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When this team learns how to play defense.......

Why would anyone assume they'll ever learn how to play defense? Isn't Fran still going to be the coach the rest of this year and next year?
 
At this point in their career, every college basketball player "should" know + understand basic defensive principles. With a few exceptions, I dont think many college coaches put much (if any) value on defense. They will say the right things, but will any coach pull a starter (Jok for example) that is a defensive liability?

It almost seems like the mindset is "we can get the ball back quicker" with their lack of defensive intensity and/or effort. Letting the other team score isnt accurate, but I dont see many teams really "lock down" on defense on a consistent basis. Its hard to watch sometimes. I would prefer a game in the 60s or 70s.

Hoibergs teams at ISU played no defense, and Prohm seems to have carried on the tradition.
 
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At this point in their career, every college basketball player "should" know + understand basic defensive principles. With a few exceptions, I dont think many college coaches put much (if any) value on defense. They will say the right things, but will any coach pull a starter (Jok for example) that is a defensive liability?

It almost seems like the mindset is "we can get the ball back quicker" with their lack of defensive intensity and/or effort. Letting the other team score isnt accurate, but I dont see many teams really "lock down" on defense on a consistent basis. Its hard to watch sometimes. I would prefer a game in the 60s or 70s.

Hoibergs teams at ISU played no defense, and Prohm seems to have carried on the tradition.
Teams that play stout defense are usually teams that are well disciplined in how they play the game. ISU and Iowa are usually not well disciplined teams.
 
We're coming along about as I thought, with improvement in bits and pieces. Anyone who thought that this very inexperienced team could go out and whip the biggies right away must have their head screwed on backwards. Most of our team is composed of back-ups from a year ago, benchwarmers from last year, plus a bunch of freshmen who were playing Storm Lake, Cedar Rapids Prairie and Dubuque Hempstead a year ago. The teams that have beat us are far, far more experienced and at this stage, more talented. Even most of the AAU players our young guys played against in high school aren't D1-caliber players. We'll keep learning and keep getting stronger. Even if we had Nunge and Luka Garza (as they are NOW), we'd have about the same result. Kids have to learn how to play at this level.

We are making way too many turnovers, with Jok, Cook and Bohannon today having most of them (12) But the ball was in their hands the most, too. In my estimation, Williams is underperforming and has a long way to go. He is averaging 1 point a game the past two games, shooting about 18%. He has long arms. Great. Bohannon is outplaying him badly, I think, but the shots need to drop for the ex-Linn-Mar star. Our rebounding is okay, but we don't get the offensive rebounds of other teams. Defense is why some kids are playing and some not. The kids not playing are even poorer defenders. Pemsl needs to shoot more. He leads the team in field goal percentage, but is still too cautious offensively. Uhl is starting to wake up, but Baer and Wagner are still a little quiet offensively. Jok and Cook are our main men--on offense. Their defense is not yet stellar by any means.

Things won't get much better against an unranked Notre Dame team, 5-0, and it's at their place. If we play well, we have a chance to win. We are playing a much tougher pre-BIG schedule this year compared to last, and that means more losses, especially with a much less experienced team than last year. At least last year we had more effective guards. Our young guards are on a fast learning slope. Either Christian Williams really steps up, or little Bohannpn will be our point guard.

I like our young team and it'll be fun to watch them grow this year.
 
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It all starts with the coaches and senior(s). If they do not value defense, it does not matter.
 
Jok is a complete defensive liability. Obviously very skilled offensively but he gets used on the defensive end and he is getting pushed around and jumped over for rebounds too often.
 
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Btw Wagner is not a basketball player and should be on the football field catching passes
 
Lots of different thoughts on Defense. Jok may be a liability but he scored 42 against Memphis. CW has 1 point in last 2 games. PJ is still way ahead even being a liability. Duke didn't recruit J.J. Redick for his defense. I think these young guys need to be embarrassed with game film to get better just to save face.
 
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Iowa scored 41 points last night. 41. One proven scorer. Let's not act like they're the Golden State Warriors and a little better defense will fix all. 41 points people.
 
Let's not forget who we played the last two games. First a team that has been defensively throttling their opponents and then Memphis whose three Lawson brothers were all top 15 players nationally when they signed. Two very good teams against a very young Hawk team. What did you expect this year?
 
