Lineup

[RocknRollface]

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.

Slow down dummy.

Its to much dumb all at once.

 

[RocknRollface]

Bottom line if you think changing starring lineups is going to result in any significant change in this team you're pretty much an idiot and should stop talking.

 

[RocknRollface]

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.

So switching Wagner for Gesell for the first 6-8 minutes of the game would accomplish what exactly?

Wagner, Uhl and Baer are already playing a decent amount of minutes and they are not doing anything significant.

 

[sadiehawkins]

Bottom line if you think changing starring lineups is going to result in any significant change in this team you're pretty much an idiot and should stop talking.

I guess you have never played organized sports in your life. You piss the bed you get replaced. You don't think lineup changes happen all the time in basketball? You should wake up and smell the coffee. You don't play 2 pt. guards who can't shoot together. How many game winning plays has MG made in his career at Iowa. I just shudder when he has the ball in his hands at crunch time. I have seen MG turn it over or get his shot blocked way more times than he has had success. Dribble at top of key for 20 Seconds ( I kind picture that in my mind) drive hard to the right turnover or block. Are you kidding me you don' see that. Don't really care which one plays but notMG and AC together. I guess you really shouldn't blame Mike. Fran is the one making these decisions on who plays. Maybe they just over achieved and our expectations are to high. Only time will tell. But time is running out.

 

[Vbeachawk]

One thing you don't want to do, imo, is have both Uthoff and Jok sitting on the bench at the same time, which has been happening at times. After thinking about lineups.......not starting, this is what I liked:

pg: mg/ac
2g: Jok/Williams
sf: Jok/Uthoff/Baer/Uhl
pf: Uthoff/Uhl/Baer
c: Woody/Uhl/Wagner

And as I said above, never have PJ and Uthoff on the bench at the same time unless absolutely necessary.

 

[moondog24]

Fran has shown in the past that he settles on a lineup at the beginning of a season based on the off season and preseason workouts. Once it is established, changes come only if there is an injury or disciplinary action. It seems to be part of his fundamental coaching philosophy. He wants that core group to know that he has their back. Nothing wrong with that. Other coaches have different philosophy and like to mix it up a little. Knight liked to start everyone in his top eight or so in non-conference games to see which players played well as starters or off the bench. Fran sees these guys everyday in practice, the weight room and in their individual work. The ones who play and start are the ones he feels give them the best chance of winning.

 

[lovedwatchingLester]

I first want to say I love what Fran and the staff have done here at Iowa. Now my observations are my own from watching since he has arrived. Fran will always take experience over potential to the team's detriment at times. It isn't a bad philosophy, I probably as a coach would do the same. My thoughts are though that he will ride that horse a but longer than he maybe could it should. Losing Dale Jones hurt this team but helped Baer improve. Fran has said I need to get guys more minutes but with the way the wins were piling up he wouldn't change what was working so Williams, Fleming, and to a lessor extent Ellingson haven't seen many if any minutes for several games so at guard it has just been Gessel, Sapp, and Jok doing all the ball handling and for Jok it isnt his strength. Maybe playing Williams, Fleming and Ellingson more would have cost us a game, I dunno but the experience may have paid dividends at this point in the season. The way things are next year will be a wild ride as Fran will really be relying on Jok, Uhl, and Baer a bit and youth. Next year Fran will have to be flexible so as the Zen Master said." We will see"

 

[shoot_the_three]

This isn't a slump for Gesell, this is what he has done for his career...40% from field, low volume 31% from 3, low volume 71% from FT line. What we are seeing right now is his return to his averages.

Fran will do what he wants. If he plays the same lineup and Iowa ends up losing a couple more and then has quick exits in B1G and NCAA tourney, this is just another late season collapse.

Except he is shooting 37% from from three. Once again his numbers are better than AC's AND he is the primary ball handler. I understand people being frustrated that Iowa has lost three of their last four and MG has struggled the last three games. Does anyone really thing that Fran is going to decide to bench his four year starting point guard at this point in the season? Iowa is 20-7 with a chance to win the Big Ten and people think Fran change things up now. The two PG lineup has worked pretty well this year despite what most people are posting.

 

[HoustonREDHawk]

I guess you have never played organized sports in your life. You piss the bed you get replaced. You don't think lineup changes happen all the time in basketball? You should wake up and smell the coffee. You don't play 2 pt. guards who can't shoot together. How many game winning plays has MG made in his career at Iowa. I just shudder when he has the ball in his hands at crunch time. I have seen MG turn it over or get his shot blocked way more times than he has had success. Dribble at top of key for 20 Seconds ( I kind picture that in my mind) drive hard to the right turnover or block. Are you kidding me you don' see that. Don't really care which one plays but notMG and AC together. I guess you really shouldn't blame Mike. Fran is the one making these decisions on who plays. Maybe they just over achieved and our expectations are to high. Only time will tell. But time is running out.

If you played organized sports beyond the 5th grade, it must not have been basketball. It really is pathetic that Iowa has so many no nothing, bandwagon fans, who are always in a hurry to blame someone when the team doesn't win every game.

 

[HoustonREDHawk]

This isn't a slump for Gesell, this is what he has done for his career...40% from field, low volume 31% from 3, low volume 71% from FT line. What we are seeing right now is his return to his averages.

Fran will do what he wants. If he plays the same lineup and Iowa ends up losing a couple more and then has quick exits in B1G and NCAA tourney, this is just another late season collapse.

So, Mike is THE reason why Iowa is slumping, and the rest of the team is poised to take off, if Fran just picks one of his bench players to play instead.

No one on the bench (or in the starting line up) is a better ball handler than Mike, so that definitely won't improve. Is anyone on the bench a better shooter? Not that I have seen (maybe Ellingson, but I don't know anyone who wants to go there). Wagner cannot shoot outside 5 feet, and Uhl/Baer have been in at least as much of a shooting funk as Gesell. So, maybe shooting is a wash. Is anyone on the bench a better defender? Uhl is clearly a LOT worse. Baer might be close. Wagner is good for a true freshman, but still makes some freshman mistakes on defense, especially if not near the basket. Those of us who have been arguing against nonsense changes to the lineup, would be happy if Fran had magic buttons to push. In the end, the players, not just Mike, just need to shoot better, especially Uthoff and the bench.

 

[RocknRollface]

I guess you have never played organized sports in your life. You piss the bed you get replaced. You don't think lineup changes happen all the time in basketball? You should wake up and smell the coffee. You don't play 2 pt. guards who can't shoot together. How many game winning plays has MG made in his career at Iowa. I just shudder when he has the ball in his hands at crunch time. I have seen MG turn it over or get his shot blocked way more times than he has had success. Dribble at top of key for 20 Seconds ( I kind picture that in my mind) drive hard to the right turnover or block. Are you kidding me you don' see that. Don't really care which one plays but notMG and AC together. I guess you really shouldn't blame Mike. Fran is the one making these decisions on who plays. Maybe they just over achieved and our expectations are to high. Only time will tell. But time is running out.

There's no one else to put in unless you want to try Ellingson, Williams or Fleming, and there's a reason they never play.

Uhl, Baer and Wagner are limited role players. Starting them will accomplish nothing positive.

 

[ABall 420]

We are so hard to watch right now It's not even fun

 

[championhawk]

MG
Jok
Bauer
JU
AW

This group looked good together today. I would start them and run with it. Opposing teams have us scouted and it is time to counter that. It was nice seeing Williams get some PT. Not much else to say about this one.