Wrapping Things Up

[SotaHawk87]

5 regular season games left! What does everyone want to see? I know this is unlikely but I'd love for Fran to trim it to 9 maybe 10 guys and figure out his BTT rotations. While depth would be huge in making a four day run, we seem to struggle with continuity and consistency with lineups! Would love a 3-2 finish, who knows where 9-9 would put us for a seed..

 

[DavenportHawk8]

I want to see us finish strong and play 5 "complete" games. Especially at home. I do not want to see us lay an egg vs our last 3 home opponents. If we lose one of those, its a back breaker. This team is still very much in the hunt for an NIT birth, but they have to finish at worst 3-2 and get at least 1 in the BTT. On the road vs MD & Wisky I just want us to be competitive in those games. Don't get blown out and be competitive. I think this team has yet to play their "best" game. I am hoping we see it at either MD or Wisky. That would a nice W for this young squad.

I agree on shortening the rotation and maybe playing a couple of guys "longer" minutes if its allows them. I realize with freshman they look great one night and then the next can look lost. I would like to see Williams and Bohannon on the floor together. You have a shooter in Bohanan and slasher in Williams.

 

[SDHawkDoc]

Holding serve at home and getting to 9-9 in conference would be a very solid accomplishment.
Win a game in the BTT and that probably gets them into the NIT, which would also be a good showing for them.

I've seen too many times this year already when the player that might have been "shortened" out of the rotation has a good outing and the one(s) locked into their minutes has a down stretch of games. Fran can keep mixing and matching it up on a game by game basis as far as I care.

 

[Suterman]

The inconsistency is because of 6 Freshmen and 3 Sophomores not because of a long rotation. We will need all of these guys to do anything in the B1G tournament.

 

[intrepodor]

I'd like to see someone besides Baer and Uhl block out.

 

[aurorabimmer]

It wouldn't surprise me if we steal one at Wisconsin or Maryland. Maybe? We're close, it could happen. We could also lose one at home--yuck!

 

[hawk_it]

Keep the rotation going. If anything spell Jok and Bohannon 4 more mpg to keep them fresh for the end of games. End of game is so critical. 2 more minutes apiece for each of these guys Williams, Ellingson, Moss, Dailey could work. It would make the 1-2-2 press that much more effective too!

 

[bagdropper]

I guess I don't understand why the rotation needs to be tightened up. You play 7, you play 11, no matter what, those who play need to play good team basketball.

You shorten up the rotations with a team full of players near equal across the board (this team has really only two true starters), you get pissed off players.

There's roughly 11 that "more deserve" to play because 9 haven't separated themselves out, 2 appear to have on each end of the roster. Those middle 9 are largely inconsistent at best. They've all shown flashes good and bad.

So, play the 11 and hope they all bust their guts out there knowing we can give them breathers enough to keep the max efforts going, ride who happens to be most effective on any given night.

I just want to see effort and discipline on both sides of the ball. The season is relatively "shot" already, so just do everything you can to keep improving and giving effort.

If that always happens, good results will come.

 

[hawk-i bob]

I would like to continue to see more pressure & traps...using the depth we have as a tool to do so...

 

[HeRKeYHoPeFuL]

We will beat Maryland. They aren't playing that well right now and if we can get Dodd in foul trouble we can handle the other bigs. Trimble is the only other concern, but I think that we may see Williams more in that game in an effort to defend Trimble with length.

In the other games I want to see:
Bohannon: Better shot selection. We know you can make long threes, but take them when the clock is under 10 seconds.

Moss: ATTACK! Keep this mentality in all aspects of the game. Attack in transition, shoot the gaps on defense and don't shy away from anything.

Jok: Have a 10 assist game. Everyone knows that your touch will come back. Your body is aching, and you haven't been able to find your rhythm since getting beat up. You've been on top of our scouting report all season, so get the others involved and teach them what they'll need to do to score without you next year.

Wagner: Keep up the energy! Hit the boards, play defense and don't give anything away at the rim. We have plenty of bodies, so don't be concerned with foul trouble.

Cook: Concentrate. You have so much potential, now you just need to consistently bring it.

Baer: Keep playing hard to set the example. This will be your team going forward until someone takes it from you - make them earn it.

Brady: Keep working on your ball handling and driving - the word is out that you can shoot, so make teams pay for assuming that's what you're up to.

Pemsl: Focus on positioning. Make moves to helpful areas of the court instead of moves just for the sake of getting by your guy. You've got the body control, now work on the strategy behind WHY you're making moves in the post.

Kriener: Work on 2-man game with our guards. Make sure everyone knows when you're popping vs rolling to the hoop.

Dom: Make quicker decisions. Don't let the defense get set when you receive the ball, force them to continue reacting.

Williams: Jump stop on fast breaks. Go up strong at the rim and draw fouls that way so you are at least still there to rebound any contested layups that don't go in. You're becoming a pain on defense and creating fast break opportunities, now you just need to finish them!

Fran: Run more sets throughout the game. Try to take more advantage of the game stoppages to run a special situation play based on what you're seeing. If you can eek out an extra point or two per game from those, it is HUGE.

 

[hexumhawk]

I said at the beginning of the year that if we finished about .500 I would consider it a pretty good year. That was taking in all of the young players that had to see significant minutes.

My hope was that we were a NIT team (borderline NCAA team) that nobody wanted to play at the end of the year. Think you have seen some major improvement from CW and Ell lately as well as Cook, Pemsl, JBO, Kriener all having solid Frosh outings.

Would love to have the UNO, @Neb, Maryland, @ Minn game back but that is college basketball. If they close out 3 of those 4 you are talking NCAA right now imo.

 

[bravehawks1]

All 5 games could be wins, but also all 5 could be losses just because this team fails to play defense and rebound with any consistency. When we do these things for 32+ minutes per game, we see good results like ISU, OSU and Purdue. But when you only do them for 20-30 minutes per game, you end up with games like Neb, MN and Maryland. less then 20 minutes and you get NW, Ill and Omaha. Given how much basketball these guys have played in the offseason and how deep were are in the season, the youth excuse is very overrated. The key is whether Fran can coach the team through the mental and physical tiredness that comes at this point in the season. We have not seen this from Fran's teams in the past so this could be a major obstacle in the next several weeks. I hope this week is being used wisely to rest. For those players who also have academic focus, the mid-term exam window is also approaching as well.

 

[HoustonREDHawk]

If Iowa were playing for a championship or had a chance to dance, I think that shortening the rotation would be a good idea. I would stick with giving everyone minutes, but the number of minutes would be determined by each player's performance on BOTH ends of the court. I know everyone likes to talk about Cook's potential, but if he didn't start showing more hustle, physicality, and desire playing defense and rebounding, I would let him spend a lot of time watching.