5 takeaways from Iowa's trip to Italy
rmurken@press-citizen.com
Excerpt
1) ... the real value of the trip came in the 10 additional practices Iowa received.
2) Whitney Jennings ... appears primed for a breakthrough this season.
3) With a deeper, less-experienced and more-balanced roster, expect there to be more players averaging double-digit minutes and less playing 30-plus minutes, especially early in the season.
4) Iowa likely won't have four players average between 13.4 and 14.8 points per game as it did last season, but the Hawkeyes could have more players score in double figures from game to game.
5) The early game action was most beneficial to Iowa's freshmen, and the highly-touted group showed it was ready to help.
IMO
I mostly agree with Ryan but add the following...
1) The value of building team chemistry/unity, not only on-court but off-court as well, is immeasurable.
“The time we spend together, developing the chemistry and bond that all good teams have, is every bit as important as the games we will play, probably more so,’’ Bluder expects benefits beyond basketball during Hawkeyes' trip qctimes
2) Lisa expressed high praise for Carly Mohns and she showed why, performing well shooting the '3' and rebounding.
For Bluder, Mohns has been a bright spot in each game of the #ItalianTour. "Carly Mohns has impressed me the most from last year to this year," Bluder said. "She's shooting the ball well with confidence, and she's rebounding both offensively and defensively. She's so strong going to the boards, so that's a bright spot for me."
Hawkeyes Fall Short in Final #ItalianTour Contest HawkeyeSports
3) This was to be expected before the Italy trip so this is not really a takeaway from it. It also logically leads directly to takeaway #4...
4) The two returning starters should average double figures scoring plus at least one and possibly two others. With the minutes divided more evenly, I doubt that there will be five players average double figures but more players will average between 5 and 10 points
5) This relates to takeaway #1. Because this team lost three starters that combined for 320 career starts, the freshmen (and sophomores) will need to contribute more, i.e. minutes, scoring, rebounding and just over-all production in general. Also, since they are young and inexperienced, it stands to reason that any additional head start they get will benefit them the most.
I encourage anyone and everyone to comment but with the summer events (GTL and Italy) over and the season about two months away, I expect that this thread will become less active and possibly inactive. So I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone for participating and for supporting the Iowa WBB. I am anxiously looking forward to the start of the 15-16 season and hoping for some news of some early verbals for 2017 and beyond.
Go Hawks!