Iowa vs UConn 12pm ABC

[moondog24]

I give Bluder a lot of credit for being willing to greatly upgrade the schedule this season. With all five returning starters back she has shown a willingness to challenge her team to see if they can raise their level of play and make a serious Final Four run.

 

[KyleHuesmann]

Geez tough crowd. UConn was the national runner up last year. I’ve seen Iowa play Baylor twice, UConn twice, Maryland however many times….we hardly ever can hang with these kinds of teams. Today, we held our own.

This game was not a poor reflection of this team. I’ve done quite a bit of looking around in Twitter / Reddit and the takeaways for us are very, very positive. People expected us to be trampled by — best case — 20. Influencers with podcasts, YouTube shows, etc (including many UConn fans) — most of whom were firmly on the “overrated” train — are impressed with what they saw today.

This game felt huge, like a tourney game, but it wasn’t. This was preparation for NC state, ISU, MD, Michigan, OSU, Indiana, and the NCAA tourney. Few people are gonna vote us below #10, especially if everyone else #4-10 keep losing as much as they are.

Honestly we did way more than I thought we could, but still have a TON of room for growth. Stuelke, Affolter, O’Grady were basically nonexistent today, imagine how much better we can/will be when the bench gets into a rhythm (remember….the season is very young still). You can see this team doing the work, addressing problems in real time. We were never going to win this game, but we looked really good while losing.

BTW — I can’t be the only one who’s noticed that in other recent games, Bluder has been trusting Stuelke more and more… you can tell she thinks it’s only a matter of time for her to break through. She must be doing exciting stuff in practice to give her the green light on those drives.

I know that an L is an L, but for a team not named UConn, Stanford or South Carolina, an L like this early in the season can be very valuable. They literally have rosters full of McDonalds AAs, they’re gonna grab those 1 seeds. That fourth 1 seed is very much still in the air and we are looking like we aren’t gonna let it go without a fight.

My big takeaway was similar to this. They’ve had blowout losses to Baylor, Maryland and UConn in the past. Today, Iowa was right there the whole way when they were “expected” to have a similar result as past games.

 

[UpstreamHawkeye]

In this game Iowa probably had more time in the lead than UConn. In previous encounters with those teams Iowa's lead time could be counted in seconds.

 

[fish1hawk]

A little disappointed yeh. We led at half against a team that is a championship caliber year after year. But we had a shot. Size, talent advantage UConn but we had a shot. We will be a factor in the BIG and I will be at every home game to cheer them on. go Hawks

 

[EvilMonkeyInTheCloset]

On the flip side, For the most part Iowa has a bunch of catch and shoot players who cannot beat defenses off the dribble, Clark drawing all the attention is what causes defensive scrambles for the opposition and creates catch and shoot scenarios.
I agree she dominates the ball too much at times but I don’t agree with your overhyped thoughts.

I suppose we'll see how things play out come postseason, again......

 

[hawkod]

Geez tough crowd. UConn was the national runner up last year. I’ve seen Iowa play Baylor twice, UConn twice, Maryland however many times….we hardly ever can hang with these kinds of teams. Today, we held our own.

This game was not a poor reflection of this team. I’ve done quite a bit of looking around in Twitter / Reddit and the takeaways for us are very, very positive. People expected us to be trampled by — best case — 20. Influencers with podcasts, YouTube shows, etc (including many UConn fans) — most of whom were firmly on the “overrated” train — are impressed with what they saw today.

This game felt huge, like a tourney game, but it wasn’t. This was preparation for NC state, ISU, MD, Michigan, OSU, Indiana, and the NCAA tourney. Few people are gonna vote us below #10, especially if everyone else #4-10 keep losing as much as they are.

Honestly we did way more than I thought we could, but still have a TON of room for growth. Stuelke, Affolter, O’Grady were basically nonexistent today, imagine how much better we can/will be when the bench gets into a rhythm (remember….the season is very young still). You can see this team doing the work, addressing problems in real time. We were never going to win this game, but we looked really good while losing.

BTW — I can’t be the only one who’s noticed that in other recent games, Bluder has been trusting Stuelke more and more… you can tell she thinks it’s only a matter of time for her to break through. She must be doing exciting stuff in practice to give her the green light on those drives.

