The good & bad 12 games in…

[cmhawks99]

We have lost 2 games vs undefeated teams on the road, that we could’ve won and I propose this Michigan State game we should’ve won. Both of these teams are likely top 15 teams next week. But I also doubt anyone had us 9-2 right now.

Lots of angry “reflexive” reactions in the game thread and I too was pissed. But there is lots of good as well.

Things I’ve been critical of…I do wish we could get Ava more minutes. She has more upside….

With that said here is why I’m sure she doesn’t yet. Neither one of those girls right now are getting the ball deep at 8 foot & wheeling very often for some reason and that includes AOG.,…why?!

Ava in particular had the ball within 5 foot with her shooting, hand free and rather than going up, she passed it for a turnover?! there’s clearly a confidence/trust issue by her and maybe the coaching staff right now?

Our press break, really isn’t that bad, but our propensity to dribble into half court traps by Sr guards is quite odd. Can’t be coached that way…. they are poor decisions, possibly because they’ve been sped up in a full court game and are in their heads. Lucy & KF had 12 TOs between them, that’s not a coaching issue.

We go through spurts where we can’t make shots, and there’s not a lot you can do except work through it. This was an expressly unique game in that we rely on Lucy to get in the lane and make five jumpers and she did not do that today.

Our out of bounds plays were poor today, and generally speaking they they’ve been decent. We do that wheel with Olson, McCabe, Affolter, etc., but that was not effective today and getting anything under the basket was nonexistent. It feels to me like we went away from Hannah when she got the third foul and we shouldn’t have.

Hanna‘s ability to break the press regardless of what some uninformed fan suggested is actually quite remarkable. She handled the ball a lot today and only had two turnovers. But again, they went away from her and I’m not sure why.

AOG, is suddenly reluctant to make a post move and I wonder why? Is it because she has lost the ball a few times & being told not to etc.?

Why do we keep throwing the ball in over the top when, we can’t execut it and she fumbles it away. Ava has missed a few too.
Now I think it’s reasonable to understand we do need to keep trying, but man are we bad at it?

Again, not a coaching issue unless you think they should take that out of their offense and that’s probably not reasonable. But it definitely is an execution issue.

As good as we are defensively, we have a lapse from time to time after a big made shot, that has to stop.

Ultimately every loss isn’t because the coach did a poor job this team is still working through some kinks. They haven’t had a bad loss, and the games they have lost were very winnable. Probably what makes it so frustrating.

But the over the top criticisms are silly to me…

I’m missing a couple things that I wish they'd do better and obviously I didn’t really even address the good, thoughts?

 

[retrodent]

We have lost 2 games vs undefeated teams on the road, that we could’ve won and I propose this Michigan State game we should’ve won. Both of these teams are likely top 15 teams next week. But I also doubt anyone had us 9-2 right now.

Lots of angry “reflexive” reactions in the game thread and I too was pissed. But there is lots of good as well.

Things I’ve been critical of…I do wish we could get Ava more minutes. She has more upside….

With that said here is why I’m sure she doesn’t yet. Neither one of those girls right now are getting the ball deep at 8 foot & wheeling very often for some reason and that includes AOG.,…why?!

Ava in particular had the ball within 5 foot with her shooting, hand free and rather than going up, she passed it for a turnover?! there’s clearly a confidence/trust issue by her and maybe the coaching staff right now?

Our press break, really isn’t that bad, but our propensity to dribble into half court traps by Sr guards is quite odd. Can’t be coached that way…. they are poor decisions, possibly because they’ve been sped up in a full court game and are in their heads. Lucy & KF had 12 TOs between them, that’s not a coaching issue.

We go through spurts where we can’t make shots, and there’s not a lot you can do except work through it. This was an expressly unique game in that we rely on Lucy to get in the lane and make five jumpers and she did not do that today.

