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Owen Freeman

Ladji, imo, is the only freshman with a B1G ready body at the moment.
I think Freeman has a Big ready body, but he could add a little muscle.

Fran has always played upperclassmen over freshmen. That's usually played out well for him, but I think this is a year where the exception should be the rule. If this team is going to improve a lot its going to come from the freshmen.
 
Keeping the ball in play is incredibly impressive


I always thought that was the most impressive part of Acie Earl’s game blocking shots. He always did a really good job of keeping the ball in play vs. swatting it to the seats. The blocked shot is a lot of fun to watch when the Hawks have a guy who’s good at it.
 
I always thought that was the most impressive part of Acie Earl’s game blocking shots. He always did a really good job of keeping the ball in play vs. swatting it to the seats. The blocked shot is a lot of fun to watch when the Hawks have a guy who’s good at it.

I would like to see more of Dembele, who is also a good rim protector.
 
OK, I'll go there, Freeman reminds me of....

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Brock/bowens/perkins/sanfort/freeman at this point. Some defense/hustle/effort and freeman needs brock & vis versa.
Sanfort at the four will get abused on D. Fran is having to play Krikke and Freeman together more and more, but as last night showed, you have to have someone off the bench when there is foul trouble. I thought before the season that would be Braun, but he doesn't seem to have Fran's confidence. Dembele is emerging into that role. Certainly the experiment of an undersized center paired with Sandfort and PMac has not been positive.
 
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Sanfort at the four will get abused on D. Fran is having to play Krikke and Freeman together more and more, but as last night showed, you have to have someone off the bench when there is foul trouble. I thought before the season that would be Braun, but he doesn't seem to have Fran's confidence. Dembele is emerging into that role. Certainly the experiment of an undersized center paired with Sandfort and PMac has not been positive.
The 4 is the best place to hide Sandfort on D.
 
Both Owen and Brock will be in Moline tonight, at Wharton Field house, to join the rest of last years Moline team to celebrate the razing to the rafter's of the State basketball Championship banner that was earned by beating Lisle Benet in the Class 4A State Basketball Championship last March. Can't wait to be there in person to watch history and this years Moline team with Braden Freeman playing Geneseo high school. An historic night.
 
Both Owen and Brock will be in Moline tonight, at Wharton Field house, to join the rest of last years Moline team to celebrate the razing to the rafter's of the State basketball Championship banner that was earned by beating Lisle Benet in the Class 4A State Basketball Championship last March. Can't wait to be there in person to watch history and this years Moline team with Braden Freeman playing Geneseo high school. An historic night.
Evidently Iowa did not allow Owen and Brock to attend the ceremony because of the early game tomorrow , the ceremony was just Ok, nothing special, game was a blowout with Moline beating Geneseo 61 to 17.
 
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Both Owen and Brock will be in Moline tonight, at Wharton Field house, to join the rest of last years Moline team to celebrate the razing to the rafter's of the State basketball Championship banner that was earned by beating Lisle Benet in the Class 4A State Basketball Championship last March. Can't wait to be there in person to watch history and this years Moline team with Braden Freeman playing Geneseo high school. An historic night.
H
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Hope they didn't raze the banner. Maybe raise it, Anyway congrats to MOLINE on last year's championship.
 
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Dude cmon. Now you could say he may have a better shot at the league in a few years but Garza was the NPOTY and should have been back to back. Thats just a silly comment....
Compare the 2 and how they played as a freshman. Freeman is already the best player on the team. He is just scratching the surface of what he can do. Once he really settles in,the skys the limit. Just my humble opinion.
 
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Compare the 2 and how they played as a freshman. Freeman is already the best player on the team. He is just scratching the surface of what he can do. Once he really settles in,the skys the limit. Just my humble opinion.
Thats fine Max, I'm just saying Luka went on to basically the best player in college his last two years. A real three level scorer. Certainly Big O has a higher ceiling on defense. Its just a REALLY high bar, and then to say he'll be even better then that, is really out there.....
 
