*** Official IOWA STATE vs #3 Iowa Game(Day) Thread ***
- Thread starter CycloneRulzzz
- Start date
ISU's issue not the Joe's but the X's & O's.
We have OK talent. But we lack talent in critical positions. I fully expected that Garza would dominate us. What surprised me is that we made Nunge look like the 2nd coming of Garza. Iowa's 5's scored 51 points AND they weren't on the floor at the same time very often, if at all! We are weak in the paint.
Having a bunch of 3 point shooters at guard and wing are great, but NCAA Tournament teams have solid paint play as well.
From an X's & O's standpoint we look lost on offense and defense.
- On offense our half court sets mainly pass the ball around the perimeter or rely on players breaking down guys off the dribble. We do not screen well. We have no cutting to the basket. It used to be if we shot around 40% from 3, we had a high chance of winning. Tonight we shot 38% from 3pt and lost by 30. We shot around 42% from 2pt tonight and Iowa shot 66%.
- We have shot around 30 free throws TOTAL in 3 games. We put ZERO pressure on opponent defenses. We have nobody who can consistently create contact AND can still get their shot off or get fouled
- ISU's defense is BAD. We can't guard on the ball & stop dribble penetration. We get lost on switches. I don't know how many times nobody wanted to guard the Iowa player WITH THE BALL.
- We aren't tough. This shows up in rebounding and lose balls.
The problem is we have no roster stability and a coach who is clearly in over his head.
Lost in everything is the turnover margin Iowa won 17-7. Really little good news on stat sheet other than banging in some 3’s.
But he is around.
Prohm can bring in talent, to ISU, just look at the number of players that we have in the league. But that does little for ISU if they are only here a year or two. I love the idea that ISU has quite a few players in the NBA, but I would like it more, if many had stayed at least 3 years before they jumped instead of one or two.
EIU rolled out 2 players that will not be in Iowa City next year, how many of ISU's will not be around playing for the Cyclones next year?
I did this after the last game and I had a lot of fun doing it. Sadly it won't be as long as last game's. Some things I am keeping in mind to keep my optimism up: it's only our third game compared to Iowa's 6th (or 5th?), and the cohesiveness of Iowa was impressive. Second, Iowa is a top 25 team without Luka, with him they are solidly a top 8 team all imo. Lastly, my expectations. My expectations were not high for this team. Fine pieces but they'd really have to come together to make things work. As that seems to be a weak point for Prohm I wasn't too high, and I just go into games remembering what my expectations were and make observations from there.
Like last time I focused on the offense because I know more about that than D, and defense isn't as much of an optimistic point.
Rasir last night had his best game of the year. Only 5 assists to 2 TOs. It feels weird saying that with Bolton. His pg skills have gotten so much better in the off season. At times yesterday he looked completely in control of the offense. He did a good job breaking the zone in the first half. Shot selection continues to improve and I love seeing him hit 40% from deep.
Javan looked a lot more settled in last night to me. He led the team in scoring with 20, which is what we want him to do. He had 3 TOs and was only 2-8 from deep. Some of the TOs were pretty boneheaded so those are easily fixable. If he tightens up on his shot selection he was be a really good player for us I think as he seemed to get to the rim with ease yesterday.
JCL I thought played his best game of the season. Excellent shot selection and really limited his TOs which were both of my chief concerns with him. Plus 5-7 from deep? Oh yeah
Solo just looked gases trying to keep up with Iowa's bigs. With the zone it's hard to get the mid range jumpers which is really his bread and butter. I did love the fight he showed trying to get rebounds though. So much improvement there from games 1 & 2. Now just keep that up Solo.
Dubar just looked nervous out there which I think it has to deal with his first start being against a top 5 team. Would like to see him bring back the energy he had in the previous games.
Foster was a breath of fresh air at least. I was really concerned with what I saw in the first couple of games but he looked really fluid and loose out there. hitting 2 threes is helpful, and I want to see more of his interior game.
Blackwell was flying around and I loved it. That is absolutely what he needs to do. It's almost like he and D stone switched roles this game.
Walker didn't really do much this game just wanted to point something out I found interesting. At the end of the game when the starters were out he was the one bringing the ball up the court. I wonder if he is making some good progress on the point guard front. I hope so, I want another lanky pg.
I won't waste my time repeating my frustrations with Prohm as everyone as pretty much said what's on my mind. I will say I believe he made the right move changing the starting line up, but maybe it needs another change? Maybe start foster now? I am not too sure on that as I would give dubar one more game to try and get settled.
Overall there were some positives from the game! How about use shooting 40% from deep! I thought people said we couldn't shoot at all
. I think was a far from the worst team in the league, that honor belongs to a team that lost to a D2 school by double digits. I believe we are right with TCU. Hope you enjoyed some optimism from me! I like doing this as it is therapeutic for me. Stay safe everyone!
Like last time I focused on the offense because I know more about that than D, and defense isn't as much of an optimistic point.
