TheFoodElevator wrote: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