My 2 takeaways from this game
1. Creighton really, really, really liked shooting the 3. Once they figured out they could get to the bucket well things turned but damn did they want to shoot the 3 so badly.
2. Ben Krikke looked pretty good. I'm curious to see what happens when teams start to clamp him from that midrange spot though
Spot on. Creighton missed 19 3's, which is 5 more than Iowa even attempted -- found that tidbit interesting as Iowa under Fran is historically very live by the 3 die by the 3 and attempt easily 20+ on a per game basis -- but these were bad misses for Creighton on otherwise good shot selection. A lot of wide open and unguarded attempts that just didn't fall, especially in the final 7ish minutes of the game which allowed Iowa to make the final score appear competitive.
Krikke does looks pretty good. Offensively he looks even better than Rebraca who was very good last year and gave us all kinds of problems in Iowa City. He is nowhere near Rebraca on the glass though. And as others have noted, Creighton's defense was folding like a cheap lawn chair last night, and we all know that won't happen against ISU.
Other things I noticed after watching the latter part of the 2nd half and perusing the box score of this game and previous games:
Fran's 2023 class is looking pretty good through 3 games. Harding is small, but I can tell he has some game. I do think Cyclone fans will find him annoying, maybe not this year, but down the road. Freeman looks like he has great size and potential. Ugly haircut, but that is most kids these days. Dembele is big body that is going to be able to stretch the floor for them. Overall I think Fran did well hitting doubles and triples in the recruiting class.
Fran's 2022 class is not looking great. Dix and Bowen were nowhere to be found down the stretch last night while Iowa was making their run to get back into the game, and combined for 2 points in 43 minutes. I get that scoring is not something either of them are going to be relied on to do for this years team, but that lack of production is borderline useless IMO, They did have 6 assist between them, so I guess there is that. But neither of them stand out at this point, which is surprising given that one starts and one was projected to start prior to the season.
Final note: Someone ponied up some cash for the boys to get some ink this year. Patrick and Harding in particular have some pretty menacing looking half sleeves.
