Offense and Defense superior this year

[wbrhawkeye]

Better offense, better defense and less turnovers. CJ better than Moss, Toussaint much better than Dailey and Garza is better with Connor at the 4 instead of Cook.

This is not an attack on Cook and Moss, as they were Hawkeyes, but I'm not surprised the ball movement and defense on the perimeter is much improved.

 

[RocknRollface]

Huh, I was told this was a mid major roster with out Cook and It was crazy to predict the team would be better.

 

[Hawkfan_08]

Huh, I was told Iowa wasn't going to be able to score those 18 points this year. No one was going to be able to replace that production. It was just going to vanish.

This was a mid major roster with out Cook.

Worse than actually. I think some were worried about the exhibition game. I thought 17-19 wins and I'm hoping to be low.

 

[HawkLogic]

Huh, I was told this was a mid major roster with out Cook and It was crazy to predict the team would be better.

I don't remember your posts predicting team would be flourish without Cook, but sounds like you did--congrats. You were also consistently negative on both Garza and Bohannon last year because of their defense. Garza obviously fantatstic this year. Jbo was obviously a key last year winning a few games with clutch shots.

Iowa has not won a big 10 title yet or even competed for one under Fran, has not yet qualified for NCAA tourney this year, or ever made it to a Saturday game in BTT under Fran, so jury is still out how successful this team will be this year. Yes there are some positive signs. I will say the small 4 guard lineups Fran has used are effective and a revelation to Fran himself. JBO being hurt has meant more PT for JoeT and Nunge/Pmac/Pemsl injuries have made it necessary to move Connor to role he is better suited for...i.e. a 2nd PG system/point forward/or whatever you want to call Connor's current role. Fredrick makes up for a lot of past recruiting misses by Fran at 2G and Garza offensive improvement this year is off the charts--and he was already very good last year on offense.

So far, yes it is a good year for Fran so far and I'm happy to see some success for Iowa. Garza obviously is the straw that stirs the drink and his success this year is beyond what I would have thought possible.

 

[TampaHawkfan]

The defense is improved? Are you SURE about that?

Compared to our conference brethren:
https://bigten.org/confstats.aspx/2019-20/mbb/confldrs?path=mbball

Iowa is:

13th in scoring defense (same as last year)
9th in 3pt % defense (6th last year)
Dead last (14th) in FG % defense (13th last year)

Last year's stats:
https://bigten.org/confstats.aspx/2018-19/mbb/confldrs?path=mbball

Defensive efficiency, Iowa is #223 this year so far. 205 last year:
https://www.teamrankings.com/ncaa-basketball/stat/defensive-efficiency?date=2019-04-09

To this point, if anything, the defense is actually worse, not better, relative to the rest of the conference. And that's with the bulk of our conference games ahead of us yet. In fact, I'm yet to find a single defensive category that is improved from a year ago.

Don't shoot the messenger.

 

[wbrhawkeye]

The defense is improved? Are you SURE about that?

Compared to our conference brethren:
https://bigten.org/confstats.aspx/2019-20/mbb/confldrs?path=mbball

Iowa is:

13th in scoring defense (same as last year)
9th in 3pt % defense (6th last year)
Dead last (14th) in FG % defense (13th last year)

Last year's stats:
https://bigten.org/confstats.aspx/2018-19/mbb/confldrs?path=mbball

Defensive efficiency, Iowa is #223 this year so far. 205 last year:
https://www.teamrankings.com/ncaa-basketball/stat/defensive-efficiency?date=2019-04-09

To this point, if anything, the defense is actually worse, not better, relative to the rest of the conference. And that's with the bulk of our conference games ahead of us yet. In fact, I'm yet to find a single defensive category that is improved from a year ago.

Don't shoot the messenger.

After 10 games, I trust my eyes that they are much better defensively than last year. I think the DePaul and Michigan games are outliers that had a causal effect on the true defensive stats.

 

[1inamillion]

The defense is improved? Are you SURE about that?

