The lack of perspective is laughable

[hawk-i bob]

and I should add...I've enjoyed watching this years team...frustrating sometimes but it was to be expected & its better than being dead.

..a couple more wins here or there would have been great..but excited for the remaining games....I have this membrane that keeps telling me we are going to make some noise before the season is over...maybe we have a BTT run in us.

 

[iahawkeyes17]

This is where I'm at. I would also add that Fran's record of coaching defense is poor, maybe average if you want to be polite. Do people really see this team getting better defensively next year? Moss is our best defender. Williams, Bohannon, Ellingson, and Baer all have difficulty keeping their man in front of them. With our bigs there's no rim protector. They are poor at rebounding. I just don't see the defense improving next year. Offensively I can see the potential but not defensively and especially given Fran's track record coaching D

You don't see D improving next year? Heck it has already improved this year. Same with rebounding Cook, Pemsl, Kreiner and Wagner will only get better as the get older and stronger and use to the Big 10 style of play. Look at Greg Bruner he wasn't the dominant guy on the boards his first year or 2 like he was by time he was a senior. Some we call it an excuse but reality is we are a young team and look at players we've seen last couple of years how much better they were as seniors compared to freshman. Marble, white, olaseni, clemmons, Gatens improved greatly his last 2 years under fran, even woodbury was lot better player by his final year and went from freshman being pushed around to one of the better rebounders and low post defenders in the league albeit not a shot blocker but played great D.

 

[DodgerHawki]

That's not saying much. I get what your saying but the defense this year isn't good enough to make the NIT. I find it hard to believe it will be good enough to make the NCAA Tournament next year. I hope I'm wrong or I hope our offense can carry us next year which I see as more likely next year. But where does that put next years team if they improve a lot on offense but marginally on defense?

If next year's team were to improve a lot on offense and a bit/little on defense, Iowa would likely be in the NCAA tournament or very close to it. There is the perception that the Iowa offense is elite this year, it's decent/good but not much more than that. In conference play only, Iowa is 9th in the Big Ten in offensive efficiency. When Iowa wins conference games, it's usually because the offense plays really well, but that has been sporadic. Iowa's offensive efficiency is good for 56th in the country. On defense, conference games only, Iowa is 11th in the league in defensive efficiency. Being 9th on offense and 11th on defense means you are a mediocre team, which is what Iowa is.

It is reasonable to expect defensive improvement year over year. From the 2011-12 to 2012-13 seasons, Iowa went from 206th in defensive efficiency to 25th. That was a dramatic improvement. It also was the first year for the Woodbury/Gesell/Clemmons class, and the second year for White and Olaseni. How much improvement is the question. Have to find a way to defend the rim and rebound the ball better.

 

[RocknRollface]

This team is bursting with potential. Its crazy how much underclassmen talent there is.

The missing ingredient is a facilitator. A guy that can handle under pressure, get the team organized and create a good shot.

We have a bunch of offensive talent but we need that facilitator.

 

[The Sleeping Dog]

Hawks have a good point guard in Bohannon. He has gotten better and will undoubtedly continue to improve. He's a freshmen largely surrounded by freshmen.

Point guard's Job 1 is getting the ball in a position to score. That's reflected in assists. Bohannon is 5th in the B1G. That makes nine other starting point guards that do not accomplish Job 1 as well as Bohannon. Bohannon climbs to 3rd (tie) in AP40 so there are 10 other point guards that are less efficient at Job 1. He needs to cut down the TOs but ... he is a freshmen.

Bohannon is a good enough shooter from deep enough range that no one is going to cheat off him to double elsewhere. At 86% FT shooting he's exactly the kind of point guard you want at the line with the outcome at stake.

Why would anyone of reasonably optimistic outlook conclude that Bohannon will not improve in all of those areas, as well as the less tangible aspects of leadership (he's clearly going to be the the floor leader next season and clearly is the guy that runs the offense this year) defensive positioning and just plain smarter play in tight moments?

I agree with Dakich. Bohannon will be one of our great point guards when his career is finished.

 

[RocknRollface]

JBO has a great future with Iowa. Hes gona score allot of points.

The end of the game perfectly displayed why we still need a real pg.

 

[The Sleeping Dog]

Well, if Boh's productivity does not a real point guard make it must really suck to have the 9 or 10 less productive point guards in the conference.

 

[RocknRollface]

Well, if Boh's productivity does not a real point guard make it must really suck to have the 9 or 10 less productive point guards in the conference.

Theres nothing wrong with his productivity but there's a necessary ingredient that the team currently doesn't have and likely wont as its curtently composed.

