If our defense can be in the 5,6,7 range in the conference, with our offense being in the top 4, we'll be an above average team with a shot to make the tournament.
NOTEBOOK: Cyclones looking to hop on “defensive bus” as practice gets underway
- Thread starter JStanz51
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There is certainly no guarantee of this season's offense being in the top 4 if a point guard (or point forward) doesn't emerge to efficiently facilitate half court offense like NWB did in the 2018-19 season. There is no one on the roster with a proven history of doing so and I have my doubts that someone is capable of doing so on a consistent basis.
Floyd didn't have to do anything with offense when he arrived at ISU with senior starters of Hoiberg, Meyer and Michalik. They were already grown men who knew what they were doing.
And I don't think you're wrong about that at all. There needs to be consistent PG play and we're just going to have to see who steps up to that challenge.
That is wrong as hell. JO;s 2-1-2 standard high post half court offense was completely different from TF's half court motion offense and sets. TF much better utilized Meyer's low post skills than JO did and he enabled Fred to get more and better looks at the basket off of screens and motion.
And the offense the following year with Pratt and Willoughby was nothing to write home about. It was pretty efficient, but I'd classify it as "good enough" to win games when we had the best wing defender ISU has had in my lifetime in Bankhead, and the best rim protector in Cato. Add that Holloway and Willoughby were pretty good defenders as well.
But then there was the Willougby, Cato, Pratt group, who had a pretty decent offense, won the Big 8, and was a UCLA push off away from the Elite 8.
7 range is more likely. If you look at last year, the top 7 defenses in the Big 12 according to KenPom by rank
#2 KU
#3 WVU
#4 Baylor
#9 Texas Tech
#24 Texas
#29 OU
#40 KSU
#46 OSU
#66 TCU
# 147 ISU
Those top 5 are all going to have really good defenses again. KSU usually puts a good defense together. I think the best defense Prohm ever had ended up just under 50. I think that is you what you want to shoot for if you are ISU a top 50 defense because when Prohm's offense is humming it is in the top ten. And that will be good enough to get you into the tournament.
It would be interesting to see the offensive efficiency of the good Floyd teams. I would imagine they were pretty decent. Yeah their defense was great which helped them win but I remember the offense being methodical but good.
100% agree. It'd honestly be impossible for our defense to be better than any of those top 5 teams. The only team within that 5 I could see not being there would be Texas, but they'd have to underperform and we'd have to be stellar. If we were 6-7, that'd be solid considering how good the teams above us are.
I don't think that's really true. Before Meyer got hit by the train in Orr's last year he was dominating - averaging over 20 ppg. It was much more a case of a big that needed a couple years to develop his game and adjust from being guarded by 6-2 guys in high school.
Meyer was productive before the train accident in JO's offense, but that offense was significantly different from TF's the following season and it ended helping Meyer become a first round NBA Draft pick.
Losing Halliburton last year put Steve into a tough spot as far as figuring out who was going to run the point. His choices were a ball dominant sophomore, a true freshman, and a ball dominant senior. That was essentially it. With the additions to this team in the transfers, as well as the experience developed from guys like Bolton and Jackson, I don't see that position being a problem for next year.
I believe their defense is usually decent but overall, like their football program, they continue not to live up to their preseason expectations year after year.That's pretty easy to do for them most yrs.
