how talented they were creating their own shot.

Agree we need someone that can create one on one but disagree that it has to be a PG.
 
Iowa needs guys in the mold of Jahmir Young, Ace Baldwin, Tyson Walker, Boo Buie, Chuky Hepburn.

Guys who can put the ball on the floor against physical man defense, get around the defender and make the defense react.

Kris may have had to take the last shot often but he's not a guy who fills the type of role the above guys do.

The problem is I'm not sure how many of those guys Fran would even let play.
I agree with your comments.

The bolded is also, given history, probably true. Major reason IMO Iowa will never (under McCaffery) be a serious and consistent team that can compete on a national level (yes, they will have a few moments). Next year will be very telling if he does not play the only true 1 on the team and not jerk him around (like JT).

Has any one of the great Iowa teams ever not had an outstanding PG, do not think so.
 
Dix created his own shot on at least 5 or 6 occasions tonight. The majority of his 20 points were on self-created shots.

Everyone needs to understand that this was a really good athletic team that Iowa faced tonight on their home court. Iowa lost because Freeman was totally dominated down low and Freeman, Sandfort and Perkins were a combined 10/30 shooting while Hawkins did whatever he wanted to do, scoring 18 above his season average. Meanwhile, their star point guard Shannon Jr was held to 12 points and 3 assists, 10 points below his season average. Tonight wasn't really a guard problem. It was more of a physical/skill mismatch at the forward positions.
Freeman had the size mismatch on most of the Illini, he just really had trouble identifying their late double.

He was taking forever backing his man down but by the time he took it up there was another defender there that he wasn't recognizing.

Learning experience. Go faster.
 
Dix created his own shot on at least 5 or 6 occasions tonight. The majority of his 20 points were on self-created shots.

Everyone needs to understand that this was a really good athletic team that Iowa faced tonight on their home court. Iowa lost because Freeman was totally dominated down low and Freeman, Sandfort and Perkins were a combined 10/30 shooting while Hawkins did whatever he wanted to do, scoring 18 above his season average. Meanwhile, their star point guard Shannon Jr was held to 12 points and 3 assists, 10 points below his season average. Tonight wasn't really a guard problem. It was more of a physical/skill mismatch at the forward positions.
Iowa's problem in this game and in most B1G games has been defense by the interior players and defensive rebounding. In most of the games for the past month, Iowa's guards outplayed or at least neutralized the other teams' guards. Shannon is Illannoy's most talented player and he has been on a roll, but Iowa's guards, mostly Dix, held him in check, while scoring themselves. Tony and Josh are warriors. Freeman makes plays, but also makes freshman mistakes. Dembele gets zero respect from the officials and also makes freshman mistakes, but he will be a different player the next few years. The other interior players get dominated on the defensive end in most games. Krikke and Payton just don't have the physical tools. Patrick just doesn't participate in anything requiring physicality.
 
Iowa's problem in this game and in most B1G games has been defense by the interior players and defensive rebounding. In most of the games for the past month, Iowa's guards outplayed or at least neutralized the other teams' guards. Shannon is Illannoy's most talented player and he has been on a roll, but Iowa's guards, mostly Dix, held him in check, while scoring themselves. Tony and Josh are warriors. Freeman makes plays, but also makes freshman mistakes. Dembele gets zero respect from the officials and also makes freshman mistakes, but he will be a different player the next few years. The other interior players get dominated on the defensive end in most games. Krikke and Payton just don't have the physical tools. Patrick just doesn't participate in anything requiring physicality.
I agree wholeheartedly.
 
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT