Let's Talk Iowa State...

[nomar]

I feel like every season we have this same conversation with fans of our Tourny opponents who accuse us of underestimating their players, etc. I remember specifically chatting with some very confident SDSU fans.

We shall see.

1999
2004
2011

 

[MileHighFish]

From the explanation and the "math" here by the Iowa State fans it appears that the loss of Niang will have no affect. Others will just fill his number. I think that's great so if Uconn should win there should be no complaints about "if they only had Niang."

Just to clarify, it is one Iowa State fan saying that.

 

[Hume]

Yes but math doesn't lie, so it must be true.

 

[Onions]

... Niang is more consistent. Niang is very unique and causes more mismatch issues against bigger teams. Niang is a calming force and a leader. If Niang has a bad night then one of those three can help out. It means we have more options. Now if any of those three has an off night then our options are much more limited and Kane and Ejim have to carry more of the load.

That about covers it.

 

[ophion1031]

Anyone else think this has been a very long week? Still got close to 48 hours until tipoff. I'm really looking forward to this game.

 

[MileHighFish]

Anyone else think this has been a very long week? Still got close to 48 hours until tipoff. I'm really looking forward to this game.

I feel like every season we have this same conversation with fans of our Tourny opponents who accuse us of underestimating their players, etc. I remember specifically chatting with some very confident SDSU fans.

We shall see.

1999
2004
2011

.... Flip this and the same can be said for UConn fans posting on Iowa State message boards I'm sure fwiw.

 

[BlueMAB]

.... Flip this and the same can be said for UConn fans posting on Iowa State message boards I'm sure fwiw.

I'm sure you're right.

Minus the 3 national championships mentioned and considering we make the tournament twice as often as Iowa State (31-15).

 

[caw]

Or he will dump to Hogue.

Is Daniels capable of guarding the 3on the perimeter?

Yes. He usually fairs better against threes or stretch fours than big (250+ fours). That doesn't necessarily mean he can defend Hogue or Ejim or Lebron, but yes he can guard most threes. In some games recently when Giffey/Kromah are screened by Daniels man they simply switch the screen. Daniels does play a bit further off the ball as his feet aren't as quick as Kromah and he has a longer reach than either Kromah or Giffey. He can usually still challenge the shot but gives more room overall.

Giffey has some trouble on quick guards who can attack from midrange or shoot step backs. He's pretty decent on man defense overall though, as his positioning is usually solid. Kromah can, when he's locked in, play in your shorts defense. Samuel tries to eat your soul, lol jk, but he's been pretty good when he doesn't go deer in headlights. Calhoun is a weak defender. Napier and boat are good at staying in front of their men, though Boat can be bumped on screens. Napier cheats off his man at times when his man is off the ball. Sometimes it leads to open shots sometimes to steals. Bazz also likes to set the other point guard up and pick his pocket (reach around bandit was an unfortunate nickname he once held). I've actually never seen another player successfully pull off that move multiple times before. I still don't quite get how he sets the offensive player up so well for it. That said he hasn't tried it a ton this year. If there are any highlights of him doing that, it's pretty unique.

Nolan, Olander and Brimah are the only guys that really can't defend the perimeter well. Brimah may be the best in one on one because of his athleticism. Nolan is probably the best at hedging. Olander is Olander.

 

[MileHighFish]

I'm sure you're right.

Minus the 3 national championships mentioned and considering we make the tournament twice as often as Iowa State (31-15).

Got me there! I do believe Iowa State is 1-0 vs UConn in the tournament though fwiw.

 

[Dogbreath2U]

Don't know why you would think this. Shabazz can't be stopped, Boat is quicker than anyone we have Kromah will stop Kane and Brimah and Daniels will swat away anyone that gets by the guards. ISU won't be able to score more than 10 points.

Okay, it sounds like you feel that posters on the UConn Basketball board have not been showing respect to your team. Since you have been a good visitor (until lately when the arguing is getting very tedious), I will say this: I suspect that your coach could be a special talent who could make your school a perennial school to be reckoned with (if not a blue blood). If you can keep him, of course. Second, I remember the last NCAA game we played and realize that we were outplayed and outcoached that night by a large margin. Now we have the bad luck to get you again and we have a team that has some significant flaws. It sounds like you have an experienced team with a lot of balance and skill at multiple positions. Our team will have to play very well to win, I would guess. We will need some of our "other" guys to step up and play well at the same time. They started to do that against Villanova and then Shabazz found some magic and brought the win home. Can they do that against what is probably a better team than Villanova? Will Shabazz be physically ready to perform at a high level? Is Kane as ready as Shabazz to shine under the bright lights at Madison Square Garden? Friday night will answer our questions.

Good luck. May the team with the most grittiness, pluckiness, and mojo win!!

