*** Official Northwestern vs #16 IOWA STATE Game(Day) Thread ***

[Pope]

As always happens whenever a new player comes on the scene, over time opponents will try to exploit whatever the player's perceived weaknesses might be.

Before long, I think we may see opponents backing off Toure and Nelson to prevent them from getting into the paint and daring them to shoot from the perimeter. It will be interesting to see how they respond.

 

[CycloneVet]

I didn’t watch the game, does Buchanan and Mulder hustle and play hard? Need them to at least do that and rebound like their lives depend on it.

 

[MeowingCows]

I didn’t watch the game, does Buchanan and Mulder hustle and play hard? Need them to at least do that and rebound like their lives depend on it.

Buchanan is slow and bulky, but is often positioned well on the floor and can block out pretty well I've noticed. He's good for a few boards a game.

Mulder hustles and plays super hard, but also takes a ton of risks and aggressive plays that sometimes bite him and/or gathers fouls quickly. If they want him to play more minutes, he's gotta slow down a bit and stay on the court. Just yesterday he picked up 4 fouls in 9 minutes played.

 

[isucyfan]

I couldn't watch live, but watched it late last night. For those wondering, Derrin Hansen had a solid debut with 23 "No Doubt About Its".

 

[Goclones1727]

As always happens whenever a new player comes on the scene, over time opponents will try to exploit whatever the player's perceived weaknesses might be.

Before long, I think we may see opponents backing off Toure and Nelson to prevent them from getting into the paint and daring them to shoot from the perimeter. It will be interesting to see how they respond.

The thing about Dom though which I like - and I think he hit one or two yesterday - is that he has a nice mid range game. Can’t slack too far off or you’re gunna let him dribble and shoot right into one.

 

[MeowingCows]

The thing about Dom though which I like - and I think he hit one or two yesterday - is that he has a nice mid range game. Can’t slack too far off or you’re gunna let him dribble and shoot right into one.

He has a little bit of that Brockington jab-step-and-pull thing inside the arc. It hasn't come out very often so far, but he's hit it pretty well when it has.

 

[CychiatricWard]

Biggest thing to remember is it takes live game reps for guys to gel together, and to understand what TJ is trying to run, especially bigs with all that’s asked of them. Taking too much from these two exhibition games doesn’t do a whole lot of good. It took big Rob awhile to figure it out and everybody here would take him back in a heartbeat. This team, with Tamin coming back too, will look a whole lot different in a couple weeks/month/etc.

 

[cayin]

Very excited about our guards. Lipsey, Nelson, and Toure each bring a lot of energy and skills. They will cause havoc on defense and each has the ability to get to the rim. Distance shooting may be challenge for this group as a whole, Lipsey should be decent. It would be nice if Batemon can get comfortable and get going. He seems to be struggling to adjust to this level.

 

[Pope]

Buchanan is slow and bulky, but is often positioned well on the floor and can block out pretty well I've noticed. He's good for a few boards a game.

Mulder hustles and plays super hard, but also takes a ton of risks and aggressive plays that sometimes bite him and/or gathers fouls quickly. If they want him to play more minutes, he's gotta slow down a bit and stay on the court. Just yesterday he picked up 4 fouls in 9 minutes played.

We only have a sample of one, so I think it's a little early for folks to declare Mulder a fouling machine.

I love Mulder's energy and how he dunks with authority (pretty high percentage shot). I thought there were a few times when Buchanan was contested at the rim and he missed. I wish he would have tried flush the ball with authority. At least he would have drawn a foul.

 

[madguy30]

Biggest thing to remember is it takes live game reps for guys to gel together, and to understand what TJ is trying to run, especially bigs with all that’s asked of them. Taking too much from these two exhibition games doesn’t do a whole lot of good. It took big Rob awhile to figure it out and everybody here would take him back in a heartbeat. This team, with Tamin coming back too, will look a whole lot different in a couple weeks/month/etc.

And THEN it's time to overreact and assume things will stay the same one way or another even though there's still 4 months left of a season in a sport that things can change drastically from one game or week to another depending on if the stupid ball goes into the stupid hoop.

 

[longdriveforsom]

Pros-
- I was skeptical of nelson when we signed him but he looks ready for high major basketball
- Having a real backup PG is huge and something Lipsey has never had. Hopefully that means we have a higher chance of Lipsey being healthy all season
- Heise looks like he did in the 2nd half of last season

Cons-
- Mason is the one piece we are missing on offense and we need someone to step into that off the bench 3 and D guy
- The bigs are still figuring out their role on defense but I'm confident they will get it after a couple of cupcakes
- Jefferson is absolutely the best player but in the exhibition games has been trying to do too much by himself at times.