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Dude cmon. Now you could say he may have a better shot at the league in a few years but Garza was the NPOTY and should have been back to back. Thats just a silly comment....
offensively probably not, unless he develops a knock down 3 ball. but defensively he could be head and shoulders better than garza. more athletic and active.

prolly won't beat garza in the bloody lip category tho.
 
offensively probably not, unless he develops a knock down 3 ball. but defensively he could be head and shoulders better than garza. more athletic and active.

prolly won't beat garza in the bloody lip category tho.
Yep, think of the NIL Garza could get now with bandaids or something..lol...
 
I thought Krikke played his best all around game today. He rebounded and even defended. Maybe he’s getting more acclimated to playing with Freeman.

Freeman is the Best player on the team...he completely changes this team with his post defense/rebounding/hustle. If Krikke can play with the effort the showed vs Rutgers---then Iowa has a good complementary duo at PF/Center. It looks like Krikke was doing better defensively as a helper on post defense at PF...he's absolute disaster if he has to be primary post defender playing at center.

Where it falls apart is Sandfort is extremely streaky 3pt shooter and if he's off + the crazy lineups Fran puts out there = loss. The B1G looks to be full of mediocre teams---if Fran is a good coach, he ought to be able to get at least 8 B1G wins out of what he has on this team. It would mean PMAC plays maybe 10 minute per game.
 
Thats fine Max, I'm just saying Luka went on to basically the best player in college his last two years. A real three level scorer. Certainly Big O has a higher ceiling on defense. Its just a REALLY high bar, and then to say he'll be even better then that, is really out there.....

Garza > Owen the college player.

But Owen's got defense/athleticism that a lot of teams would covet in college B-ball so I think he'd be a target for NIL poachers.

I don't think Owen is a high level NBA prospect,but he might be able to stick on an NBA roster to same extent as Garza. It's going to take some NIL money to keep Freeman at Iowa + some possibility of the team improving. No one wants to play on a bottom feeder team for 4 years. I don't see enough young talent to say this Iowa team is going to improve a lot next year. Where is the guard talent?
 
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Thats fine Max, I'm just saying Luka went on to basically the best player in college his last two years. A real three level scorer. Certainly Big O has a higher ceiling on defense. Its just a REALLY high bar, and then to say he'll be even better then that, is really out there.....
Yea, no way he matches him offensively, but he’s probably already a better defender and his rebounding shows promise. I’m also amazed at how many steals he is getting for a big guy. So overall, he might be able to make us a better team. We all know Garza could score at will and that still wasn’t enough to carry the team.
 
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Yea, no way he matches him offensively, but he’s probably already a better defender and his rebounding shows promise. I’m also amazed at how many steals he is getting for a big guy. So overall, he might be able to make us a better team. We all know Garza could score at will and that still wasn’t enough to carry the team.
Freeman in the end, will never be mentioned in the same sentence as Garza. Woodbury maybe, as both were /are plus defenders. But the amount of points, from all over the court Garza scored (he is the all time leading scorer in Iowa history) will not even be halved by Freeman. And Garza was much more physical & added muscle and weight to bang in the Big10.

I like Freeman and hope he develops like Garza, puts on muscle mass & becomes a three point threat. I believe he can shoot the three, but not at the level of Luka. I think Garza had a better team around him his freshman year & didn't need to score as much.

It's good to set high expectations, but lets be realistic. Take off your Moline Maroon colored glasses please.

Rose Colored Glasses 4Amclub GIF by Dr. Donna Thomas Rodgers
 
Freeman in the end, will never be mentioned in the same sentence as Garza. Woodbury maybe, as both were /are plus defenders. But the amount of points, from all over the court Garza scored (he is the all time leading scorer in Iowa history) will not even be halved by Freeman. And Garza was much more physical & added muscle and weight to bang in the Big10.

