Yeah, not to mention putting the ball in your best player's hand (Uthoff), use spacing, and let him score or it will give teammates open looks. ala Georges Bobby Hansen was calling for it way back with Marble, then White.
Iowa/MSU
- Thread starter HornacekFan1414
- Start date
Yeah, not to mention putting the ball in your best player's hand (Uthoff), use spacing, and let him score or it will give teammates open looks. ala Georges Bobby Hansen was calling for it way back with Marble, then White.
They will be a 2-4 seed in Des Moines. That would be a rather fitting way for ISU fans to go out.
They are just like their football team. Not flashy, just get it done
They are just like their football team. Not flashy, just get it done
They didn't have good enough shooters to space the floor with their previous teams. Gesell and Clemmons aren't shoooters, Woodbury, White, Basabe and Olesani weren't going to space the floor. Oglesby was the worst "shooter" in the country, you can spread guys out but if other teams don't respect their three point shot it's not going to space the floor.
This is downright embarrassing. And how any ISU fan, or basketball fan in general, can't acknowledge that is beyond me. Our defense is horrible!
Cooke is better than any back up guard they have but I have a feeling Cooke isn't totally back to himself. He had to sit out a long time before he could play basketball again. I'm hoping that as the season goes along he can continue to improve.
Yeah Forbes and McQuaid are important for MSU. And you are right their PG has no shot whatsoever and Vakentine is not 100% so that doesn't help. But still Iowa's defense is really good this year.
Iowa is now ranked 4 on Ken Pom. That's impressive.
At what point will people recognize that when team after team has season high shooting percentages, there is usually one common denominator....they are playing against Iowa State. Not really that hard to diagnose the problem.
Props to Iowa. I watched the entire game last night they are playing their ***** off at a very high level. Makes it extra painful to watch us on the struggle bus.
Maybe they won't lose to Michigan, but Michigan did just beat Maryland at Crisler, Iowa historically struggles in Ann Arbor, and probability says Iowa is going to lose at least a couple games. KenPom has them either winning out or losing just once on a game-by-game basis, but has them finishing 15-3 based on probability.
If Cooke is better than their backups I sure would like to see that translate to a game.
UNI is the only game this season where you can honestly say they shot out of their minds. The other teams got hot because ISU let them get into a rhythm early. Washpun from UNI made circus shot after circus shot. Jesperson hit 5-6 from 25 feet. That's freaky shooting.
They did so many things last night that I wish we could do on a consistent basis: knocking down the open 3, getting steals that lead to transition points, playing team defense, boxing out, defending defensive positions, winning one on one defensive battles...
It took a massive collapse for us to beat them. Even Georges said after the game they gave the game to us. Which I am thankful for as it will help our NCAA resume. A resume that gets worse by the game and one that will lack great wins. It is turning out the Iowa win was a great win.
And why are people so quick to detract from a January road conference win against the #4 team in the country. So if you don't believe they are #4, are they at least in the top 10? 20? 40? I am sure we will not be so quick to discredit the next road conference win we get against a top 5 team.
True, but their point guard sits with 2 early fouls, and they don't miss a beat. If that happened to Monte, we would be in dog do-do. Offensively, they have more than Uthoff, whereas Georges supporting cast is struggling with inconsistency offensively imo. Still think their depth allows them to go all out, thus the better defense. Monte Morris played 45 minutes Tuesday night! Think about that. 45 minutes! That's not standing in a zone and getting rest.
I think MSU thought they could beat them running, and that would have been a more competitive game, but MichSt is a turnover machine with this team. Iowa shoots the '3' ten times better than us (more guys at least) , has length, and has their defensive identity fine-tooled. So, when all of it is clicking together, you get the results they're getting.
What is curious to me is how they would do against OU and KU, or guys like Frank Mason, Medford, etc., much less a Heild. Trying to think what Big10 point guards are really top notch. Trimble? But as solid as he is, I don't think he's a jet like Mason.
I agree that our lack of defense is giving the other team better looks, on occasion, and thus gives them confidence. But I guess that what you meant by rhythm. But I also watch a lot of basketball and most teams are eventually getting a lot of open 3's if they're moving the ball and running their offense efficiently. Look how many 3's OU got against a usual good defense by KU. Texas was not shooting the 'open 3' either as well (at all) before our game.
Not true. Cooke hardly scores a point for us. Their backup point guard is Clemons, which brings in Baer or Uhl and both find ways to score for Iowa. Cooke will need to have a MT improvement jump for next season.
Wait what? So all they do is jack up 3's and if you stop that its an easy win? So Gessell cant penetrate? Uthoff and Jok cant make jump shots? Woodbury cant clean up misses inside?
Lets face it, they are a deep senior oriented team who plays excellent defense, has length, has 2 high level shooters from anywhere on the floor in Jok and Uthoff, basically has 2 senior point guards running the offense, and a center inside who disrupts alot of shots not matter how awkward he looks.
Lets not pretend they just throw up random 3's and thats why they are being successful.
Last edited:
He hardly scores because the coach hardly plays him which bothers me. Take the last game for instance, he was playing pretty good defense and took care of the ball for the most part, should have gotten more minutes. Nothing wrong with a guy that does his part but lets the scorers do theirs. I think he just needs time and confidence to get comfortable on the court again and he should get that opportunity.
Agree.
These look like high-possibility L’s:
at Maryland
at Indiana
at Ohio State
at U-M
Wild-card loss*
* Could be almost anything — at Illinois, U-M, Purdue, UW, road loss vs. weak team (the quirk of CBB)
That’d still be 13-5 in Big Ten.
Look, Iowa is playing well, no doubt. Kudos to them. BUT.....Lets also not pretend that they haven't had to endure what ISU has. Their 'experienced lineup' didn't lose their coach they've had their whole career and are now having to adjust to another one. They didn't lose their whole asst. coaching staff that develop continuity in their program. Only Byers (Dir. of Ops) is back for ISU and I don't sense that is a daily hands/on coach on the floor position. More importantly, they didn't lose an experienced starter/leader like Naz. They didn't lose two incoming recruits for depth, one which was our backup front court player(Williams) and backup pt guard(Niskowiak) so Monte (unlike Gesell) can afford foul trouble and not play 45 minutes! They didn't have their head coach leaving in late spring when possible transfers or late signees needed to be picked up.
YES, our team is capable of playing better and MUST get better on defense. But to not understand what ISU has gone through compared to Iowa is really shortsighted and unfair. Iowa has 4 starters back, almost 5 as Clemons played plenty. We're starting last year's role players, Matt and Abdel, both who are now being asked to do it all the whole game. There's so many things that have happened to our team that add up, especially since the Holberg departure was happening. And, no its not Prohm's fault. Nor is it Fred's. Its nobody's fault. It is what it is.
Michigan State's supporting cast looked awful, although it was obvious Iowa's length gives them problems. Tum Tum Nairn and Matt McQuaid? Why are they on the court? It doesn't seem like they do anything but miss shots. It was fun to see Costello whine all game. He might be my least favorite player in the NCAA.