ISU 17th in AP poll.

I can't wait to see this ISU team play Iowa. Kane matched up against Gesell... I like ISU's chances to exploit the hell out of that matchup. I'll take Niang against any of Iowa's bigs down in the paint. Ejim... I'll take his athleticism against any of the hoks they try to put on him as well.

What I'm most interested in is whether we can force them to go small. We almost always do, but I don't think their personnel allows it.

They basically (without Oglesby) are 2 deep at each position. They have 6 "forwards" for the 3 front-court positions. And we have 3 players for those three positions.

Woodbury can't guard Niang, so he won't play much. But when we slide Hogue to the '4' and play Kane/Long at the '3', can they guard White/Basabe/Uthoff or whoever Iowa has playing the '3'? And can those players guard one of our guards on the perimeter?

That's the most interesting thing to me.

And there is no way Gesell guards Kane. He'll be on Thomas. But watching Marble try to defend Kane will be enjoyable anyway.
 
The crazy thing is the ISU vs Iowa game is Iowa's first road game of the year. Amazing that the season will have gone on for about a month and a half, and this will be their first road game. (Jamaica is neutral) That will definitely be a nice added advantage come Dec 13.
 
What's your take on the Ejim vs. White matchup?

I'll take Ejim and not think twice about it. Ejim had a poor game last season because he fouled out and only played 13 minutes against Iowa. Hell... If Percy Gibson matched up with White and had 14 points, 7 boards, and 3 blocks last year in 24 minutes then that speaks volumes. Percy Gibson has played 22 minutes so far this season with 4 total points and that includes not even seeing the floor against Michigan or BYU. Percy Gibson most likely won't see a minute of playing time against Iowa.
 
Gotta think Melvin will want to exact some revenge. Should be very interesting. And I don't think White and Percy were matched up on each other haha.
 
Iowa is deep. The jury is still out on how good that depth will be against legitimate competition.

Really, it is the same depth as last year minus May and adding Jok and Uthoff and it was still pretty decent last year against legitimate competition.
 
Really, it is the same depth as last year minus May and adding Jok and Uthoff and it was still pretty decent last year against legitimate competition.

I forget some people thought Ogelsby, McCabe, etc were "good" last year against legitimate competion...
 
What I'm most interested in is whether we can force them to go small. We almost always do, but I don't think their personnel allows it.

They basically (without Oglesby) are 2 deep at each position. They have 6 "forwards" for the 3 front-court positions. And we have 3 players for those three positions.

Woodbury can't guard Niang, so he won't play much. But when we slide Hogue to the '4' and play Kane/Long at the '3', can they guard White/Basabe/Uthoff or whoever Iowa has playing the '3'? And can those players guard one of our guards on the perimeter?

That's the most interesting thing to me.

And there is no way Gesell guards Kane. He'll be on Thomas. But watching Marble try to defend Kane will be enjoyable anyway.

Marble is a pretty good defensive player. Just ask Clyburn.

I'm very interested to see ISU's pace & space offense against Iowa's length. On the other end, ISU can't allow Iowa to live in the paint and draw a bunch of fouls.
 
Marble is a pretty good defensive player. Just ask Clyburn.

I'm very interested to see ISU's pace & space offense against Iowa's length. On the other end, ISU can't allow Iowa to live in the paint and draw a bunch of fouls.


True that. I listened to the Penn game and was floored at how many foul calls Iowa got. I didn't see the fouls only heard the whistles, but if they can do that against Iowa State in Hilton, it will be a long night.
 
Personally........who gives a rats rear end about the Crows? With that said, for those who think that will be able to sleep walk through them has another thing coming. They may or may not be worth their ranking...but they have enough to beat us if we don't give a good showing. We play like we did against Michigan or BYU, that should be more than sufficient. We play like we did last year in Iowa S****y....we will lose.
 
I think Iowa has a good team. They've blasted weak competition. You can't fault them for that. Fran is a good coach. They play hard. I don't know if we are better but we create the same problems for them that we do for the teams we've beaten. Fred continues to thrive at changing the way CBB is played. Mismatches. As Morris and Thomas get more comfortable we'll be harder to defend. Credit Melvin for improving his game over the off season. Wow. Hilton wins out against Iowa. Just my best guess. While I don't cheer for Iowa. Them having a good year only helps us justify our spot in the end. The us versus them in terms of ranking is really irrelevant.
 
Personally........who gives a rats rear end about the Crows? With that said, for those who think that will be able to sleep walk through them has another thing coming. They may or may not be worth their ranking...but they have enough to beat us if we don't give a good showing. We play like we did against Michigan or BYU, that should be more than sufficient. We play like we did last year in Iowa S****y....we will lose.

There's no way to play worse than we played last year. We hadn't figured anything out yet.
 
What I'm most interested in is whether we can force them to go small. We almost always do, but I don't think their personnel allows it.

They basically (without Oglesby) are 2 deep at each position. They have 6 "forwards" for the 3 front-court positions. And we have 3 players for those three positions.

Woodbury can't guard Niang, so he won't play much. But when we slide Hogue to the '4' and play Kane/Long at the '3', can they guard White/Basabe/Uthoff or whoever Iowa has playing the '3'? And can those players guard one of our guards on the perimeter?

That's the most interesting thing to me.

And there is no way Gesell guards Kane. He'll be on Thomas. But watching Marble try to defend Kane will be enjoyable anyway.

Iowa took advantage of ISU last season on 2 fronts. 1. ISU's guards last season were perimeter oriented players that didn't/couldn't exploit Iowa's extended perimeter defense. That won't be the case this season. Kane, Thomas, and Morris have all show the ability to take their man off the dribble and attack the rim. If Iowa presses out on the perimeter you will see a ton of opportunities for ISU's guards to drive to the basket. Keep in mind that Ejim and Niang can shoot the 3-ball quite well so they can pull their defenders out of the lane to open up areas for ISU guards to drive. 2. Ejim. Ejim got in foul trouble and only played 13 minutes. That forced Booker and Gibson to play a combined 29 minutes in that game. Now I like Booker and Gibson as much as any other Clone fan but there was no way in hell those guys were going to win the battle in the paint against Iowa's bigs. I don't suspect Ejim will fair as poorly as he did last season in the friendly confines of Hilton and add in the impact minutes of Hogue and I think Iowa will have their hands full with. Niang also isn't a "rookie" anymore. The kid plays like a seasoned veteran and will make a much bigger impact against Iowa this season then he did last season.

All things considered... this ISU team is an entirely different animal that Iowa will be facing this time around... and did I also mention that the game is in Hilton? I like ISU's chances for sure.
 
True that. I listened to the Penn game and was floored at how many foul calls Iowa got. I didn't see the fouls only heard the whistles, but if they can do that against Iowa State in Hilton, it will be a long night.

That is my fear as well. We CAN NOT have Ejim, Niang, and Houge picking up cheap fouls out on the perimeter, or reaching in after Iowa secures a rebound. They are going to get their share of fouls called on them when White barrels into the lane flailing hell bent for leather and chucks one off the side of the backboard. That's pretty much his offensive game.

Iowa has a lot more "post player" fouls to give. If we get into a war of attrition with them it won't end well for us. That said, our guards are quicker and I doubt they can stay in front of us, so we'll draw fouls on them too. They just have more bodies down there than we do.

I bet they play predominantly zone against us.
 

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