Lineup

[Hawkeyestate81]

1-AC
2-Jok
3-JU
4-Wagner
5-Woody


Why the F not at this point? Having AC and MG on the floor at the same time DOES NOT WORK. When MG has the ball the D sags off of him taking away driving lanes for other players, namely JU and forces us to take contested jumpers. We are very stale in half court set. I don't see us magically flipping a switch at this point so changing something drastically would seem to be the only way to do that. MG can spell AC and still play a lot of minutes but I don't want them on the court at the same time, MG is not an offensive threat and when our Fast break is taken away we do not acheive anything anymore with guys sagging on JU and Jok.

 

[StormHawk42]

1-AC
2-Jok
3-JU
4-Wagner
5-Woody


Why the F not at this point? Having AC and MG on the floor at the same time DOES NOT WORK. When MG has the ball the D sags off of him taking away driving lanes for other players, namely JU and forces us to take contested jumpers. We are very stale in half court set. I don't see us magically flipping a switch at this point so changing something drastically would seem to be the only way to do that. MG can spell AC and still play a lot of minutes but I don't want them on the court at the same time, MG is not an offensive threat and when our Fast break is taken away we do not acheive anything anymore with guys sagging on JU and Jok.

There's a few reasons, but I think you are smart enough to figure them out

 

[Hawkeyestate81]

There's a few reasons, but I think you are smart enough to figure them out

Agree to disagree. It is 5 on 3 in our half court set right now. AC can shoot 3's and jumpers and attack the rim. Jok standing on 3 line waiting for a kick out from AC. Wagner can get to the rim. JU can drive to the rack or shoot 3's. Space the floor with these 5 I like our half court game much more. We have to do something to jump start this, status quo is not working. Do something instead of going back to war with out body armor over and over again.

 

[LarryMullenJr.]

The current starting line-up worked pretty well for the first 22 or so games just fine....

 

[Hawkeyestate81]

The current starting line-up worked pretty well for the first 22 or so games just fine....

Well we are in the now, teams have adjusted to it, we can't seem to overcome that so a serious shake up would seem to make the most sense to try and jump start something.

 

[EpenesaEpenesa]

Its as simple as they need to start playing and coaching better. Bottom line. There is no magic formula here.

 

[Hawkeyestate81]

Its as simple as they need to start playing and coaching better. Bottom line. There is no magic formula here.

The status quo has already been proven not to work, strugglign vs Minny and Ped St prior to this debacle at home. Spark the team somehow with something, this makes sense to me from an offensive standpoint to get some flow going.

 

[brokenarrow73]

1-AC
2-Jok
3-JU
4-Wagner
5-Woody


Why the F not at this point? Having AC and MG on the floor at the same time DOES NOT WORK. When MG has the ball the D sags off of him taking away driving lanes for other players, namely JU and forces us to take contested jumpers. We are very stale in half court set. I don't see us magically flipping a switch at this point so changing something drastically would seem to be the only way to do that. MG can spell AC and still play a lot of minutes but I don't want them on the court at the same time, MG is not an offensive threat and when our Fast break is taken away we do not acheive anything anymore with guys sagging on JU and Jok.

Wagner can't or won't shoot.. that would be a terrible starting five.. Now if you put Uhl at the 4 I wouldn't argue that. I agree I don't like two point guards starting when neither can stretch the floor.

 

[Hawkeyestate81]

Wagner can't or won't shoot.. that would be a terrible starting five.. Now if you put Uhl at the 4 I wouldn't argue that. I agree I don't like two point guards starting when neither can stretch the floor.

I like Wagners rebounding ability on offensive end and he can attack the rim. I'd be ok with Uhl.

 

[Steve Waite]

The current starting line-up worked pretty well for the first 22 or so games just fine....

Larry go back to your basement and let the adults figure it out.

OP I like where you're going. I would replace Uhl for Wagner at PF.
Uhl is a 3 pt threat and can drive to the basket. With MG out of the way opposing defenses have to play honest, which opens driving lanes. The other 4 you have are spot on.
I like MG, Baer and Wagner off the bench.
Ellingson minutes should go to CW.