Our out of bounds plays were poor today, and generally speaking they they’ve been decent. We do that wheel with Olson, McCabe, Affolter, etc., but that was not effective today and getting anything under the basket was nonexistent. It feels to me like we went away from Hannah when she got the third foul and we shouldn’t have.

Hanna‘s ability to break the press regardless of what some uninformed fan suggested is actually quite remarkable. She handled the ball a lot today and only had two turnovers. But again, they went away from her and I’m not sure why.

AOG, is suddenly reluctant to make a post move and I wonder why? Is it because she has lost the ball a few times & being told not to etc.?

Why do we keep throwing the ball in over the top when, we can’t execut it and she fumbles it away. Ava has missed a few too.
Now I think it’s reasonable to understand we do need to keep trying, but man are we bad at it?

Again, not a coaching issue unless you think they should take that out of their offense and that’s probably not reasonable. But it definitely is an execution issue.

As good as we are defensively, we have a lapse from time to time after a big made shot, that has to stop.

Ultimately every loss isn’t because the coach did a poor job this team is still working through some kinks. They haven’t had a bad loss, and the games they have lost were very winnable. Probably what makes it so frustrating.

But they over the top criticisms are silly to me…

I’m missing a couple things that I wish they'd do better and obviously I didn’t really even address the good, thoughts?

Why do our bigs not turn with ball high and shoot. They stand with ball in hand 4 seconds and look for cutters. Or why do the not turn to side and use a jump hook?? Jan is not the guru we thought if not coached these

 

[retrodent]

We have lost 2 games vs undefeated teams on the road, that we could’ve won and I propose this Michigan State game we should’ve won. Both of these teams are likely top 15 teams next week. But I also doubt anyone had us 9-2 right now.

Lots of angry “reflexive” reactions in the game thread and I too was pissed. But there is lots of good as well.

Things I’ve been critical of…I do wish we could get Ava more minutes. She has more upside….

With that said here is why I’m sure she doesn’t yet. Neither one of those girls right now are getting the ball deep at 8 foot & wheeling very often for some reason and that includes AOG.,…why?!

Ava in particular had the ball within 5 foot with her shooting, hand free and rather than going up, she passed it for a turnover?! there’s clearly a confidence/trust issue by her and maybe the coaching staff right now?

Our press break, really isn’t that bad, but our propensity to dribble into half court traps by Sr guards is quite odd. Can’t be coached that way…. they are poor decisions, possibly because they’ve been sped up in a full court game and are in their heads. Lucy & KF had 12 TOs between them, that’s not a coaching issue.

We go through spurts where we can’t make shots, and there’s not a lot you can do except work through it. This was an expressly unique game in that we rely on Lucy to get in the lane and make five jumpers and she did not do that today.

Our out of bounds plays were poor today, and generally speaking they they’ve been decent. We do that wheel with Olson, McCabe, Affolter, etc., but that was not effective today and getting anything under the basket was nonexistent. It feels to me like we went away from Hannah when she got the third foul and we shouldn’t have.

Hanna‘s ability to break the press regardless of what some uninformed fan suggested is actually quite remarkable. She handled the ball a lot today and only had two turnovers. But again, they went away from her and I’m not sure why.

AOG, is suddenly reluctant to make a post move and I wonder why? Is it because she has lost the ball a few times & being told not to etc.?

Why do we keep throwing the ball in over the top when, we can’t execut it and she fumbles it away. Ava has missed a few too.
Now I think it’s reasonable to understand we do need to keep trying, but man are we bad at it?

Again, not a coaching issue unless you think they should take that out of their offense and that’s probably not reasonable. But it definitely is an execution issue.

As good as we are defensively, we have a lapse from time to time after a big made shot, that has to stop.

Ultimately every loss isn’t because the coach did a poor job this team is still working through some kinks. They haven’t had a bad loss, and the games they have lost were very winnable. Probably what makes it so frustrating.

