Poker night, so I had to watch this morning. Both positives and negatives. Before I get to the team, this is the second home game in a row, where I thought the visiting team got treated like they were the home team by the lousy officials. Got a win, but damn that is annoying. Also, this is the third or fourth game in the last month, where Iowa had fouls to give at the end of the half, and Fran sat there like a toadstool and let the other team run a play for a basket. This is inexplicably BAD coaching.
The positives were that Iowa had some good offensive flow against a good defensive team for the first 30 minutes or so , and were smart enough to work it to Freeman instead of chucking up bad 3 after bad 3. Drew Thelwell's court awareness and leadership on the court is outstanding. I hate to think where this team would be without it. Josh Dix continues to play great defense, but needs to be more aggressive on the offensive end IMO. Finally, shout out to Riley Mulvey, who played some really good basketball. He got 2 of our whopping 5 offensive rebounds in his 5 minutes. He sets good picks and really hustles. He is now outplaying Dembele, and deserves to keep getting some minutes. Riley should have gotten a couple of easy layups in the first half, but teammates didn't throw him the ball rolling wide open to the basket, after a pick. Not sure whether they just don't have confidence in him or what.
The negatives were mostly that we choked down the stretch. 1 of 7 on FTs, several the front of 1 and 1s, is a recipe of losses. I know he was being guarded by a good defender, but Brock Harding was really bad down the stretch. Your PG needs to take charge in those situations and he didn't. Fran likes to play "not to lose", when he has the lead down the stretch, but that usually only works if you get good PG play and make FTs. Very fortunate to win.
The positives were that Iowa had some good offensive flow against a good defensive team for the first 30 minutes or so , and were smart enough to work it to Freeman instead of chucking up bad 3 after bad 3. Drew Thelwell's court awareness and leadership on the court is outstanding. I hate to think where this team would be without it. Josh Dix continues to play great defense, but needs to be more aggressive on the offensive end IMO. Finally, shout out to Riley Mulvey, who played some really good basketball. He got 2 of our whopping 5 offensive rebounds in his 5 minutes. He sets good picks and really hustles. He is now outplaying Dembele, and deserves to keep getting some minutes. Riley should have gotten a couple of easy layups in the first half, but teammates didn't throw him the ball rolling wide open to the basket, after a pick. Not sure whether they just don't have confidence in him or what.
The negatives were mostly that we choked down the stretch. 1 of 7 on FTs, several the front of 1 and 1s, is a recipe of losses. I know he was being guarded by a good defender, but Brock Harding was really bad down the stretch. Your PG needs to take charge in those situations and he didn't. Fran likes to play "not to lose", when he has the lead down the stretch, but that usually only works if you get good PG play and make FTs. Very fortunate to win.
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