Iowa Game Thread

[McKinney's Neighbor]

Trey was amazing. He made a big leap this off-season. This team has a severe shortage of shot makers so Trey will be carrying a heavy load this year. Mac needs to figure out how to keep him fresh because it looks like Trey will average 35 mpg this year.

Kalk going 3-8 from the line including the front end of a 1 and 1 at the end of the game was tough to watch. I'm not worried about his play though.

I'm more concerned about Ashworth than some. To me, he generally looked like he didn't belong out there. Too undersized to guard or get to the hole, and couldn't get a decent look against a pretty good (certainly not great or overly athletic) Iowa team. It's great that SA stroked it vs. Florida A&M, but how does he help us vs. Marquette/UCONN/Providence/S16 opponents? It'll be interesting to watch. I'm certainly not writing him off after one game, but I'm going to need to see it on a regular basis vs. quality competition before I buy in. Hopefully SA can find his footing as we play higher end teams.

The bench (FF and Fred especially) was GREAT. What a change of pace to go from the bench being a complete liability last year to being a huge asset in the win last night.

[thatoneguy]

Shatel today stated that was one of the best environments for a Creighton game. I did think that is was decent, but has he never been to a Big East game vs Nova, Providence or Marquette????

Honestly? He probably hasn't. He's not there more than he is there.

I thought the environment was really good too, but not near the top. Nothing compares to BIG EAST. That Seton Hall game to clinch a share of the title was insane.

[AttyAlum]

Lotta iowa walking around downtown

They must have stayed downtown walking around during the game because there weren't that many at the game.
Thank you fans for not selling your tickets to Iowa fans.

The top of the upper bowl was all yellow.

[Outlaw_Wales]

Lotta iowa walking around downtown

They must have stayed downtown walking around during the game because there weren't that many at the game.
Thank you fans for not selling your tickets to Iowa fans.

There were a ton of Iowa fans in that place. It was actually a bit sickening. There were enough to start the loudest opposing fan chant I've ever heard in the place when they started "LET'S GO HAWKS" -- Baylor put an end to it really quickly, but it was significantly louder than any Go Big Red chant I've heard there, by comparison. There were a lot of them in the corporate seats, and a lot of them all over the upper bowl. So a lot of people apparently did sell or give away their tickets to Iowa fans.

And there was a really great crowd last night. It didn't compare at all to some of the Nova or UConn crowds, and wasn't even in the same solar system as that Seton Hall game where the Jays won the Big East title. For that to be the biggest miss in a Shatel column, though, is saying something.

[3ontheway]

What did you guys think of Kriikie’s mid range bank shot?

Are we going to see more of that since that’s what we give up in our defensive scheme?

Is it easier to use the backboard or swish? Krikke made the bank shot look automatic last night, but I think with the swish you can always get a roll or bounce in if it’s not perfect

I get that Mac's defensive philosophy is always to come in completely planning to give certain guys certain shots. But when they hit 10 or 11 straight and make it look like child's play, I do wish there'd be at least some kind of a tweak to slow that down. I think we're definitely going to see that whenever a team has a big that can shoot a little.

I am for a defensive scheme that gives up very few, if any, wide open uncontested shots. I know Kalk being the presence he is within 10 feet of the hoop is a huge plus, but having a D plan that says we simply aren't going to defend something pretty much, or we can live with that and give up 15+ wide open 12-15 footers as a result is not a real great defensive game plan. I don't think it needs to be one or the other (give up 15 wide open 14 footers or give up a bunch of wide open 3's).

[TheFoodElevator]

As someone who's also an Iowa fan by osmosis (parents both went to Iowa for college and my dad is from there originally), I couldn't believe how much they were complaining about the refs on Reddit. Then I checked the Rivals board and it was even worse over there. Yikes.

I was going into the game expecting a fun offensive battle and that's exactly what we got! Iowa has some serious snipers and Krikke was lights out from that midrange shot. It was a bit reminiscent of the NC State game in the first round of the tourney- I forget the guard's name but it was the same deal where some random dude was just unconscious from that range and we didn't do a whole lot to stop it. I totally understand keeping Kalk down low to be a rim protector because he's one of the best in the country at that role but when teams start rolling because of it it is tough to watch.

As for Ash I'm hoping he's just adjusting to a higher level of play. I'm not hitting the panic button yet, though I am beyond thankful for our bench for coming in and killing it (never thought I'd type those words lol) when the starters needed to rest or just take a seat for a while.

And man, I know we've been talking about Trey but can we talk about Trey?? What in the world did they feed him in the offseason? Dude is going to play his way into being a lotto pick if he keeps this up. Just so incredibly impressed with how he looks so far.

Overall I think it was a fun game, and I think Iowa will end up surprising people this year, but definitely an indicator of where we're at, what's working, and what we need to work on. Great to get that sort of experience early on in the season

[Chicagojayfan]

As someone who's also an Iowa fan by osmosis (parents both went to Iowa for college and my dad is from there originally), I couldn't believe how much they were complaining about the refs on Reddit. Then I checked the Rivals board and it was even worse over there. Yikes.