Let's not forget who we played the last two games. First a team that has been defensively throttling their opponents and then Memphis whose three Lawson brothers were all top 15 players nationally when they signed. Two very good teams against a very young Hawk team. What did you expect this year?
I expect EFFORT on the defensive side of the ball
 
We're coming along about as I thought, with improvement in bits and pieces. Anyone who thought that this very inexperienced team could go out and whip the biggies right away must have their head screwed on backwards. Most of our team is composed of back-ups from a year ago, benchwarmers from last year, plus a bunch of freshmen who were playing Storm Lake, Cedar Rapids Prairie and Dubuque Hempstead a year ago. The teams that have beat us are far, far more experienced and at this stage, more talented. Even most of the AAU players our young guys played against in high school aren't D1-caliber players. We'll keep learning and keep getting stronger. Even if we had Nunge and Luka Garza (as they are NOW), we'd have about the same result. Kids have to learn how to play at this level.

We are making way too many turnovers, with Jok, Cook and Bohannon today having most of them (12) But the ball was in their hands the most, too. In my estimation, Williams is underperforming and has a long way to go. He is averaging 1 point a game the past two games, shooting about 18%. He has long arms. Great. Bohannon is outplaying him badly, I think, but the shots need to drop for the ex-Linn-Mar star. Our rebounding is okay, but we don't get the offensive rebounds of other teams. Defense is why some kids are playing and some not. The kids not playing are even poorer defenders. Pemsl needs to shoot more. He leads the team in field goal percentage, but is still too cautious offensively. Uhl is starting to wake up, but Baer and Wagner are still a little quiet offensively. Jok and Cook are our main men--on offense. Their defense is not yet stellar by any means.

Things won't get much better against an unranked Notre Dame team, 5-0, and it's at their place. If we play well, we have a chance to win. We are playing a much tougher pre-BIG schedule this year compared to last, and that means more losses, especially with a much less experienced team than last year. At least last year we had more effective guards. Our young guards are on a fast learning slope. Either Christian Williams really steps up, or little Bohannpn will be our point guard.

I like our young team and it'll be fun to watch them grow this year.


These youngins have a ways to go. But there is the talent and potential to learn & improve significantly. And the tapes from the last two game should go a long ways for that. Unfortunately we only have a couple days to digest that info, as they stay on the road heading to Notre Dame.

I think CW has underperformed for his potential. He needs a dose of confidence. That and he just needs to take it to the hole. He has the ability, but he is being a little timid. Maybe a tad Uthoffish. He needs to be more aggressive. That and keep doing some extra work on that outside shot.

As for the bigs, they will improve. They should learn a lot from these tapes. I think(hope) this group will be one of our strengths come later in the season.

The defense will come. It will improve. How much is the question....?
 
At this point in their career, every college basketball player "should" know + understand basic defensive principles. With a few exceptions, I dont think many college coaches put much (if any) value on defense. They will say the right things, but will any coach pull a starter (Jok for example) that is a defensive liability?

It almost seems like the mindset is "we can get the ball back quicker" with their lack of defensive intensity and/or effort. Letting the other team score isnt accurate, but I dont see many teams really "lock down" on defense on a consistent basis. Its hard to watch sometimes. I would prefer a game in the 60s or 70s.

Hoibergs teams at ISU played no defense, and Prohm seems to have carried on the tradition.
The coaches that do play defense, won't let a player like Jok play as a FR or SO if he doesn't play defense. They'll use the bench to make their point early on. But that's basically the difference between coaching philosophies.
 
Too early to judge ISU.

This is really the first year this is truely Prohm's team. There is some hope over there.

Not yet. They still have Morris, Naz, Burton & Thomas. Those seniors are from Freddie. Prohm's team will be mostly his starting next year.
 
Well Prohm is not on auto-pilot this year, although as you indicate there are still holdovers from Freddie.

But he is starting to put his stamp on this team.

They damn near beat a very good Gonzaga team Sunday missing a rushed shot at the buzzer.

They also played pretty good defense on a huge opponent, who would have beat the Hawks by 20-30 points today.
 
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Unfortunately a lot of ranked teams will beat the Hawkeye's by 20 or 30 this year until we learn to value the ball and play just a little bit of defense. It doesn't mean we won't be fun to watch on offense, but we won't win many games. On the positive side we are showing some improvement on the boards. If we could make a similar jump on the defensive end we could have a chance to get a few against better teams.
 
I expect EFFORT on the defensive side of the ball
Correct. There's a difference between being a little weak defensively because of inexperience and playing matador defense where you have guys who are totally indifferent on the defensive end of the court.
 
Unfortunately a lot of ranked teams will beat the Hawkeye's by 20 or 30 this year until we learn to value the ball and play just a little bit of defense. It doesn't mean we won't be fun to watch on offense, but we won't win many games. On the positive side we are showing some improvement on the boards. If we could make a similar jump on the defensive end we could have a chance to get a few against better teams.
I look for several blowouts this year. Even good shooting teams have off nights and outside of Jok I don't think they have a proven scorer (Cook could become one). Plus, teams at the top of the B1G usually play very good D. We saw last year how hard it was to score points the 2nd time playing teams as they knew your tendencies. It's why playing good D in the B1G is so important if you want to finish in the upper level of the conference.
 
