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Well, if this team can learn to preserve leads consistently...

They are going to see a lot of full court pressure. 21 turnovers today.

Mentally they need to slow the ball down or the game down in their head. Once they break the press I don’t know if anyone can find a breakdown but Ill wager our turnovers versus the press, versus in the half court are something like 16 to 5 maybe more.

As I’ve said before, we had to have five inside to O’Grady in the post at the least. Horrible passes and horrible catching by her
 
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Not a lot of solid ball handlers and lots of bad passers. CC had a lot of turnovers trying to make dazzling plays. This team makes turnovers on simple passes.

But they do scrap and claw, play unselfishly and work hard on defense. They will win a lot of games but struggle against top teams, especially on the road.
 
the ceiling is pretty high. Bummer that they've dropped two very winnable games against power conference teams
You do not and will not win games against good teams making 20 or more turnovers. Sets having bigs dribble the ball or even handle the ball in the gack court are ridiculous. Some oneneeds to tell
Jan to get the ball to the middle of the court.
 
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Mentally they need to slow the ball down or the game down in their head. Once they break the press I don’t know if anyone can find a breakdown but all wager our turnovers versus the press, versus in the half court or something like 16 to 5 maybe more

As I’ve said before, we had to have five inside to O’Grady in the post at the least. Horrible passes and horrible catching by her
Agree, O’Grady has terrible hands. Can not make the really difficult pass and expect her to come up with it.
 
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Agree, O’Grady has terrible hands. Can not make the really difficult pass and expect her to come up with it.


Yes, I agree, but with that said Ava has lost a few, and I think it’s debatable whether some of them are good passes at all. They are so bad I wouldn’t blame somebody for wondering why in the hell we do it at all, but that’s a part of our offense, we have to be able to do it but man were we poor at it today.
 
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You do not and will not win games against good teams making 20 or more turnovers. Sets having bigs dribble the ball or even handle the ball in the gack court are ridiculous. Some oneneeds to tell
Jan to get the ball to the middle of the court.

Well I think that’s what they were doing. Hannah and AOG both set up in the middle of the court, and AOG never dribbled except for that one time And I’m fairly confident she wasn’t supposed to, but no one came to her.

As for Hannah she had to have broke the press bare minimum 10 or 15 times. I thought she did an awesome job.
 
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Not a lot of solid ball handlers and lots of bad passers. CC had a lot of turnovers trying to make dazzling plays. This team makes turnovers on simple passes.

But they do scrap and claw, play unselfishly and work hard on defense. They will win a lot of games but struggle against top teams, especially on the road.

I agree with this and that’s why you are a fair reasonable poster. And adding to your point, we didn’t lose to “OK teams“ in blow out fashion at Home.

We are also only 11 games in with four freshmen playing significant Minutes and a new point guard from a different school. Albeit a senior but still, just learning how to play together.

Moving back to the critique… It appears to me the average fan thinks we can’t handle the press. And I’ll give the press credit for speeding up our play and our heads which might have a cumulative affect in the half court. But the half court is where our problem is….

I’m not gonna go back and rewatch the game, that’s hard for me to do in a loss, but I promise you we had five turnovers to O’Grady in the post alone. One or two more to Ava.

That’s hard to overcome. Surely you’d think they’ll get better at that.

You’d also have to think our senior point guard won’t continue to dribble into half court traps game after game, right?

Our best players had poor games and we lost to a very good team
 
Establishing the interior game against top teams could be a struggle all season but Iowa has enough personnel to at least be adequate (they certainly weren’t today).

They will probably get pressed by all the remaining teams that have the rosters to do so. Just “handling” the press to set up the half court game isn’t going to cut it. They have to make their opponent pay by scoring quick easy buckets off the press before anyone will relent.
 
I agree with this and that’s why you are a fair reasonable poster. And adding to your point, we didn’t lose to “OK teams“ in blow out fashion at Home.

We are also only 11 games in with four freshmen playing significant Minutes and a new point guard from a different school. Albeit a senior but still, just learning how to play together.

Moving back to the critique… It appears to me the average fan thinks we can’t handle the press. And I’ll give the press credit for speeding up our play and our heads which might have a cumulative affect in the half court. But the half court is where our problem is….

