My fear is by the end of next year Keegan ends up on allot of first round draft boards.
Hes going to be this years Franz Wagner.
Kenyon Murray thoughts
- Thread starter Chishawk1425
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Hes going to be this years Franz Wagner.
It’s hard to see how next year’s squad won’t be better on the defensive side of the court. They won’t do as well as this year without Luka but they will play hard and win some games they probably shouldn’t have. Few if any late season meaningful games. Typical Fran year.
Kenyon has a better grasp of the game and the state of the program than 98% of the fans on this board.
Kenyon if you read this, thanks for being a Hawkeye and a standup guy.
Kenyon has a better grasp of the game and the state of the program than 98% of the fans on this board.
Kenyon if you read this, thanks for being a Hawkeye and a standup guy.
They also under perform when good things are expected. Been along time since a sweet sixteen appearance and an even longer time since a conference title.
Reaching the sweet 16 is as much about luck as being good. This year was an example of that. Winning the BIG is a tall order that many of the teams in the conference don’t accomplish for long periods of time.
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I think people need to see how all players do without a guy on the roster who often dealt with double and the occasional triple team and freeing up guys for open looks.
She and I share a birthday..... funny enough todayUh, how 'bout a hot Ashley Judd in the stands?
He was doubled in about half the games, and not every time he touched the ball.
Good point. Fran can replace CJ with 1 of 20 guys in the portal. CJ is a nice player nothing more.
Yeah I was going to say that was an overstatement. In BIG play Luka was regularly guarded 1 on 1 by capable defenders.
47% from 3 is nothing to sneeze at. Pretty solid defender when healthy too, he didn't hunt for his shot enough though. I was curious to see how he was when he became the focal point. Oh well.
I don't need to see that to know what I'm watching.
I have every reason to be confident in my opinions.
I would say he was doubled or tripled whenever he touched it in the post 90% of the time and I bet I’m not off by much. Name some post defenders that went 1 on 1 with Luka.
So we are more optimistic that we will automatically be better on the defensive end next year based on what criterion? We may have more latteral quickness but that doesn't guarantee we will be better.
Based on having players on the court that are obviously significantly better defenders than last years starters.
Is this really a serious question?
He is saying Iowa doesnt play defense under Fran. Somewhere around here today it is posted that under Fran Iowa had some top 30ish and a top 25 defenses.
MI never doubled him. After that game, most teams didn't because they realized that Iowa went as Garza did.
That'd be all well and good if, ya know......our opponents would cooperate and stay their usual sucky selves (Nebraska, Minnesota.....Wisconsin ) or just plain get worse along with us (ideally even worse than us).
Too bad they aren't........
) or just plain get worse along with us (ideally even worse than us).Too bad they aren't........
I remember James Winters taking it to Cherokee Parks in Carver that season. I think we lost to Duke by 4 or 5 points. We looked like we belonged that day.
I'll agree Fran doesn't demand defense.
He's let guys like Jok, Cook and Bohannon get away with no effort at times.
I don't think Fran could stop next years team from playing D if he tried.
Joe Tousaint and Perkins are the type of guys that D your ass up in a pick up game.
They take every bucket personal and I think Ulis will be similar. His brother was a good defender.
Keegan Murray is the most instinctually talented defensive player I've ever seen at Iowa besides maybe Ryan Bowen.
His ability to get his hands on so many things is amazing.
Having 2 Murrays on the court at once will allow Iowa to switch everything and just be extremely agressive trapping screens.
They're also going to block a bunch of shots.
Totally agree. I guess it depends on who they grab from the portal but he may be left with no choice but to hold the ball a bit longer than last year. Iowa should have good length and athleticism. Until the portal sorts out and JBo makes a decision I am in the air on how they play.
I hope they are better on defense. But to just think that other teams haven’t recruited more athletic players is quite a stretch. Fran has shown an ability to find gems. Ulis and Perkins offer list doesn’t lend evidence to high ceilings. I hope they all pan out. Asking Perkins and Murray to be go to players is early very in their development timeline. I hope they are so good they leave for the NBA after one year. If you had to bet your own money on their success next year?
