About the Hawkeyes from a Hawkeye

[hawk_a_holic]

I come in peace. I watched every game the past 33 years except in 2006 when 14 Northwestern State beat 3 Iowa in the 1st round. Taped it and deleted it. Anyways, I picked you to win and go to the Elite 8 but here is a synopsis of Iowa and what to expect. Player rundown:

Cook- 6-9 Jr. Leading scorer and very quick and explosive. Good hook shot but no offense at all beyond 5 feet. Decent rebounder but not great (8 per game). 67% foul shooter and goes to the line a lot.

Garza 6-11 SO. 13 ppg and a good center under the basket and shoots the 3 fairly well. 83 % foul shooter as well. Pretty tough but is a HORRENDOUS rebounder at 4.5 per game. At least 3 times a game the ball is just taken from him. Also, when he is under the basket and he puts it on the deck, well, good for you for forcing another TO.

Weiskamp- 6-6 FR. 11ppg and had a strong year and hit the game winner at Rutgers. One of the only guys athletic enough to finish at the rim. Great rebounder for a 3.

Bohannon- 6-1 JR He needs like 3 more triples to set the all time record at Iowa and has a whole year left. He can go 35 minutes as a pedestrian and then go off for 15 points at will late. Easily best clutch player at Iowa and one of the best clutch players I've ever seen at any level. Indiana's radio guys only Reggie Miller was as clutch as he has been. 90% foul shooter and primary ball handler. He is SLOW on defense but can hit a 25 footer with a guy in his face as well. An absolute 2 trying to play the 1.


Moss- 6-6 JR. Great shooter usually and a guy who can go off and score an insane amount in a short period. Had 19 points in 90 seconds in a game last year nailing 3's and he is an 80 plus % FT shooter. Worst handles of a guard this side of 9th grade when penetrating but can create shot. He is either on fire or total non-factor. You will know 10 minutes into the game which one shows up.


BENCH
Kriener at 6'9 and Baer at 6'7 most relevant and probably the keys to beating Cincinnati if we are going to do it. Kriener is tough and fairly skilled around the basket and physical. Baer will do everything well except hit free throws. Baer could be a leading scorer.


Iowa leads the nation in FT attempts and hits as a team at about 74%. My biggest hope for an Iowa win (remember I picked you to win and actually get to Elite 8) is we draw fouls and get your bigs in trouble so we can feed Cook, Garza, Baer and Kriener. That would open up our 3 and when we establish the paint and get the opponents big man in foul trouble, we get to the bonus and free throw the opponent to death late especially with a 90% FT shooter as our primary ball handler. We will be very much out athlete. That won't be a question. This is how a very (white) generally slow team won 22 overall and 10 conference wins in arguably the toughest conf. in the nation top to bottom.


I pick Cincy 72 Iowa 69. Iowa will hold Cumberland to about his average of 18 up to about 21 but will focus on him and do OK. Like Harper (7 point per game scorer at Rutgers) getting his career high of 21 and then 27 both against Iowa or the 2 ppg guy at Ohio State who had 8 3'w and 29 points against us, history says one of your 6-8 ppg guys will go off and be the difference to a narrow win.

 

[mdchick]

Was curious if you guys were upset with it being in Columbus

 

[hawk_a_holic]

Kind of. Seeing Minnesota get Des Moines as a 10 (3 hours south) and we get a draw that should be a 5, 6 at worst. Iowa gets a 6 loss Cincinnati who just beat Houston by 12 and Minnesota gets a 13 loss Louisville. Getting the Bearcats in Ohio is added insult to injury.

 

[mdchick]

Kind of. Seeing Minnesota get Des Moines as a 10 (3 hours south) and we get a draw that should be a 5, 6 at worst. Iowa gets a 6 loss Cincinnati who just beat Houston by 12 and Minnesota gets a 13 loss Louisville. Getting the Bearcats in Ohio is added insult to injury.

