IF he can stay healthy. He is cursed. Hopefully this year will be different for him.
Updates on Team. Per Fran, Connor is 6th Man. Starters are Joe, JBO, Patrick, Keegan, Filip.
- Thread starter Franisdaman
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Kofi was double and triple teamed last year and averaged 1.7 turnovers a game. Not bad considering players were hanging all over him.
At the end of this post is the link to last night's (Oct 27) Hawkeye Report Podcast.
Skip ahead to the 23:50 mark where they talk about this year's team.
Tom & Matt Randazzo talked about:
* Tom's Starting Line up for the game vs Slippery Rock, Fri Nov 5: JoeT...JBo...Patrick...Keegan...Filip
* Concerns: JoeT's consistency & the big men.
* Secret scrimmage vs Bradley: Iowa won by double figures (they do periods; 10 min of man to man; 10 min of zone; there are pauses where they insert guys). Keegan was tremendous & went off (19 points in 10 minutes). JoeT played well but had moments where he played too fast.
* Other players to watch: Payton is playing/shooting well. Kris Murray is playing well, can shoot it & knows how to play. Ulis was slow coming back from wrist surgery & has been up and down.
* Tom said the big men have struggled: Filip is still adjusting. Josh O is still developing & getting his wind. Riley is adjusting to physical basketball at this level against grown men.
Michigan, Purdue, & Illinois all have really good big men. Tom said this Iowa team will miss Jack Nunge; Jack would have started at the 5 this year for Iowa.
* Tom said he thinks Iowa is a 20-11, bubble (and NCAA Tournament) team.
LINK TO FULL PODCAST:
Skip ahead to the 23:50 mark where they talk about this year's team.
Tom & Matt Randazzo talked about:
* Tom's Starting Line up for the game vs Slippery Rock, Fri Nov 5: JoeT...JBo...Patrick...Keegan...Filip
* Concerns: JoeT's consistency & the big men.
* Secret scrimmage vs Bradley: Iowa won by double figures (they do periods; 10 min of man to man; 10 min of zone; there are pauses where they insert guys). Keegan was tremendous & went off (19 points in 10 minutes). JoeT played well but had moments where he played too fast.
* Other players to watch: Payton is playing/shooting well. Kris Murray is playing well, can shoot it & knows how to play. Ulis was slow coming back from wrist surgery & has been up and down.
* Tom said the big men have struggled: Filip is still adjusting. Josh O is still developing & getting his wind. Riley is adjusting to physical basketball at this level against grown men.
Michigan, Purdue, & Illinois all have really good big men. Tom said this Iowa team will miss Jack Nunge; Jack would have started at the 5 this year for Iowa.
* Tom said he thinks Iowa is a 20-11, bubble (and NCAA Tournament) team.
LINK TO FULL PODCAST:
I find Tom's 20-11 call interesting in that, he is typically pretty grounded and realistic. I, on the other hand, (when it comes to basketball) am typically pretty optimistic in my views. I would look at 20-11 as a top end, REALLY optimistic record for this team.....I think it's possible, but everything would have to fall the right way. My prediction would be somewhere between 16-19 wins....I think (without significant injuries etc) this team will be good enough this year to at least get into the NIT and "maybe" if things go well make the NCAA. Is it possible that this team doesn't win at least 16 games?...possible, but unlikely in my best guess.
My hope is that this team wins enough games to be in the discussion for the NCAA and then gets hot at the end and wins a couple in the BTT that puts them squarely in the NCAA tournament.
I think we could optimistically win 24 games and I believe the floor is 18 wins. I like our team and the younger guys will improve as the season plays out. We have the best shooter in the B1G and maybe the best Forward or at least one of the best.
And you could be exactly right......we have to see these guys play and get a realistic idea of what they look like and what they are capable of.
I agree whole heartedly that this is a young group, lacking in playing time/experience (with a couple notable exceptions) and that they should continue to improve as the season progresses......I LOVE watching the younger players develop and improve, gain confidence and assert themselves. This is probably the key to my enjoyment of the upcoming season...cannot wait.
That said, I had a similar view of the football team this year....then they real off 6 straight wins and my expectations changed...even though I tried to keep them in check. The life of a fan!
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There should be a spoiler warning on posts like this for those of us who haven't had a chance to listen to the podcast yet.
I hope the take on Rebraca was a little bit off. I was thinking with his experience and varied skillset coming in that he'd be a reliable performer out of the gates. If he struggles to be consistent then my expectations for the team would be more tempered given the lack of post depth.
Twenty wins is possible I guess. We probably should win 8 or 9 of our pre- conference games (obviously Virginia will be tough!), and then we just need to win 11 of twenty in the B1G. Not impossible, but not really that impressive considering who we will beat. We had better knock off one or two of the big boys in our conference to make an impact and can't afford to have any embarrassing losses in the pre-conference schedule. I won't even count on any BTT wins, although I guess it's not out of the realm of possibility that we win the opening round.
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Michigan, Purdue, & Illinois all have really good big men. Tom said this Iowa team will miss Jack Nunge; Jack would have started at the 5 this year for Iowa.
If Iowa was going to be reliant on Nunge coming back this year to be successful, that was never going to happen. He was a nice player, taller then his program height, but often injured and you never knew from game to game what you'd get out of him. He averaged just over 7 points a game and shot under 30% from 3 last year. He was at Iowa the same length of time that Garza was, 4 years, and received his degree in Accounting. It was time for him to move on.
Same with Fredrick, good player, started every game "when" he was heathy, but there are much more athletic players remaining at Iowa then CJ is or will ever be. I'm not going to dwell on the loss of either player and Iowa will survive without them.