 

[ophion1031]

Got me there! I do believe Iowa State is 1-0 vs UConn in the tournament though fwiw.

Does that really matter, honestly? That is a disadvantage for us. UCONN players want payback for that. The only ISU player that even played in that game was Ejim. This is a new and much different ISU team.

 

[tazclone]

I'm sure you're right.

Minus the 3 national championships mentioned and considering we make the tournament twice as often as Iowa State (31-15).

Wait this team won three national championships and has been to the tourney twice as much as ISU in the last four years. Impressive.

I feel like every season we have this same conversation with fans of our Tourny opponents who accuse us of underestimating their players, etc. I remember specifically chatting with some very confident SDSU fans.

We shall see.

1999
2004
2011

did you have those convos with ISU fans two years ago?

 

[tazclone]

I didn't even say that. I was responding to onion saying ISU doesn't have a chance without Niang. I showed how three others stepped up their play against UNC. Can they do it consistently? Who knowsquote="Dogbreath2U, post: 899309, member: 42"]Okay, it sounds like you feel that posters on the UConn Basketball board have not been showing respect to your team. Since you have been a good visitor (until lately when the arguing is getting very tedious), I will say this: I suspect that your coach could be a special talent who could make your school a perennial school to be reckoned with (if not a blue blood). If you can keep him, of course. Second, I remember the last NCAA game we played and realize that we were outplayed and outcoached that night by a large margin. Now we have the bad luck to get you again and we have a team that has some significant flaws. It sounds like you have an experienced team with a lot of balance and skill at multiple positions. Our team will have to play very well to win, I would guess. We will need some of our "other" guys to step up and play well at the same time. They started to do that against Villanova and then Shabazz found some magic and brought the win home. Can they do that against what is probably a better team than Villanova? Will Shabazz be physically ready to perform at a high level? Is Kane as ready as Shabazz to shine under the bright lights at Madison Square Garden? Friday night will answer our questions.

Good luck. May the team with the most grittiness, pluckiness, and mojo win!![/quote]
The only one I have really argued with is onions who flat out stated if UCOnn brings their a game they win. I disagree and think if both teams bring their A game it will be a damn good game and a toss up. I think a lot of UConn fans think we are Villanova. Well we won't chuck up 31 with half being contested. We move the ball, and have an inside game even without Niang. Heck we took 15 more shots against UNC and only took 24 3s. This will be a great game and I am pretty sure I have said that many times

Just to clarify, it is one Iowa State fan saying that.

I

 

[intlzncster]

The only one I have really argued with is onions who flat out stated if UCOnn brings their a game they win. I disagree and think if both teams bring their A game it will be a damn good game and a toss up. I think a lot of UConn fans think we are Villanova. Well we won't chuck up 31 with half being contested. We move the ball, and have an inside game even without Niang. Heck we took 15 more shots against UNC and only took 24 3s. This will be a great game and I am pretty sure I have said that many times[/quote]

No, most UConn fans didn't think Nova was that great. St Joes was a tougher team imo.

The only reason we are talking about threes is because you guys talked about how good a 3pt shooting team you were. That and ISU's attempted over 40 percent of their shots from three.

 

[BlueMAB]

Wait this team won three national championships and has been to the tourney twice as much as ISU in the last four years. Impressive.
did you have those convos with ISU fans two years ago?

Wait. Did you intentionally ignore the post I responding to or are you really just a moron?

 

[MileHighFish]

Does that really matter, honestly? That is a disadvantage for us. UCONN players want payback for that. The only ISU player that even played in that game was Ejim. This is a new and much different ISU team.

No, it doesn't matter. That is my point.

There was some good basketball talk going on in this thread but is quickly turning into a pissing match and going down in flames unfortunately....

 

[nelsonmuntz]

One of the things I find with fans who have never experienced any meaningful success with their program is that they don't understand what it takes. The teams at this level are so good that any weakness gets exploited. Even the bonehead coaches can come up with good game plans if given 4 days to prepare for 1 game.

Niang is a huge loss. If UConn had lost Daniels, we would be suicidal on this board, and we have a lot of depth. The Iowa State fans are acting like losing Niang is no big deal on a team that is short to begin with and only plays 7 guys.

I am not saying UConn is guaranteed to win, but I like our hand a lot better than I like Iowa State's right now. UConn fans have been here before, and know what it takes. We know when UConn is winning with mirrors (2002, 1991), we know when the team is a year away (1998, 2003), and we know when the team is really good (1990, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1999, 2006, 2009, 2011). We also know that even when the team is really good, it can still lose.

We also know when the team has taken an insurmountable body blow from an injury (2000, 2008). It sure feels like Iowa State is in that situation right now. Maybe the Cyclone guards are that good that they can compensate for the loss of Niang, but I have a hard time seeing how a team that lost one of its 3 best players doesn't get worse.