Yeah my thoughts are I don’t mind not getting a 5/6 seed if we got a 7 in Columbus, to say we travel descent would be generous so with it being 90-100 miles away I would hope it’s going to be a home game for us. If you guys do win, Tennessee isn’t as close as the like, but they do travel well, I’d be interested to see how there turnout will be in Columbus.

 

[Bearcats92]

I come in peace. I watched every game the past 33 years except in 2006 when 14 Northwestern State beat 3 Iowa in the 1st round. Taped it and deleted it. Anyways, I picked you to win and go to the Elite 8 but here is a synopsis of Iowa and what to expect. Player rundown:

Cook- 6-9 Jr. Leading scorer and very quick and explosive. Good hook shot but no offense at all beyond 5 feet. Decent rebounder but not great (8 per game). 67% foul shooter and goes to the line a lot.

Garza 6-11 SO. 13 ppg and a good center under the basket and shoots the 3 fairly well. 83 % foul shooter as well. Pretty tough but is a HORRENDOUS rebounder at 4.5 per game. At least 3 times a game the ball is just taken from him. Also, when he is under the basket and he puts it on the deck, well, good for you for forcing another TO.

Weiskamp- 6-6 FR. 11ppg and had a strong year and hit the game winner at Rutgers. One of the only guys athletic enough to finish at the rim. Great rebounder for a 3.

Bohannon- 6-1 JR He needs like 3 more triples to set the all time record at Iowa and has a whole year left. He can go 35 minutes as a pedestrian and then go off for 15 points at will late. Easily best clutch player at Iowa and one of the best clutch players I've ever seen at any level. Indiana's radio guys only Reggie Miller was as clutch as he has been. 90% foul shooter and primary ball handler. He is SLOW on defense but can hit a 25 footer with a guy in his face as well. An absolute 2 trying to play the 1.


Moss- 6-6 JR. Great shooter usually and a guy who can go off and score an insane amount in a short period. Had 19 points in 90 seconds in a game last year nailing 3's and he is an 80 plus % FT shooter. Worst handles of a guard this side of 9th grade when penetrating but can create shot. He is either on fire or total non-factor. You will know 10 minutes into the game which one shows up.


BENCH
Kriener at 6'9 and Baer at 6'7 most relevant and probably the keys to beating Cincinnati if we are going to do it. Kriener is tough and fairly skilled around the basket and physical. Baer will do everything well except hit free throws. Baer could be a leading scorer.


Iowa leads the nation in FT attempts and hits as a team at about 74%. My biggest hope for an Iowa win (remember I picked you to win and actually get to Elite 8) is we draw fouls and get your bigs in trouble so we can feed Cook, Garza, Baer and Kriener. That would open up our 3 and when we establish the paint and get the opponents big man in foul trouble, we get to the bonus and free throw the opponent to death late especially with a 90% FT shooter as our primary ball handler. We will be very much out athlete. That won't be a question. This is how a very (white) generally slow team won 22 overall and 10 conference wins in arguably the toughest conf. in the nation top to bottom.


I pick Cincy 72 Iowa 69. Iowa will hold Cumberland to about his average of 18 up to about 21 but will focus on him and do OK. Like Harper (7 point per game scorer at Rutgers) getting his career high of 21 and then 27 both against Iowa or the 2 ppg guy at Ohio State who had 8 3'w and 29 points against us, history says one of your 6-8 ppg guys will go off and be the difference to a narrow win.

Thanks for the breakdown. I hope you are right about the Cats making to to the elite 8. I got them losing in the sweet 16 to Nova.

 

[skyblade]

Good breakdown, I disagree with your best hope though. Brooks can get into foul trouble, but we have two solid backup centers. Nsoseme is stronger and a better rebounder (but a non-factor on offense) and Diarra is extremely atheletic but raw, but can still play D and block a lot of shots.