But they over the top criticisms are silly to me…

I’m missing a couple things that I wish they'd do better and obviously I didn’t really even address the good, thoughts?

Lack of pure shooters and ball handles are bad. But they will get better maybe

 

[Torg]

I think the chances our young team gets much better are very good
The chances the teams we lost to get better are way lower
I am excited about our future

 

[Phenomenally Frantastic]

 

[cmhawks99]

Why do our bigs not turn with ball high and shoot. They stand with ball in hand 4 seconds and look for cutters. Or why do the not turn to side and use a jump hook?? Jan is not the guru we thought if not coached these

Agreed and that has been for several games. They toss it in to AOG w/back to basket 5 ft out and she almost always throws it back out. She either needs to wheel or face her after getting the ball.

 

[creslin_hawk]

Agreed and that has been for several games. They toss it in to AOG w/back to basket 5 ft out and she almost always throws it back out. She either needs to wheel or face her after getting the ball.

Teams have started taking AOG out of her comfort zone. The lob inside isnt working because shes being fronted by large athletic players, and shes getting pushed out a bit. OAG has always been a little bit pass first, and needs to be more aggressive in both posting up and looking to score. She made a big step up this year and can get better and we seem to have reached that point where more Ava is needed

 

[EvilMonkeyInTheCloset]

This team sucks!

 

[kceasthawk]

We have lost 2 games vs undefeated teams on the road, that we could’ve won and I propose this Michigan State game we should’ve won. Both of these teams are likely top 15 teams next week. But I also doubt anyone had us 9-2 right now.

Lots of angry “reflexive” reactions in the game thread and I too was pissed. But there is lots of good as well.

Things I’ve been critical of…I do wish we could get Ava more minutes. She has more upside….

With that said here is why I’m sure she doesn’t yet. Neither one of those girls right now are getting the ball deep at 8 foot & wheeling very often for some reason and that includes AOG.,…why?!

Ava in particular had the ball within 5 foot with her shooting, hand free and rather than going up, she passed it for a turnover?! there’s clearly a confidence/trust issue by her and maybe the coaching staff right now?

Our press break, really isn’t that bad, but our propensity to dribble into half court traps by Sr guards is quite odd. Can’t be coached that way…. they are poor decisions, possibly because they’ve been sped up in a full court game and are in their heads. Lucy & KF had 12 TOs between them, that’s not a coaching issue.

We go through spurts where we can’t make shots, and there’s not a lot you can do except work through it. This was an expressly unique game in that we rely on Lucy to get in the lane and make five jumpers and she did not do that today.

Our out of bounds plays were poor today, and generally speaking they they’ve been decent. We do that wheel with Olson, McCabe, Affolter, etc., but that was not effective today and getting anything under the basket was nonexistent. It feels to me like we went away from Hannah when she got the third foul and we shouldn’t have.

Hanna‘s ability to break the press regardless of what some uninformed fan suggested is actually quite remarkable. She handled the ball a lot today and only had two turnovers. But again, they went away from her and I’m not sure why.

AOG, is suddenly reluctant to make a post move and I wonder why? Is it because she has lost the ball a few times & being told not to etc.?

Why do we keep throwing the ball in over the top when, we can’t execut it and she fumbles it away. Ava has missed a few too.
Now I think it’s reasonable to understand we do need to keep trying, but man are we bad at it?

Again, not a coaching issue unless you think they should take that out of their offense and that’s probably not reasonable. But it definitely is an execution issue.

As good as we are defensively, we have a lapse from time to time after a big made shot, that has to stop.

Ultimately every loss isn’t because the coach did a poor job this team is still working through some kinks. They haven’t had a bad loss, and the games they have lost were very winnable. Probably what makes it so frustrating.

But the over the top criticisms are silly to me…

I’m missing a couple things that I wish they'd do better and obviously I didn’t really even address the good, thoughts?