I don't want to put undue pressure on Kris but if he is not far off from Keegan then look out. There is untapped talent due to personnel last year that will be full out. I think those here are unified and this will be fun. Look for Iowa to be a good defensive team with enough scoring. I don't think we will get a double bye in the BTT but I see us being right there at the next tier down and improving. 20-21 wins is possible for sure. Maybe more in a weaker BIG. We shall see how the team is supplemented with the portal but we have a nice core and some will soar. Kris could be that guy to take a big leap.
Keegan comes in at #23 for early mock draft next year.
www.espn.com
2022 NBA mock draft: Who has the inside track to go No. 1?
The 2022 draft is more than a year away, but teams are already filling out their scouting reports for an improving class.
Just saw that, wow.Keegan comes in at #23 for early mock draft next year.
2022 NBA mock draft: Who has the inside track to go No. 1?
The 2022 draft is more than a year away, but teams are already filling out their scouting reports for an improving class.
Yes. Are you saying that based off the limited minutes that our reserves played that this proves we will be better defensively? Im all about being optimistic about improvement but we will have to see how next season's team plays defense in meaningful minutes.
Keegan Murray has already proved himself as a good defender.
You're absolutely right, Toussaint & Perkins backcourt should be worse on D than Bohannon & injured Fredrick backcourt. That makes sense.
Other than Weezy, the talent off the bench played as good or better defense than the starters. Of course there wasn't really a center behind Garza, but Keegan and PMac were ball hawks, and Joe T, Ulis and Perkins were in-your-face defenders. I am hoping that Kris M and Big O can come along defensively, too.
Did you watch any Iowa games this year? The Iowa bench wasn’t just a little better on D than the starters, they were far superior.
I appreciate what Kenyon has said. For those too young to know, he was a great all-round player, especially on defense. While he is more than a little biased, I respect what he is saying and agree with it. It is way too early to know how good the Hawks will be next year. I would feel a LOT better if Fran can add an experienced big who is more than a stiff, and an experienced wing/combo guard, who can shoot and plays on both ends. I like the potential of the entire 2020 class. We are stacked with 3/4's with huge upside IMO (the twins and Patrick). I think JoeT/Ulis can be very effective PGs running the offense and especially playing much better on-ball defense than what we have had. Edit-almost forgot Perkins, who has a lot of potential on both ends. If he can consistently make 3s, it would open his game up a lot. On defense, he has the agility to guard 2s and 3s, and is one of the few players, along with JoeT, who maybe needs to dial back his aggression a little. Connor is still a leader on the court, who can plug into where he is needed. I know almost nothing about Big O, except he still needed to lose 20 pounds (he looked more in shape as the season progressed) and redistribute another 20. It would be interesting to hear how much game he has from anyone who has watched practices. He had some really good guys to learn from. I like Mulvey's tapes, but how that translates into playing in the B1G is hard to predict. He could be very good, but probably not for a year or two. Too early to be really optimistic or pessimistic!
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Then Iowa has only been lucky one time since 1988..............................
I don't get hung up too much on the conference title thing. That's far more difficult to do than winning 2 games in a row in the NCAA Tournament.
It's the Sweet 16 drought that really chaps my ass. If Iowa had better teams, we would have more Sweet 16's than just the one in 1999.
Im saying there has been more than enough time to evaluate Toussaint Keegan and Perkins.
Slightly less for Ulis but more than enough to know he's significantly more athletic and a better defender than Jbo.
Im going to make the assumption Kris is similar to his brother.
Patrick has the potential to be a good defender too with plenty of length and athleticism.
In the majority of situations, out side of the few teams that have a low block center they will actually feed consistently, playing without a center will be a big advantage.
You have two or three guys in the Murrays and Pat that can defend all areas of the court. They can block shots and clean the glass but still switch on to guards which will stiffle most teams screen and roll action.
I suspect that Connor is capable of giving us a little more than what we have seen. Not a lot more, mind you, but a little.
This past year, all he was asked to do was be a facilitator. His job was to set up Garza, Wieskamp, Bohannon, and Fredrick. And we now know he had been playing hurt. But he has shown the ability to do a little more in the past. He averaged nearly twice as many points in 2019-20 as he did in 2020-21. He also shot .340 from 3-point land in 2019-20. He has a career-high of 19, with a significant number of double-digit scoring games. Again, I don't expect him to set the world on fire, but 8 points a game and .350 from 3-point land isn't out of the question. That would help the team a lot, even if he's doing it as a sixth man.
