Iowa's success depends on Garza

[CP84]

When Garza scores 15 or more points then Iowa is 11-3.

They are 9-7 when he scores 14 or fewer.

I could be imagining this but it seems like the first half of the season they tried to feed him in the paint more frequently and the second half they routinely have him coming to the top of the key to set screens. Garza seems almost worthless 15-20 feet away from the basket. He has no dribble drive ability and frequently settles for long range shots. He's a 28% 3 point shooter and yet he's attempted 68 this season. Our starting shooting guard Moss only has 106 3 attempts for those keeping count.

Let Cook set the perimeter screens and let Garza stay in the paint and battle for position. If you go back and watch the UConn game, Cook routinely caught the ball at the top of the key and drove to the basket, picking up fouls or getting easy 2s.

 

[4th & 9 inches]

Garza's defense is what kills us more than anything.

Watching the bigs Cincy has, I can see us having a very difficult time stopping them in the paint. Hope I'm wrong.

 

[Melrose_Place31]

When Garza scores 15 or more points then Iowa is 11-3.

They are 9-7 when he scores 14 or fewer.

I could be imagining this but it seems like the first half of the season they tried to feed him in the paint more frequently and the second half they routinely have him coming to the top of the key to set screens. Garza seems almost worthless 15-20 feet away from the basket. He has no dribble drive ability and frequently settles for long range shots. He's a 28% 3 point shooter and yet he's attempted 68 this season. Our starting shooting guard Moss only has 106 3 attempts for those keeping count.

Let Cook set the perimeter screens and let Garza stay in the paint and battle for position. If you go back and watch the UConn game, Cook routinely caught the ball at the top of the key and drove to the basket, picking up fouls or getting easy 2s.

See, this is one of the biggest problems I have with Fran when it comes to execution; I know exactly what you're talking about with these things. It makes me wonder if they watch tape at all, or even remember what happened in a previous game when things were working. Look back at other games and see what was working, and do those things...stop doing things that don't work. Sometimes it looks like the offense is trying to be so uptempo that there is no resemblance of an offense being executed, and guys are just running around or lost. They need to fix that stuff, and play defense for the love of god! Its amazing how little effort it takes to cut off a driving lane, and they seem to fail in that department every time, its so frustrating to watch.

 

[CuttyDoesIt]

When we get one of Garza/Kreiner/Moss going we win most of the time. That is the key

 

[IowaNiceHawk]

It would help A LOT if Tyler Cook scored and defended well, like
a few times this year...........but it's been a while back.

GO HAWKS !!

 

[RocknRollface]

Cook driving really isn't the best idea either. It worked early in the year but not much since then. I dont mind drives from mid post /freethrow line nearly as much as one that start beyond the 3 line though.

The key to Iowa winning besides hitting allot of 3s is to win the mismatch battle.

Most teams only play one post now, we play 2.

When Iowa is able to take advantage of the smaller player vs being taken advantage of they usually win.

Allot of times that's Garza.

Vs UM Garza got taken advantage of way more than he was able to pound his mismatch.

 

[IllQChawk]

I wouldn't say it's only Garza, for Iowa to be successful JBO can't go 0 for 3 or not score, Iowa' starters can't go 0 for 13 from 3, and Iowa can't allow Cook to run the offense and try to go 1 on 1 from 20 feet away from the basket. Baer needs do Baer things, Weezee can't go 1 for 5, Moss some how needs to not be invisible for most of the game and Connor needs to a least provide some offense like he did at the Y2K Classic in November. If Iowa can avoid most of these deficiencies they should come out of Fridays game with a win. If not, they can all come back to Iowa City and begin the process of off season improvement hopefully focusing on defense and rebounding.
Not holding my breath on the latter 2, more wishful thinking....

 

[DodgerHawki]

When Garza scores 15 or more points then Iowa is 11-3.

They are 9-7 when he scores 14 or fewer.

I could be imagining this but it seems like the first half of the season they tried to feed him in the paint more frequently and the second half they routinely have him coming to the top of the key to set screens. Garza seems almost worthless 15-20 feet away from the basket. He has no dribble drive ability and frequently settles for long range shots. He's a 28% 3 point shooter and yet he's attempted 68 this season. Our starting shooting guard Moss only has 106 3 attempts for those keeping count.

Let Cook set the perimeter screens and let Garza stay in the paint and battle for position. If you go back and watch the UConn game, Cook routinely caught the ball at the top of the key and drove to the basket, picking up fouls or getting easy 2s.