Scott our 6'8" pf almost never gets into foul trouble.

I'd say your best hope is for someone to go off from 3. We don't always defend the 3 well and we have a history of guys going off on us from 3 even when we do defend it well. Typically it's a backup who doesn't usually shoot very often, but goes crazy against us.

 

[Queens_NYC]

Welcome. I think I speak for the majority of our fan base when I say we consider you all a very formidable opponent and know that it'll take one of our best efforts of the year to beat you all.

Here is a brief rundown of our season and roster. Feel free to share it on any of your fan boards.

Overall: Because we lost 3 NBA-level talents from last year (2 currently on NBA rosters, 1 in the G-league) expectations weren't incredibly high going into this year. We were predicted to finish 2nd in the AAC (a much more competitive league than many Iowa fans may think) but many of us didn't think we would achieve a high NCAA seed if we even made the tournament.

As for how our season went, our record and even AAC tournament championship indicate that we overachieved a little. However, our season featured several games where we lost to inferior competition (OSU opener, @ECU) and barely beat many conference foes we were ranked much higher than. We struggled to put teams away in the final minutes of games but always made the key plays when it counted to win.

PG - Justin Jenifer (6'0): The quintessential "game manager". Doesn't take too many risks with the ball (which results in a good assist/turnover ratio) but is easily taken out of games (completely) by good competition. On a good night he'll hit a couple of 3s for us as he is our best "catch and shoot" guy.

SG - Jarron Cumberland (6'5): The ultimate "alpha". Wants the ball, gets the ball, makes plays with the ball. While not an athletic marvel, he is the biggest gamer we have had since Sean Kilpatrick, and he has the ability to score in practically every way possible. He also is our best passer and a solid positional rebounder as well. He hit a snag during our tough stretch to end the regular season but bounced back from it in the AAC tournament and will playing with the utmost confidence on Friday.

SF - Keith Williams (SF): He was buried at the end of the bench as a true freshman last year due to struggling to adjust to the game speed of high major D1 basketball. Showed flashes of elite athleticism and a natural ability to get to the rim. His game matured greatly over the offseason and he made the other starting wing spot his own from day 1. His outside jump shot is still quite spotty but on the average night he'll give us a quiet 8-12 points.

PF - Trevon Scott (6'8): Utility big man that does a lot of things average-slightly above average but nothing great. Could give us 18 and 10 on one night and then 2 and 2 the next night - both in 30 minutes of play. He really stepped up his game in the AAC tournament where he averaged 14 and 9 and hit some big 3-point shots.

C - Nysier Brooks (6'11): Like Scott (and to an extent Jenifer and Williams), he can easily disappear from games on the offensive end, but serves as a solid rim protector and rebounder for us more often that not. His offensive game is strictly back-to-the-basket and he sadly was a burden from the FT line in the AAC tournament going 6 for 16 (despite shooting 63% on the year). His physicality down low could give you all some problems though, especially if he avoids foul trouble.

Sixth Man: Cane Broome (6'0): The only other senior on our squad besides Jenifer, Broome is the change-of-pace, shoot-first option at PG who can also play off-the-ball in smaller line-ups. He's had struggles hitting outside shots consistently but his 6 for 11 clip from distance in the AAC tournament is indicative of a positive turnaround that will hopefully continue going into Friday's match-up.

Rest of the bench: We can go 11 deep if needed but everyone else will ideally just play spot minutes for us on Friday. The remaining players are all solid athletes and capable defenders, so no matter who is on the floor we will continue to employ a switch-everything man-defense that has proven sufficient for the better part of the season.

Friday outlook: Like you, I anticipate a tight game that will likely be decided by less than 5 points. I predict a back-and-forth first half, an early 2nd half run by us to form a 8-10 point lead, a late run by you all off the strength of your 3-point shooting, and a very exciting finish.