I'll just say that after 100!!! turnovers total in 4 of the last 5 games, some of this is certainly on Jan and her staff. We were consistently trying to in bound the ball passing to two players being guarded by three players. The staff needs to get back to the drawing board and get after this. Lucy made several really bad passes. Hope this was just a one off. Kylie actually had one of her "on games" from three and that kept us in the game. Still as we talked about earlier she still drives into traffic against multiple players and gets swallowed up with no where to go. This has been her MO since she got to Iowa, and as a 5th year player, its still a consistent issue. She's not suddenly going to get better.

 

[MVPFAN]

The fact of the matter is that this is a sloppy team that can't shoot. It's a good thing they learned to play defense or they would be in big time trouble. Affolter back to being MIA, Lucy MIA in the first half and not much better in the second. The old AOG is back, soft with the ball, if the entry pass isn't right on the money to her it's a turnover. There are times it seems like Helen Keller is suited up given some of the passes we make. They can't shoot from deep and miss a ton of bunnies, it's an Angel Reese look alike contest at times. Jensen better start using some practice time on shooting drills. A lot of talk about this Freshman class but other than Guyton hitting some timely shots and a bucket here and there from Heiden they are getting almost nothing from them except some hustle type plays from Stremlow. The vets should be carrying this team but they aren't, nobody is. No more CC to save the day.

 

[cmhawks99]

The fact of the matter is that this is a sloppy team that can't shoot. It's a good thing they learned to play defense or they would be in big time trouble. Affolter back to being MIA, Lucy MIA in the first half and not much better in the second. The old AOG is back, soft with the ball, if the entry pass isn't right on the money to her it's a turnover. There are times it seems like Helen Keller is suited up given some of the passes we make. They can't shoot from deep and miss a ton of bunnies, it's an Angel Reese look alike contest at times. Jensen better start using some practice time on shooting drills. A lot of talk about this Freshman class but other than Guyton hitting some timely shots and a bucket here and there from Heiden they are getting almost nothing from them except some hustle type plays from Stremlow. The vets should be carrying this team but they aren't, nobody is. No more CC to save the day.

Well then based on that and being 9-2 vs a pretty solid schedule is exciting🤷‍♂️

 

[pablow]

Much of coaching is long term player developement. Two years ago we certainly could have bitched about Hannah's awful free throw shooting. But nothing could be done at that time - it took two years to get her percentage from 46% to 71.4%. Many of our flaws are simply going to take time to rectify.

The other aspect of coaching is "what can we do to help us win our next game." The coaches have to identify easily correctible deficiencies and get to work immediately.

Many of us have commented on this. Inbounding the ball is #1 on the list of short term corrections. I've seen no progress since TN. That concerns me more than anything else.

Hard cut, quick pass, face-up and rip - the defense will retreat. Fumble around and the sharks smell blood. We are inviting a whole bunch of other problems with our weak and indecisive inbounding.

We should have this nailed down within a couple weeks.

 

[kceasthawk]

Much of coaching is long term player developement. Two years ago we certainly could have bitched about Hannah's awful free throw shooting. But nothing could be done at that time - it took two years to get her percentage from 46% to 71.4%. Many of our flaws are simply going to take time to rectify.

The other aspect of coaching is "what can we do to help us win our next game." The coaches have to identify easily correctible deficiencies and get to work immediately.

Many of us have commented on this. Inbounding the ball is #1 on the list of short term corrections. I've seen no progress since TN. That concerns me more than anything else.

Hard cut, quick pass, face-up and rip - the defense will retreat. Fumble around and the sharks smell blood. We are inviting a whole bunch of other problems with our weak and indecisive inbounding.

We should have this nailed down within a couple weeks.

