The credit and the blame

[cyfan27]

I have been very pleased with the effort and attitude Coach Hoiberg has got the team to play with consistently this year. Additionally, I love his style of play, leadership style, recruiting, and intensity. However, losing 6 games that the team has lead at some point in the last 3 minutes has to fall on his shoulders as well. The players have to make plays when put in the position to do so he can't take all the blame. The team blew a 9 point lead to Okie St., a 4 point lead to Nebby (didn't score the last 2 minutes), a 4 point lead to Oklahoma (didn't score the last 2 minutes), and had trouble getting shots against UNI and Cal. Something needs to change in regards to who has the ball, plays to run, and who is in the game. If he is going to get all the credit he needs to shoulder the responsibility as well.

I get tired of the 7 player excuse as well by fans. You watch all the good teams and they play 7-8 guys during the games and play the rest in mop up duty. Come conference and NCAA tourney time they play mainly 7 with the 8 playing selected minutes.

 

[cyfreddy]

I have been very pleased with the effort and attitude Coach Hoiberg has got the team to play with consistently this year. Additionally, I love his style of play, leadership style, recruiting, and intensity. However, losing 6 games that the team has lead at some point in the last 3 minutes has to fall on his shoulders as well. The players have to make plays when put in the position to do so he can't take all the blame. The team blew a 9 point lead to Okie St., a 4 point lead to Nebby (didn't score the last 2 minutes), a 4 point lead to Oklahoma (didn't score the last 2 minutes), and had trouble getting shots against UNI and Cal. Something needs to change in regards to who has the ball, plays to run, and who is in the game. If he is going to get all the credit he needs to shoulder the responsibility as well.

I get tired of the 7 player excuse as well by fans. You watch all the good teams and they play 7-8 guys during the games and play the rest in mop up duty. Come conference and NCAA tourney time they play mainly 7 with the 8 playing selected minutes.

So who do you think you should be handling the ball instead of DG? I understand that this is frustrating, but we just do not have the right players for these type of situations.

 

[CyBobby]

I said it before and I will say it again.


This team Lives & Dies with the 3 point shot....Last night we went 5 for 24 which is not good enough to win at this level.


Did you see how many clutch three's that the Okies made last night?


Until three point shooting improves we aka ISU will not win another conference game its just that simple!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[erikbj]

relax people, 90% of this board was expecting 15-17 wins, well they are on pace for that. ISU just looked good early on this season (or better than people thought they would look), now they are playing like the team that everyone thought they would be. Lets not freak out, the team has played up to expectation so far and maybe over achieved a bit.

Next season, FH will have some better talent and more D1 bodies to play. Lets be real, as hard as this team is playing maybe only 1 or 2 of ISU's players could see the court for KU or Texas.

I am enjoying this season way more than the past 5 seasons, ISU is actually competitive and fun to watch.....granted there are some frustrating moments, but it is better than getting waxed by 30 points like the McD era.

 

[Cyforce]

relax people, 90% of this board was expecting 15-17 wins, well they are on pace for that. ISU just looked good early on this season (or better than people thought they would look), now they are playing like the team that everyone thought they would be. Lets not freak out, the team has played up to expectation so far and maybe over achieved a bit.

Next season, FH will have some better talent and more D1 bodies to play. Lets be real, as hard as this team is playing maybe only 1 or 2 of ISU's players could see the court for KU or Texas.

I am enjoying this season way more than the past 5 seasons, ISU is actually competitive and fun to watch.....granted there are some frustrating moments, but it is better than getting waxed by 30 points like the McD era.

I think the problem is the team has played well enough to far exceed our expectation but continue to come up short and continue to use the same formula. I really think the way we shoot FTs I would of fouled prior to the three that sent it to OT. I know hindsight is 20/20 but when we do the same thing everytime the D is able to change their approach and it works that first time.

 

[Wesley]

relax people, 90% of this board was expecting 15-17 wins, well they are on pace for that. ISU just looked good early on this season (or better than people thought they would look), now they are playing like the team that everyone thought they would be. Lets not freak out, the team has played up to expectation so far and maybe over achieved a bit.

Next season, FH will have some better talent and more D1 bodies to play. Lets be real, as hard as this team is playing maybe only 1 or 2 of ISU's players could see the court for KU or Texas.

I am enjoying this season way more than the past 5 seasons, ISU is actually competitive and fun to watch.....granted there are some frustrating moments, but it is better than getting waxed by 30 points like the McD era.

McD's games were in the foprties and fifties. We did not get blown out by huge margins. We were just not going to win. Ham was better at the end. Dendy made a dent in winning. Now we need someone on this team to pick it up and play tougher the last few games. CFH did not call very many timeouts at the tlast three minutes and we had the same result. The opponent steps it up at the end and we are already playing in our fourth gear the whole game. We cannot respond with the big plays apparently.

 

[Cydkar]

We are who we thought we were. Pre-season, that is.

 

[bostrem00]

We are who we thought we were. Pre-season, that is.

The Blame lies on our awesome matador defense, way too many open looks.....

 

[StLouisClone]

The team blew a 9 point lead to Okie St., a 4 point lead to Nebby (didn't score the last 2 minutes), a 4 point lead to Oklahoma (didn't score the last 2 minutes), and had trouble getting shots against UNI and Cal. .

Jake Anderson's free throws put ISU up by 6 with around 3 minutes left last night. I believe right after that is when JVB got pushed from behind while in perfect position for a rebound on the other end. It all went downhill after that. So I think the blown leads are a combination of bad breaks and poor play.