 

[huskyharry]

UConn #10 - 93.2 points allowed per 100 possessions
Kansas St. #20 - 94.7
American #50 - 97.8
Iowa St. #58 - 98.9

It's worth noting that the rankings are basically inverted for UConn and ISU.

UConn - #57 offense, #10 defense
ISU - #10 offense, #58 defense

Don't they say, defense wins championships?

 

[huskyharry]

Ejim certainly scares me. You don't score 48 points in a college game unless you're very good.



You can see he has some post moves, for sure.

Ejim is an i pressive player; powerful, tenacious, skilled and has a good shoooting touch but wow it surely doesn't look like TCU was making any significant defensive effort!

 

[ColoradoUCFan]

This seems really straight forward. Iowa State is one of the best offensive teams in the country. UConn is one of the best defensive teams in the country. We saw how that worked in the Super Bowl. It's like the old coach says, offense wins games, defense wins championships.

 

[huskyharry]

We have a sample size of one game, with less than 48 hours to prepare for that one game. Using the boneyards favored Kenpom, here's what we know:

With Niang, ISU averaged 82.9 ppg with the 10th best offense for the regular season. Against North Carolina without Niang, a team that has the KP 21st best defense, Iowa State scored 85 points.

Uhhh, I just re-watched the last few minutes of the UNC game and you can forget about the ratings, UNC played horrendous defense. Transition defense was almost non-existent: Didn't stop the ball coming up the floor, left 3 point shooters absolutely wide open, bigs like Meeks didn't get back on defense at all, on one key play Kane or Ejim ran straight up the floor towards the basket and only one defender (Tokoto) even noticed him but then the defender couldn't make up his mind to mark him or get out to the three point line, so did neither and gave up an easy lay-up. We are anticipating a hard fought game on Friday, but please do NOT try to claim that UNC was playing good defense!

 

[MileHighFish]

This seems really straight forward. Iowa State is one of the best offensive teams in the country. UConn is one of the best defensive teams in the country. We saw how that worked in the Super Bowl. It's like the old coach says, offense wins games, defense wins championships.

This is neither football nor the championship so looks like a Iowa State win!!!

 

[MileHighFish]

Uhhh, I just re-watched the last few minutes of the UNC game and you can forget about the ratings, UNC played horrendous defense. Transition defense was almost non-existent: Didn't stop the ball coming up the floor, left 3 point shooters absolutely wide open, bigs like Meeks didn't get back on defense at all, on one key play Kane or Ejim ran straight up the floor towards the basket and only one defender (Tokoto) even noticed him but then the defender couldn't make up his mind to mark him or get out to the three point line, so did neither and gave up an easy lay-up. We are anticipating a hard fought game on Friday, but please do NOT try to claim that UNC was playing good defense!

You simply cannot discredit UNC's def and not give credit to Iowa State's offense IMO. ISU put together a game plan that exploited the UNC weaknesses such as the bigs not being able to get back on defense. There is a reason why their transition defense looked virtually non-existent. That was the plan

 

[mauconnfan]

You simply cannot discredit UNC's def and not give credit to Iowa State's offense IMO. ISU put together a game plan that exploited the UNC weaknesses such as the bigs not being able to get back on defense. There is a reason why their transition defense looked virtually non-existent. That was the plan

Their transition defense has never been good under Roy Williams…….no discredit to Iowa State but check the history. This isn't rocket science, they put up a good front on the perimeter, let players leak and try to block and then run out themselves. Roy's defensive strategy is nearly non-existent at UNC……..actually his career. This is not saying you won't score 80-90 vs UConn, but your guys will work harder getting there for sure and shoot real damn good too!

 

[Hume]

To be fair, I think most of the Uconn fans have great respect for Iowa States team. There is great respect for your coach here, which is unusual for us as we don't respect very many opposing coaches. Most think the game will be close.
even after your losing Niang, another sign of respect considering his numbers. As fans. most of us of course think our team will win and we gravitate to the reasons for that in a discussion board. However, we have been pretty objective about our weaknesses both here and on your board, pointing out areas where we feel you have the mismatch advantage, deficiencies in our players, etc. I think where it starts to break down is when we run into a group of fans (not all but many) that discuss their team in such a way that they come across as invincible. Lost a 16 point scorer? No problem, the subs will make it up. The opposing teams have similar statistics, albeit reversed (kenpom offense/defense)? Well they played worse competition (despite factors to reflect that in the statistics). This goes on and on with some to the point it is obvious that discussion loses its benefit. I think this discussion was going quite well until the point that it became unbelievable to us was when it was said that losing Niang would have no effect on your team.