I think we struggle a bit in non-con but get it figured out by January

 

[riceville98]

I'm not coach but I'd like to see more bringing the ball up / initiating the offense from the guards and less from the 4 and 5 positions.

That will come when Lipsay gets back. Without him starting the offense, we don't really know what it can look like or how smooth it can be

 

[riceville98]

This team just doesn’t seem to have the ability to play with sustained effort like past TJ teams.

too early to say that.

 

[bawbie]

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

Last year's team was one of the best FT shooting teams in school history, for whatever that's worth.

 

[riceville98]

Wish Bateman would get more involved. He missed one shot and now seems to pass up everything. I think he has a real chance at bringing some offense.

We will need to see much more from him if we want ro go places,

 

[Letterkenny]

Last year's team was one of the best FT shooting teams in school history, for whatever that's worth.

Having bigs that can make free throws makes all the difference.

 

[MeowingCows]

We only have a sample of one, so I think it's a little early for folks to declare Mulder a fouling machine.

I love Mulder's energy and how he dunks with authority (pretty high percentage shot). I thought there were a few times when Buchanan was contested at the rim and he missed. I wish he would have tried flush the ball with authority. At least he would have drawn a foul.

It's too early yet, but the general tendency of a big guy that plays like that tends to be a foul machine. I also thought there was just too many whistles yesterday overall, so we'll see how it goes later on. Hopefully I'm wrong. He brought an element to the game that the other bigs did not have.

Completely agree on the dunks, same with Toure's early on too. Buchanan has definitely missed some bunnies. There was a few times in the previous game where these guys would whiff scoring on run-outs by going for somewhat contested layups. You don't whiff many opportunities by going up for the dunk, and if you do, it was most likely due to whistled contact. If you have a lane to the rim, take it into the rim.

 

[riceville98]

I'll be interested to see the box score. My perception is NW is playing their starters a lot.

Was at the game and you have made a correct assumption.

 

[rosshm16]

On the podcast Blum said Doug Sermons was officiating that game, which explains a lot of the calls.

 

[MJ271]

I didn't watch the Creighton game, so I don't have a point of comparison. But still, a few thoughts:

I didn't think Buchanan was as disappointing as a lot of people here seemed to think. Maybe that's because I looked at yesterday's game differently, or maybe it's because I had lower expectations for him. On the defensive side, he wasn't great, but the effort was there, and we know that it takes a while for the bigs to learn Iowa State's defense. On offense, he didn't have much of an impact, but he did have 3 assists, which is nice to see, and he wasn't freaking out with the ball in his hands. Hopefully he can expand his impact as a roller, but that might also come when Tamin is back as a P&R ball handler.

Mulder's impact during the season should be pretty similar to yesterday--a high-effort player who knows how to get easy baskets on offense. Pleta was a bit more disappointing to me, because I just didn't see anything especially interesting. But he should have more room to grow than the other big men, since he's in a new country playing a new style in a more physical environment.

I liked the guard play, though I was disappointed to not see more from Batemon and that Milan couldn't assert himself more. Toure and Nelson were positives, and I like the aggressiveness they have on defense. As another poster said, it will be interesting to see if teams give them the freshman-year Lipsey treatment at the three-point line. At the very least, they both seem more willing to take threes than Lipsey was that year. Hopefully they can make them at a 30% or higher clip.

It looks like Otz played two big men less than I expected and less than some of his preseason comments might have indicated. Jefferson, Buchanan, Mulder, and Pleta combined for 64 minutes, leaving 16 minutes that were played with Momcilovic, Heise, or someone else at the 4. I can't say that surprises me a ton--Otz has tended to lean on smaller lineups when the offense isn't flowing, and I think that may be the case somewhat often this year. It could be important this season to keep at least two guys on the court who are willing to shoot from the perimeter at a higher volume (Milan, Heise, and hopefully Batemon) to keep the defense spread out, and it will be hard to do that with two big men on the court all the time, especially if Toure and Nelson are also commanding notable playing time.


Overall: A lot of positives from yesterday, and definitely some things to grow on. It will be interesting to see what the team looks like with Tamin back (hopefully he comes back and stays back). And I'll echo the reminder that other posters have made that the team will change a lot over the course of the year, especially with three freshmen looking like they could be significant pieces of the rotation.