Who is the team leader this season?
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I think that's the key question this year. The last two years the team had someone that wanted the ball at the end of the game. With 4 seniors this year it seems like they are looking toward each other for that leadership, but no one is taking it. Uthoff had a lot of confidence in the first half and looked like a leader but no one took control after Jok went down with the eye poke.
Uthoff has to be the man. He has to keep shooting the ball. 30 points followed by 2 is not senior leadership in a 1 point last minute loss.
Don't know about leadership issues; he doesn't seem to have that kind of mindset. That isn't a knock on him in any way. I have said several times over the years that I wish he'd followed his uncle to Ames.
In terms of shooting the ball, though, I watched the video of the game last night, and when ISU put Thomas on him in the second half, he didn't get nearly as many touches and certainly not as many open shots as in the first half. What I mean is that he didn't just decide to stop shooting and disappear.
W
need the toughness. Peter unless Wagner grows into it. Awfully tough for a fr to be a leader. I sure wished he had been in the game in the closing moments
As far as getting into a teammates face and yelling at them to keep working hard, I'm not sure - maybe Woodbury. This team should only have 2 guys who shoot the ball most times in crunch time, and that's Uthoff and Jok. Those 2 must be your go-to guys or you aren't going to win a lot of close games. The others don't have the mental makeup/talent to assume this role.
They guarded him tighter but it wasn't like they couldn't have gotten the ball in his hands. The ball needs to get in his hands every, single, possession.
He missed 3 shots early in the 2nd half and I don't think he wanted the ball or wanted to shoot. He didn't look as comfortable, wasn't getting the easy looks he got in the first half. Jok was the guy they needed to feed the ball to more, but the poke in the eye hurt since he seemed to be red hot before that point. He's a streaky shooter and he was in one of those microwave modes.
Unfortunately they couldn't get the ball in his hands in a scoring position when they put Thomas on him. JU doesn't pin his defender well on post feeds when the defender is being very aggressive and physical. Now when he does get the ball in the post he is incredibly efficient but the Iowa guards are either incredibly bad at feeding the post OR our post guys are incredibly bad at pinning their man and receiving the ball at the same time. I tend to think our guys down low are bad at pinning their man and receiving the ball at the same time.
If you have 4 seniors in the starting line up and you have to ask this question, then it's pretty safe to say that there is no leader. And Thursday night proved that. They looked scared and overmatched down the stretch. Sure would have been nice to have a leader.
There really is no leader. I also don't think White was a leader last year either. It's just the nature of the guys we have, they are more of followers not leaders, it's who they are. The last true leaders that I can recall are guys like Recker, Evens, Brunner, Settles. The 87 team was loaded with leaders, BJ, Marble, Horton, these guys had a toughness that we have been lacking for years. Although I believe things are going to drastically improve in this area the next few years.
No one, clearly. If there were a leader, Iowa doesn't go in the tank and hand that game to ISU. No leadership whatsoever. Pretty much the exact opposite of the football team.
Sometimes the leaders are a little more quiet. Despite the negativity, Mike Gessell has the guts and fight to be a leader.
Theres been more than that recently. Jarryd Cole, Eric May Matt Gattens, Jeff Horner.
I agree White was not a vocal leader but he did lead by example at the end of his career, he steped up and hit big shots when needed, before that he was known more for dispersing. U
This game was so incredibly pathetic, all they had to do with a 20 point lead left was not freaking panic for 15 minutes straight. You could tell as soon as ISU got it to around 15 Hawks were in panic mode treating the ball like a hot potato.
Hopefully these guys change, Uthoff needs to man up like White did and start dictating to the other team what he wants to do.
For the record as I've seen many posts about Dean & Jarrod's relationship... I am an acquaintance of the Uthoff family as I grew up with Dean on the SW side of Cedar Rapids. I can assure you that Dean & Jarrod are neither Father-Son (as I've seen speculated in some posts) nor Uncle-Nephew. Dean has one son who lives in Australia (as does Dean) and a nephew via his older sister (whose last name is not Uthoff). I am 100% certain of this.
As correctly reported by the CR Gazette and other media outlets, they are cousins, I suspect second cousins - i.e. Jarrod's dad and Dean are first cousins - although I don't know that with total certainty. As many people know, Jarrod actually grew up in Marengo but played HS ball at Cedar Rapids Jefferson (as did Dean) in order to play with & against a higher caliber of talent.
Not a big deal and not directed to Lone Clone per se. Just an attempt to inform.
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It's our guards. Uthoff got in MG's ear at the end of the first half when they missed him posting up on th eblock twice.
Before Jok got hurt he, JU and MG were all on the left side. Instead of giving it to Jok on the wing so he and JU can play off each other MG drives left and throws one of the glass.
I think it works best when your point guard is the leader.
That doesn't mean he has to take the ball in his own hands and go one on one. Not at all. And I wouldn't advise that with either MG or AC.
But, what should happen, is that a senior point keeps his guys calm, acts as the primary ballhandler, distributes to the right player at the right time, knows what offense he wants to run, knows what counters to employ depending on what the defense shows him, etc.
While I'm not questioning AC or MG in the heart and effort department, their execution of those things I listed above have fallen short in too many crunch time situations.
That doesn't mean he has to take the ball in his own hands and go one on one. Not at all. And I wouldn't advise that with either MG or AC.
But, what should happen, is that a senior point keeps his guys calm, acts as the primary ballhandler, distributes to the right player at the right time, knows what offense he wants to run, knows what counters to employ depending on what the defense shows him, etc.
While I'm not questioning AC or MG in the heart and effort department, their execution of those things I listed above have fallen short in too many crunch time situations.
White and Gatens really didn't fully embrace being leaders and taking control of the game until later in their senior years. You have to remember that these guys have deferred to Marble and White for the past 3 years, they need to learn to lead. I think they will. ISU was just a tough tough lesson.
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