Its obviously early but I haven't been impressed with Buchanan on either end yet
*** Official Northwestern vs #16 IOWA STATE Game(Day) Thread ***
- Thread starter CycloneRulzzz
- Start date
Heise: Great
JJ: good to great, but turnovers. Filled the stat page, as always
Milan: bad-ish.
Buchanan: bad, maybe? Small impact but most minutes at the position
Toure: good. Rebounds and steals stand out, lots of extra possessions
Batemon: bad/non-impactful
Mulder: pretty alright, except for fouls. Can't stay on the court long this way
Nelson: Great
Pleta: bad/no impact
Team: significantly better shooting today after they started lighting up in the second half. Much better assists. Little high on turnovers but also generated a lot of them on defense. Don't like how many fouls we picked up.
I'm sure by now, with those teams listed, you've learned how to handle heartache and disappointment. It seems to find them.
Nelson going 6-6 from the line is a good sign. He’s going to shoot a lot of free throws. Good way to end scoring droughts when shots aren’t falling.
Feels like in crunch time, we might see Tamin, Toure and Nelson on the floor together.
I'm curious to see what Toure can create offensively when he's not being asked to run the ball
We really need either Moulder or Buchanon to become serviceable. Probably need both.
I know it's NW and not Creighton but I thought the defense was much improved today. NW is no slouch. Nelson and Toure are legit. Hopefully Buchanan finds his footing a little bit. Definitely a different front court feel this year. A lot less beef.
Jefferson was pretty good at protecting the rim today he looks more explosive this year so far.
Hopefully Batemon starts coming along and doesn't get buried on the bench.
Overall improvement from first game. I don't want Tamin coming off an injury but it was nice for some of the other guys to get a lot of run without him. I'm not worried about him messing up any flow when he comes back because he is such a high IQ player and isn't a volume shooter or anything.
Jefferson was pretty good at protecting the rim today he looks more explosive this year so far.
Hopefully Batemon starts coming along and doesn't get buried on the bench.
Overall improvement from first game. I don't want Tamin coming off an injury but it was nice for some of the other guys to get a lot of run without him. I'm not worried about him messing up any flow when he comes back because he is such a high IQ player and isn't a volume shooter or anything.
I enjoyed the win @ Hilton today to complete the Football-MBB double header this weekend. I ate my Clone Cone in the balcony and moved down to the parquet for the game since it was not filling up like it normally does. So, I feel a little better.
Let's Go State!
Let's Go State!
Milan is one of those guys who every now and then goes off offensively and lives up to the hype. However, he's been pretty inconsistent throughout his career.
I realize Milan helps our offense in ways that aren't easy to see because he stretches the defense. However, it seems like he needs to become a more consistent threat to justify his 30+ minutes per game, especially when his defense seems pretty average.
I realize Milan helps our offense in ways that aren't easy to see because he stretches the defense. However, it seems like he needs to become a more consistent threat to justify his 30+ minutes per game, especially when his defense seems pretty average.
Impressed by Nelson and Toure today. I think the whole team progressed. All the new guys will get more comfortable as we play more games. Not often do you start the season teams like with Creighton and Northwestern. When we get Tamin back our defense will be instantly better. On ball pressure will be elite.
It's fun to get to see the new faces and get a feel for how they play. I think Buchanan and Mulder are going to play a poor man's Hason Ward role. Long, bouncy guys that we won't run plays for but will get theirs on put backs.
Nelson and Toure got important buckets and free throw trips bc they played hard and were able to get in the lane and make plays. We will miss Gilbert and Jones and even Jackson's ability to score in the paint so those guys manufacturing points off of turnovers and free throws could be key to keep us from getting in ruts when we can't hit 3's. The 2nd unit with Toure at the PG could create a lot of chaos. Nelson seemed to be everywhere.
Nelson and Toure got important buckets and free throw trips bc they played hard and were able to get in the lane and make plays. We will miss Gilbert and Jones and even Jackson's ability to score in the paint so those guys manufacturing points off of turnovers and free throws could be key to keep us from getting in ruts when we can't hit 3's. The 2nd unit with Toure at the PG could create a lot of chaos. Nelson seemed to be everywhere.
Biggest thing I take out of all those stats is 81% free throw percentage. Under TJ we have ALWAYS been awful at shooting FTs. If that can stay consistent it’s going win us some close games
The team was somewhere around 60% FTs against Creighton. 81% today was a welcome sight to see and hopefully stays around.
I didn't see the game, but if not not mistaken the stats I saw showed he went 6/6 at the foul line. That's encouraging if true.
Nelson even made a three I think. I'm very bullish on him especially if he ends up with more eligibility (and we hopefully hold onto him!).
On free throws: I remember TJ saying in the pre-season I think two years that they hadn't been a great free throw-shooting team in his tenure and they wanted that to be a strength going forward (or something similar), and they did indeed improve, 68.3% and 67.0% in his first two years to 70.2% and 75.3% the past two years. Even 75.3% may not sound great but the NCAA average is around 70%, it was one of the better seasons we've shot as a team in the last 30 years. In the NBA it's around 75%.
On free throws: I remember TJ saying in the pre-season I think two years that they hadn't been a great free throw-shooting team in his tenure and they wanted that to be a strength going forward (or something similar), and they did indeed improve, 68.3% and 67.0% in his first two years to 70.2% and 75.3% the past two years. Even 75.3% may not sound great but the NCAA average is around 70%, it was one of the better seasons we've shot as a team in the last 30 years. In the NBA it's around 75%.
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I'm trying not to overreact since we just scored 80 points without Lipsey against a major conference opponent who was pretty good defensively last year (and who played their starters a lot in this game), but the bigs haven't shown me much that's encouraging yet on either end of the floor. Buchanan and Pleta were both pretty invisible yesterday. Mulder was alright in his nine minutes of play but he's obviously not going to be a big-minutes / multi-dimensional guy. He also had four fouls in those nine minutes although this was a really poorly officiated game.
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It must be hyperbole season because this isn't true.
They've had several decent shooters in the mid-70% or even 80% range over the years weighed down by some guys like Rob Jones and Hasan Ward that were not good shooters in general.
The first two teams were pretty bad across the board but they were also not good shooting teams.
Last year's team was ranked 63rd in FT% which is higher than I would have even figured.
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Cyclonepride
Thought Police
I think Mulder will be a fun and important player. Gives the other bigs a breather while just making things happen. Not too worried about fouls in that scenario as long as Pleta proves worthy of the main minutes behind Buchanan, as he might be a 10 minute guy.