I know that an L is an L, but for a team not named UConn, Stanford or South Carolina, an L like this early in the season can be very valuable. They literally have rosters full of McDonalds AAs, they’re gonna grab those 1 seeds. That fourth 1 seed is very much still in the air and we are looking like we aren’t gonna let it go without a fight.

Overall I was very proud of how the team played today: fearless. Vs Creighton last year and K-State this year seemed tight except for Caitlin. Martin, Warnock, and Marshall acted like they belonged on the same court with UConn even though it's obvious they're not in the same league physically. Gabby was very fiesty on defense; all three of them were looking for their own shot, which is a sign of confidence.

Caitlin had a lot of points but clearly not the game we expect from her....give UConn a lot of credit for that. Unfortunately that makes two games in a row like that against them. Monica squelched but outclassed physically so not much you can do there; missed some bunnies that were probably due to intimidation. Did like her hustle trying to gather rebounds.

I feel much better about this team today....a building block for a long season.

 

[Franisdaman]

In this game Iowa probably had more time in the lead than UConn. In previous encounters with those teams Iowa's lead time could be counted in seconds.

19.38: Iowa Led
3:01: Game Tied
17.21: UConn Led
..........................................
40.00 Total

 

[Crazy Hawk]

If you would have told me they'd be up late in this game with Clark not scoring in the third I wouldn't have believe it. This team grew today. They didn't back down and some of the players who haven't played all that great until today had their moments of big time play. Bolds well moving forward.

 

[anon_salmfilsntd0b]

19.38: Iowa Led
3:01: Game Tied
17.21: UConn Led
..........................................
40.00 Total

This game can offer a TRUE learning experience for Iowa. We only lost this game bc we let up on defense and let them go on runs. They can watch film of this game and see exactly what went wrong, simply by following the defensive plays IMO.

YES, we’ve improved on defense, you can see them locking down mentally way more often than last season. Great to see and we should celebrate it (I’ve now seen two separate national WBB media personalities comment on our defensive improvement).

But this team must keep pushing. They have to learn how to keep it up for the whole game — Louisville, SC, Baylor, Maryland, Indiana all play this way. The bench has to buy in as well.

A defensive effort like today will win us a B1G tourney title, can probably get us to beat ISU, and can likely propel us to the Elite 8. But it will not get us to the Final 4 if we have to play Stanford, UConn, SC, Texas, or Tennessee to get there. Those teams will make those easy jump shots 100% of the time. Let up for 5 minutes and they’ll go on an 11-0 room just like UConn did today.

We simply have to learn how to lock down and get in the zone. Obviously, easier said than done, but this L is an opportunity to learn lessons and adjust NOW (as opposed to waiting 9 months). It will take multiple games to get there, so the timing can be very auspicious if we learn our lesson.

 

[EvilMonkeyInTheCloset]

Did we watch the same first half? Nika Muhl is one of the best perimeter defenders in women's college basketball and Clark torched her for most of the half off the dribble. Clark needs to pass up some of the off-balance threes and attack the basket more.

I didn't watch the 1st half.

I only saw the 2nd half where UConn clamped down on her.

 

[creslin_hawk]

Caitlin struggled from 3 all weekend, but played well otherwise. It looked to me like she might have worn down as the game went on, I think she played all 40 minutes. I just dont think Iowa can make the next hop until she can get 5-10 minutes rest in a game like this, I was hoping Davis would be able to provide that, but it seems like Bluder doesn't feel like she can trust her to do that yet. If Gabby shoots a little better and Catilin hits on some of those Iowa could have won. The reality is that Iowas margin for error is smaller than Uconn, and Iowa needs to develop the bench a bit more. Stuelke seems like the best shot to make a huge leap right now, but Davis might settle in a bit as she gets more playing time and starts develop chemistry with the team. It would have been great to be able to play a 3 point sharpshooter (Mccabe) for a couple of minutes as well, but she needs to find her range and settle in. Im hoping we are more like 10 deep by march.

