Woodbury vs. Hammons/Haas

[paladinhawk]

While Woodbury hasn't scored a lot in the past 2 years against Purdue, it seems to me that he's "limited" Hammons. If Iowa's front court can keep the 2-headed monster to less than 25 points I like their chances of winning. Woodbury seems to get pumped up against elite big men, hopefully he avoids foul trouble.

 

[revkev73]

Concur

 

[StormHawk42]

Foul trouble is definitely the key. Otherwise we'll have to rely on Dom. He has a pretty similar build to Illikainen from Wisconsin and he got eaten alive by Hammons.

 

[CanadaHawk]

Zone and double team early. Expand the D in the second half if Woody still has only 2 fouls. Play a box in one with Sapp on the shooter if necessary.

 

[Tunadog]

Concur

Your best post ever?

 

[skydog0784]

Good discussion, I was going to start a similar thread. Woody could be hugely important w/out scoring a point if he can neutralize Haas/Hammons. Not unlike Clemmons Tuesday night against Forbes.

 

[revkev73]

Boy, I don't know...I don't recall all of them...perhaps top 1,000

 

[DewHawk]

Woody will hold his own as long as he is not in foul trouble or fatigued. My concern is when he is not in the game and Uhl is playing the 5. I would like to see us play quite a bit of zone against Purdue and force them to beat us form the outside. IMO

 

[hawkeye_fan321]

I think in order to be effective Iowa is going to have to mix up defenses and line-ups. That's not a knock on Woodbury as I think he is a good defender, but the mix of him, Wagner, and Uhl would hopefully keep them from getting into a rhythm.

 

[CanadaHawk]

WI stayed within 5 of PD without a center. Maybe Woody's worth 5 points?

 

[hawki1968]

I'll go the other way. I'd love us to go small with Jarrod at the five for stretches: Clemons, Mike, Jok, Baer Cage, and Jarrod. Would we get destroyed inside and on the glass? Absolutely. Could we put their bigs in some vicious pick in roll action and run on them? Absolutely.

I'm not writing this is the way to go all game, but we won't beat them with fire vs fire. Going small could be an outside the box solution.

 

[revkev73]

Double their big men when possible...force them to shoot from outside to beat us...run, run, run...wear out the big men...substitute freely...we have Baer, et. al...off the bench. Make the other team do what they don't like to do... They will tire...

 

[Ihawkhoops]

Agree we need to run their bigs. Hammons can look like a lottery pick one night and a non factor the next. Think it will come down to our third scorer vs theirs. Ellingson should get some looks if we can get into transition.

 

[Vbeachawk]

My strategy would be to pack the paint so the Purdue bigs would have a tough time moving inside and only guard their one good 3 pt shooter, when he is in the game. Kind of like how some teams have beaten Kentucky. Also, on offense, shoot a lot of 3 pt shots and hopefully make a bunch of them......hopefully 15-20 makes or more. If they can beat you from the outside, so be it. Jmo.

 

[Packer54]

Don't let Hammons set up low. Wisky did well with that for awhile and along with Purdue struggling from the perimeter it was tight for awhile. Once Hammons got himself in better position he took over. Need to mix it up on defense but Woody alone with him is not a good long term option in my opinion. Somebody drops down to help, mix in zone, etc. Hopefully Purdue will struggle from the outside again a bit. I think we are up to the task.....oh, and push the pace

 

[Alex Thompson]

Not as worried about those 2 as I am Swannigan. Who's going to guard that guy? They will most likely exploit that matchup. Woody will be fine, and Haas is still improving his footwork and Hammons will get his. Neutralize Davis on the perimeter and trap Swannigan to force turnovers, and we win by 6 on the road.

 

[CanadaHawk]

Not as worried about those 2 as I am Swannigan. Who's going to guard that guy? They will most likely exploit that matchup. Woody will be fine, and Haas is still improving his footwork and Hammons will get his. Neutralize Davis on the perimeter and trap Swannigan to force turnovers, and we win by 6 on the road.

WI held him to 0 pts: 0/5 shooting. The senior Uthoff matches up with the freshman Swanigan. Don't worry about him scoring so much as his rebounding. He leads the B1G at 9.2 per I believe.

 

[Alex Thompson]

WI held him to 0 pts: 0/5 shooting. The senior Uthoff matches up with the freshman Swanigan. Don't worry about him scoring so much as his rebounding. He leads the B1G at 9.2 per I believe.

Uthoff matches up to 250 pounds?