Exactly. That was my point. After Cancun, and then the Tenn game that should have been priority one. Maybe it was, but if thats so, then thats really scary. There were a couple of times where Lucy was inbounding and she was on one side of the court, on the baseline. She had to throw the ball to someone on the other side of the floor along the baseline. She had to throw the ball UNDER the basket support, and yet over a defender to her team mate. Basically it was an impossible pass , and she threw it several feet over her team mates head out of bounds on the opposite side. Surely we could have devised a better way to have someone coming to the ball off a screen or something. Then there was the time where she and another player did the switch on who was out of bounds, which you can NOT do on a spot inbounds. She should have known that. Thats a mistake on the players.

I'd agree some of the stuff with the freshman is developmental. (should not be the case with Lucy, Syd, Kylie, Hannah, AOG, or even McCabe). You can tell that in certain situations the game is moving to fast for Heiden and Mallegni. Ava needs to slow down when she gets the ball in the post. I think they'll be really good players but they need some time on the floor.

 

[ghostOfHomer777]

Much of coaching is long term player developement. Two years ago we certainly could have bitched about Hannah's awful free throw shooting. But nothing could be done at that time - it took two years to get her percentage from 46% to 71.4%. Many of our flaws are simply going to take time to rectify.

The other aspect of coaching is "what can we do to help us win our next game." The coaches have to identify easily correctible deficiencies and get to work immediately.

Many of us have commented on this. Inbounding the ball is #1 on the list of short term corrections. I've seen no progress since TN. That concerns me more than anything else.

Hard cut, quick pass, face-up and rip - the defense will retreat. Fumble around and the sharks smell blood. We are inviting a whole bunch of other problems with our weak and indecisive inbounding.

We should have this nailed down within a couple weeks.

Mostly agree. However, I would say that Iowa's turnover numbers were a lot better going from the Tennessee game to the ISU game. Of course, as your rightly point out ... MSU's press gave us some of the comparable problems that Tennessee's did.

Usually, during the week ... the players are plugged in to the game-plan for the given opponents. Self-scouting takes the sort of reflection where you usually need a little more time dedicated to simply fixing those problem. They have 9 days between the UNI and Purdue games ... so hopefully some of that time can be spent on self-scouting issues.

 

[ottumwan in tx]

It is strange watching it without CC22, just watched a little bit of the MSU game, not the same!!!!

 

[Hawkaholic18]

Why is Hannah taking the ball out of bounds? This just gives her opposite more time to set up down the floor and she can't use her speed. When we are inbounding- can we sprint to ball and not jog to it? There were at least 4 times when they swatted the ball out of bounds because we were lazy not to mention the turnovers/steals. Why do we screen when we still don't know how to run off them? This could get corrected in one practice, but we still don't know how to run an opponent off a screen. We have no leader as of yet. Hannah's not it and that's okay, but Jan needs to have someone step up to make everyone accountable. Everyone is too nice. This team has so much potential, just keep improving and value the basketball, if we don't turn the ball over, we are undefeated.

 

[bunsen82]

I hope last game was Mccabes breakout. In either case to keep relevant she needs to be something more than a spot up shooter when open. Whether step back 3 or driving to the basket.

As to the rest of the team it’s lazy passing and out of bounds play(they are often slow recognizing the open player then getting it to them too late causing a bad angle and a turnover of leaving them in the corners. I do think it will get better but never be great this year.

 

[kceasthawk]

I hope last game was Mccabes breakout. In either case to keep relevant she needs to be something more than a spot up shooter when open. Whether step back 3 or driving to the basket.

As to the rest of the team it’s lazy passing and out of bounds play(they are often slow recognizing the open player then getting it to them too late causing a bad angle and a turnover of leaving them in the corners. I do think it will get better but never be great this year.

McCabe is not going to develop a step back three. Thats a hard shot, and takes a great deal of skill. CC22 made the step back, and side step three look easy, but your changing your shooting position while your going into your shot. Not many players can do that. In the same way, its not just lazy passes. Even Lucy is a "good passer" but she does not have Clarks "see things before they develop" vision. That was a rare skill that few players have.