I like Freeman and hope he develops like Garza, puts on muscle mass & becomes a three point threat. I believe he can shoot the three, but not at the level of Luka. I think Garza had a better team around him his freshman year & didn't need to score as much.

It's good to set high expectations, but lets be realistic. Take off your Moline Maroon colored glasses please.

Rose Colored Glasses 4Amclub GIF by Dr. Donna Thomas Rodgers
He’s far better than Woodbury offensively, already.

Garza had a crappy team surrounding him as a freshman. That was the last year we didn’t make the NCAAs.

I’m not not from Moline.
 
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Owen can hit a 3 or a long 2 occasionally, but I don't ever think he will become a Luka Garza by any stretch of the imagination. He's very good around the rim and has a dynamite reverse pivot. He's a better rebounder, runs the floor, and a better dunker then Garza. As every one knows I am from Moline and have seen him play a lot, at home and on the road, and as he get's stronger and gains more experience he's going to be really good before he's gone at Iowa.
 
Higher ceiling than Garza, a national player of the year? wow. Ok you've been outed as Owen's daddy.

Just wow oh wow.

Dude cmon. Now you could say he may have a better shot at the league in a few years but Garza was the NPOTY and should have been back to back. Thats just a silly comment....

Right now, as a freshman, Freeman looks better than Garza did at the same time,.. Can Freeman improve year to year like Luka did?,.. yet to be seen.
 
Owen can hit a 3 or a long 2 occasionally, but I don't ever think he will become a Luka Garza by any stretch of the imagination. He's very good around the rim and has a dynamite reverse pivot. He's a better rebounder, runs the floor, and a better dunker then Garza. As every one knows I am from Moline and have seen him play a lot, at home and on the road, and as he get's stronger and gains more experience he's going to be really good before he's gone at Iowa.
Fair assessment.
I hope Owen takes tens of thousands of mid-range and three pointers next summer as that will be necessary to take that next step offensively.
His handle is good enough to put it on the floor if he can threaten with the jumler and they rush out at him.
Based on his free throw shooting I expect him to be like krikke shooting the mid-range next year or 2. Love his feet length and quicks.
 
Dude cmon. Now you could say he may have a better shot at the league in a few years but Garza was the NPOTY and should have been back to back. Thats just a silly comment....
Please. NPOTY is nice, but he led Iowa to how many NCAA wins. He was a warrior, but Freeman has a more fluid game, can play away from the basket, and plays way better defense. Geeze. If you don't think he has a higher ceiling then I'm really glad, you don't evaluate talent for the Hawkeyes.
 
It wasn't Garza's fault that Fran built that team with Garza as Batman and Weezy as Robin and three jokers. Oregon let Garza go off for something like 38 points and totally shut down Fredrick and JBO. CMAC was a already a zero scorer without anyone guarding him. If Fran had at least developed a defensive roster, they'd have complemented Garza/Weezy better.

Owen is never going to be Garza on offense... Owen is already better than Garza on defense and you don't have to run a lot of plays for Owen to score...he goes out and gets the ball and makes plays himself.

I'm getting more optimistic on this season because B1G is so terrible its hard not to win half your games. Next year I see Iowa has a couple high quality forwards coming in---so I get the optimism........but where is the guard talent? I don't think Harding will be able to get his shot off to be a high scorer at PG and Bowen doesn't seem to have much offense at PG. Dix is solid complementary guy but not an Alpha dog.

Hopefully this Iowa team beats Nebraska....Nebraska looks like a collection of misfits but the Japanese guard can score.
 
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Please. NPOTY is nice, but he led Iowa to how many NCAA wins. He was a warrior, but Freeman has a more fluid game, can play away from the basket, and plays way better defense. Geeze. If you don't think he has a higher ceiling then I'm really glad, you don't evaluate talent for the Hawkeyes.
I like Freeman, really I do. But let me know when he becomes first team all american & NPOTY. Then you'll have a legit agrument. yeah, yeah, yeah, he's only a freshman. I get it. But ya'll need to slow your roll & pump the brakes just a wee bit.

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