 

[pamarcole]

It still find it amazing the amount of dumb people we have here making posts. You really don't want me to go back and list the amount of dumb things I've seen posted here. Come on guys ....you didn't see a rough year coming? Half of this team was playing high school ball last year at this time and a ton of people think they should be playing like a veteran team. Some people talk about these guys like they will never be contenders.......I think after losing 4 seniors last year we are doing pretty damn good. Ok .....I have tor repeat at least one real stupid thing that people were saying at the beginning of the year .....Cook will be one and done with the hawks! Love the guy, great player ...but not even close...duh! Go Hawks ....ignore the dumb people!

 

[bagdropper]

JoBo isn't a classic point, but he is an average-good point who will improve. He should continue to play point too. It's just the type of point he is that probably rankles his haters more than anything else.

He's plainly not a "traditional" point. That is not to say he can't be an asset, cause he is. It's also not JoBo's fault that Fran apparently cannot recruit classic style point guards.

What JoBo and the team needs is another quality point, and preferably more of a classic style point where JoBo not only can get rest without the team production slipping, but also allowing JoBo to slide to the 2 at times to take advantage of his outside shot more.

Williams appears to be a better version of Clemmons in that he can play some point, but he's just not a natural at it. Even less so than JoBo. He looks more comfortable as a slashing, defensive minded 2/3.


What I think we may have to accept tho is...Fran appears to not value a traditional point like fans do. Otherwise I'd think we'd have seen one on his teams by now.

 

[relishingwinning18]

One could also say out of the 3 years Fran's made the tournament, only one of his team's finished strong. That happens to be the team that also played the best in the NCAA tournament. That's probably why he has the perception of not finishing strong. Last year was an epic collapse. When you beat MSU 2x and Purdue on the road in the first half of the season and can barely play .500 ball the second half of the season that's an epic collapse. There's no other way to put it.

Why would one say this? Just wondering, seems like it's reaching to find a way to be negative about season in which we won a game in the NCAA tournament. Both years we won a game in the NCAA tournament as a 7 seed, yet you are willing to give one team more credit than the other? Just a weird argument. The last 3 years we lost to two elite 8 teams, and the eventual champion. It's not like we just flamed out against crappy competition.
As for last year, Fran gets no credit for how well we played in January and all the blame for how we finished in February? Let's be honest here for a moment, that's kind of f***ed up thinking. Iowa was playing as well as any Iowa team I have ever witnessed for a 10 game stretch last year. Uhl was banking in threes! Amazing to watch, fun to watch, and great for all fans, but it also poisoned our brains into thinking final four. End of last season sucked, no doubt, but this argument that all Fran teams get worse at the end of every season is just wrong.

 

[RLMHAWK]

I don't think Fran doesn't value a true point, he got Gessell, and lost a good one to Duke or NC or whoever. Willians is coming around and Moss has potential. They strike me as true point gaurds.

 

[kzoohawk80]

Why would one say this? Just wondering, seems like it's reaching to find a way to be negative about season in which we won a game in the NCAA tournament. Both years we won a game in the NCAA tournament as a 7 seed, yet you are willing to give one team more credit than the other? Just a weird argument. The last 3 years we lost to two elite 8 teams, and the eventual champion. It's not like we just flamed out against crappy competition.
As for last year, Fran gets no credit for how well we played in January and all the blame for how we finished in February? Let's be honest here for a moment, that's kind of f***ed up thinking. Iowa was playing as well as any Iowa team I have ever witnessed for a 10 game stretch last year. Uhl was banking in threes! Amazing to watch, fun to watch, and great for all fans, but it also poisoned our brains into thinking final four. End of last season sucked, no doubt, but this argument that all Fran teams get worse at the end of every season is just wrong.

Someone would say this because all that matters is March. You want to be playing your best basketball in March. Pretty sure I've heard that somewhere.

I'm sure will disagree about last year's team and run this argument into the ground so I won't go there. Losing to Illinois, Beating a bad Temple team and getting killed by Nova and having a bad second half of the Big Ten season is a bad finish to the season if you ask me.

 

[relishingwinning18]

Someone would say this because all that matters is March. You want to be playing your best basketball in March. Pretty sure I've heard that somewhere.

I'm sure will disagree about last year's team and run this argument into the ground so I won't go there. Losing to Illinois, Beating a bad Temple team and getting killed by Nova and having a bad second half of the Big Ten season is a bad finish to the season if you ask me.

There are 300+ teams that would have taken that ending.

 

[hexumhawk]

Before the season I thought anything .500 or better would be a good year all things considered. Think Fran has done a good job with this young club. They will miss Jok a lot next year but I think they know they can play and win without him now. Plus you add in some really nice recruiting pieces.

 

[Hawkdogwoof]

I love this so much, I let this thread meld a bit before responding. It always becomes ridiculous. Just enjoy the ride. Most of the players on this team would be the best player any of us have played against, yet everyone's an expert. I'll go back to the thread title, The lack of perspective is laughable...Enjoy the ride.