 

[HawkLogic]

I think we just need to take a lot of 3 pt shots and hopefully make them. Wisconsin won a lot of games last year even though they weren't great on defense, they were making 3pt shots while opponents were making 2pt shots.

I would assume Woody will have 2 fouls inside the first 6-8 minutes and sit out most of 1st half and large part of 2nd half. He'll be lucky to play 25 minutes. This game is at Purdue, highly unlikely to get friendly whistle and Woody is foul prone to begin with and Purdue works the ball inside and has 2 guys to our one true big.

Double team the post, and hope Purdue doesn't hit a high percentage on their 3pt shots. In the post, if you are outside the restricted line, flop on defense. You have nothing to lose. Hopefully Jok, Baer, Uthoff are hot from 3.

 

[CanadaHawk]

Uthoff matches up to 250 pounds?

So you're saying that the heavier player is always better? JU brings a lot more experience and shotblocking. He also has a quicker 1st step. Swanigan is going to be hard to handle on the block, but Hammonds and Haas play there also. A zone will make it crowded down there to receive and make a clean shot. An upperclassman Swanigan will be much more consistent and dominant. I.E., I'm sure Caleb will have some moments Saturday when he has his way, and others when he'll be a freshman playing against a senior.

 

[HoustonREDHawk]

I think Fran is going to use a lot of zone in this game. Last year, Woody got in early foul trouble, as I recall, and Gabe played a great first half to keep us in it. I love the press with Baer at the point against Purdue. Jess Settles' analysis of Purdon't is dead on--you need to hope that they help guard the post by not getting good spacing. If they get good spacing, it gives Hammons room to operate or pass to open shooters, which makes them very hard to beat. Asking Woody to neutralize the Boilers' bigs is a very tall order. I hope that he can stay on the court for at least 20-25 minutes, because he will help.

 

[DanL53]

http://www.hawkeyesports.com/sports/m-baskbl/stats/2014-2015/iowa20.html

That's last year's Box Score. A few things to notice. While we all seem to remember Woody's foul troubles, White was injured and only played seven minutes. Uthoff went 2-14 shooting. Yet we only lost by four points. With everything that went wrong we outrebounded Purdue by 15! We shot only 32.8%.

In short it was a weird freagin' ugly game where the Big Ten's Defensive Player of the Year Raphael Davis scored on us like crazy! 24 points!

The questions this year will include can our side to side passing and motion offense get Purdue's bigs out of position? Can we slow down, (we don't have to stop) Hammonds enough to make him shoot extra shots to get his points? And of course many more...mostly can we extort our mismatches with them better than they do with us? Here are their stats for the year:

http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/team/stats/_/id/2509/purdue-boilermakers

I think as many do that if we shoot a good percentage and make them earn their points we can get a win. Hope we get in the passing lanes.

 

[MTobin]

If the Hawks choose to play zone, they'll need to do so in a way that doesn't allow the ball to get into Swanigan or Edwards in the high post. Things break down pretty quickly when that happens, as both can stick the 15-footer, drive it, or play high-low with the big guys from there.

Should be a fascinating strategic matchup. I'll be surprised if Purdue gets outrebounded like last year. I doubt you'll see Swanigan on Uthoff very much. Depending who else you have on the floor, it will likely be Davis or Edwards.

Our shooters are all overdue, but that doesn't mean any of them will get hot. If Purdue does get by the Hawks, there's a really good chance they'd be 19-1, 7-0 and in the top 5 by the time of the trip to Iowa City on 1/24. The Boilers' conference schedule is very backloaded.

 

[Jim4edwards]

The 5* frosh Swanigan worries me more than the centers. That said, I wonder how they guard Iowa's small ball. Uthoff can't defend Swanigan in the paint IMO but I doubt Swanigan can guard Uthoff on the perimeter.

 

[mazda1]

Purdue will be all over the offensive glass and I don't think we have an answer.

We have to make a ton of threes and take care of the ball. If we can do that AND turn them over we have a chance.

 

[ZumaHawk]

Have faith fellas. I called a win over Mich. St. before tip-off on a different thread. I'll call this one a day early. Our Hawkeyes are way better than getting credit for. I think the Hawks will get hot and beat Purdue in their house. Match ups both ways is out of whack no doubt about it. Hawks win Hawks win!!!

 

[RocknRollface]

The 5* frosh Swanigan worries me more than the centers. That said, I wonder how they guard Iowa's small ball. Uthoff can't defend Swanigan in the paint IMO but I doubt Swanigan can guard Uthoff on the perimeter.