Rasir last night had his best game of the year. Only 5 assists to 2 TOs. It feels weird saying that with Bolton. His pg skills have gotten so much better in the off season. At times yesterday he looked completely in control of the offense. He did a good job breaking the zone in the first half. Shot selection continues to improve and I love seeing him hit 40% from deep.
Javan looked a lot more settled in last night to me. He led the team in scoring with 20, which is what we want him to do. He had 3 TOs and was only 2-8 from deep. Some of the TOs were pretty boneheaded so those are easily fixable. If he tightens up on his shot selection he was be a really good player for us I think as he seemed to get to the rim with ease yesterday.
JCL I thought played his best game of the season. Excellent shot selection and really limited his TOs which were both of my chief concerns with him. Plus 5-7 from deep? Oh yeah
Solo just looked gases trying to keep up with Iowa's bigs. With the zone it's hard to get the mid range jumpers which is really his bread and butter. I did love the fight he showed trying to get rebounds though. So much improvement there from games 1 & 2. Now just keep that up Solo.
Dubar just looked nervous out there which I think it has to deal with his first start being against a top 5 team. Would like to see him bring back the energy he had in the previous games.
Foster was a breath of fresh air at least. I was really concerned with what I saw in the first couple of games but he looked really fluid and loose out there. hitting 2 threes is helpful, and I want to see more of his interior game.
Blackwell was flying around and I loved it. That is absolutely what he needs to do. It's almost like he and D stone switched roles this game.
Walker didn't really do much this game just wanted to point something out I found interesting. At the end of the game when the starters were out he was the one bringing the ball up the court. I wonder if he is making some good progress on the point guard front. I hope so, I want another lanky pg.
I won't waste my time repeating my frustrations with Prohm as everyone as pretty much said what's on my mind. I will say I believe he made the right move changing the starting line up, but maybe it needs another change? Maybe start foster now? I am not too sure on that as I would give dubar one more game to try and get settled.
Overall there were some positives from the game! How about use shooting 40% from deep! I thought people said we couldn't shoot at all
. I think was a far from the worst team in the league, that honor belongs to a team that lost to a D2 school by double digits. I believe we are right with TCU. Hope you enjoyed some optimism from me! I like doing this as it is therapeutic for me. Stay safe everyone!We do well at recruiting NBA talent. The NBA plays no defense, so our guys fit in.
If Bill Laimbeer and Darryl Dawkins were still around, 6'6" draft picks that weigh 175 would think twice about driving the lane.
But, those NBA days are past. No one watches anyway.
If Bill Laimbeer and Darryl Dawkins were still around, 6'6" draft picks that weigh 175 would think twice about driving the lane.
But, those NBA days are past. No one watches anyway.
This is a very false set of sentences.
I'd consider watching the NBA some time and then ask how Bill Laimbeer would stack up since 6'6 175 was probably closer to that era than now.
My impressions
1) Pretty much what I expected for final score
2) The thing Garza does best is positioning. He's great at sliding into a spot and using his lower body. He's much bigger than Solo.
3) There a couple opportunities to throw it into Solo right after Garza came back in with 3 fouls, before the 21 straight points barrage. It would have been nice to draw his 4th right away.
4) Foster looked ready for more minutes.
5) Back in the freshmen ineligible days, it might have been fun to see this group play together against the Hawk class.
1) Pretty much what I expected for final score
2) The thing Garza does best is positioning. He's great at sliding into a spot and using his lower body. He's much bigger than Solo.
3) There a couple opportunities to throw it into Solo right after Garza came back in with 3 fouls, before the 21 straight points barrage. It would have been nice to draw his 4th right away.
4) Foster looked ready for more minutes.
5) Back in the freshmen ineligible days, it might have been fun to see this group play together against the Hawk class.
I thinks its just hard to play defense in the NBA. Lots of players who are extremely skilled offensively probably gives the illusion nobody plays defense.
Time to start Foster. Let’s just rip this band aid off. Also **** Iowa but Garza is so good. Just a nearly flawless college player. If he gets his 3% in the upper 30’s I think he will be a late first rounder. He’s like a off the bench Jokic without the handle or passing, which is why he’s off the bench Jokic.
when the collective unit sucks at rebounding they probably look great in practice!!
Foster at minimum needs to be getting all of Conditt's minutes, looks like George is never going to pan out. XF still has a lot to work on but he played really hard, watching him as HS player, that was certainly a question. It's a sad state of affairs when the biggest positive is how hard your 3rd string big played coming off the bench.
This year is all about setting up next year. Get the freshman lots of experience and hope they grow.
Part of me agrees but another side says we'll just be getting these kids exp for whatever school they transfer to in 2 years when Prohm finally gets canned. Coaching changes are total gutjobs these days, everyone will go. The only good thing might be that due to covid, the transfer seasons are going to get even crazier the next couple of years. That should give the next coach a leg up and the rebuild.
