ISU 100 - Dubuque 50
As pretty as the score looks... and with no disrespect to Dubuque, I think we can all agree that our opponent is on a different athletic and size level than Iowa State. I'm a generally optimistic guy and focus on the positives, so please do not mistake my observations as belief that we're going to dominate the Big 12.
That said... I'm going to do my best to break down our exhibition game:
Most everything I've read coming into this game is right on the money. We pushed it up and down the court all game long as evident by the score hitting the century mark. DG and SC were given the green light to shoot and did not disappoint. Both of these guys were hitting 3 pointers from well beyond the arc and looked good doing it. Let's not kid ourselves here... we're going to see this all season long, and more importantly, we'll be relying on it for some of our games.
After a commanding lead from the first half... the team appeared to lose a lot of the energy in the second. I'm sure part of it is when you're up by almost 40 at half, you lose a bit of the drive and intensity to give 100%. However, I suspect that there was a bit of a strategy shift discussed at half... I wouldn't be surprised if the Mayor changed the green light to a yellow and asked for a little more action closer to the hoop.
We ran just about every combination of lineups possible... first half we saw a lot of guard action... end of the game we saw 4 bigs with Bubu as the solo guard. The ball was very evenly distributed and it appeared that everyone on the team had confidence in eachother... we didn't force the ball to our 'stars' but everyone got involved. 7 of 9 guys ended up in double digits, surprisingly JVB was not one of them. The other, McKnight had limited playing time due to the late clearance of him being able to play.
The thing I liked the most from this game was the passing game. I noticed especially in the first half, every pass had speed behind it... and everyone had solid hands catching the ball. I was especially pleased with the ability to pass and catch the ball that was displayed by our bigs. Definately exceeded my expectations in that aspect.
--Individual breakdowns--
Jake Anderson - Player of the Game: Very tough to not give this to Godfrey... but I have to say the best aquisition for this coming season is Jake Anderson. A 17 point performance with 10 rebounds. This guy hustles the whole time he's on the court and doesn't take a second off. He get's after it 100 percent of the time and you can tell it rubs off on the rest of the guys. And as we've heard time and time again, he is the type of leader that I don't think we've seen on this team for a while. Not only does he know where he needs to be... but he knows where everyone else on the floor needs to be. You could see him directing guys to guard open opponents on defense and doing a great job communicating with the rest of the guys. I really wish we could have him for more than just one year.
Calvin Godfrey - Another aquisition that will be relied heavily on this season. Yeah... we played an undersized team... but for being a big, Godfrey is quick and explosive. He plays with aggressiveness. A double double with 13 rebounds and 12 points and a bunch of blocked shots. Play of the game goes to Godfrey as well: With ISU off to a sluggish start in the second half, he comes flying from the inside out to the perimiter to swat a three point shot the other direction... then follows it all alone to counter with a huge dunk. Definately sparked the team. He may struggle against taller guys down the road... but I'm quite pleased with what he's shown as a freshmen in his first game in Hilton. Another thing... his post shot is very quick. Not much time for a defender to react and block. I like it and think he will develop into a very liked post player for the Cyclones and have a great career here.
Christopherson - Lead all Cyclones with 18 points. Solid 3pt shooting perfect freethrows. 5 assists. Played solid as you would expect and I think we'll see a lot of time from him and a lot of shots. Nothing to dislike from his game.
DG - I didn't see as much driving to the hoop as I thought I would... but he definately pushed and distributed the ball well. He, along with Jake set the pace of the game and were the major factors in getting us such a large lead in the first half. I liked the confidence he had shooting from outside. I think he's proving last year's percentage was not a fluke and it will really open things up for him if he continues to make these shots. The team definately has confidence in him and will make sure the ball goes through him on offense.
