Here's the issue...before the season started we all knew what Luka Garza brought to the table, the question was does the other returning players improve enough from last season to make this team better then last year....
Evidently that has been answered in spades.
Conner is almost exactly the same player he was last year. His offense is sketchy and his shot is pathetic and his defense is not as good as it was last year. JMI He's good at 1 thing, feeding Garza.
C.J Fredrick is just as good as he was last year, maybe a little better, but his inability to keep from getting injured and his reluctance to take control and defer to others doesn't help.
Bohannan is just as good as he was as a freshmen, but he's a senior now and I expected much more from a point guard/shooting guard then what he's producing this year. His career numbers are though the chart, but his scoring numbers are the lowest in his 4 plus years at Iowa. That needs to change in the next month if Iowa is going to achieve the lofty goals that had before the season started.
Weezy get's better each year. His numbers have improved slightly every year in scoring, rebounding and defensive efficacy. He's even gotten stronger since his freshmen year but his consistency is not where even he thinks it should be. That also needs to improve quickly,
Joe Toussaint, is a whirlwind of energy, unfortunately he has not been able to harness it effectively enough to come off the bench and provide this team with valuable minutes without causing chaos, and he has shown no ability or desire to shoot from outside therefore he's just a quicker/shorter CMAC. Not what Garza needs when he's being beaten to death by a multitude of players not respecting Iowa's outside shooters not named Jordan or C.J.
I'm not going to go into the bench now that Nunge is done for the season but Keegan is a real find and once Patrick slows the game down he'll be a great scorer next year.
What does this all mean. Well Iowa came into this season with high hopes to achieve something that hasn't happened since 1979/80. Garza is everything that Iowa had hoped he'd be and more but because the other returning players haven't improved enough from last year to keep Garza from being bludgeoned to death, well, here we are in 4th place in the BIG, no chance for a Big Ten Title again, and really just hoping things can be turned around to make it to the round of 32 without getting run over be a 14 seed.
Fran has been at Iowa for 11 years now and again Iowa could be looking at the 11th year in a row with double digit losses. Lose Sunday at Ohio St, it's almost a certainty, which is something that should have never happened with arguable Frans best team since he's been at Iowa.
