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Two missing ingredients on this team right now.

Definitely agree we are good/great, were a team that uses finesse rather than brute force because we arent the most physically gifted team, we just know how to play the game well. So that means teams can out finesse us from time to time and further a long a team will beat us on talent alone in conference. If you think about the Ejim and Kane team beyond Niang (sometimes) we had the advantage physically. Mckay is the only one I can think has the talent edge every game right now and Burton has the chance to be that kind of talent.
 
Freebird said:
I'm not sure if this has been hit on or not. I spared myself the agony of reliving the loss by reading all the posts about it. ISU is obviously a very good/great team. But I think there are two very glaring issues with this team.

1. No spark plug. We don't have that guy that can come off the bench at around the 15 or 10 minute mark and give this team a recharge. It was kind of Thomas and now he is forced into the starting role. This team needs someone to give it a kick in the pants so it doesn't get down early. Maybe Burton or Cooke can become that player but right now it isn't there. Someone used the word "cavalier" to describe this team's attitude. And it does seem to be a team that needs a big name on the opponents' jersey to get their A-game going. Think about most of last year's losses. They were mostly decent, not great teams, that ISU simply let outplay them. A spark plug guy could keep this team from falling into these crater-sized deficits in the first half.

2. No lock down defender. We can't Babb anyone. Even with a Babb on the bench. In the case of both Iowa and UNI there was no one that could shut down the hot hand. We know this team is never going to give a Floyd-like defensive effort but having one guy on the team that can shut down a shooter would do wonders.

The good news is that this could change but it is going to take someone outside of the top four guys on the team to do it.

Keep calm and Cyclone on my friends.
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I agree with these two items. Need a couple of lock down defenders to hold off other teams top players. Also to add to this list is that I feel like we aren't creating mismatches anymore or drawing up creative plays. Just kinda driving to the hoop and seeing what sticks.

That being said we need to work out our perimeter defense or we will be in for a long season. I feel like I could shoot 70% from beyond the arc against this cyclone perimeter defense and I can't even make threes ever.
 
Jiub said:
I agree with these two items. Need a couple of lock down defenders to hold off other teams top players. Also to add to this list is that I feel like we aren't creating mismatches anymore or drawing up creative plays. Just kinda driving to the hoop and seeing what sticks.

That being said we need to work out our perimeter defense or we will be in for a long season. I feel like I could shoot 70% from beyond the arc against this cyclone perimeter defense and I can't even make threes ever.
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The UNI game was not a typical game, so I won't fault Niang for taking it 1-on-1 most possessions. But we do have some black holes on offense. I miss the way the Lucious/Clyburn/Babb/McGee team moved the ball on the perimeter. Our current team has more talent, but that team played beautiful basketball on the offensive end. Moving the ball side to side doesn't appear to be a focus, and that's a shame because Morris and Niang are elite passers.
 
rholtgraves said:
I also think there is a leadership void. Or maybe the better word is toughness. They have seemed to lack it since both Ejim and Kane left.
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Along with leadership I think there are no defined roles on this team. Right now everyone thinks they can score and they press too hard such as taking it to the rim or shooting a contested three. What stood out to me against UNI was we were having success in the paint to McKay and Niang and yet we still had Thomas taking bad shots, Nader trying to go one on one, etc... This is where we need to have that leader on the floor that is telling everyone what is happening and where the ball is going. The offense should not be going through Nader or Thomas at this point and someone needs to be candid with them on their role. When Monte comes down the floor and passes to Nader, Nader is thinking score and gets himself in bad positions. Kane was a master of doing this and at times pretty animated when teammates were not in a position or playing outside their role.
 
00clone said:
Are we still freaking out about this? Need to plan my day accordingly.
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How is wanting to rationally discuss what this team needs moving forward "freaking out"?