Ejim - A quiet but solid performance. 13 points. For a freshman... he's starting at a higher level than most freshman come in at. He just seems experienced already. He never took over the game... but played solid on both ends of the court. I think he's the type that may have a big game here and there this year. I think he accepts that it's DG and Jake's team right now... but in future years, this will likely be his team and I think he'll take ownership at that point. 4-4 freethrows was nice to see.
JVB - got in foul trouble fast so we didn't get much of him to see, but it looked like he's being used just as Hoiberg said. He can really spread the floor on offense for this team.
Bubu - looks good when he drives to the hoop. Not as great of a second half... but a good performance with 14 points 8 of 10 from the line. To all of those who have said Bubu will never see much playing time because he's a walkon... well... get ready to eat crow this year. He'll see the floor and I think he will be a valuable contributer as well.
McKnight - limited playing time and didn't do a whole lot. Two things - first, might have been a little nervous, missed both freethrows. Second... he's pretty darn fast for his size. Though he needs to put on weight... he'll be able to beat his guy down the court and as a team that pushes the ball. I think he'll be a nice asset for our guards to deliver the ball to on a fast break, or a fast break follow up.
Railey - I was a bit worried about him from everything I've heard. And he started out as I would have expected. But then he went and did some things that showed his ceiling is a bit higher than I initially thought. Showed some good shot blocking ability. Showed soft hands from two fast dishes that he finished with strong two handed dunks. As his confidence builds... I feel much better about him developing into a good post player for us in the years to come. I'm sure he (along with many of the other guys) will struggle this year against better competition. But I really liked what I saw from him this game. 10 points 7 rebounds. Oh... I almost forgot. The best post feed in the entire game came from him. He came out to the top of the key to get a pass from DG. Immediately he fed it in with confidence to Godfrey for a one on one post move (which he finished).
The key to success for this team this year is to continue the great team effort they displayed today. We will be relying on our guards a lot (60% of our points). But when scoring can come from any of our guys (again 7 guys in double digits) it will be one of the biggest advantages we have as a team.
Also, I give credit to Dubuque for starting out the second half as the better team despite the rough first half.
As pretty as the score looks... and with no disrespect to Dubuque, I think we can all agree that our opponent is on a different athletic and size level than Iowa State. I'm a generally optimistic guy and focus on the positives, so please do not mistake my observations as belief that we're going to dominate the Big 12.
That said... I'm going to do my best to break down our exhibition game:
Most everything I've read coming into this game is right on the money. We pushed it up and down the court all game long as evident by the score hitting the century mark. DG and SC were given the green light to shoot and did not disappoint. Both of these guys were hitting 3 pointers from well beyond the arc and looked good doing it. Let's not kid ourselves here... we're going to see this all season long, and more importantly, we'll be relying on it for some of our games.
After a commanding lead from the first half... the team appeared to lose a lot of the energy in the second. I'm sure part of it is when you're up by almost 40 at half, you lose a bit of the drive and intensity to give 100%. However, I suspect that there was a bit of a strategy shift discussed at half... I wouldn't be surprised if the Mayor changed the green light to a yellow and asked for a little more action closer to the hoop.
We ran just about every combination of lineups possible... first half we saw a lot of guard action... end of the game we saw 4 bigs with Bubu as the solo guard. The ball was very evenly distributed and it appeared that everyone on the team had confidence in eachother... we didn't force the ball to our 'stars' but everyone got involved. 7 of 9 guys ended up in double digits, surprisingly JVB was not one of them. The other, McKnight had limited playing time due to the late clearance of him being able to play.
The thing I liked the most from this game was the passing game. I noticed especially in the first half, every pass had speed behind it... and everyone had solid hands catching the ball. I was especially pleased with the ability to pass and catch the ball that was displayed by our bigs. Definately exceeded my expectations in that aspect.
