Alrighty then! Lol. Great time to start focusing on it..
The past 9 games Iowa is top 10 nationally on D
- Thread starter Chishawk1425
- Start date
Wow! I mean, everyone knew they were much better, but that’s pretty damn impressive.
Team has definitely been playing better D, and I think Keegan is a big part of it. We will still struggle with some teams with stud guards, which is why it is important for JoeT to keep playing better.
A
anon_b29nm7v7dwp6r
Guest
Keegan and Joe getting more minutes....hmm surprised I am not....
Joe averaged 9 min/game over the last 9 games, 11+ over the season, so no, Joe has not been getting more minutes.
BirdistheWord
HB Legend
Joe has been playing better since OSU. So that is like 3 games. Keegan has improved every month of this season and that I will agree with you on. Also, CJ has been back and healthy. AND...... we are playing strickly man to man and when we get beat we stick to it and fix things. I absolutely love that BTW
It has nothing to do with who is on the court, FRAN finally realized his zone defense is terrible and has minimized the minutes they are in it. The Man defense has been pretty darn good and rebounding on the defensive end seems to have been much better as well. I'm sure there are stats that would prove me wrong, but it sure seems that way.
CJ is certainly NOT healthy, although he has certainly been gutting it out. Saw him walk up the floor a little gimpy in each direction in the Wisconsin game, and Fran pulled him pretty quickly. Didn't know if we would see him again, but he came back in when Joe W. went down with the ankle. I'd say he's about 70 to 75% right now.
Will next years team be the first elite defensive team of the Fran era? If Nunge comes back strong or we pick up a solid big transfer, I’m guessing it will be.
I was very critical of Luka on the defensive end for his first couple of years. He still moves like he has cement in his shoes, but he has been damn good around the basket on defense this year. He knows how to use his body to wall off without getting fouls, he is strong and gives nonstop effort, and he doesn't make many mental mistakes. Since the B1G is primarily a league with huge centers, that has worked very well.
We'll see. I still think that the defense getting markedly better has been the result of this years upper classmen leading this team to take it upon themselves to put in the work on that end of the floor, knowing what the efforts might reward them. Remains to be seen if we will have that kind of leadership next year or not.
The potential could be there. But you are right, it requires a commitment of more than 10 games in a season. Playing time has to be given out and taken away based on defense, and it has to be a priority. There have been many posters here saying improvement could come not in some radical new defense, but by playing harder (over simplifying). And that's what they have done. It takes everyone being committed to playing every possession. Have to get at least your fair share of loose balls. Have to not give up transition baskets. Iowa is doing those things, at least more regularly.
Its hard to believe how bad a zone defense is in the era of great shooters...
Iowa from ~100 ranking to top 10...
unbelievable
Agree 100% with Hammer93. It is not a player thing it has been a coaching change from the inept match up zone to the man-to-man defense. Nothing more. Players guarding one guy and being responsible for the that one, unless a switch. Also notice the better defensive rebounding which will lesson second chance points with better accountability for blocking you man out. Agree that certain players are better adept at guarding there man without help ie. Joe T and Keegan, but overall it is has been going away from match up zone.
I'm not sure about this. The defensive effort by the starters was not great in the first half of the season but the same could not be said about the reserves who played well out of the gate. They started out strong defensively and the switch to man2man helped the starters perform better over the second half. The best defender on the team has probably been Keegan all year and he's only gotten better over the course of the season. From an athleticism and length perspective, the best defenders IMO will all be back next year.
Garza is smart enough to know the team has no chance if he gets into foul trouble. I think he could have shut
Potter down in last game, but didn't aggressively defend. He picks his moments to block shot. The other thing that sticks out to me is JBO seems a lot better in man to man then he was in zone and he's getting better help.
Really good to see the steady improvement on defense. I hope the staff continues to stress better defensive play and keep improving that part of our game.
A lot of Potter's points came from the perimeter, and we definitely do NOT want Luka spending much time outside of 15 ft on the defensive end. Getting Luka involved defensively in a pick and roll is a good way to attack the Hawk's man to man, if the other team has the players to execute it well.
So we’ve pretty close 3 times under Fran using that criteria. I’m super excited that Fran made the adjustment this year to almost exclusively man-to-man.
I'm as big a Luka fan as anyone but he cannot check Potter. Dude could have scored 30, did whatever he wanted offensively.
He will be their focus Friday night if we play them again.
Iowa mixes defenses so the m2m has gotten better, thus the ability to use it enough to make the switch to zone effective.
Honestly, the biggest improvement from the man defense has been improved defensive rebounding. Cutting down on 2nd chances has really improved the defensive efficiency.
BirdistheWord
HB Legend
Great observation, especially the guards too.
It just seems more rare for teams to have loads of wide open 3's. It still happens but we have played the M2M and help defense much much better.
Iowa’s defensive intensity has been outstanding. They elevated themselves to contenders.
There were only 2 losses in the last 9 games - at @IN and @MI. Joe played 4 min at IN with no assists, 0 pts, and 2 turnovers. Iowa held IN to 67 pts, so defense was not the issue. Against MI, Joe played 7 minutes and had 1 pt on 1 of 2 FTs, 3 fouls, 1 turnover, and no assists. Not his best 2 games.
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