Teams figured Iowa out to a certain extent. Garza's play dropped off a cliff after the Michigan game. Enough to make me wonder if he had an injury that we weren't told about. But in general Iowa didn't really deploy Garza differently. He was still in the post a lot. But teams started really crowding Iowa's perimeter players to make it harder to pass into the post, and when Garza did catch it, he got guys sent to him. He has not yet proven to be a good passer out of the post. He tries to score. That's not a bad thing, but his FG% fell off the cliff, so his effectiveness plummeted with it.

When Iowa is playing well, they give teams fits as they are a bit old school with 2 post players. But it takes the floor to be spaced very well to work. But on the other end (defense) is where playing Cook and Garza at the same time hurts Iowa. It was laughable watching Iowa defend the pick and roll with Bohannon and Garza on Simpson and Teske. The goal of opponents is to put Garza in positions where he has to move. Iowa tries to mitigate this by going zone, but then you end up with him not being able to get out to the 3-point line to contest shooters. So then Fran plays Baer at the 4, but now you've taken away your best attribute on offense (2 post players) to be competitive on defense. Defense is never 1 guy, but the problem with Iowa is they have so many average to below-average defenders on the roster that it becomes really hard to defend consistently for an entire game.

Fran has wrung about the most out of the roster as can be expected. None of Iowa's struggles are about "trying harder" or caring or whatever. The roster just has some issues when playing against really good teams.

 

[SDHawkDoc]

Cook driving really isn't the best idea either. It worked early in the year but not much since then. I dont mind drives from mid post /freethrow line nearly as much as one that start beyond the 3 line though.

The key to Iowa winning besides hitting allot of 3s is to win the mismatch battle.

Most teams only play one post now, we play 2.

When Iowa is able to take advantage of the smaller player vs being taken advantage of they usually win.

Allot of times that's Garza.

Vs UM Garza got taken advantage of way more than he was able to pound his mismatch.

Cook's drives should probably be limited to a radius within about 10 feet of the hoop.

 

[Ihawkhoops]

It would help A LOT if Tyler Cook scored and defended well, like
a few times this year...........but it's been a while back.

GO HAWKS !!

What do you expect Cook to do? Fly over two guys from 12-15 away and dunk? He draws double teams constantly because Iowa's guards are easy to defend. Teams sag and clog the lane thus all the forced entry passes to Cook with two guys bracketing him. The other scenario is Cook has to come out to 12-15 feet to get a touch and that's not his game. The entire team is bad defensively but somehow Cook gets singled out by people.

Cook is not a great defender but he has improved this year and often it's him trying to help that leads to easy baskets. The guards can't stay in front of anybody so he has to step up and the backside rotations are not happening or Iowa gives up too much size with a Baer, Wieskamp or even Bohannon trying to cover a big.

 

[Ihawkhoops]

On Garza I would add that Fran needs to realize there is a lot of court between the 3 point line and the paint. Stop having Garza jack up 3's and get him into pick and pop mid-range situations where his guy has to leave the paint to contest or give up a 10-15 footer. Fran did this a couple times against Michigan and I believe Garza made both from the baseline. Use him like the women's team uses MG. Don't contest a mid-range and Garza can get some higher % looks. Make a couple and the defender has to contest which opens up room for Cook to operate or to get some guys cutting.

 

[intrepodor]

When Garza scores 15 or more points then Iowa is 11-3.

They are 9-7 when he scores 14 or fewer.

I could be imagining this but it seems like the first half of the season they tried to feed him in the paint more frequently and the second half they routinely have him coming to the top of the key to set screens. Garza seems almost worthless 15-20 feet away from the basket. He has no dribble drive ability and frequently settles for long range shots. He's a 28% 3 point shooter and yet he's attempted 68 this season. Our starting shooting guard Moss only has 106 3 attempts for those keeping count.

Let Cook set the perimeter screens and let Garza stay in the paint and battle for position. If you go back and watch the UConn game, Cook routinely caught the ball at the top of the key and drove to the basket, picking up fouls or getting easy 2s.

Or turned the ball over

 

[CP84]

Garza's defense is what kills us more than anything.

Watching the bigs Cincy has, I can see us having a very difficult time stopping them in the paint. Hope I'm wrong.

I don't think their bigs are an offensive strength. They seem pretty guard dominated. Watch their highlights vs UConn. They seem pretty comparable in size and style. If anything their two bigs are relatively lanky and I think Cook should be able to muscle their power forward in the paint. This could be a game Iowa matches up very well, similar to Iowa State or UConn that rely primarily on guard play. On the other hand, Garza and Cook need to cut off the dribble penetration like they didn't do against Pitt/Bryant, two other undersized teams.

If Cook and Garza can get one of their bigs in foul trouble early, they are very thin on the bench. That's what worked well in the first Michigan game when Teske had early foul trouble.

