Perspective in this early season

[srams21]

Just wanted to put a bit of perspective on the first couple weeks of the season here. I think, to this point, we have played a pretty tough schedule. I think we have played at least three and possibly four NCAA tournament teams. The Hawks sit at 4-2 and their only two losses were to two pretty good teams imo. Two teams that have a good shot at deep tournament runs in March.

The biggest weakness so far is finding productivity off the bench. The starters have played fairly effectively to start the season. The starters are scoring about 56 ppg this season and have been a big reason for the two blowouts over Marquette and Wichita State. I want to give special mention to Mike Gesell who is having a heck of a start. He is averaging 9.7 ppg and 7.7 assists while only turning the ball over 1.8 times per game. That A to TO ratio is amazing and I think is a great stat. This team has been passing the ball very well and shooting it very well too. Those are two areas I think we have improved upon from the last couple years.

I thin, in order to take that next step and be a top 25 team this team needs to improve in a couple key areas. I think continued play and cohesion will help a lot. The defense and bench are the two biggest areas of improvement right now. I think Brady can be our shooter and offensive production from the guard spot off the bench. He does much more than shoot but at that area he is hitting 60% of his shots and does a good job of getting to the hoop. He really reminds me of a young Ben Brust from Wisconsin. I think finding production down low from the likes of Jones, Uhl, and Wagner will be the key to the growth of this team. These guys have shown flashes, but need to be more consistent and aggressive while limiting turnovers. Not easy, but possible.

I really think this team will improve as the season goes along, much like last year. Keep in mind this is a very experienced team that has lots of versatility. It's all about blending the new talent to mix with that experience. Synergy and cohesion will be something to watch in the next month or so with these guys. At this point, I think the team is very capable of making the tournament for a third straight year.

 

[DanL53]

I agree with everything you said. The future this season will bring improvement from the new guys and on the whole the team will find those "special" stretches where our defense and offense have been spectacular coming more often and for longer stretches.

Personally, I think we are light years ahead of last year where if memory serves we were hitting around 39% overall and about 30% from three.

 

[PhantomFlyer]

Just wanted to put a bit of perspective on the first couple weeks of the season here. I think, to this point, we have played a pretty tough schedule. I think we have played at least three and possibly four NCAA tournament teams. The Hawks sit at 4-2 and their only two losses were to two pretty good teams imo. Two teams that have a good shot at deep tournament runs in March.

The biggest weakness so far is finding productivity off the bench. The starters have played fairly effectively to start the season. The starters are scoring about 56 ppg this season and have been a big reason for the two blowouts over Marquette and Wichita State. I want to give special mention to Mike Gesell who is having a heck of a start. He is averaging 9.7 ppg and 7.7 assists while only turning the ball over 1.8 times per game. That A to TO ratio is amazing and I think is a great stat. This team has been passing the ball very well and shooting it very well too. Those are two areas I think we have improved upon from the last couple years.

I thin, in order to take that next step and be a top 25 team this team needs to improve in a couple key areas. I think continued play and cohesion will help a lot. The defense and bench are the two biggest areas of improvement right now. I think Brady can be our shooter and offensive production from the guard spot off the bench. He does much more than shoot but at that area he is hitting 60% of his shots and does a good job of getting to the hoop. He really reminds me of a young Ben Brust from Wisconsin. I think finding production down low from the likes of Jones, Uhl, and Wagner will be the key to the growth of this team. These guys have shown flashes, but need to be more consistent and aggressive while limiting turnovers. Not easy, but possible.

I really think this team will improve as the season goes along, much like last year. Keep in mind this is a very experienced team that has lots of versatility. It's all about blending the new talent to mix with that experience. Synergy and cohesion will be something to watch in the next month or so with these guys. At this point, I think the team is very capable of making the tournament for a third straight year.

Some day I'm going to spend time trying to learn the advanced basketball metrics like I have done with baseball. Then I might have a better understanding (using objective measures) on what are the true strengths and weaknesses of this team. Taking a cursory look at the advanced metrics it looks like the weakest starter, by far, is Clemmons. Jok would be the next weakest contributor. Ellingson has contributed more to wins than either of those players, and Uhl has been equal to them.