I’m not gonna go back and rewatch the game, that’s hard for me to do in a loss, but I promise you we had five turnovers to O’Grady in the post alone. One or two more to Ava.

That’s hard to overcome. Surely you’d think they’ll get better at that.

You’d also have to think our senior point guard won’t continue to dribble into half court traps game after game, right?

Our best players had poor games and we lost to a very good team
The boys they practice against need to step up and make it harder for them so it is more like game conditions
 
The boys they practice against need to step up and make it harder for them so it is more like game conditions

Their 2 losses have come against pressing teams but also against teams that were more physical and Iowa did not match that physicality.
Maybe the practice boys need to step up their physicality.
In my opinion you cant run a half court offense with finesse.
 
Well I think that’s what they were doing. Hannah and AOG both set up in the middle of the court, and AOG never dribbled except for that one time And I’m fairly confident she wasn’t supposed to, but no one came to her.

As for Hannah she had to have broke the press bare minimum 10 or 15 times. I thought she did an awesome job.
she is completely right handed and is one directional. why she really needs to be a pass and outlet not catch and dribble.
 
I just finally watched the game, and I was able to look at some of the things being given harsh critique.

It's not the press.
Iowa actually did a pretty good job getting the ball to the half court. Sure some bad turnovers in there that stand out, but overall, playing against a press for an entire game is bound to end up with a few of those.

They also didn't end up trapped a whole lot. They really didn't.

The turnovers were with bad pass/catch efforts in the offense, and quite a few came as the end result of a good play to get the ball, but in an awkward position to make a play after. Those are very frustrating because it's just hurried excitement.

Iowa did not play that poorly overall, but they have a big problem knowing what they need to do as bread and butter when they need a shot. THIS is the major weakness, and why you see the team flailing in the last five minutes of these two losses. They are so team oriented in getting a shot, they lack the ability as individual players to take over in crunch time. (The same can be said about what they need for a shot when they have the lead and want to extend or maintain it.) They have ideas about who that might be, but the execution for that isn't there. The mentality for that isn't there. That's an experience problem.

And even so, in this game of runs, they should have won. They had two shots to draw a foul or score, and got neither. Experience? Bad luck? They played well enough to win, and if Olsen puts it in we are simply talking about a gritty road win in the Big Ten.

*There is a universe where Iowa lost at home to MSU last year when Caitlin's shot was a fraction later. Difference between winning and losing. Same as this year, just the negative result.
 
Establishing the interior game against top teams could be a struggle all season but Iowa has enough personnel to at least be adequate (they certainly weren’t today).

They will probably get pressed by all the remaining teams that have the rosters to do so. Just “handling” the press to set up the half court game isn’t going to cut it. They have to make their opponent pay by scoring quick easy buckets off the press before anyone will relent.
Agree with this. Nobody pressed CC because she made them pay with a basket at the other end. We struggle against the press and then by the time we try to settle into our half court offense there is not a lot of time. You’ve got to hurt the team pressing you. Keep attacking them. We are not doing that.
 
she is completely right handed and is one directional. why she really needs to be a pass and outlet not catch and dribble.

Are you talking HS…. she dribbled the length of the court with her left hand multiple times. I’ve also seen her take it to the rack with her left hand multiple times maybe you don’t mean her
 
Establishing the interior game against top teams could be a struggle all season but Iowa has enough personnel to at least be adequate (they certainly weren’t today).

They will probably get pressed by all the remaining teams that have the rosters to do so. Just “handling” the press to set up the half court game isn’t going to cut it. They have to make their opponent pay by scoring quick easy buckets off the press before anyone will relent.
It seems that Jan really wants to focus on the post game, which is fine when it's working. When it's not, we get a lot of turnovers. I think not forcing the post game and letting the players run a bit more will pay dividends.
 
Yesterday we did the classic try and guard the lead rather than keep doing what has been working offensively. Everyone stopped attacking and or taking good early looks and we waited for the shot clock to go down before forcing something up. Without CC, we simply can't do that.
 
Press break dribbling and 3 point shooting are 2 things I'd rather not see Stuelke doing. It seems like she has the green light on both this year. I'm not a huge fan of either.


May not have broken the press multiple times without her🤷‍♂️
 
Speaking of dribbling - O'Grady is a senior, would it be a big deal if Jan told her she can never dribble again under any circumstances?
 