 

[Hawkeyestate81]

Larry go back to your basement and let the adults figure it out.

OP I like where you're going. I would replace Uhl for Wagner at PF.
Uhl is a 3 pt threat and can drive to the basket. With MG out of the way opposing defenses have to play honest, which opens driving lanes. The other 4 you have are spot on.
I like MG, Baer and Wagner off the bench.
Ellingson minutes should go to CW.

I was all for Uhl on a thread I started 2-3 weeks ago, but he hasn't done much lately, Wagner hasn't either techincally but in less minutes he has more of an impact. Uhl has been off as of late I don't recall the last 3 he made?

 

[sadiehawkins]

The current starting line-up worked pretty well for the first 22 or so games just fine....

How is this working now Larry? Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. This is frans team he can live and die with his results. But when half of Iowa can see the liability of having two pt guards with limited scoring on the floor at the same time that is insane. Wagner, Uhl or behr starting would be far better than gessel or clemmons take your pick. To the guy that says wagner can't or won't shoot not a bad trade off when you know when gessel shoots he has around 25% chance of making it. Uthoff falling down throwing his arms up every game tells me he is not strong enough. I have yet to see uthoff hit the floor for a loose ball. My coach always said if you don't have some floor burns your not trying or tough enough. This is not a tough team they are very soft starting 4+ 1 all but woodbury. If I was woodbury I would be ripping on Gessel uthoff and any body else who wasn't diving after loose balls. All another team has to do is play us hard and bump us a little and take it to the hole. I don't know why fran has woody hedging on that screen out at 35 ft. he is not fast enough to recover a lot of times. Instead of fran getting mad at the officials he should take a ha\rd look at himself . i thought the game was officiated fairly well. All this team needs a real point guard. Woody is what the other 4 starters should be tough.

 

[EpenesaEpenesa]

The status quo has already been proven not to work, strugglign vs Minny and Ped St prior to this debacle at home. Spark the team somehow with something, this makes sense to me from an offensive standpoint to get some flow going.

Right, I agree, they do need a spark, but they just need to play better too. Quit blowing layups, quit turning the ball over, make open shots, make FT's, quit falling asleep on defense(Uhl was horrendous defensively last night by the way). They need to dig deep and get themelves right again. Also the ridiculous substitution patters have to stop. Ride your best guys the majority of the minutes.

 

[Hawkeyestate81]

Right, I agree, they do need a spark, but they just need to play better too. Quit blowing layups, quit turning the ball over, make open shots, make FT's, quit falling asleep on defense(Uhl was horrendous defensively last night by the way). They need to dig deep and get themelves right again. Also the ridiculous substitution patters have to stop. Ride your best guys the majority of the minutes.

Agree, just need to try something here. Fransanity in full affect continually doing the same thing over and freaking over again when it is NOT working. Do something, save this season.

 

[LarryMullenJr.]

Larry go back to your basement and let the adults figure it out.

OP I like where you're going. I would replace Uhl for Wagner at PF.
Uhl is a 3 pt threat and can drive to the basket. With MG out of the way opposing defenses have to play honest, which opens driving lanes. The other 4 you have are spot on.
I like MG, Baer and Wagner off the bench.
Ellingson minutes should go to CW.

What, are you like 16 or something?
What magic do you think is sitting on the bench? The magic that has provided like 28 points over the last 4 games? It's not like Baer, Uhl, or anyone else has come in and done much of anything recently. The ENTIRE TEAM is struggling right now from the first seat to the last, with the possible exception of Adam. Peter has been scoring but his defense is lazy more often than not.
I'm not saying they don't need to find a spark somewhere, but trying to find something in the almost 30th game of the year isn't easy.
This team just needs to put a tee behind it's right ear, put all of it's change in their left pocket, put their hat on backwards, and tie their right shoe in a double knot.

 

[Ronman]

Making shots would cure a ton of ills for this team.

 

[bravehawks1]

Making shots would cure a ton of ills for this team.

So would rebounding (Woody excepted), play defense, hustle after loose balls, make good crisp passes and get some good coaching.