Cincinnati 69 Iowa 65

 

[Honest Iowa Fan]

I will add that when we are not at home, we don't play defense...like, at all. If you hit a few 3s against us, our defense is cartoonishly bad and can't stop you from going on a scoring run. Ohio State had problems scoring 60, so we shipped them 90. During the Big Ten season, Nebraska scored 80 points exactly twice...both against Iowa. The list goes on and on. You very well may blow us out and say "Where has this been?", but it will be a bit of a mirage.

We play a mixed bag on defense, the only real reason we do that is because we can't do any of them well at all. The most marginally effective is the 1-2-2 three quarter court press which is mostly just used to make you waste 8 seconds getting across the half court line so as to minimize opportunities to break them down.

We do have a pretty good arsenal of shooters but our entire back court is hot and cold, and only Weiskamp is a real threat to consistently take someone on the dribble and finish, but he is a freshman who tends to get under-utilized if we get to obsessed with trying to get the others rolling. Bohannon, Moss and Weiskamp will either have a 20+ point game or only be seen on a milk carton. There are games where none of them really get going at all.

Not already mentioned was Conner McCaffery, who actually played in the 3 game series with the Iowa baseball team this weekend after we were eliminated from the BTT. As you might imagine his play gets highly criticized. He is a very good but raw athlete with a pretty good IQ. He can pick out some great passes and is probably the closest thing we have to a point guard who can distribute the ball. He can take it inside and draw fouls and the occasional and-1, but so far he has absolutely no jump shot, and everyone just sags way off of him, daring him to shoot over the top, limiting his effectiveness since basically the first month of the season.

One thing I would worry about more with Iowa in the tourney is that these games often tend to be a bit more tightly called than regular season games, especially as it gets late on in the Big Ten season. If there's a ton of whistles and Iowa gets to the line a lot, we do a ton of damage from there. Everyone in the starting 5 except Cook is good at the line, and as noted, Bohannon is especially great...but even Garza is a tremendous foul shooter for a big man.

The other concern would be that Bohannon is especially money in pressure situations and this is the biggest stage for him to date. He can come out of nowhere and go nuts when you're playing the same defense that worked on him for 35 minutes. We haven't had a "clutch" performer like him in at least 20 years. If it's close in the last four minutes, the Nebraska game notwithstanding, Iowa will have confidence that they can win. The best way to counter this is that Iowa is not a difficult team to beat by 20.

 

[cincycpaw]

Yeah the interesting thing with both these teams is the fact that they both won a lot of close games. Neither will panic if close.

 

[Madman81]

Good breakdown, I disagree with your best hope though. Brooks can get into foul trouble, but we have two solid backup centers. Nsoseme is stronger and a better rebounder (but a non-factor on offense) and Diarra is extremely atheletic but raw, but can still play D and block a lot of shots.

this is pretty generous, man. nsoseme hasn't been stronger or better on the boards than brooks in months.

i think some of our folks don't give enough credit to the work brooks does inside for positioning that allows others to rebound.

 

[Uclawrugby]

I come in peace. I watched every game the past 33 years except in 2006 when 14 Northwestern State beat 3 Iowa in the 1st round. Taped it and deleted it. Anyways, I picked you to win and go to the Elite 8 but here is a synopsis of Iowa and what to expect. Player rundown:

Cook- 6-9 Jr. Leading scorer and very quick and explosive. Good hook shot but no offense at all beyond 5 feet. Decent rebounder but not great (8 per game). 67% foul shooter and goes to the line a lot.

Garza 6-11 SO. 13 ppg and a good center under the basket and shoots the 3 fairly well. 83 % foul shooter as well. Pretty tough but is a HORRENDOUS rebounder at 4.5 per game. At least 3 times a game the ball is just taken from him. Also, when he is under the basket and he puts it on the deck, well, good for you for forcing another TO.

Weiskamp- 6-6 FR. 11ppg and had a strong year and hit the game winner at Rutgers. One of the only guys athletic enough to finish at the rim. Great rebounder for a 3.