I look for several blowouts this year. Even good shooting teams have off nights and outside of Jok I don't think they have a proven scorer (Cook could become one). Plus, teams at the top of the B1G usually play very good D. We saw last year how hard it was to score points the 2nd time playing teams as they knew your tendencies. It's why playing good D in the B1G is so important if you want to finish in the upper level of the conference.

I do agree about playing good D but there is a risk at the moment of getting our best 2 offensive players in foul trouble. Put Jok & Cook on the bench and I am not sure who will score it yet.

When I watched Nebraska the last couple of years with Coach Miles he puts a lot of emphasis on D but they have been brutally bad at sticking the ball in the hoop, sometimes painfully bad. They had that one good year but have lost a lot of games since because they could not score enough.

The point is there is a balance where you need to score but also be able to play good enough D at times to hang in there during a scoring drought or preventing the big runs by your opponent. That's what this young group is not able to do yet. Against Memphis we got up 65-60 then gave up a 17-2 run or something like that.... ball game. That's where picking up the D was needed.
 
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I do agree about playing good D but there is a risk at the moment of getting our best 2 offensive players in foul trouble. Put Jok & Cook on the bench and I am not sure who will score it yet.

When I watched Nebraska the last couple of years with Coach Miles he puts a lot of emphasis on D but they have been brutally bad at sticking the ball in the hoop, sometimes painfully bad. They had that one good year but have lost a lot of games since because they could not score enough.

The point is there is a balance where you need to score but also be able to play good enough D at times to hang in there during a scoring drought or preventing the big runs by your opponent. That's what this young group is not able to do yet. Against Memphis we got up 65-60 then gave up a 17-2 run or something like that.... ball game. That's where picking up the D was needed.
You should be able to put the ball in the hoop and play good D. However, you don't need a bunch of stars to be a very good defender. It's not an either/or. Think baseball. The Cubs had the best offense in baseball, they also had the best defense. Sparty and Wis usually always play excellent defense, and they can score when they need to score.

No one is asking Jok to be a lockdown defender, just don't be a stiff on D. If you want to play in the NBA you need to be able to play some D. Ditto for Cook. Watch the FR pg from UCLA. He's a scoring machine. He's not a lockdown defender but most of the time he maintains good footwork, good body control, and does a good job defending.
 
What makes you think they'll learn to play defense?

They have a long way to go, which we knew before the season even started. Experience and coaching will be what we need and that will come.

If you look at the Seton Hall game and the Memphis game you could see that happening. We were getting in better position at the least. And trying to cut off lanes. We need to learn tendencies and anticipate better. All That will improve with time. Film, film and more breaking down of film. And we got a lot of film to work off of already. With 3 more tough games to come before the B1G, we will have a lot to work with.

These fellas have some athleticism. The coaches will mold them into better all-around players. But it isn't going to happen in the first 3 weeks... Especially with this schedule. Live & learn.
 
Virginia, Xavier, UNI etc.. play the Pack Line defense. All of these teams have a recognizable defensive scheme. Iowa, under Fran, has never really established a defensive identity. The beauty of the Pack Line is it teaches the defender to go from gap to ball depending on where the ball is. The Pack Line restricts straight line drives to the basket and it restricts movement to the baseline. The purpose of these basic tenants is because the on-ball defender can count on a help defender in these situations. In reality is becomes a quasi zone with ball pressure. This defense does not require great athletes to be successful. Instead, it relies on great team work. Iowa would be a perfect team to adopt this style. Of course, it requires sound discipline to make it work. Great closeouts on the ball and active hands in the gaps.
 
At this point in their career, every college basketball player "should" know + understand basic defensive principles. With a few exceptions, I dont think many college coaches put much (if any) value on defense. They will say the right things, but will any coach pull a starter (Jok for example) that is a defensive liability?

It almost seems like the mindset is "we can get the ball back quicker" with their lack of defensive intensity and/or effort. Letting the other team score isnt accurate, but I dont see many teams really "lock down" on defense on a consistent basis. Its hard to watch sometimes. I would prefer a game in the 60s or 70s.

Hoibergs teams at ISU played no defense, and Prohm seems to have carried on the tradition.

Except they are playing good defense this year.
 
The defense may improve from an assignment perspective i.e. not leaving guys under the basket waving their arms, but not from an athletic perspective. We are too slow and undersized all over the floor to do much more than offer passive resistance vs. defend.

Even with better defense, we still only have one guy who merits any respect on the perimeter and a very talented, but young and undersized post player who will get double teamed because of no other offensive threats. Outside of Jok and Cook, the rest of the team is comprised of the 7th or 8th guy off the bench at a MVC school.
 
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