This will either be a game like UConn/ISU where Iowa dominates the paint and gets open 3 looks, or it will be a frustrating game like Pitt or Northwestern part two where we look lost on defense and our guards can't get in a flow.

I would honestly rather play Cincinnati than Indiana, Ohio State or Minnesota teams that have high quality front courts.

 

[Fan In Black]

other teams know this and have game planned. push the guards out.

Iowa, IMO, would be best off moving the ball quicker. Otherwise that offense is going to struggle to get get good looks. They dribble too damn much for a team with no penetraters

 

[RocknRollface]

I don't think their bigs are an offensive strength. They seem pretty guard dominated. Watch their highlights vs UConn. They seem pretty comparable in size and style. If anything their two bigs are relatively lanky and I think Cook should be able to muscle their power forward in the paint. This could be a game Iowa matches up very well, similar to Iowa State or UConn that rely primarily on guard play. On the other hand, Garza and Cook need to cut off the dribble penetration like they didn't do against Pitt/Bryant, two other undersized teams.

If Cook and Garza can get one of their bigs in foul trouble early, they are very thin on the bench. That's what worked well in the first Michigan game when Teske had early foul trouble.

This will either be a game like UConn/ISU where Iowa dominates the paint and gets open 3 looks, or it will be a frustrating game like Pitt or Northwestern part two where we look lost on defense and our guards can't get in a flow.

I would honestly rather play Cincinnati than Indiana, Ohio State or Minnesota teams that have high quality front courts.

Agree Iowa has struggled more against teams with good front courts vs guard dominated teams.

Teams that have both (msu and um ) have dominated us.

 

[HawkTex]

I wouldn't say it's only Garza, for Iowa to be successful JBO can't go 0 for 3 or not score, Iowa' starters can't go 0 for 13 from 3, and Iowa can't allow Cook to run the offense and try to go 1 on 1 from 20 feet away from the basket. Baer needs do Baer things, Weezee can't go 1 for 5, Moss some how needs to not be invisible for most of the game and Connor needs to a least provide some offense like he did at the Y2K Classic in November. If Iowa can avoid most of these deficiencies they should come out of Fridays game with a win. If not, they can all come back to Iowa City and begin the process of off season improvement hopefully focusing on defense and rebounding.
Not holding my breath on the latter 2, more wishful thinking....

If we play Man, Cincy’s Guards will blowing by and in the lane all game long. Probably happen even if we go Zone. We have no one up top who can stop dribble penetration.

 

[Razorhawk2]

In order for Garza and Cook to have a great game we need the long ball to be dropping.

 

[RocknRollface]

What do you expect Cook to do? Fly over two guys from 12-15 away and dunk? He draws double teams constantly because Iowa's guards are easy to defend. Teams sag and clog the lane thus all the forced entry passes to Cook with two guys bracketing him. The other scenario is Cook has to come out to 12-15 feet to get a touch and that's not his game. The entire team is bad defensively but somehow Cook gets singled out by people.

Cook is not a great defender but he has improved this year and often it's him trying to help that leads to easy baskets. The guards can't stay in front of anybody so he has to step up and the backside rotations are not happening or Iowa gives up too much size with a Baer, Wieskamp or even Bohannon trying to cover a big.

The doubles usually come off the other big.

No body is sagging off the guards and clogging the lane, they're doing the opposite. Playing ridiculously tight to prevent shots and passes because the guards cant drive.

If anyany was stupid enough to sag off that would be a dream come true for all of Iowas guards.

Cook and Garza both rarely rotate to stop drives. Iowa plays mostly zone anyway so not a factor often.

What Cook needs to do is physically dominate the person trying to prevent him from getting the ball on the post. Get low and show them who's boss. Then catch and attack the rim. Dont go slow. If you get deep enough the doubles wont matter.

Number one thing he can do to improve the teams chance of winning is rebound.

 

[RocknRollface]

On Garza I would add that Fran needs to realize there is a lot of court between the 3 point line and the paint. Stop having Garza jack up 3's and get him into pick and pop mid-range situations where his guy has to leave the paint to contest or give up a 10-15 footer. Fran did this a couple times against Michigan and I believe Garza made both from the baseline. Use him like the women's team uses MG. Don't contest a mid-range and Garza can get some higher % looks. Make a couple and the defender has to contest which opens up room for Cook to operate or to get some guys cutting.

Agree.

 

[Buffalo43]

Get them in foul trouble

 

[Hawksfor3]

relatively lanky

Yeah, I thought that guy Brooks is really thin.

 

[Hawksfor3]

Get low and show them who's boss.

I think Ryan could be that guy.

 

[HungryHawk]

This aged well.

 

[CP84]

This aged well.

I'm never wrong, just different levels of right.