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Speaking of dribbling - O'Grady is a senior, would it be a big deal if Jan told her she can never dribble again under any circumstances?
We're in a really tough spot right now at Center. O'Grady is such a confidence player, and while she had it early in the season she now looks completely lost. Heiden needs playing time and experience but yesterday the game was moving way way to fast for her. We know she will get better but at this point she's also a bit of a liability. But again, she's a Freshman w/a big future. Sparty played 2 bigs yesterday so we had to have one of them out there for the most part but again, as much as they both struggled maybe we are better off w/Hannah at the 5 more often than not and getting another ball handler and shooter out there. Just a thought.
 
I just finally watched the game, and I was able to look at some of the things being given harsh critique.

It's not the press.
Iowa actually did a pretty good job getting the ball to the half court. Sure some bad turnovers in there that stand out, but overall, playing against a press for an entire game is bound to end up with a few of those.

They also didn't end up trapped a whole lot. They really didn't.

The turnovers were with bad pass/catch efforts in the offense, and quite a few came as the end result of a good play to get the ball, but in an awkward position to make a play after. Those are very frustrating because it's just hurried excitement.

Iowa did not play that poorly overall, but they have a big problem knowing what they need to do as bread and butter when they need a shot. THIS is the major weakness, and why you see the team flailing in the last five minutes of these two losses. They are so team oriented in getting a shot, they lack the ability as individual players to take over in crunch time. (The same can be said about what they need for a shot when they have the lead and want to extend or maintain it.) They have ideas about who that might be, but the execution for that isn't there. The mentality for that isn't there. That's an experience problem.

And even so, in this game of runs, they should have won. They had two shots to draw a foul or score, and got neither. Experience? Bad luck? They played well enough to win, and if Olsen puts it in we are simply talking about a gritty road win in the Big Ten.

*There is a universe where Iowa lost at home to MSU last year when Caitlin's shot was a fraction later. Difference between winning and losing. Same as this year, just the negative result.
Agreed. Still, Like Brent Clark said in the interview, "you have to WANT to take that shot". "Caitlin wants to take the shot". A lot of people can say, "I want that shot", but many are just saying that, because thats what your supposed to say. Who on this team, do you think REALLY wants that shot? Olsen, maybe. I don't think its just "team oriented". I'm not sure that Syd, Kylie or even Hannah want that shot, and I'm pretty certain AOG, and McCabe don't want THAT shot.
 
Agreed. Still, Like Brent Clark said in the interview, "you have to WANT to take that shot". "Caitlin wants to take the shot". A lot of people can say, "I want that shot", but many are just saying that, because thats what your supposed to say. Who on this team, do you think REALLY wants that shot? Olsen, maybe. I don't think its just "team oriented". I'm not sure that Syd, Kylie or even Hannah want that shot, and I'm pretty certain AOG, and McCabe don't want THAT shot.
They all want CC to take it because that's what they did the last 3 years.........
 
We're in a really tough spot right now at Center. O'Grady is such a confidence player, and while she had it early in the season she now looks completely lost. Heiden needs playing time and experience but yesterday the game was moving way way to fast for her. We know she will get better but at this point she's also a bit of a liability. But again, she's a Freshman w/a big future. Sparty played 2 bigs yesterday so we had to have one of them out there for the most part but again, as much as they both struggled maybe we are better off w/Hannah at the 5 more often than not and getting another ball handler and shooter out there. Just a thought.
When I want to know who the team's top 5 are I look at who is in at crunch time. Stuelke was the 5 down the stretch in both the ISU and MSU games. Sucks for her as I think she's a natrual 4, but Jan is in a tough spot because Stuelke is our best 5 and it's not even close.
 
I just finally watched the game, and I was able to look at some of the things being given harsh critique.

It's not the press.
Iowa actually did a pretty good job getting the ball to the half court. Sure some bad turnovers in there that stand out, but overall, playing against a press for an entire game is bound to end up with a few of those.

They also didn't end up trapped a whole lot. They really didn't.

The turnovers were with bad pass/catch efforts in the offense, and quite a few came as the end result of a good play to get the ball, but in an awkward position to make a play after. Those are very frustrating because it's just hurried excitement.