I was going into the game expecting a fun offensive battle and that's exactly what we got! Iowa has some serious snipers and Krikke was lights out from that midrange shot. It was a bit reminiscent of the NC State game in the first round of the tourney- I forget the guard's name but it was the same deal where some random dude was just unconscious from that range and we didn't do a whole lot to stop it. I totally understand keeping Kalk down low to be a rim protector because he's one of the best in the country at that role but when teams start rolling because of it it is tough to watch.

As for Ash I'm hoping he's just adjusting to a higher level of play. I'm not hitting the panic button yet, though I am beyond thankful for our bench for coming in and killing it (never thought I'd type those words lol) when the starters needed to rest or just take a seat for a while.

And man, I know we've been talking about Trey but can we talk about Trey?? What in the world did they feed him in the offseason? Dude is going to play his way into being a lotto pick if he keeps this up. Just so incredibly impressed with how he looks so far.

Overall I think it was a fun game, and I think Iowa will end up surprising people this year, but definitely an indicator of where we're at, what's working, and what we need to work on. Great to get that sort of experience early on in the season

I get that they had a few more fouls than us early on, but it ended up 18 to 14 in our favor which is pretty much the norm given how little we foul in general, and there was a TON of contact every time Armstrong went to the basket as well

I'd like to see us have some variations on how we defend teams that have a big who can hit the jump shots and 3's.. just in case, but I get where Mac is going with this - he wants to strongly defend every shot from the 3 PT line and every shot in the paint. A few notes about Iowa:

first 2 games they took 24 and 29 3PT Attempts, last night they took 14, first 2 games they had 134 and 125 offensive rating, last night 110. Competition went up, but 14 3PT attempts was their second lowest number last year. Credit to them for shooting the 2 so well, but Mac took away one of the things they make a huge effort to do. They adapted, but it's nice to force teams to play a way they don't like to play

I'm a little more optimistic about Ashworth than most, mostly because I know he played pretty well versus SD State 3x last year, and nobody was no physical and nasty on opposing guards than those guys last year. My guess it's a bit of trying to figure out where to get shots and wanting to make sure Armstrong, Baylor and Kalk are all getting their moments in the flow of the offense. Once he settles in, I'm sure he'll have ups and downs, but he'll be fine, IMO. I'm going to guess Mac will put effort into getting him into the flow of things as we'll need him to succeed this year

[WBR Tom]

WBR's Morning After recaps the win (and Trey Alexander's huge night) with stats, quotes, highlights and more:

https://whiteandbluereview.com/morning- ... over-iowa/

[go_jays]

As someone who's also an Iowa fan by osmosis (parents both went to Iowa for college and my dad is from there originally), I couldn't believe how much they were complaining about the refs on Reddit. Then I checked the Rivals board and it was even worse over there. Yikes.

I was going into the game expecting a fun offensive battle and that's exactly what we got! Iowa has some serious snipers and Krikke was lights out from that midrange shot. It was a bit reminiscent of the NC State game in the first round of the tourney- I forget the guard's name but it was the same deal where some random dude was just unconscious from that range and we didn't do a whole lot to stop it. I totally understand keeping Kalk down low to be a rim protector because he's one of the best in the country at that role but when teams start rolling because of it it is tough to watch.

As for Ash I'm hoping he's just adjusting to a higher level of play. I'm not hitting the panic button yet, though I am beyond thankful for our bench for coming in and killing it (never thought I'd type those words lol) when the starters needed to rest or just take a seat for a while.

And man, I know we've been talking about Trey but can we talk about Trey?? What in the world did they feed him in the offseason? Dude is going to play his way into being a lotto pick if he keeps this up. Just so incredibly impressed with how he looks so far.

Overall I think it was a fun game, and I think Iowa will end up surprising people this year, but definitely an indicator of where we're at, what's working, and what we need to work on. Great to get that sort of experience early on in the season

I doubt that Ashworth has ever played an uptempo game (as uptempo as we play) in front of a crowd of 18,000 crazy lunatic fans... and probably not anything close. Sure, an NCAA tournament game is pretty tense. But you don't get the "HOME" and "AWAY" crowds at those games like this one was. And I don't know for sure how big the venues are in the Mountain West... but even if they have some big ones, I doubt they pack the house like Creighton does.

I think someone posted earlier that the Iowa fans commented on their board that that won't see another road game and have to deal with the type of atmosphere they saw at CHI Tuesday.

The energy was pretty electric... even watching it on TV. I think it would take an exceptionally calm and collected 22 year old to manage that situation. Just another step in the learning curve for him.

[skinzfan23]

And now on the Iowa forum, they are saying that CHI isn’t a tough place to play and we should enjoy our ranking bc we are not a top 10 and struggled against the middle of the pack Big 10 team.

We shall see.