Jeff Goodman has ISU #11

Iowa has 4 quad 1 wins and they aren’t even getting votes. How bad is that EIU loss going to **** them all year?
 
A couple of those won't be Q1 wins when she's all said and done though.
@ Seton Hall - 74
vs Iowa State - 15
vs Indiana - 25
@ Rutgers - 20
———————————-
vs Clemson (neutral court) - 54

Bolded teams are right on edge of flipping. Seton Hall plays a few poor teams coming up so I expect them to stay under 75 until late January. Indiana has a pretty tough stretch of games coming up. Gonna guess they drop out of 30 here soon. Clemson will be around 50 for a while and will teeter as a Q1/Q2 the rest of the season I’m guessing.
 
  • Informative
Reactions: VeloClone
We all know it's coming. 2nd time through the schedule, the coaches in this conference are good enough to figure things out. Even with the good start, I think most of us would say it's a great season if we make the tournament. And I would think that KSU fans would be in the same boat.
That was my thought but at this pt last year we were on the other side of early conference games.

We squeezed out enough but it wasn't pretty.my hopes/expectations of this squad have been all over the map this season.
 
I don't think Jones and Kunc are appreciably better, they are just playing more minutes (in Jones' case taking more shots). Jones has a really nice quick hook when he is decisive and quick about his moves. Last year he was spotty with it but this year he is more consistent. He also has the benefit of Lipsey feeding him (and everyone else) the ball which has creating more easy baskets (for everyone). Kunc is almost exactly the same as he was, just playing 6 more minutes a game.

I agree with almost everything else. I would maybe go as far to say Lipsey is >> Hunter and Grill is >> than himself last year. Lipsey feels like the driver while Grill feels like the engine that makes us go. The big shots, the consistent all out effort, the massive improvement on defense...it's utterly infectious. I also agree, at least in terms of capabilities on Conditt, a guy who likely would have been a REALLY solid player had he played for a guy like TJ for 4 years. Prohm completely ruined him (and his trajectory) as a player.
All of our returners have improved offensively and it isn't just because of minutes.

Per 40 and FG% last year and this year...
GK... 12.4 .363 14.5 .397
CG... 10.7 .391 13.1 .433
AK... 10.6 .419 11.9 .484
RJ... 9.6 .500 15.9 .523
 
  • Like
Reactions: wgleason
This team has more pieces and are more comfortable in this system than last year. We're pretty dang good.
Just gotta stay the course. Tomorrow night’s game is such a great opportunity to add another one in the win column.

Then you’re playing with house money going into Phog Allen and you just know our guys are salivating after the bull **** that happened last year.
 
Just gotta stay the course. Tomorrow night’s game is such a great opportunity to add another one in the win column.

Then you’re playing with house money going into Phog Allen and you just know our guys are salivating after the bull **** that happened last year.
We have better than a puncher's chance this year. Just need too keep Caleb playing at this level. Hell if he maintains dude could win POY.
 
We have better than a puncher's chance this year. Just need too keep Caleb playing at this level. Hell if he maintains dude could win POY.
Nah he won’t win POY that’s essentially being reserved for Jalen Wilson or Mike Miles Jr. Caleb isn’t a consistent enough scorer but I could see him making 3rd team all conference
 
  • Like
Reactions: VeloClone
Yeah, Grill is much better this year. He's more consistent with his shot, not out of position on defense as much, better rebounding. I actually think that Gabe is inching forward into being semi-consistent with his shot. Not great by any means, but better.
An interesting observation about Grill - his numbers are very VERY similar to his UNLV year - both in percentages and totals - he's playing exactly the same amount (33.2mpg). The only significant difference is he's shooting 20% better from the FT line and getting there more. He's also slightly better from 3 (34% vs 38%) - but that's really just a couple makes. Volume is the same.

1673306751842.png
 
Iowa is such a weird team. They are usually somewhat predictable, but that hasn't really been true this year. Best player goes down, they beat us soundly. Best player comes back and they get destroyed by Nebraska. Somewhere in between they play a ranked Wisconsin team down to the wire, but then lose to a Kenpom 300+ opponent at home. A couple weeks later they lose a starter and rattle off back to back Big 10 wins against a ranked team at home and a team receiving votes on the road. Truly bizarre team this year, and almost like you get a different team every game. Whatever your gut is telling you, bet against it with them.
If you look at the EIU box scores a couple of things jump out at you, in the games they win, one of two things happen, they make 10/12 3 points or they get to the foul line around 20 times. When one of the two happens they can win the game, when both happen like they did when they played ISU, they look like a top 10 team.

Games they lose, they shoot poorly from deep 7 or less made 3 pointers and do not get to the line to make up the difference.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Cyinthenorth
All of our returners have improved offensively and it isn't just because of minutes.

Per 40 and FG% last year and this year...
GK... 12.4 .363 14.5 .397
CG... 10.7 .391 13.1 .433
AK... 10.6 .419 11.9 .484
RJ... 9.6 .500 15.9 .523

That doesn't tell the whole story. You can't score if you can't shoot and Jones is shooting a lot more this year then he did last year. I'd also say he's getting, on average, at least one more easy look a game due to the play/passing of Lipsey.

It's also hard to draw definitive conclusions on shooting as last years' numbers include the entirety of conference play whereas this year's only includes 3 games (for Kunc it's zero). I'd expect our numbers to go down as we won't have the patsies to boost those stats.
 
Just gotta stay the course. Tomorrow night’s game is such a great opportunity to add another one in the win column.

Then you’re playing with house money going into Phog Allen and you just know our guys are salivating after the bull **** that happened last year.

On the other hand Bill Self would love for ISU to come in to the Phog 4-0 to get his guys going.

Hopefully ISU pulls it off tomorrow.