Iowa did not play that poorly overall, but they have a big problem knowing what they need to do as bread and butter when they need a shot. THIS is the major weakness, and why you see the team flailing in the last five minutes of these two losses. They are so team oriented in getting a shot, they lack the ability as individual players to take over in crunch time. (The same can be said about what they need for a shot when they have the lead and want to extend or maintain it.) They have ideas about who that might be, but the execution for that isn't there. The mentality for that isn't there. That's an experience problem.

And even so, in this game of runs, they should have won. They had two shots to draw a foul or score, and got neither. Experience? Bad luck? They played well enough to win, and if Olsen puts it in we are simply talking about a gritty road win in the Big Ten.

*There is a universe where Iowa lost at home to MSU last year when Caitlin's shot was a fraction later. Difference between winning and losing. Same as this year, just the negative result.


Yes, absolutely excellent… I agree 100%. I and a few others have been saying the press outside of the fact that it is speeding up our adrenaline and our cognitive thinking skills has not been causing all these turnovers.

And anyone that thinks Hannah didn’t do an excellent job didn’t watch the same game I did.

But in the half court, we are doing some seriously dumb shit that there is no way in hell they are being Coached to do…

I don’t mind critiques. I had several myself, but have an idea what in the hell you’re talking about?

Those post passes are horrible… Dribbling into traps by senior guards is ridiculous and their inbound plays in this particular game were awful and that one certainly has to have something to do with coaching.

I also agree they lack the quintessential “someone” to take that final shot. That’s how spoiled we all were with CC. The team, the coaches and Us….

I’m gonna confess something, in fact, I almost started a thread on it… I’m a lifelong hard-core college football and basketball fan. But quite frankly I don’t think there’s anything I’m more interested in than the WNBA season and getting to watch CC play.

I’m a little embarrassed to admit it out loud but I was just watching YouTube highlights 30 minutes ago.
 
Yes, absolutely excellent… I agree 100%. I and a few others have been saying the press outside of the fact that it is speeding up our adrenaline and our cognitive thinking skills has not been causing all these turnovers.

And anyone that thinks Hannah didn’t do an excellent job didn’t watch the same game I did.

But in the half court, we are doing some seriously dumb shit that there is no way in hell they are being Coached to do…

I don’t mind critiques. I had several myself, but have an idea what in the hell you’re talking about?

Those post passes are horrible… Dribbling into traps by senior guards is ridiculous and their inbound plays in this particular game were awful and that one certainly has to have something to do with coaching.

I also agree they lack the quintessential “someone” to take that final shot. That’s how spoiled we all were with CC. The team, the coaches and Us….

I’m gonna confess something, in fact, I almost started a thread on it… I’m a lifelong hard-core college football and basketball fan. But quite frankly I don’t think there’s anything I’m more interested in than the WNBA season and getting to watch CC play.

I’m a little embarrassed to admit it out loud but I was just watching YouTube highlights 30 minutes ago.
I get you. I've watched the Full court press documentary several times, all four episodes. I do fast forward through the Camilla and Kiki parts though.... 😏
 
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Agreed. Still, Like Brent Clark said in the interview, "you have to WANT to take that shot". "Caitlin wants to take the shot". A lot of people can say, "I want that shot", but many are just saying that, because thats what your supposed to say. Who on this team, do you think REALLY wants that shot? Olsen, maybe. I don't think its just "team oriented". I'm not sure that Syd, Kylie or even Hannah want that shot, and I'm pretty certain AOG, and McCabe don't want THAT shot.
A problem is, that *shot* is not just at the end, but throughout the game. I'm still wondering why, when it really mattered in the 4th quarter, Hannah was putting up attempts from the arc. Why then? I love HS, but that shot in that situation is not the bread and butter, gotta have it, shot. Maybe she wants that weight, idk, but it comes off as mental desperation inside 4 minutes. Not the end of the game, but important moments.

Some of that is coaching. How to coach that when it isn't a quickly obvious answer? I don't know.
 
I just finally watched the game, and I was able to look at some of the things being given harsh critique.

Iowa did not play that poorly overall, but they have a big problem knowing what they need to do as bread and butter when they need a shot. THIS is the major weakness, and why you see the team flailing in the last five minutes of these two losses. They are so team oriented in getting a shot, they lack the ability as individual players to take over in crunch time. (The same can be said about what they need for a shot when they have the lead and want to extend or maintain it.) They have ideas about who that might be, but the execution for that isn't there. The mentality for that isn't there. That's an experience problem.