Really? Swanigan looks slow and not overly aggressive to me, shoots outside to much and isn't very good at it.

He will have his hands full with Uthoff.

Hammonds is by far and away there best player and probably a lottery pick.

If Woodbury gets in foul trouble, Hammonds is basically an automatic bucket on the other end.

 

[RocknRollface]

Woody will hold his own as long as he is not in foul trouble or fatigued. My concern is when he is not in the game and Uhl is playing the 5. I would like to see us play quite a bit of zone against Purdue and force them to beat us form the outside. IMO

When Woodbury is out, Uhl needs to be aggressive offensively, neither of their centers have any shot to stay in front of him.

 

[Alex Thompson]

So you're saying that the heavier player is always better? JU brings a lot more experience and shotblocking. He also has a quicker 1st step. Swanigan is going to be hard to handle on the block, but Hammonds and Haas play there also. A zone will make it crowded down there to receive and make a clean shot. An upperclassman Swanigan will be much more consistent and dominant. I.E., I'm sure Caleb will have some moments Saturday when he has his way, and others when he'll be a freshman playing against a senior.

In no way is bigger better. Matchups can make a bad player look good or vice versa. In the case of Swanigan, his size could give Purdue a huge advantage throughout the day because Uthoff isn't really built to defend players like him. Relax.

 

[revkev73]

Let's start Baer on Hammons...he has center experience from high school...

 

[RocknRollface]

So you're saying that the heavier player is always better? JU brings a lot more experience and shotblocking. He also has a quicker 1st step. Swanigan is going to be hard to handle on the block, but Hammonds and Haas play there also. A zone will make it crowded down there to receive and make a clean shot. An upperclassman Swanigan will be much more consistent and dominant. I.E., I'm sure Caleb will have some moments Saturday when he has his way, and others when he'll be a freshman playing against a senior.[/QUOTE]

From what I've seen of a Purdue Swanigan stays out on the perimeter allot while the 7 footers stay inside.

It would be hard for him to post up because their centers don't have to be guarded outside the paint so the guy defending them is free to double.

 

[RocknRollface]

In no way is bigger better. Matchups can make a bad player look good or vice versa. In the case of Swanigan, his size could give Purdue a huge advantage throughout the day because Uthoff isn't really built to defend players like him. Relax.

Uthoff is better equipped to Handel him than vice versa.

 

[CanadaHawk]

In no way is bigger better. Matchups can make a bad player look good or vice versa. In the case of Swanigan, his size could give Purdue a huge advantage throughout the day because Uthoff isn't really built to defend players like him. Relax.

And vice versa. I'm much more concerned about Swanigan's rebounding than his scoring on the block. If the Hawks can stay with PD on the boards, they win this game. Part of that is shooting. If we shoot well, there are fewer rebounds to get.

 

[StormHawk42]

Surprised that some people are most afraid of Swanigan. He's a bear with rebounding, but his offense is slow and not as effective as the big dogs.

 

[HoustonREDHawk]

Surprised that some people are most afraid of Swanigan. He's a bear with rebounding, but his offense is slow and not as effective as the big dogs.

Hammons is the player to fear. If Swanigan goes down low, he just clogs things up for their centers. Swanigan is going to be a really good player, but he mostly shoots from the top of the key in the current Purdon't offense. If he is hitting his shots, it is going to be very hard to beat the Boilers.

 

[skydog0784]

I agree with the posters that say stopping Hammons/Haas is the key to the game. I like the idea of doubling down on those guys - like we did against Ellenson at Marquette. Totally frustrated him and changed the game.

Swanigan didn't impress me at all vs WI. Really wasn't a factor at all despite some loose defensive effort by the Badgers. I have no doubt that Uthoff can outplay him. That being said, my opinion is based on watching only part of the WI game so very limited data point.

IA has a shot but will be very difficult to come out of West Lafayette with a win.

 

[816buroak]

Swannigan is a very unselfish player who will do whatever is needed from him. Against Butler Purdue needed him so he scored 25 points and 12 boards. To underestimate his ability is a huge mistake.

 

[ZumaHawk]

Once again I predict a Hawks win. Hawks win.

 

[MTobin]

Davis will be the primary defender on Uthoff, just like last year. When Swanigan takes good shots in the flow of the offense, he's pretty effective, but he does have a tendency to force things. The rebounding is a constant, though.

 

[SDHawkDoc]

Hawks are most successful pushing the tempo.
Playing the half court game is a losing proposition.
If they pull off the upset in this one it would be the most surprising B1G start I can remember in a long time.