Bohannon- 6-1 JR He needs like 3 more triples to set the all time record at Iowa and has a whole year left. He can go 35 minutes as a pedestrian and then go off for 15 points at will late. Easily best clutch player at Iowa and one of the best clutch players I've ever seen at any level. Indiana's radio guys only Reggie Miller was as clutch as he has been. 90% foul shooter and primary ball handler. He is SLOW on defense but can hit a 25 footer with a guy in his face as well. An absolute 2 trying to play the 1.


Moss- 6-6 JR. Great shooter usually and a guy who can go off and score an insane amount in a short period. Had 19 points in 90 seconds in a game last year nailing 3's and he is an 80 plus % FT shooter. Worst handles of a guard this side of 9th grade when penetrating but can create shot. He is either on fire or total non-factor. You will know 10 minutes into the game which one shows up.


BENCH
Kriener at 6'9 and Baer at 6'7 most relevant and probably the keys to beating Cincinnati if we are going to do it. Kriener is tough and fairly skilled around the basket and physical. Baer will do everything well except hit free throws. Baer could be a leading scorer.


Iowa leads the nation in FT attempts and hits as a team at about 74%. My biggest hope for an Iowa win (remember I picked you to win and actually get to Elite 8) is we draw fouls and get your bigs in trouble so we can feed Cook, Garza, Baer and Kriener. That would open up our 3 and when we establish the paint and get the opponents big man in foul trouble, we get to the bonus and free throw the opponent to death late especially with a 90% FT shooter as our primary ball handler. We will be very much out athlete. That won't be a question. This is how a very (white) generally slow team won 22 overall and 10 conference wins in arguably the toughest conf. in the nation top to bottom.


I pick Cincy 72 Iowa 69. Iowa will hold Cumberland to about his average of 18 up to about 21 but will focus on him and do OK. Like Harper (7 point per game scorer at Rutgers) getting his career high of 21 and then 27 both against Iowa or the 2 ppg guy at Ohio State who had 8 3'w and 29 points against us, history says one of your 6-8 ppg guys will go off and be the difference to a narrow win.

Wow - not sure why you’re picking us. I am scared as hell after reading your summary, especially the 19 points in 90 seconds after our debacle with Nevada last year. High percentag free throw shooting team in March tends to do well. I guess our only hope will be that our trademark D will rattle you enough so that by the time you adjust it will be too late. Oh but maybe that is not the case since I am sure a lot of teams play great D in the Big 10. I am sure we will need to play out if our heads to beat you but what do I know, just a dumb former rugby player that I am.

 

[Honest Iowa Fan]

Wow - not sure why you’re picking us. I am scared as hell after reading your summary, especially the 19 points in 90 seconds after our debacle with Nevada last year. High percentag free throw shooting team in March tends to do well. I guess our only hope will be that our trademark D will rattle you enough so that by the time you adjust it will be too late. Oh but maybe that is not the case since I am sure a lot of teams play great D in the Big 10. I am sure we will need to play out if our heads to beat you but what do I know, just a dumb former rugby player that I am.

On any given night, any of those 7 guys can be frightening. You just never know who it's going to be. Other than generally Cook, they'll follow up a 15 or 20 point performance with a 0 in the next game. Offensively we're pretty good, but they've only caught fire against NCAA tournament quality teams.

One consistency with this team is that it has a defense that never travels (it often doesn't show up at home either). No matter what you do offensively, unless you constantly shoot yourself in the foot with unforced errors or miss a truckload of open 3s, you're gonna score a lot of points.

 

[hawk_a_holic]

Wow - not sure why you’re picking us. I am scared as hell after reading your summary, especially the 19 points in 90 seconds after our debacle with Nevada last year. High percentag free throw shooting team in March tends to do well. I guess our only hope will be that our trademark D will rattle you enough so that by the time you adjust it will be too late. Oh but maybe that is not the case since I am sure a lot of teams play great D in the Big 10. I am sure we will need to play out if our heads to beat you but what do I know, just a dumb former rugby player that I am.