This team has gotten so soft in the last three weeks. The perfect example was the out of bounds play across from the Iowa bench when it took Uhl three attempts to get the ball past the defender. All Uhl had to do was fake one direction and make a crisp pass the other direction but no, he looked exactly where he was going to throw it and then did it softly.

 

[ABall 420]

1-AC
2-Jok
3-JU
4-Wagner
5-Woody


Why the F not at this point? Having AC and MG on the floor at the same time DOES NOT WORK. When MG has the ball the D sags off of him taking away driving lanes for other players, namely JU and forces us to take contested jumpers. We are very stale in half court set. I don't see us magically flipping a switch at this point so changing something drastically would seem to be the only way to do that. MG can spell AC and still play a lot of minutes but I don't want them on the court at the same time, MG is not an offensive threat and when our Fast break is taken away we do not acheive anything anymore with guys sagging on JU and Jok.

I asked people a month ago what they thought of this lineup but everybody's been all over 'mike's nuts so they didn't like it.

 

[wbrhawkeye]

At this point I would have Wagner in over Uhl. He can at least rebound, play better defense, hustle after loose balls and keep the ball moving around until we have an open look

 

[Hawkeyestate81]

At this point I would have Wagner in over Uhl. He can at least rebound, play better defense, hustle after loose balls and keep the ball moving around until we have an open look

Yep, I had Uhl a month ago with this line up but 100% agree as of now.

 

[HawkLogic]

Mikey has been on bench before and team has done well with Clemmons at PG, Jok at 2G, Uhl/Baer at 3, Uthoff 4, Woody/Wagner at 5.

Key is getting only one short guy that can't shoot out there at a time. Clemmons has been out-shooting Gesell for last 10 B1G games.

 

[HoustonREDHawk]

What, are you like 16 or something?
What magic do you think is sitting on the bench? The magic that has provided like 28 points over the last 4 games? It's not like Baer, Uhl, or anyone else has come in and done much of anything recently. The ENTIRE TEAM is struggling right now from the first seat to the last, with the possible exception of Adam. Peter has been scoring but his defense is lazy more often than not.
I'm not saying they don't need to find a spark somewhere, but trying to find something in the almost 30th game of the year isn't easy.

This team just needs to put a tee behind it's right ear, put all of it's change in their left pocket, put their hat on backwards, and tie their right shoe in a double knot.

This is dead on. Anyone who thinks we have better players coming off the bench than the starters must not be watching the same games I have been watching. The starters at least play pretty consistently on the defensive end.

 

[HawkNAZTY20]

Really wondering how much dale jones could be offering right now... Could be 22-5 with another scorer off the bench. Hopefully he comes back next year with great health amd confidence. Going to need it big time

 

[icantfindausernamethatisntused]

How is this working now Larry? Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.

So if we go with the same lineup that got us to 10-1 in the Big 10.....

 

[sadiehawkins]

So if we go with the same lineup that got us to 10-1 in the Big 10.....

How is 1-3 in last 4 games. Some times you have to set players to get them motivated and focused. You only have to look back a couple of years to see a end of season collapse. You watch iowa they struggle to inbound the ball . When Iowa was in their zone it looked to me the players had no clue if it was a 2 - 3 zone or a 1-2-2 or where they should be positioned. Generally speaking the most aggressive team gets the calls and the balls. Iowa hasn't been that physical of late. Why would they have a team meeting if everything was fine. The players know something is out of wack and the coach needs to adjust to it. I to wonder why we didn't use time outs when we were down below 4 minutes to regroup our offense. I am not sure how many pts were scored in last 8 min maybe 8 to 10. What did wisconsin score like 24. If that was at the beginning of the game I'm pretty sure we would have taken one. Makes no since.