My biggest concern is the weak defense we've seen so far. Yes, they've played maybe 10 minutes of good defense in the 2nd half of Dayton and ND, but the rest of the game they were pretty bad. I don't call it good defense just because the opposing team misses a wide open 3. That's luck.

The reason I find this disappointing is because they are starting 4 seniors and a junior. As John Thompson said in an another thread, these guys have logged a lot of minutes together and should have a huge edge early in the season as other teams are trying to work through their own chemistry issues.

I don't really go along with the example about last year's 2 early losses as Uthoff was a new player to the system. Plus, the team had a meltdown the season before, so their was a confidence issue among players and coaches early in the season. That's not the case this year, where the team came into the season very confident. Uthoff was their best offensive player last year but it took him time to get his feet wet, get used to other players, and gain confidence/aggressiveness in his game. That's not the problem this year. Uthoff is still the offensive stud, and the only newcomer to the lineup is Jok who played a lot of minutes with these starters last year.

The Hawks should win a lot of games, but will that be enough in what is supposed to be an improved B1G conference this year?

 

[srams21]

Some day I'm going to spend time trying to learn the advanced basketball metrics like I have done with baseball. Then I might have a better understanding (using objective measures) on what are the true strengths and weaknesses of this team. Taking a cursory look at the advanced metrics it looks like the weakest starter, by far, is Clemmons. Jok would be the next weakest contributor. Ellingson has contributed more to wins than either of those players, and Uhl has been equal to them.

My biggest concern is the weak defense we've seen so far. Yes, they've played maybe 10 minutes of good defense in the 2nd half of Dayton and ND, but the rest of the game they were pretty bad. I don't call it good defense just because the opposing team misses a wide open 3. That's luck.

The reason I find this disappointing is because they are starting 4 seniors and a junior. As John Thompson said in an another thread, these guys have logged a lot of minutes together and should have a huge edge early in the season as other teams are trying to work through their own chemistry issues.

I don't really go along with the example about last year's 2 early losses as Uthoff was a new player to the system. Plus, the team had a meltdown the season before, so their was a confidence issue among players and coaches early in the season. That's not the case this year, where the team came into the season very confident. Uthoff was their best offensive player last year but it took him time to get his feet wet, get used to other players, and gain confidence/aggressiveness in his game. That's not the problem this year. Uthoff is still the offensive stud, and the only newcomer to the lineup is Jok who played a lot of minutes with these starters last year.

The Hawks should win a lot of games, but will that be enough in what is supposed to be an improved B1G conference this year?

The defense has been a concern early on, no doubt about that. However, I think having some of the newer guys on the floor contributes to that. It only takes one guy to miss his assignment or not play defense to create an open shot or an easy bucket. From what I have seen, Jones, Uhl, Fleming, and Jok have struggled the most to stay with their guys or to play sound defense. When you have four starters doing their job and one other guy has a breakdown that makes it look worse than it can be.

I think some of the issues will be fixed, but that is another big key to winning some of these tough Big Ten games.

 

[DenverTurtle]

Some day I'm going to spend time trying to learn the advanced basketball metrics like I have done with baseball. Then I might have a better understanding (using objective measures) on what are the true strengths and weaknesses of this team. Taking a cursory look at the advanced metrics it looks like the weakest starter, by far, is Clemmons. Jok would be the next weakest contributor. Ellingson has contributed more to wins than either of those players, and Uhl has been equal to them.

My biggest concern is the weak defense we've seen so far. Yes, they've played maybe 10 minutes of good defense in the 2nd half of Dayton and ND, but the rest of the game they were pretty bad. I don't call it good defense just because the opposing team misses a wide open 3. That's luck.

The reason I find this disappointing is because they are starting 4 seniors and a junior. As John Thompson said in an another thread, these guys have logged a lot of minutes together and should have a huge edge early in the season as other teams are trying to work through their own chemistry issues.

I don't really go along with the example about last year's 2 early losses as Uthoff was a new player to the system. Plus, the team had a meltdown the season before, so their was a confidence issue among players and coaches early in the season. That's not the case this year, where the team came into the season very confident. Uthoff was their best offensive player last year but it took him time to get his feet wet, get used to other players, and gain confidence/aggressiveness in his game. That's not the problem this year. Uthoff is still the offensive stud, and the only newcomer to the lineup is Jok who played a lot of minutes with these starters last year.