 

[GunnerHawk]

I'm thinking back when CC, Kate and Gabby were Freshmen/Sophmores. They made a lot of mistakes.

This team will only get better. Syd's still not 100%, Hannah was off all summer, Guyton still working her way back. A lot to ask of Olsen to play the whole game, Jan needs to rest her more. O'Grady is much improved but it seems we are forcing the lob. CC did better than most but AOG has been fronted and guarded from behind. McCabe is not a shot creator but a shot maker if open. Kylie is very athletic but physical play gives her problems. Heinen and Mallegni show potential, improvement comes with getting use to the college game. I like this team. They share the basketball but do force a pass or two - sometimes. BIG is tough but they'll compete. I think top eight. West schools are all tough, add in OSU, Maryland and MSU. Nebraska and Hawks are next.

Edit: almost forgot Stremlow, she is tough and tenacious, love her game.

 

[bunsen82]

McCabe is not going to develop a step back three. Thats a hard shot, and takes a great deal of skill. CC22 made the step back, and side step three look easy, but your changing your shooting position while your going into your shot. Not many players can do that. In the same way, its not just lazy passes. Even Lucy is a "good passer" but she does not have Clarks "see things before they develop" vision. That was a rare skill that few players have.

Considering the season . . . You serious Clark regarding passing? How many lob passes well over the receiver when a bounce pass around the defender would suffice. I have seen 5-10 passes out of bounds where the angle was so bad no one touched the ball. I have seen roughly 40 passes that did y have enough on them so they got stolen. Probably around 30 where have thrown to Ogrady and either a bad pass or she didn’t move her feet. You can’t have the amount of turnovers we have had with good passing.

Re: McCabe She needs something whether driving to the basket or some type of 1 on 1 move to get her space for a 3. And she can do it, she did it at as shot clock expiring and drained it a couple games ago. She is the round peg for the round hole this team needs regarding three point shooting and spreading out the floor. However she just can’t just wait for a play to break down and her to get an open shot.

 

[cmhawks99]

I'm thinking back when CC, Kate and Gabby were Freshmen/Sophmores. They made a lot of mistakes.

This team will only get better. Syd's still not 100%, Hannah was off all summer, Guyton still working her way back. A lot to ask of Olsen to play the whole game, Jan needs to rest her more. O'Grady is much improved but it seems we are forcing the lob. CC did better than most but AOG has been fronted and guarded from behind. McCabe is not a shot creator but a shot maker if open. Kylie is very athletic but physical play gives her problems. Heinen and Mallegni show potential, improvement comes with getting use to the college game. I like this team. They share the basketball but do force a pass or two - sometimes. BIG is tough but they'll compete. I think top eight. West schools are all tough, add in OSU, Maryland and MSU. Nebraska and Hawks are next.

Edit: almost forgot Stremlow, she is tough and tenacious, love her game.

Excellent insight, even if you are a grumpy old man who has decided to write CC off for being “”woke”

😂🥰

 

[cmhawks99]

Considering the season . . . You serious Clark regarding passing? How many lob passes well over the receiver when a bounce pass around the defender would suffice. I have seen 5-10 passes out of bounds where the angle was so bad no one touched the ball. I have seen roughly 40 passes that did y have enough on them so they got stolen. Probably around 30 where have thrown to Ogrady and either a bad pass or she didn’t move her feet. You can’t have the amount of turnovers we have had with good passing.

Re: McCabe She needs something whether driving to the basket or some type of 1 on 1 move to get her space for a 3. And she can do it, she did it at as shot clock expiring and drained it a couple games ago. She is the round peg for the round hole this team needs regarding three point shooting and spreading out the floor. However she just can’t just wait for a play to break down and her to get an open shot.

You are exactly right, and there are several of us that see this and realize this. Some people just think we aren’t playing her but the reality is, she has to be more than an open three-point shooter…. Friday night was a good start.