That was a very good win, regardless of how ugly it was at times. Not sure it's possible to play Rutgers or PSU without it being ugly at times, quite frankly.
Thoughts:
Thoughts:
- Garza's touches were clearly affected by Connor's injury. Bohannon had 2 turnovers on attempted post passes and others seemed scared to try at times even though Garza had great position. Timing is critical on post entry as when teams try to 3/4 front the post you can't be late on the entry. I think Connor just has a knack for timing and positioning of the pass that makes it look easy. His height and length also give him a big advantage over Bohannon or Joe T in this regard. Joe W just doesn't look comfortable doing it some of the time as he'll stare down a wide open Garza and not throw it. Garza did a great job done the stretch though and as a post I think his move wehere he caught the ball outside and then attacked off the dribble and ended up reversing into a post position as he got to the block is just another way to get into a post move without needing a traditional post pass. He could do this more often.
- Nunge did a lot of good things on defense in the first half, including numerous blocks, rebounds, challenged shots and deflections. When he hit his first 3 I thought we might see a bigger scoring game from him but then he faded a bit. You can see where he might break out soon, just wondering when it might happen.
- Bohannon at PG just seems like a lot of work (a lot of reverse spin dribbles against pressure, and struggles to pass around or over longer defenders so it can be harder to initiate the offense). At times he disappeared but then all of a sudden would make 2 or 3 plays in a row. He had trouble on defensive transition again, but I did see him blocking out and doing some other things so overall a pretty good game. Those mid range shots by him and CJF down the stretch were not easy by any means so good clutch shooting by both - taking what the defense gave them rather than forcing 3's against a team that was purposely trying to run us off the 3 point line.
- It was good getting some guys like Ulis and Perkins some trial by fire. I thought Ulis looked much more like a PG in his minutes than Joe T does, quite frankly. Not saying he is better, just that he looks more like a traditional PG. Ulis seems to be good at everything (much like Keegan) even though he may not be spectacular at any one thing. Perkins looks like a 6'3" small forward so it will be interesting to see how he fits going forward. Note that when those guys were in there that our screen and roll game looked a lot different. They were turning the corner and getting into the heart of the paint, and then either going for the layup or kicking out. That doesn't happen much with Bohannon, CJF or Connor, so I thought it changed it up on Rutgers there for awhile.
- Joe W continues to impress with defensive rebounding, but on offense teams are running him off the line as they don't believe he's a great finisher inside nor distributor. He's not horrible at either, but not great either. Joe really struggles finishing in the paint against the better teams. He continues to try to straight line drive and do a normal layup, apparently believing he can high point the release over the defender but he gets it blocked A LOT. This is not just because the other players can get as high as him, but it's because his attack angle and speed are so predictable. Shot blocking requires both timing and an understanding of where the release point will be, and Joe doesn't have much variation in his approach to the rim. He really needs to keep working on ways to vary his approach (Euro Steps and two footed jumpstops or jumphops into a power finish) or release point (double cluch, one hander, early release floater). It's understandable as a freshman if you are still attacking the rim like you did against Louisa Muscatine, but by your Junior year I would hope you'd have more options. Compare his drives to Patrick's drive on the break where his Euro Step not only changed the pace of his approach but the direction and the release point was not as obvious. Not sure how his game inside the arc translates to the NBA if you can't do this better. His last 3 pointer also seemed like he clutched it slightly and didn't get his normal release, and the spin wasn't the same. Not sure if it was nerves but it looked like a miss when he released it, and Keegan came to the rescue. With talent comes high expectations so it's easy to criticize Joe because our expectations (and his) are so high. I think we just want to see the same advancement in his game that we've seen from Garza the last 2 years.
- As stated by many Keegan is really playing well and is a main reason we won that game. When Fran offered and they accepted I think many saw it as a bit risky - including myself - as it was not 1 but 2 scholarships to lightly recruited and lightly ranked players, and if it doesn't work out you will have a lot of fans using it as rationale for replacing you. At the time, I didn't have an opinion on them as players, but only that it was a bold (and risky) move by Fran. Within the next few weeks I went out of my way to watch more film of them at DME and even a few live games, and came away feeling that Keegan was a Top 150 and maybe Top 100 player and that Kris was perhaps a Top 200 player. At DEM Keegan averaged 22.5 pts and 7.5 rebs (38% from 3) as more of a SF and Kris averaged 17.1 pts and 10.1 rebounds as more of a PF. Keegan was their top scoring option and Kris was their second scoring option, but Kris is more comfortable in the paint and perhaps a better defender. One interesting thought here:
- Currently it seems as if Patrick is Joe W's backup at SF, and that Keegan is Connor's backup at PF. Fran is on the record as saying Patrick is likely a SF not a PF I believe, and I think this is affecting the rotations as Keegan is outplaying Patrick but it doesn't seem to be impacting Patrick's minutes. I'm indifferent on this as I believe Patrick - like Nunge - is playing better in practice and it hasn't carried over to games yet. However, what is more interesting is whether Iowa might not be better with Keegan at SF backing up Joe and Kris at PF. If Kris is every bit the rebounder, shot blocker and defender that Keegan is, then an argument could be made that this would be a mild upgrade. This is speculative as we haven't seen enough of Kris to know, but the general sense from DME was that there wasn't a big dropoff from Kris to Keegan and that outside of perhaps 3 point shooting and dribble penetration that Kris may be just as good if not better than Keegan at a few of the other categories. Just a thought - in this scenario it's not Patrick vs Keegan, it's actually Patrick vs Kris.
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