 

[anon_salmfilsntd0b]

Caitlin struggled from 3 all weekend, but played well otherwise. It looked to me like she might have worn down as the game went on, I think she played all 40 minutes. I just dont think Iowa can make the next hop until she can get 5-10 minutes rest in a game like this, I was hoping Davis would be able to provide that, but it seems like Bluder doesn't feel like she can trust her to do that yet. If Gabby shoots a little better and Catilin hits on some of those Iowa could have won. The reality is that Iowas margin for error is smaller than Uconn, and Iowa needs to develop the bench a bit more. Stuelke seems like the best shot to make a huge leap right now, but Davis might settle in a bit as she gets more playing time and starts develop chemistry with the team. It would have been great to be able to play a 3 point sharpshooter (Mccabe) for a couple of minutes as well, but she needs to find her range and settle in. Im hoping we are more like 10 deep by march.

So far our highly anticipated bench hasnt contributed as much as most of here had hoped they would.

 

[Franisdaman]

Caitlin struggled from 3 all weekend, but played well otherwise. It looked to me like she might have worn down as the game went on, I think she played all 40 minutes. I just dont think Iowa can make the next hop until she can get 5-10 minutes rest in a game like this, I was hoping Davis would be able to provide that, but it seems like Bluder doesn't feel like she can trust her to do that yet. If Gabby shoots a little better and Catilin hits on some of those Iowa could have won. The reality is that Iowas margin for error is smaller than Uconn, and Iowa needs to develop the bench a bit more. Stuelke seems like the best shot to make a huge leap right now, but Davis might settle in a bit as she gets more playing time and starts develop chemistry with the team. It would have been great to be able to play a 3 point sharpshooter (Mccabe) for a couple of minutes as well, but she needs to find her range and settle in. Im hoping we are more like 10 deep by march.

So far our highly anticipated bench hasnt contributed as much as most of here had hoped they would.

Starter Minutes
40 Clark
37 Marshall
36 Cziano
34 Martin
32 Warnock
179 of the 200 minutes


Bench Minutes
8 Stuelke
6 Molly Davis
4 O'Grady
3 Affolter
21 Total minutes



Caitlin shooting
7-13 (54%)from 2 point range
2-11 (18%) from 3 point range
9-24 (38%) Overall shooting


Bench Points
2 Iowa
19 UConn

 

[DodgerHawki]

Overall I was very proud of how the team played today: fearless. Vs Creighton last year and K-State this year seemed tight except for Caitlin. Martin, Warnock, and Marshall acted like they belonged on the same court with UConn even though it's obvious they're not in the same league physically. Gabby was very fiesty on defense; all three of them were looking for their own shot, which is a sign of confidence.

Caitlin had a lot of points but clearly not the game we expect from her....give UConn a lot of credit for that. Unfortunately that makes two games in a row like that against them. Monica squelched but outclassed physically so not much you can do there; missed some bunnies that were probably due to intimidation. Did like her hustle trying to gather rebounds.

I feel much better about this team today....a building block for a long season.

They just played and let it hang out there, without worrying about expectations or results. It is much easier to play that way as an underdog as opposed to being the favorite. Just a different mentality. Pundits expected Iowa to get beat by large margin vs UConn. No one bats an eye if that's the way it turns out. So the team just went out there and played. And good things happened.

Now, it wasn't quite enough to actually win the game. But before you can beat a team like UConn, you actually have to get the game to be competitive. Now, is it likely that Kate Martin goes 6-6 on 3-'s again? Probably not as she had a total of 3 in 6 games before that. But what is sustainable is Iowa turning it over just 11 times against UConn. Previous games against top level competition that hasn't been the case.

Lots to be pleased with. Team just need to relax and play hard/free against every opponent. Good things are likely to happen if they do.

 

[anon_salmfilsntd0b]

Anyone have any thoughts on why Davis had so few minutes (esp after such a strong game vs OSU)? Did we expect this?

 

[BraydonRoberts5]

Anyone have any thoughts on why Davis had so few minutes (esp after such a strong game vs OSU)? Did we expect this?

Some combo of: 1) Marshall was playing well defensively, 2) Clark wasn't ever coming out, 3) Bluder trusts Marshall more as a shooter and our wings were getting more open threes than usual, and 4) Davis has dribbled herself into trouble a few times in the first few games and we couldn't afford silly turnovers yesterday.

 

[bunsen82]

Here is what I saw. Caitlyn seems to be forcing her shot, due to the tough defense. There is no point to waiting on the shot clock at the end of quarters, we are basically wasting a possession, as just throwing up a shot with time expiring rather than finding a good opporunity. The other player that had more downs than ups was Warnock. Gabby Marshall, even while being the smallest player on the floor seemed to play really well.