--Individual breakdowns--
Jake Anderson - Player of the Game: Very tough to not give this to Godfrey... but I have to say the best aquisition for this coming season is Jake Anderson. A 17 point performance with 10 rebounds. This guy hustles the whole time he's on the court and doesn't take a second off. He get's after it 100 percent of the time and you can tell it rubs off on the rest of the guys. And as we've heard time and time again, he is the type of leader that I don't think we've seen on this team for a while. Not only does he know where he needs to be... but he knows where everyone else on the floor needs to be. You could see him directing guys to guard open opponents on defense and doing a great job communicating with the rest of the guys. I really wish we could have him for more than just one year.
Calvin Godfrey - Another aquisition that will be relied heavily on this season. Yeah... we played an undersized team... but for being a big, Godfrey is quick and explosive. He plays with aggressiveness. A double double with 13 rebounds and 12 points and a bunch of blocked shots. Play of the game goes to Godfrey as well: With ISU off to a sluggish start in the second half, he comes flying from the inside out to the perimiter to swat a three point shot the other direction... then follows it all alone to counter with a huge dunk. Definately sparked the team. He may struggle against taller guys down the road... but I'm quite pleased with what he's shown as a freshmen in his first game in Hilton. Another thing... his post shot is very quick. Not much time for a defender to react and block. I like it and think he will develop into a very liked post player for the Cyclones and have a great career here.
Christopherson - Lead all Cyclones with 18 points. Solid 3pt shooting perfect freethrows. 5 assists. Played solid as you would expect and I think we'll see a lot of time from him and a lot of shots. Nothing to dislike from his game.
DG - I didn't see as much driving to the hoop as I thought I would... but he definately pushed and distributed the ball well. He, along with Jake set the pace of the game and were the major factors in getting us such a large lead in the first half. I liked the confidence he had shooting from outside. I think he's proving last year's percentage was not a fluke and it will really open things up for him if he continues to make these shots. The team definately has confidence in him and will make sure the ball goes through him on offense.
Ejim - A quiet but solid performance. 13 points. For a freshman... he's starting at a higher level than most freshman come in at. He just seems experienced already. He never took over the game... but played solid on both ends of the court. I think he's the type that may have a big game here and there this year. I think he accepts that it's DG and Jake's team right now... but in future years, this will likely be his team and I think he'll take ownership at that point. 4-4 freethrows was nice to see.
JVB - got in foul trouble fast so we didn't get much of him to see, but it looked like he's being used just as Hoiberg said. He can really spread the floor on offense for this team.
Bubu - looks good when he drives to the hoop. Not as great of a second half... but a good performance with 14 points 8 of 10 from the line. To all of those who have said Bubu will never see much playing time because he's a walkon... well... get ready to eat crow this year. He'll see the floor and I think he will be a valuable contributer as well.
McKnight - limited playing time and didn't do a whole lot. Two things - first, might have been a little nervous, missed both freethrows. Second... he's pretty darn fast for his size. Though he needs to put on weight... he'll be able to beat his guy down the court and as a team that pushes the ball. I think he'll be a nice asset for our guards to deliver the ball to on a fast break, or a fast break follow up.
Railey - I was a bit worried about him from everything I've heard. And he started out as I would have expected. But then he went and did some things that showed his ceiling is a bit higher than I initially thought. Showed some good shot blocking ability. Showed soft hands from two fast dishes that he finished with strong two handed dunks. As his confidence builds... I feel much better about him developing into a good post player for us in the years to come. I'm sure he (along with many of the other guys) will struggle this year against better competition. But I really liked what I saw from him this game. 10 points 7 rebounds. Oh... I almost forgot. The best post feed in the entire game came from him. He came out to the top of the key to get a pass from DG. Immediately he fed it in with confidence to Godfrey for a one on one post move (which he finished).
The key to success for this team this year is to continue the great team effort they displayed today. We will be relying on our guards a lot (60% of our points). But when scoring can come from any of our guys (again 7 guys in double digits) it will be one of the biggest advantages we have as a team.
Also, I give credit to Dubuque for starting out the second half as the better team despite the rough first half.
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