The National guys are not giving us much chance and if you saw 2 of our last 4 games you'd understand why. They were awful against Wisky and UM. Not at all competitive. Nebraska was actually more lucky in they made about 6 contested 3s in a row. For the most part Iowa was very competitive in games we lost. We have the disadvantage of athleticism every night so Cincinnati won't be anything new. Basically it comes down to hitting the triple and getting to the foul line. When we do that we can win. We still did win 22 so this team isn't total trash like Yahoo and some have indicated. A month ago we were top 20 in the nation. Unfortunately thus team has followed the pattern of all Frans teams in they fade late. Still we made it to Round 2 twice out of 3 times previously fading late before so an Iowa win shouldn't be a complete shock either.

 

[cincycpaw]

The National guys are not giving us much chance and if you saw 2 if our last 3 games you'd understand why. They were awful against Wisky and UM. Not at all competitive. Nebraska was actually more lucky in they made about 6 contested 3s in a row. For the most part Iowa was very competitive in games we lost. We have the disadvantage of athleticism every night so Cincinnati won't be anything new. Basically it comes down to hitting the triple and getting to the foul line. When we do that we can win. We still did win 22 so this team isn't total trash like Yahoo and some have indicated. A month ago we were top 20 in the nation. Unfortunately thus team has followed the pattern of all Frans teams in they fade late. Still we made it to Round 2 twice out of 3 times previously fading late before so an Iowa win shouldn't be a complete shock either.

Still, you can shoot the 3. Gives you a chance against anyone. I lived in Iowa city for a decent number of years, friends with many Hawkeye fans. I’ve watched both these teams this year. In my opinion the Bearcats should win the game handily...however, it’s march and the Hawkeyes have played in and won many close games they should have lost. My gut says the Bearcats still win, but I’m cautiously optimistic due to that 3 point shooting. Kids like Bohannon making shots he has no business making at the end of games.

 

[skyblade]

this is pretty generous, man. nsoseme hasn't been stronger or better on the boards than brooks in months.

i think some of our folks don't give enough credit to the work brooks does inside for positioning that allows others to rebound.

I love Brooks, he has been a great big and has star potential next year. Looking at the Iowa forums a lot of them think they will dominate us inside, I think Brooks will more then have that covered.

But, Nsoseme is simply insane on the boards. He currently leads the team in Total Rebound Percentage (TRB) at 17.6% and Defensive Rebound Percentage at 25.0% - that means when he is in the game he grabs 1 of every 4 defensive rebounds (10.4% ORB).

In conference play he has dropped off a bit, but I think that is mostly due to his ankle injury that he seems to be full recovered from now. He still leads the team in conference DRB at 20.2 (4th on team with 12.4% TRB).

Brooks leads the other category Offensive Rebound Percentage at 13.9% and is at 19.2% DRB and 16.5% TRB. In conference Brooks leads in ORB (15.5%) and TRB (16.9%).

Scott is at ORB 9.0%, DRB 18.2%, TRB 13.6%

Iowa's two bigs Cook and Garza are at 14.6% and 11.0% TRB on the season. 8.4% and 9.0% ORB.

In short, Brooks and Nsoseme are both excellent at rebounding the ball (and Scott/Diarra are no slouches either). Both are responsible for more rebounds then they are credited for as the box out and make havoc and create opportunities for other players (or the other loses the ball out of bounds fighting them off). But on the season Nsoseme has been better on the defensive end and in total - though Brooks has dominated the offensive boards (his conference ORB would actually put him at #8 in the country if he had maintained it the entire season). In conference Brooks has been better, but I think that is largely due to injuries to Nsoseme that he seems to be fully recovered from the last couple games. Either way, having one or the other of the in the game means the opponent is going to have to fight for every board.