 

[Cyclonz]

I said it before and I will say it again.


This team Lives & Dies with the 3 point shot....Last night we went 5 for 24 which is not good enough to win at this level.


Did you see how many clutch three's that the Okies made last night?


Until three point shooting improves we aka ISU will not win another conference game its just that simple!!!!!!!!!!!

Agree. When it gets to crunch time you have got to find a way to pound the ball down low and either make the basket or get to the line. The close losses at Neb, at Okie St and OU has shown this glaring weakness.

 

[The_Architect]

I have been very pleased with the effort and attitude Coach Hoiberg has got the team to play with consistently this year. Additionally, I love his style of play, leadership style, recruiting, and intensity. However, losing 6 games that the team has lead at some point in the last 3 minutes has to fall on his shoulders as well. The players have to make plays when put in the position to do so he can't take all the blame. The team blew a 9 point lead to Okie St., a 4 point lead to Nebby (didn't score the last 2 minutes), a 4 point lead to Oklahoma (didn't score the last 2 minutes), and had trouble getting shots against UNI and Cal. Something needs to change in regards to who has the ball, plays to run, and who is in the game. If he is going to get all the credit he needs to shoulder the responsibility as well.

I get tired of the 7 player excuse as well by fans. You watch all the good teams and they play 7-8 guys during the games and play the rest in mop up duty. Come conference and NCAA tourney time they play mainly 7 with the 8 playing selected minutes.

Don't forget we nearly lost the Iowa and Creighton game in the exact same way. I'm beginning to question our end of game strategy as well.

 

[Wesley]

We need a new strategy before the season is over. DG is triple teamed and the strategy has been seen game after game.

At some point, I hope JVB improves on his dribbling skills. That might help at the end of the game if he has to use them.

 

[Cyclone1985]

We need a new strategy before the season is over. DG is triple teamed and the strategy has been seen game after game.

At some point, I hope JVB improves on his dribbling skills. That might help at the end of the game if he has to use them.

At some point, he needs to improve his ability to play basketball. Dude can only hit wide open threes; has no defense, cant jump, has no help side defense, he isn't even setting screens well. Everyone and their mom knows he is going to flare to the three point line after setting a high screen. If he isnt open, then he just stands there.

 

[kingcy]

Some of the blame needs to go to not having a good guard of the bench. This team also need another true shooter in its starting 5. Jake and Ejim do a lot but are not a huge threat from 3. The last thing it needs is a real presence down low and when Godfrey is open the abality to get him the ball.

 

[kingcy]

At some point, he needs to improve his ability to play basketball. Dude can only hit wide open threes; has no defense, cant jump, has no help side defense, he isn't even setting screens well. Everyone and their mom knows he is going to flare to the three point line after setting a high screen. If he isnt open, then he just stands there.

He needs to take some pointers from Godfrey on setting screens, that guy is a screen setting machine.

 

[cyfan27]

I am not saying someone else has to handle the ball but do we have any other options out of time outs when it is taken away. DG plays great for 35 minutes every game until the last 2 minutes. Do you place all the blame on him or is it a result of the plays we are trying to run, court spacing, and the defense knowing what we are trying to do. Also, I forgot about the Iowa and Creighton games when we almost gave it away which another poster brought up. It also makes me wonder if our preseason expectations weren't wrong. The team has obviously shown the ability to beat any team on the schedule so there is more talent than we thought. I still believe we will win 15-19 games but it could easily have been 18-22. Winning 20 games is difficult and doesn't happen by game planning and effort alone. Talent is the other component and the team has that. Execution at the end is what separates a 20 win team with talent from a 16 team with talent.

 

[cyclones500]

I get tired of the 7 player excuse as well by fans.

That bothers me, too. Of course, depth is a factor. But it hasn't looked like an insurmountable weakness.

DG had first-half foul trouble vs. Nebraska and OU and the team had to play long stretches while he sat. And they responded --- may have even made up some ground in both situations. Then he came out and played at another level in the second half. If depth was the deciding factor, we could've been down by 15 points at halftime in both cases.

And the depth/fatigue issue is also overstated. First, the team doesn't start playing with intensity until they're down by double digits in the first half, so it takes extra energy just to get back into the game. Maybe they're "spent" by overtime, but neither of the OSU or OU games should have gone to overtime.

As for the bad final possessions, the 3 conf games didn't need to come down to that point. ISU was set to go in for the kill w/ 2 or 3 minutes left, and didn't do it.

 

[CYKOFAN]

CyBobby has it right. We don't have a big guy that can play with his back to the basket and score or get fouled. When we hit at least 8-9 or more 3's in a game, we win. Big 12 teams have the talent to take that away, which puts us at the mercy of driving to the basket and hoping the shot isn't blocked by the opponents bigger and more athletic guys. Yes some (but certainly not all) teams can get by playing 7-8 guys, but they have to have good bench players to be effective. We have freshmen, and our backup point guard is a freshman walk on that really hasn't shown he's ready to handle the role. Every other Big 12 team has more talent, and the coaches know that. To Fred and the player's credit, they are competing but just don't have enough talent to get over the hump.

 

[CyED]

While I am disappointed how these close games have ended I don't know that we have much of an option other than what we have done with our tallent. Nobody big enough to trust with a back to the basket at the end like prev posters have pointed out. It starts with our defense at the end and eliminating key mistakes so it doesn't come down to not getting the last shot off. But then if it does I would like to see DG pull up from 15, he's getting too deep with too many hands and height and that's why he can't get a shot off. I don't see anyone else I want taking the shot unless its an open look off a pass from DG.