 

[madmax1191]

New to these boards so please don't shoot me for having an honest take. Been a Iowa BB fan for 36 years. Fran wont sit his little pet MG down. It aint gonna happen. I get the sense it's a matter of pride for Fran. To sit MG would mean Fran made a mistake sticking with MG this long. Unfortunately MG wont grow a set of nuts bf this season is over and done with as well. I'd love to see Fran start Uhl or Wagner at the 4 but again not a reality. But as has been stated before MAYBE just MAYBE we hit an open freaking jumper?!!! The #1 issue with this team is they are ice cold hitting open shots. PSU was brutal and they are showing their true colors as a team with realistically one pure shooter Jok. Lived on borrowed time for most of the season but it's now down to the nitty gritty and this team doesn't have the grit and intestinal fortitude or shooters to win the conference.

 

[Mohawkeye]

Mikey has been on bench before and team has done well with Clemmons at PG, Jok at 2G, Uhl/Baer at 3, Uthoff 4, Woody/Wagner at 5.

Key is getting only one short guy that can't shoot out there at a time. Clemmons has been out-shooting Gesell for last 10 B1G games.

Agree. Three point shooting is too important in the college game, you can only afford to have one non shooter start. Need 4 guys who can hit the three. That's why I prefer Baer. He also plays better perimeter defense, which you have to have. Last year, we started clicking when White started hitting 3 point shots. If Clemmons/Gesell can't hit them then we need someone who can.

 

[Hawkeyestate81]

Agree. Three point shooting is too important in the college game, you can only afford to have one non shooter start. Need 4 guys who can hit the three. That's why I prefer Baer. He also plays better perimeter defense, which you have to have. Last year, we started clicking when White started hitting 3 point shots. If Clemmons/Gesell can't hit them then we need someone who can.

Baer has been struggling along wit Uhl which is why I proposed Wagner, he is very active down low, can get to the rim and get us multiple boards on a possession as a knack for getting to the ball. AC with Jok/JU out top spread the floor and attack, kick out for 3's, inside to Woody to distribute or take a jumper, etc etc. AC has a 3 point shot that is respected, MG does not so its 4 on 5.

 

[shoot_the_three]

I am not against shaking things up but agree that Fran won't bench MG. You also can't make an argument that Iowa's spacing isn't good and defense's sag off when AC and MG are on the floor together then suggest it would be better with Wagner and Woodbury on the court at the same time.

 

[Hawkeyestate81]

I am not against shaking things but agree that Fran won't bench MG. You also can't make an argument that Iowa's spacing isn't good and defense's sag off when AC and MG are on the floor together then suggest it would be better with Wagner and Woodbury on the court at the same time.

Why couldn't you? Put both Woody and Wagner on the block have them criss cross from the block to the FT line for screen opportunities and to feed the post which will make the D either help down low leaving a guy open or if they don't AC can attack the rim, distribute or shoot it.

 

[shoot_the_three]

Ok so not only is Iowa going to start Wagner but they are going to change their offense too? And there isn't going to be much room for AC to attack the rim with Wagner and Woody on the block criss crossing.

 

[Hawkeyestate81]

Ok so not only is Iowa going to start Wagner but they are going to change their offense too? And there isn't going to be much room for AC to attack the rim with Wagner and Woody on the block criss crossing.

If they clear out the side there would be. I know this is pipe dream but status quo with 2 guards 1 who cannot shoot is our downfall with the pathetic defense.

 

[shoot_the_three]

But the problem is you can't clear out the side with Woody and Wagner out there because the big covering them can stay in the lane. I know Uhl hasn't played as well lately but I think he is a better option because he can shoot it.

 

[Hawkeyestate81]

But the problem is you can't clear out the side with Woody and Wagner out there because the big covering them can stay in the lane. I know Uhl hasn't played as well lately but I think he is a better option because he can shoot it.

I'd prefer Uhl when he was playing good but he is awful as of late as well. We just have to end the 4 on 5 half court offensive sets.

 

[shoot_the_three]

I think it was the Penn St game where Uhl was getting to the rim a couple of times then Fran pulled him and never put him back in. Fran is riding his starters too much right now and needs to trust his bench guys a little more. If Iowa can hit some three's and get Uthoff to start driving the ball again they will be ok. I am hoping that in the NCAA tournament the officials will start to enforce the freedom of movement again which will help Iowa's offense flow.