Tom is well connected to the Iowa program for sure, but it's again, only 1 persons opinion. By the way, is it defense or offensive that the IOWA players struggle with?
I'll form my own opinion once I see them starting on the 5th of November, it's a new season and it will take a few games against other teams to mesh into a cohesive unit.
If Iowa was going to be reliant on Nunge coming back this year to be successful, that was never going to happen. He was a nice player, taller then his program height, but often injured and you never knew from game to game what you'd get out of him. He averaged just over 7 points a game and shot under 30% from 3 last year. He was at Iowa the same length of time that Garza was, 4 years, and received his degree in Accounting. It was time for him to move on.
Same with Fredrick, good player, started every game "when" he was heathy, but there are much more athletic players remaining at Iowa then CJ is or will ever be. I'm not going to dwell on the loss of either player and Iowa will survive without them.
Tom is well connected to the Iowa program for sure, but it's again, only 1 persons opinion. By the way, is it defense or offensive that the IOWA players struggle with?
I'll form my own opinion once I see them starting on the 5th of November, it's a new season and it will take a few games against other teams to mesh into a cohesive unit.
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Iowa's SOS on Kenpom last year was 20th, which was near the bottom of the B10 with almost all teams in the Top 20 and many in the Top 10.
Hypothetically, our B10 SOS should still be very difficult, but our Non-Conference SOS should drop a bit - we were 285 last year so lets say we fall to 325 out of 357 teams. That might drag our overall SOS down to lets say 35th.
Would a 20-11 team (Tom's prediction) with a 35th SOS make the NCAA's?
Last year a 19-10 LSU team had the 35th overall SOS and ranked 24th in the final Kenpom, so I suppose that works out. Just depends who you beat in those 19 wins probably, and can we go .500 in the B10 including the tournament - and we likely need to win our home games against 2 of the top 3 B10 teams or something like that.
Hypothetically, our B10 SOS should still be very difficult, but our Non-Conference SOS should drop a bit - we were 285 last year so lets say we fall to 325 out of 357 teams. That might drag our overall SOS down to lets say 35th.
Would a 20-11 team (Tom's prediction) with a 35th SOS make the NCAA's?
Last year a 19-10 LSU team had the 35th overall SOS and ranked 24th in the final Kenpom, so I suppose that works out. Just depends who you beat in those 19 wins probably, and can we go .500 in the B10 including the tournament - and we likely need to win our home games against 2 of the top 3 B10 teams or something like that.
It is a narrow bridge we have to cross, that's for sure. We better beat Virginia and Utah State. Big Ten will be freaking brutal.
Amen. I thought Jack was just coming into his own, and would have had a big year out from under Luka's shadow. IF he could have stayed on the court of course....
The starting 5 seems to be a no brainer. JoeT...JBo...Patrick...Keegan...Filip
Here's a couple more nice little nuggets:
@Ronman, as I noted yesterday, Tom Kakert said in this podcast that Ulis was slow coming back from wrist surgery & has been up and down.
I can understand he wanted a change in scenery but damn, we sure could have used him in the 5 spot
I think it was more than wanting a change in scenery... He wanted to be closer to his family after his father passed away.
Yeah, you are right; and it does save him 3 hours each way.
437.2 miles: Iowa City to Newburgh, IN (6 hrs, 35 min drive)
221.0 miles: Cincinnati (Xavier) to Newburgh, IN (3 hrs, 40 min drive)
He was also lucky he didn’t foul out every game with 5 charging calls. No idea how he got away with lowering his shoulder to opposing players knocking them down when he had the ball.
Luka had just as many hanging on him, including Kofi, and turned it over even less.
Iowa's Ogundele guarded him alone, if I recall correctly. And Kofi couldn't score from 5 feet.
I was looking over some exhibition scores from around the conference and I noticed that Curbelo has 15 turnovers across your 2 exhibition games including 10 last night. He's one of the more interesting guys because he can be so up and down.
Do you guys trust any of your other ballhandlers if those issues continue? Genuinely curious because Plummer wasn't a big assist guy at Utah.
I really really want to see the Murray brothers playing with Patrick on the front line and I don’t hardly care who the guards are. The idea of 3 6’9” guys who can all cover ground and block shots is really tantalizing. That kind of length and athleticism can make up for a lot of defensive mistakes. Not to mention they can all handle the ball and force match up issues on offense.
Totally agree. I expect very little of this team, but I think they can be exciting and fun to watch. If they make the NIT I’ll be pretty happy. Reminds me of Frans 3rd? year when we played decent defense and Marble came into his own. Keegan should have a similar year.
i would like to see both Murrays on the floor for the rebounding, too
I don’t know why, but I have a feeling that this depth means that Fran’s subbing patterns are going to be excruciating to watch this year.
yeah, not sure what to think when he says he feels like Iowa has 13 players on scholarship that he's comfortable using in a game
will he eventually settle on a 9 man rotation?
I guess we will find out. Unfortunately, on Nov 5 vs Slippery Rock, I don't think we will learn too much. Players might look good, but....
Kofi is an All American. Put your guy on him by himself for a full game and see what happens.
You’re biased as am I. If Kofi was charging, it would be called.
I saw Garza fouling all the time and not getting called.
in my bias, I was probably wrong. So are you.
I actually think that frontline would be very productive in the NCAA tournament. The key is getting there.
Looking at Keegan’s stats from last year, he averaged a little over 4 fouls every 40 minutes. That was around the bottom 10 for B10 players who played significant minutes. He’s going to have to used to not fouling and Iowa’s going to have to manage against other centers in B10 play.
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