The Hawks should win a lot of games, but will that be enough in what is supposed to be an improved B1G conference this year?

Uthoff was not a new player to the system last year. The year before last, his RS soph season, he was usually the 1st guy off the bench and he played a lot for a non-starter.
Jok is not a newcomer to the lineup either. He started almost every game by the time conference play began last year.

 

[shoot_the_three]

I guess I am one of the few that is excited about the potential of the team this year. Iowa has more good 3 point shooters this year than I can remember having in a long time. This team is long and once roles are identified I think this will be a NCAA tourney team with the potential to win a game or two.

 

[DanL53]

I guess I am one of the few that is excited about the potential of the team this year. Iowa has more good 3 point shooters this year than I can remember having in a long time. This team is long and once roles are identified I think this will be a NCAA tourney team with the potential to win a game or two.

I agree. I think I'm one of the few that actually thinks we are ahead of last year at this point and have more room to grow than we did last year as well. Originally I thought 10-8 in the Big Ten would be about right but I'm thinking I was on the low side by up to a couple of games.

 

[srams21]

I agree. I think I'm one of the few that actually thinks we are ahead of last year at this point and have more room to grow than we did last year as well. Originally I thought 10-8 in the Big Ten would be about right but I'm thinking I was on the low side by up to a couple of games.

I think we are ahead in some areas and behind in others. I still have concerns but this team has lots of new and young guys who will grow as the season moves along. I think 10 wins in conference is very realistic. I would say somewhere between 9 ad 12 wins is most likely for this group.

Keep in mind, the Big Ten has some really poor teams and other teams that have been somewhat disappointing so far. We play Penn st twice, Rutgers, and play both Minnesota and Nebraska at home. There is a good chance we sweep that set. I also think Wisconsin at home is a very winnable game this year. The bad news is we play Michigan, MSU, Purdue, and Indiana twice. However, that gives us the chance to pick up a quality road win or two. I also think the Hoosiers are somewhat overrated this year.

 

[HoustonREDHawk]

Just wanted to put a bit of perspective on the first couple weeks of the season here. I think, to this point, we have played a pretty tough schedule. I think we have played at least three and possibly four NCAA tournament teams. The Hawks sit at 4-2 and their only two losses were to two pretty good teams imo. Two teams that have a good shot at deep tournament runs in March.

The biggest weakness so far is finding productivity off the bench. The starters have played fairly effectively to start the season. The starters are scoring about 56 ppg this season and have been a big reason for the two blowouts over Marquette and Wichita State. I want to give special mention to Mike Gesell who is having a heck of a start. He is averaging 9.7 ppg and 7.7 assists while only turning the ball over 1.8 times per game. That A to TO ratio is amazing and I think is a great stat. This team has been passing the ball very well and shooting it very well too. Those are two areas I think we have improved upon from the last couple years.

I thin, in order to take that next step and be a top 25 team this team needs to improve in a couple key areas. I think continued play and cohesion will help a lot. The defense and bench are the two biggest areas of improvement right now. I think Brady can be our shooter and offensive production from the guard spot off the bench. He does much more than shoot but at that area he is hitting 60% of his shots and does a good job of getting to the hoop. He really reminds me of a young Ben Brust from Wisconsin. I think finding production down low from the likes of Jones, Uhl, and Wagner will be the key to the growth of this team. These guys have shown flashes, but need to be more consistent and aggressive while limiting turnovers. Not easy, but possible.

I really think this team will improve as the season goes along, much like last year. Keep in mind this is a very experienced team that has lots of versatility. It's all about blending the new talent to mix with that experience. Synergy and cohesion will be something to watch in the next month or so with these guys. At this point, I think the team is very capable of making the tournament for a third straight year.

Good OP. Pretty much nailed it. I am still concerned about rebounding against the more physical teams, but one of the interior subs stepping up, especially Uhl, could go a long way toward solving that problem. Baer and Ellingson have probably exceeded expectations.