Edit: For fun, here are Gary Clark's senior season numbers. ORB 12.1, DRB 22.3, TRB 17.3. If Clark was a problem on the offensive glass at 12.1%, what is Brooks at 15.5%?

 

[waterhead]

Sounds like Iowa has a lot of shooting weapons. We don't really have what I would call a lot of weapons but Cumberland has made weapons out of some of our other players by getting them open looks. You can either go man to man and watch him carve you up or you can double him and take your chances with our other players making open shots. I would choose the latter every time if I were playing us. Cumberland WILL make you pay for leaving him open or playing relaxed D on him and our other players are less of a sure thing. Scott, Jenifer, and recently Broome have been hitting some of those open looks lately. If Iowa doesn't have a lock down guy they are going to have to double for sure or Cland will put up 30.

We have been defending the 3 better late in the season and I think this will be a game we have to extend the D which should be to our advantage. What usually kills us are penetrating guards with 3 point shooters waiting on the kick. If we don't have to worry about penetration we can guard the perimeter better. If we can keep it reasonable with the 3 point D...we should be able to win this one unless we go cold...which has been a 50-50 proposition at times. But in our tourney we were able to score a little better and we put together two of our best offensive games since January game against Tulsa.

I hope the trend continues as we often times are not playing our best ball come the Dance. The end of regular season was rough to watch on offense but the tourney gave me a little additional hope as a fan that we can put up a fight.

 

[cincrulz11]

Sounds like Iowa has a lot of shooting weapons. We don't really have what I would call a lot of weapons but Cumberland has made weapons out of some of our other players by getting them open looks.

its one of those games im intrigued to see how it plays out. we can't defend the 3, our defense against 3 point shooting is basically leave them wide open and hope they miss. it works out when 40% 3 point shooters go 5-25 like vs houston on sunday. however when they aren't off it can spell trouble.



on the flip side iowa doesn't appear to play very good defense. they can't stop 2 point shots, but we can't make them. they give up a ton of offensive rebounds and offensive rebounding is how we score.



should be a good one.

 

[waterhead]

We have played 14 games since January against Tulsa. SMU and Houston tourney games were our most efficient since then on offense. Surprisingly the WSU tourney game would rank 5th of 14 if T-rank is correct.

Here is to hoping that is a continuing trend rather than a flash in the pan spurt.

If Keith Williams is reading this...now would be a good time to step it up.

 

[cincycpaw]

We have played 14 games since January against Tulsa. SMU and Houston tourney games were our most efficient since then on offense. Surprisingly the WSU tourney game would rank 5th of 14 if T-rank is correct.

Here is to hoping that is a continuing trend rather than a flash in the pan spurt.

If Keith Williams is reading this...now would be a good time to step it up.

You made a great point earlier about iowa not being dribble penetrators. That would favor the cats ability to defend the 3.

And here, I agree completely as well. Iowa cannot handle Williams athleticism or Cumberland (who can). These 2 could create a lot of easy opportunities or fouls. But keith will have to play much better.

 

[skyblade]

As for why Brooks is so good on offense, but not so much on D my guess is it's a product of our defensive scheme. Bigs are expected to guard any position and often pulled away from the glass. On offense though, Brooks tends to stay near the glass.

As Madman81 said, if Brooks can block out he can hold off just about anyone. He's also very good at getting inside position. But on D if he's pulled away from the basket he as good at crashing the glass. Nsoseme is the opposite - he makes a living crashing the glass. He is okay at getting position and boxing out, but it's not his strength. If he's guarding a man on the 3 point line on D, he is still going to be able to track the ball down and make the rebound.

Also a second side note: Diarra's numbers are very good as well. In conference he is ORB 10.8%, DRB 22.0% and TRB 16.2% and on the season ORB 9.7%, DRB 24.5% and TRB 17.0%