Size wise there were several times where our player was rebounding and they either reached over the back or literally just shoved our player out of the way (one particular play comes to mind in the last 2-3 minutes of the game, but in total I counted about 10-12 times and only one of them was called).

Stuelke even though young and prone to some mistakes like dribbling into the sideline and then dribbling the ball off her foot, seemed to be able to hold her own against UCONN's physical play and athleticism. Yes Cziano did ok, but Stuelke is the first F or C that appears to be of the calibar of the elite F/C we will face in the future.

 

[BraydonRoberts5]

Here is what I saw. Caitlyn seems to be forcing her shot, due to the tough defense. There is no point to waiting on the shot clock at the end of quarters, we are basically wasting a possession, as just throwing up a shot with time expiring rather than finding a good opporunity. The other player that had more downs than ups was Warnock. Gabby Marshall, even while being the smallest player on the floor seemed to play really well.

Size wise there were several times where our player was rebounding and they either reached over the back or literally just shoved our player out of the way (one particular play comes to mind in the last 2-3 minutes of the game, but in total I counted about 10-12 times and only one of them was called).

Stuelke even though young and prone to some mistakes like dribbling into the sideline and then dribbling the ball off her foot, seemed to be able to hold her own against UCONN's physical play and athleticism. Yes Cziano did ok, but Stuelke is the first F or C that appears to be of the calibar of the elite F/C we will face in the future.

The reason they run down the clock at the end of quarters is so the other team can't score on them again. At worst, they miss the shot and the score is the same. At best, they get a 2 or 3.

If they shoot quickly instead, the other team might go score and neutralize the basket. Or worse, Iowa might miss and the other team might score a basket it shouldn't have been able to attempt.

We can debate how effective they've been with late quarter plays, but running down the clock is absolutely the best strategy decision.

 

[bunsen82]

The reason they run down the clock at the end of quarters is so the other team can't score on them again. At worst, they miss the shot and the score is the same. At best, they get a 2 or 3.

If they shoot quickly instead, the other team might go score and neutralize the basket. Or worse, Iowa might miss and the other team might score a basket it shouldn't have been able to attempt.

We can debate how effective they've been with late quarter plays, but running down the clock is absolutely the best strategy decision.

Braydon, we were regularly taking alot of the shot clock anyways, what would be the difference if you started your offense with 15 seconds left than 7-8 seconds. Most likely a better shot opportunity than what we were getting, we might as well just dribbled out the quarters as to the offense we were running.

 

[Dream25]

So far our highly anticipated bench hasnt contributed as much as most of here had hoped they would.

It is hard for them to contribute when Bluder refuses to put them in the game. Starters being gassed in the 2nd half is probably why we lost this game. Absolutely no reason that Davis, Stuelke, Affolter, and O’Grady can’t play a few minutes each half with little dropoff..

 

[southiowa]

Are Goodman and Wettering still not at 100%? Haven't seen them for several games. Goodman should be able to sub for Monica a few minutes each half, at least. She played well as a freshman before her injury and is willing to battle in the post.

 

[Suterman]

Are Goodman and Wettering still not at 100%? Haven't seen them for several games. Goodman should be able to sub for Monica a few minutes each half, at least. She played well as a freshman before her injury and is willing to battle in the post.

Goodman and Wettering are not as good as the players ahead of them at this point. Their conditioning may not be there yet.

 

[natchrlman]

to my untrained eye fatigue did affect the game for us…… especially in Monica’s case….. she looked exhausted

and also to my untrained eye when they play as hard as they did defensively it always seems to affect their offense and other than tired legs affecting shots I have no clue…..I thought that was the hardest they’ve played defense all year

 

[LinusPF]

It is hard for them to contribute when Bluder refuses to put them in the game. Starters being gassed in the 2nd half is probably why we lost this game. Absolutely no reason that Davis, Stuelke, Affolter, and O’Grady can’t play a few minutes each half with little dropoff..

But there is a drop off. With virtually no margin against a UConn, obviously the feeling was to ride the Top 5 as far as they could take us. Almost got us there! Note - Two UConn players played the entire 40 minutes, and UConn actually played fewer players.