And even so, in this game of runs, they should have won.
Yes. I said as much in another post / thread. Content w/ 3s and jumpers instead of taking the ball strong to the basket to score and/or make the official call the foul. We don't have one to do that now that CC's moved on. Note: Afolter did do a nice job of physically taking the ball to the rim late. Experience, yes, b/c I do think some of the frosh have that mentality, but it's also a coaching problem in that it's not recognized, not emphasized, not recruited for.
 
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Yes, absolutely excellent… I agree 100%. I and a few others have been saying the press outside of the fact that it is speeding up our adrenaline and our cognitive thinking skills has not been causing all these turnovers.

And anyone that thinks Hannah didn’t do an excellent job didn’t watch the same game I did.

But in the half court, we are doing some seriously dumb shit that there is no way in hell they are being Coached to do…

I don’t mind critiques. I had several myself, but have an idea what in the hell you’re talking about?

Those post passes are horrible… Dribbling into traps by senior guards is ridiculous and their inbound plays in this particular game were awful and that one certainly has to have something to do with coaching.

I also agree they lack the quintessential “someone” to take that final shot. That’s how spoiled we all were with CC. The team, the coaches and Us….

I’m gonna confess something, in fact, I almost started a thread on it… I’m a lifelong hard-core college football and basketball fan. But quite frankly I don’t think there’s anything I’m more interested in than the WNBA season and getting to watch CC play.

I’m a little embarrassed to admit it out loud but I was just watching YouTube highlights 30 minutes ago.
It's not even a one shot thing.
Notice how the MSU guard decided to jgo to the hoop over and over in the 4th quarter. That takes some coaching, but also that girl knew she was going to make a difference in the game. She *individually* stepped up.

*WNBA
My memory isn't that short.
WNBA needs a clear directive from the top about how their games are officiated. Not officiating school or oversight. They just need to be told to call the game the same as in every other league, college or pro.

Caitlin calling college players and coaches low IQ was a little much, but I still love her. Curious to see what she works on in her off-season. Hopefully gets her three back, and moving left to right. I'd love to see her chisel down a 10 ft. pull-up. Maybe she goes off in year two.

But I get you, college football is broken in a really detrimental way. We had a family, weighted bowl pick contest every year for decades. Don't have that anymore. Don't even know when the bowls start. Maybe the playoff format will be a winner, idk.
 
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It's not even a one shot thing.
Notice how the MSU guard decided to jgo to the hoop over and over in the 4th quarter. That takes some coaching, but also that girl knew she was going to make a difference in the game. She *individually* stepped up.

*WNBA
My memory isn't that short.
WNBA needs a clear directive from the top about how their games are officiated. Not officiating school or oversight. They just need to be told to call the game the same as in every other league, college or pro.

Caitlin calling college players and coaches low IQ was a little much, but I still love her. Curious to see what she works on in her off-season. Hopefully gets her three back, and moving left to right. I'd love to see her chisel down a 10 ft. pull-up. Maybe she goes off in year two.

But I get you, college football is broken in a really detrimental way. We had a family, weighted bowl pick contest every year for decades. Don't have that anymore. Don't even know when the bowls start. Maybe the playoff format will be a winner, idk.


Yeah it’s not the same (football) and I really don’t care. Some of that of course is just maturity and priorities changing on my end.

But I did and will continue to go out of my way to watch CC. But you are correct in a world in which officiating gets worse and worse, and I say that, as just a statement of fact, not really even a criticism. I mean, who the hell would wanna do that job, but the WNBA is literally in a league of its own for poor, erratic officiating.

And cc has made some very interesting decisions recently on what she said, and how she said it.

I didn’t love the way she pushed down on the “I can’t believe they guarded me that way“… I mean, let’s be honest most college teams don’t have the ability to double out top like that…

Second of all, while everyone else was throwing a fit about her talking about white privilege, I actually thought it was a fairly interesting take to mention she “definitely earned” what she got. I mean, she did work her ass off but often times that comes off as pompous arrogance.

Probably wouldn’t be that noticed if it wasn’t for the fact that she seemed so polished in the media ordinarily 🤷‍♂️
 
Good or bad, mostly good in my opinion is that Caitlin Clark is honest and says what she thinks based on that.
 
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