My biggest issue with our style of play...

[BrewHawk]

...is that it doesn't emphasize effort.

Effort takes place on defense and rebounding. We don't do either consistently well at all.

I can live with a loss if I we were busting ass on D and the boards. Unfortunately, those efforts are the exception rather than the rule.

When you don't have optimal talent you have to out-effort your opponent. We have the depth to be able to do it without wearing down. We aren't going to have optimal talent under Fran. We probably won't under any coach at Iowa without cheating.

 

[kcgolfer]

Agree it takes effort. I thought we played the best man defense against Indiana until foul trouble started. They can do it but like you said, it’s all about effort. Our zone is awful.

 

[backinblack23]

Agree it takes effort. I thought we played the best man defense against Indiana until foul trouble started. They can do it but like you said, it’s all about effort. Our zone is awful.

Agree 100%. Sometimes it looks like our guys are so confident in the shooters they don't even bother going to rebound they leave that up to Luka, Murray and or Weiskamp. We should have 4 guys going for the offensive rebound every time and let bohannon or Toussaint leak down court. On defense the zone is really hard to rebound out of because most of the time the offense is looking to get into the open spots and then it becomes a cluster to get a body on someone.

Our zone is just downright embarrassing, it looks like we are trying to employ a 1-3-1 sometimes, which almost every time out of that we end up with two guys guarding the same guy and then the rotations are off and we give up wide open 3's. At this point I don't trust the coaches to teach any defense. Even when they play man they consistently go under screens on shooters, the bigs don't hedge the ball handler hard at all, and once the ball enters the post no one digs on their post guys like they do to Luka. I'm not blaming luka or Weezy for bad defense on the last shot, but Luka left his man to help which is fine cause I can live with Thompson shooting a 3, but he just sort of jabbed at him the backed off which got in the way of Weiskamp and made him get out of position to contest. The staff just can't even teach the basics and fundamentals of defense and it's sad.

 

[hawkland14]

Lickliter's teams played with a lot of effort, hustle, and grit. How did that work out for us?

 

[backinblack23]

Lickliter's teams played with a lot of effort, hustle, and grit. How did that work out for us?

No they didn't, those teams played lazy stall ball.

 

[DewHawk]

My biggest issue is losing mojo and games every year

 

[bdcolt45er]

Agree 100%. Sometimes it looks like our guys are so confident in the shooters they don't even bother going to rebound they leave that up to Luka, Murray and or Weiskamp. We should have 4 guys going for the offensive rebound every time and let bohannon or Toussaint leak down court. On defense the zone is really hard to rebound out of because most of the time the offense is looking to get into the open spots and then it becomes a cluster to get a body on someone.

Our zone is just downright embarrassing, it looks like we are trying to employ a 1-3-1 sometimes, which almost every time out of that we end up with two guys guarding the same guy and then the rotations are off and we give up wide open 3's. At this point I don't trust the coaches to teach any defense. Even when they play man they consistently go under screens on shooters, the bigs don't hedge the ball handler hard at all, and once the ball enters the post no one digs on their post guys like they do to Luka. I'm not blaming luka or Weezy for bad defense on the last shot, but Luka left his man to help which is fine cause I can live with Thompson shooting a 3, but he just sort of jabbed at him the backed off which got in the way of Weiskamp and made him get out of position to contest. The staff just can't even teach the basics and fundamentals of defense and it's sad.

I disagree pretty strongly on offensive rebounding. This may not have been the case against Indiana, but one of the long standing issues with Iowa is poor transition defense and a lot of that stems from over commitment to offensive rebounding. Iowa often efforts for offensive boards and nobody drops to provide cover. If you get beat on the boards you're exposed in transition. A lot of this is decision making guys trying to get a rebound when they don't have the position or angle and then they are behind the play. One of the simplest things Iowa could do is commit to dropping 2 guys back to eliminate transition buckets.

 

[HawkRugged17]

My biggest issue is losing mojo and games every year

 

[jamesvanderwulf]

Agree it takes effort. I thought we played the best man defense against Indiana until foul trouble started. They can do it but like you said, it’s all about effort. Our zone is awful.

Agreed. Did we tire on offense because of the effort on D? Who knows for sure but when we go zone to protect Garza, the threes fall like rain...

 

[Ihawkhoops]

Agree it takes effort. I thought we played the best man defense against Indiana until foul trouble started. They can do it but like you said, it’s all about effort. Our zone is awful.

Agree the zone is bad. Not only do guys appear to not understand where they need to be but they get absolutely abused on the boards. No recognition of block out assignments it seems with guys in no man's land.

 

[EpenesaEpenesa]

Agree the zone is bad. Not only do guys appear to not understand where they need to be but they get absolutely abused on the boards. No recognition of block out assignments it seems with guys in no man's land.

That’s 100% on Fran and the staff

 

[Hawkeye 1992]

My biggest issue is losing mojo and games every year

Every February under Fran we lose games we should win. It is one of two things, the Big 10 has figured out our simple basic offense and lack of defense, or the kids are beat up from whatever Fran does in practice. If this was just once, I get it, but this is every year under Fran, February we stink. We can usually get it back, but Fran needs to change! That is the bottom line, expectations are one thing, results matter.

 

[RocknRollface]

I disagree pretty strongly on offensive rebounding. This may not have been the case against Indiana, but one of the long standing issues with Iowa is poor transition defense and a lot of that stems from over commitment to offensive rebounding. Iowa often efforts for offensive boards and nobody drops to provide cover. If you get beat on the boards you're exposed in transition. A lot of this is decision making guys trying to get a rebound when they don't have the position or angle and then they are behind the play. One of the simplest things Iowa could do is commit to dropping 2 guys back to eliminate transition buckets.

Excellent point.

Iowas guards consistently get beat back because they're not coached to get back.

They're waiting around for an offensive rebound kick out.

Teams that always at the top in defense are taught to get back instead of offensive rebound.

 

[RocknRollface]

Agree 100%. Sometimes it looks like our guys are so confident in the shooters they don't even bother going to rebound they leave that up to Luka, Murray and or Weiskamp. We should have 4 guys going for the offensive rebound every time and let bohannon or Toussaint leak down court. On defense the zone is really hard to rebound out of because most of the time the offense is looking to get into the open spots and then it becomes a cluster to get a body on someone.

Our zone is just downright embarrassing, it looks like we are trying to employ a 1-3-1 sometimes, which almost every time out of that we end up with two guys guarding the same guy and then the rotations are off and we give up wide open 3's. At this point I don't trust the coaches to teach any defense. Even when they play man they consistently go under screens on shooters, the bigs don't hedge the ball handler hard at all, and once the ball enters the post no one digs on their post guys like they do to Luka. I'm not blaming luka or Weezy for bad defense on the last shot, but Luka left his man to help which is fine cause I can live with Thompson shooting a 3, but he just sort of jabbed at him the backed off which got in the way of Weiskamp and made him get out of position to contest. The staff just can't even teach the basics and fundamentals of defense and it's sad.

They obviously spend the majority of the time teaching offense.