Iowa's Style of Play
Iowa has played really fast this year, more uptempo than us even. And now that they lost a 6'10 big for the year, they are likely to play even smaller and faster.
In points per possession, Iowa is in the 81st percentile nationally in both the halfcourt and in transition.
Defensively, they are in the 25th percentile on transition possessions and 42nd percentile in the halfcourt.
Tech's transition offense is in the 86th percentile; our halfcourt offense is in the 96th percentile. Tech's transition defense is in the 47th percentile; our halfcourt defense is in the 94th percentile.
If we didn't turn it over so much in transition, we'd have one the best transition offenses in the country, statistically at least.
We shall see what Mcaffery tries to do to slow us down, if he does at all. I probably would, given how good we've been in transition, but I'm not sure McAffery wants to bog us down at the expense of slowing his own offense down. IMO, that's the most interesting aspect of the game. If Iowa wants to slow us down, can they? And if Iowa is successful in slowing us down, does our halfcourt offense -- which has been stellar against low midmajors -- show any warts.
Mcaffery commented recently about how well we've rebounded considering we play so many guards. I sensed some apprehension in that comment, and it's well founded. If you can't punish our small lineups on the glass, and you can't consistently create post opportunities, what's the point in playing big against us? Your big-heavy lineup still has to defend us on the other end. And our offense, when Chris Clarke is initiating, looks like those old Fred Hoiberg Iowa State teams with their spacing, shooters and versatile point-forwards like Georges Niang & Royce White.
Iowa Personnel
Luka Garza - Classic burly Big 10 post that is physical and can shoot the three really well. Uses a shitpile of shot fakes. We need to be disciplined and stay on our feet. I think we'll focus more on preventing deep postfeeds to Garza, rather than actually trying to stop him once/if he gets it down there. Too many early postfeeds to Garza could spell foul trouble for Holyfield.
CJ Fredrick / Joe Toussaint - Very talented FR guards. Will be interesting to see how well they can defend Ramsey. I think Toussaint is athletic enough to give him problems.
Bohannon - God love this guy. He's had a great career, but will be a serious liability if he's on the floor. Very limited mobility and I think the plan is for him to only play 10 games and RS.
Wieskamp - My guess is that our game plan defensively will be to win this game on the perimeter. Both by taking Wieskamp out of the game, and by pressuring the ball enough to prevent entry passes to Garza.
Pemsl/Kriener - Two very serviceable bigs that have played a lot of minutes in their career. They often play one of these two with Garza, and will try to use them for hi-lo dumps into the post.
Beard/Adams v. the Big 10
There may be something about this Mark Adams side defense that really gives Big 10 teams problems. Northwestern & Purdue in 2018 were total annihilations. Michigan last year was the same. And no one held Michigan State to fewer points per possession.
Not sure if this trend is actually significant or just noise from a small sample size. But my hunch is that many Big 10 teams, historically at teams, run a rigid offense with a lot of set plays and actions. And that has not really proven to be the best way to attack the traditional Mark Adams side defense, because forcing everyone baseline means we dictate the rotations, not the offense. The best ways to attack us in the half court have been fluid offenses like Prohm at Iowa State last year, or Musselman at Nevada the year before.
That said, maybe we aren't as effective at running the Adams side defense this year. We also play so fast now offensively that it can be difficult for us to set it up (evidenced by how poorly we've defended teams in transition).
I predict that the line closes at Tech -5.5 or -6.
Iowa has played really fast this year, more uptempo than us even. And now that they lost a 6'10 big for the year, they are likely to play even smaller and faster.
In points per possession, Iowa is in the 81st percentile nationally in both the halfcourt and in transition.
Defensively, they are in the 25th percentile on transition possessions and 42nd percentile in the halfcourt.
Tech's transition offense is in the 86th percentile; our halfcourt offense is in the 96th percentile. Tech's transition defense is in the 47th percentile; our halfcourt defense is in the 94th percentile.
If we didn't turn it over so much in transition, we'd have one the best transition offenses in the country, statistically at least.
We shall see what Mcaffery tries to do to slow us down, if he does at all. I probably would, given how good we've been in transition, but I'm not sure McAffery wants to bog us down at the expense of slowing his own offense down. IMO, that's the most interesting aspect of the game. If Iowa wants to slow us down, can they? And if Iowa is successful in slowing us down, does our halfcourt offense -- which has been stellar against low midmajors -- show any warts.
Mcaffery commented recently about how well we've rebounded considering we play so many guards. I sensed some apprehension in that comment, and it's well founded. If you can't punish our small lineups on the glass, and you can't consistently create post opportunities, what's the point in playing big against us? Your big-heavy lineup still has to defend us on the other end. And our offense, when Chris Clarke is initiating, looks like those old Fred Hoiberg Iowa State teams with their spacing, shooters and versatile point-forwards like Georges Niang & Royce White.
Iowa Personnel
Luka Garza - Classic burly Big 10 post that is physical and can shoot the three really well. Uses a shitpile of shot fakes. We need to be disciplined and stay on our feet. I think we'll focus more on preventing deep postfeeds to Garza, rather than actually trying to stop him once/if he gets it down there. Too many early postfeeds to Garza could spell foul trouble for Holyfield.
CJ Fredrick / Joe Toussaint - Very talented FR guards. Will be interesting to see how well they can defend Ramsey. I think Toussaint is athletic enough to give him problems.
Bohannon - God love this guy. He's had a great career, but will be a serious liability if he's on the floor. Very limited mobility and I think the plan is for him to only play 10 games and RS.
Wieskamp - My guess is that our game plan defensively will be to win this game on the perimeter. Both by taking Wieskamp out of the game, and by pressuring the ball enough to prevent entry passes to Garza.
Pemsl/Kriener - Two very serviceable bigs that have played a lot of minutes in their career. They often play one of these two with Garza, and will try to use them for hi-lo dumps into the post.
Beard/Adams v. the Big 10
There may be something about this Mark Adams side defense that really gives Big 10 teams problems. Northwestern & Purdue in 2018 were total annihilations. Michigan last year was the same. And no one held Michigan State to fewer points per possession.
Not sure if this trend is actually significant or just noise from a small sample size. But my hunch is that many Big 10 teams, historically at teams, run a rigid offense with a lot of set plays and actions. And that has not really proven to be the best way to attack the traditional Mark Adams side defense, because forcing everyone baseline means we dictate the rotations, not the offense. The best ways to attack us in the half court have been fluid offenses like Prohm at Iowa State last year, or Musselman at Nevada the year before.
That said, maybe we aren't as effective at running the Adams side defense this year. We also play so fast now offensively that it can be difficult for us to set it up (evidenced by how poorly we've defended teams in transition).
I predict that the line closes at Tech -5.5 or -6.