 

[Hawkeyestate81]

I think it was the Penn St game where Uhl was getting to the rim a couple of times then Fran pulled him and never put him back in. Fran is riding his starters too much right now and needs to trust his bench guys a little more. If Iowa can hit some three's and get Uthoff to start driving the ball again they will be ok. I am hoping that in the NCAA tournament the officials will start to enforce the freedom of movement again which will help Iowa's offense flow.

Yes, that has been huge the grabbing and bodying teams have gotten away with vs Jok and JU. Yes, JU needs to attack and get fouled play after play until they respect his driving ability which should open up a pass for an open shooter or free up space for him to shoot 3's again.

 

[icantfindausernamethatisntused]

How is 1-3 in last 4 games. Some times you have to set players to get them motivated and focused. You only have to look back a couple of years to see a end of season collapse. You watch iowa they struggle to inbound the ball . When Iowa was in their zone it looked to me the players had no clue if it was a 2 - 3 zone or a 1-2-2 or where they should be positioned. Generally speaking the most aggressive team gets the calls and the balls. Iowa hasn't been that physical of late. Why would they have a team meeting if everything was fine. The players know something is out of wack and the coach needs to adjust to it. I to wonder why we didn't use time outs when we were down below 4 minutes to regroup our offense. I am not sure how many pts were scored in last 8 min maybe 8 to 10. What did wisconsin score like 24. If that was at the beginning of the game I'm pretty sure we would have taken one. Makes no since.

(1) I pointed out that we did not change our lineup after starting 10-1 in the Big 10 to illustrate the logical fallacy of your assertion that not changing our lineup now would be insanity. We started 10-1, did not change our lineup, yet we still observed different results in the subsequent four games. Thus, it is logical to think that we can regain the form that got us to 10-1 in the Big 10 by sticking with the same lineup.

(2) We out-rebounded Wisconsin 43-30 and we had twice as many free throw attempts. In short, we were the more physical and aggressive team. The game came down to the fact that Wisconsin made their jumpers and Iowa did not.

I understand that we have lost 3 of 4 games, but that does not mean the fix is as simple as changing the lineup for the sake of doing something new.

We are currently starting our 5 best players. That will not, and should not change.

 

[Hawkeyestate81]

(1) I pointed out that we did not change our lineup after starting 10-1 in the Big 10 to illustrate the logical fallacy of your assertion that not changing our lineup now would be insanity. We started 10-1, did not change our lineup, yet we still observed different results in the subsequent four games. Thus, it is logical to think that we can regain the form that got us to 10-1 in the Big 10 by sticking with the same lineup.

(2) We out-rebounded Wisconsin 43-30 and we had twice as many free throw attempts. In short, we were the more physical and aggressive team. The game came down to the fact that Wisconsin made their jumpers and Iowa did not.

I understand that we have lost 3 of 4 games, but that does not mean the fix is as simple as changing the lineup for the sake of doing something new.

We are currently starting our 5 best players. That will not, and should not change.

Agree to disagree, when you do not get to run in transition and are stuck in half court sets, having 4 vs 5 does not work.

 

[StormHawk42]

You don't pull starters and change philosophies every time a player is struggling. Lots of people thought Uhl could start in January. Now not a chance. Gesell was playing like an all-Big PG in January, now he's fallen off a bit. Gotta get him out of there.

surely, one can see the problems with constantly riding the offensive hot hand. Not to mention, Gesell is a pretty damn good defender, which is where we are struggling as a team right now. We need the defense.

 

[Hawkeyestate81]

You don't pull starters and change philosophies every time a player is struggling. Lots of people thought Uhl could start in January. Now not a chance. Gesell was playing like an all-Big PG in January, now he's fallen off a bit. Gotta get him out of there.

surely, one can see the problems with constantly riding the offensive hot hand. Not to mention, Gesell is a pretty damn good defender, which is where we are struggling as a team right now. We need the defense.

He will still get his minutes. I just think our best half court offensive set is not with the 2 PG's in at the same time almost ALL the time, short spurts here and there sure but to play 3/4 of a game like that, NO.