I agree that we are missing that lock down defender that we can put on their best player/hot hand. It took a half of Morris getting abused by Washpun to make that change.
 
jahfg said:
The UNI game was not a typical game, so I won't fault Niang for taking it 1-on-1 most possessions. But we do have some black holes on offense. I miss the way the Lucious/Clyburn/Babb/McGee team moved the ball on the perimeter. Our current team has more talent, but that team played beautiful basketball on the offensive end. Moving the ball side to side doesn't appear to be a focus, and that's a shame because Morris and Niang are elite passers.
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that's some serious selective memory there. that team had turnover machines like lucious/clyburn/ejim. we went 11-7 in the big 12, looked horrendous over thanksgiving, and lost to iowa a few weeks later.
 
36% of our FGA have been 3's. If we're going to continue to shoot that many 3's (and we might not with Naz gone), we need to make more of them. I still miss McGee.
 
brokenloginagain said:
that's some serious selective memory there. that team had turnover machines like lucious/clyburn/ejim. we went 11-7 in the big 12, looked horrendous over thanksgiving, and lost to iowa a few weeks later.
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Wasn't necessarily comparing the two at similar points in the season. It's not the fairest comparison, but we have higher expectations for this team, and many of them have been playing together for at least a couple of years, whereas that team was extremely green at the start of the year. By the conference season, they were one of the best outside shooting teams int he country, in large part, because they moved the ball. I don't think it's too much to ask Morris, Thomas, Niang, Nader and McKay to share the ball. Drive, kick, reverse. It's fundamental basketball that is played at every level.
 
I have to think that the biggest problem against UNI was Monte's inability to stay in front of Washpun, which led to Washpun dominating the game. When he didn't score he kicked it out for open or relatively open 3's, or dished underneath. Based on what CSP said post game, Monte is not 100% and he has to be against a good point guard like Washpun. Monte wasn't himself on offense or defense, otherwise I think we win by double digits.
 
txcyman said:
Along with leadership I think there are no defined roles on this team. Right now everyone thinks they can score and they press too hard such as taking it to the rim or shooting a contested three. What stood out to me against UNI was we were having success in the paint to McKay and Niang and yet we still had Thomas taking bad shots, Nader trying to go one on one, etc... This is where we need to have that leader on the floor that is telling everyone what is happening and where the ball is going. The offense should not be going through Nader or Thomas at this point and someone needs to be candid with them on their role. When Monte comes down the floor and passes to Nader, Nader is thinking score and gets himself in bad positions. Kane was a master of doing this and at times pretty animated when teammates were not in a position or playing outside their role.
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Matt only took five shots (one of which he made). I don't remember a shot that I would consider bad.
 
Cyclonepride said:
Matt only took five shots (one of which he made). I don't remember a shot that I would consider bad.
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The problem Matt had was not bad shots, it was the lack of open chances. This led to him trying to force contribute at the end that resulted in some poor turnovers.

When teams are pushing up on our shooters with instructions not to leave them we need some set plays/structured movement to help free them up. The majority of our offense is just space out and play, not structured. Matt, Hallice, and others will struggle to get looks at times if we are not working to help create them. I wish we would run a bit more "sets" on offense. We have definitely seen how effective are structured inbounds plays can be.
 
cyclone101 said:
We are stupid talented. But the grit that Ejim and Kane had is something I would love to have. We'll be fine. Just have to find a rhythm by March.
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This is immediately what I thought of when I read the title. We're two years removed from that age but damn do I miss those two.
 
IASTATE4LIFE said:
Agree 100%. No Lock down defenders, and really no defenders at all. College players are typically going to make most of their wide open threes. It isn't lucky that they all shoot good against us. It is because they are wide open. Then they get confident and can also hit ones that we actually close out on. Buddy H. is going to score 50 on us if this keeps up.
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#33 in adjusted Defense
 
I didn't really get that far in this thread...I'll spitball and say the top buzzwords are "toughness", "effort", "hustle", "lock down defender", and "true center".
 
My wife God bless her knows nothing about basketball but she's watched a lot this year. Even she says "these guys just will not do any more than necessary to win a basketball game will they"
For some reason this team when they get a bad team instead of saying oh boy it's going to be a dunk fest we are going to have some fun tonight excetera it's almost like you have to really motivate these guys to play hard. I don't understand it.
I feel like most of the time they play fairly dis interested but then turn it on for 5 or 10 good minutes to put a team away. But when they don't its a dog fight and its that way every team no matter how good or bad they are.
 
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