Will keep this relatively short as much of it is self-evident I think:
- Team overall played exactly like we would have hoped against a depleted (but game) Nebraska squad
- Bohannon was great offensively as you all saw. The key for him is to play his role and take his shots when the defensive scheme demands that he shoots (helping off of him), rather than forcing things. Hopefully the pursuit of the Big 10 career 3 point record won't tempt him to hunt for 3's, although I don't mind him doing that once games are in hand. He deserves that opportunity at that point.
- Connor's 3's, on the other hand, are a bit mind-bottling (obscure reference here to an old Want of Bee, but I don't see it on this 2008 list so it may not be as old as I thought). Connor used to only shoot 3's late in a possession, often so late it was contested which would drive his percentage down, not up like you would find when shooting wide open 3's earlier in a possession with guys sagging off of you. More frequently he is shooting them earlier in a possession when unguarded. Arguably this isn't a big problem, but it would be ideal if we could get a few ball reversals in before this happens, including an additional look at post entry to Garza if he's in the game. I assume his behavior is (mostly) directed by Fran so I'm trying to reverse engineer the thought process here. I don't think it's a big issue, and he must be shooting decent in practice to shoot these earlier attempts, but every now and then I still scratch my head if they occur in the first 20 seconds of a possession. He is shooting 30% from 3, 44% from 2, and 56% from the FT line so imo he needs to be pretty frugal on his shot selection - while still keeping defenses honest where it makes sense. Made me wonder if Fran wanted him to get some volume last night in the hopes he would be hot and therefore give other teams a bit more to think about in the coming weeks.....but it didn't work if that was the angle.
- Was hoping Kris might get some time and he did. Definitely looked a lot like his brother in terms of athleticism and aggressiveness. Not sure if he can wiggle into the tournament rotation with so few games left - probably not, but very hopeful for next season with him likely in the rotation.
- Perkins continues to look good to me in terms of HOW he plays. Not impacting the stat line much, but just watching him I'm more hopeful. I had him penciled in as the biggest question mark of the freshman along with Josh O. They were the biggest risks of being busts imo - Perkins more because he's not as skilled as Fran traditionally wants, AND he's a tweener in terms of height for some positions. Having him play PG/SG type role is fascinating as I saw him as a SG/SF due to his size and skill level. Not sure he'll ever be a pure PG but I love how he plays much bigger than he is, and how under control he is with the ball (usually). Many times I confuse him for Keegan on a rebound or loose ball due to his activity and athleticism. Teams will game plan him due to his limitations, but his ability to win matchups on defense and overall activity level give me a lot more hope for him.
- Josh O got some time and like others I appreciated his sprint up the court in terms of seeing almost a combine level 40 yard dash for us to see what his max is. Definitely looks like he can run the court for us, at least once
. Still hard to tell if he can score out of the post, face up shoot, or defend anybody decent, so I still see him as a player who might not get 10+ mpg until his Jr/Sr seasons, but there are enough unknowns about him that it could be earlier. Seems well liked by everyone so glad to have him - they sure had fun on his dunk! - Patrick had a strong night, as did most of the reserves. Good to see the bench get big minutes, and that was the best I've seen Patrick shoot. Will be a very different team next year so will be interesting to see how efficient the offense can be without Garza, Bohannon and Joe W. Maybe next year our offensive efficiency is ranked 50-100 and our defensive efficiency is Top 30? A benchmark might be Kentucky who is 87th on offense, 31st on defense and ranked 54th overall on Kenpom.
- Iowa is currently 4th on Kenpom right ahead of Illinois, and #2 on offense and #56 on defense. We are 103rd in Tempo/Pace (not bad for having an offense centered around a post player!) and 268th in Luck (Fran's teams always seem to be 250+ in this one, I'll have to check history).
- In the Massey Composite Rankings Iowa is currently 5th, while being 4th in Sagarin.