Compared to our conference brethren:
https://bigten.org/confstats.aspx/2019-20/mbb/confldrs?path=mbball

Iowa is:

13th in scoring defense (same as last year)
9th in 3pt % defense (6th last year)
Dead last (14th) in FG % defense (13th last year)

Last year's stats:
https://bigten.org/confstats.aspx/2018-19/mbb/confldrs?path=mbball

Defensive efficiency, Iowa is #223 this year so far. 205 last year:
https://www.teamrankings.com/ncaa-basketball/stat/defensive-efficiency?date=2019-04-09

To this point, if anything, the defense is actually worse, not better, relative to the rest of the conference. And that's with the bulk of our conference games ahead of us yet. In fact, I'm yet to find a single defensive category that is improved from a year ago.

Don't shoot the messenger.

Check the difference in schedules.

 

[L. Wade Childress]

The defense is improved? Are you SURE about that?

Compared to our conference brethren:
https://bigten.org/confstats.aspx/2019-20/mbb/confldrs?path=mbball

Iowa is:

13th in scoring defense (same as last year)
9th in 3pt % defense (6th last year)
Dead last (14th) in FG % defense (13th last year)

Last year's stats:
https://bigten.org/confstats.aspx/2018-19/mbb/confldrs?path=mbball

Defensive efficiency, Iowa is #223 this year so far. 205 last year:
https://www.teamrankings.com/ncaa-basketball/stat/defensive-efficiency?date=2019-04-09

To this point, if anything, the defense is actually worse, not better, relative to the rest of the conference. And that's with the bulk of our conference games ahead of us yet. In fact, I'm yet to find a single defensive category that is improved from a year ago.

Don't shoot the messenger.

If the messenger uses garbage, non tempo adjusted stats then you deserve what is coming to you.

 

[anon_bb9wlf9kj42py]

If the messenger uses garbage, non tempo adjusted stats then you deserve what is coming to you.

He used defensive efficiency. Even tempo adjusted its worse.

 

[SDHawkDoc]

Iowa finished with adjusted D ranking of 111 per kenpom for 2019. Currently Iowa adjusted D ranking per kenpom is 118.

While I think they've looked better at times, they've still got quite a way to go to be just an OK team defensively. Let alone a consistently good one.

 

[perryhawk]

Iowa finished with adjusted D ranking of 111 per kenpom for 2019. Currently Iowa adjusted D ranking per kenpom is 118.

While I think they've looked better at times, they've still got quite a way to go to be just an OK team defensively. Let alone a consistently good one.

I agree with this, but....the point mentioned above about the schedule is, I think, a critical one. The Hawks have clearly played a very strong schedule in the first 10 games...which would skew things in a negative direction. If we had played our normal 10 first games we would probably have 8 very poor opponents in that group and the defensive rating would most likely look better.

I think it's still early to tell how this team's defense will rank/finish. I think that factors like JBO's participation will make a difference in those stats....

I also believe my eyes that the defensive effort and coordination of team defense is better this year. Clearly they aren't where they need to be yet, but if we can get through some injuries and get some good practice time over Christmas break I think it will be better.

 

[IowaPride95]

I agree with this, but....the point mentioned above about the schedule is, I think, a critical one. The Hawks have clearly played a very strong schedule in the first 10 games...which would skew things in a negative direction. If we had played our normal 10 first games we would probably have 8 very poor opponents in that group and the defensive rating would most likely look better.

I think it's still early to tell how this team's defense will rank/finish. I think that factors like JBO's participation will make a difference in those stats....

I also believe my eyes that the defensive effort and coordination of team defense is better this year. Clearly they aren't where they need to be yet, but if we can get through some injuries and get some good practice time over Christmas break I think it will be better.

I think the most valid point is that Iowa's efficiency ranks behind last year's efficiency and Iowa still has to play most of their conference foes and ISU. The key will be how much does the D improve when Bohannon shuts things down? He is a warrior but his defense struggled when healthy and is really struggling now.

 

[TampaHawkfan]

Check the difference in schedules.

The schedule only proves my point even further. Last year's stats that I compared to include a full big ten slate. If you think this year's schedule has been murderer's row, it's not going to get any easier going forward.

Sure, improvement is a possibility, but based on what we have right now.. I'm anything but convinced.

 

[TampaHawkfan]

If the messenger uses garbage, non tempo adjusted stats then you deserve what is coming to you.

I also mentioned efficiency and FG% (which doesn't indicate tempo).

If you can show me a meaningful stat that say this year's defense is better than a year ago, then we'll talk about my just desserts.