Iowa v Marquette

[Medill90]

One half of Marquette's team is four star or above and a chunk of those are sophomores and juniors.

A less talented but very well coached Iowa team took the uber talented Marquette team apart in about five minutes. A lot of Iowa's offensive game was surgical, breaking up Marquette's defense for open looks and drives. Iowa won by about 30.

Like Olah, their senior center has lost some weight and gotten into shape. He was running the floor like a small forward.

Based on this one game, Iowa will be the upper tier of the Big Ten. Thought the loss of White would push them to the middle and maybe bottom of the middle.

 

[chaneccooms]

Tough to say a lot about the Hawkeyes based on this game. Marquette looked terrible. Some of that was Iowa's doing, but Marquette appeared very poorly coached.

Woodbury usually does well against teams with size and struggles against smaller, quicker interior players. Marquette's lineup of Fischer (6-11) and Ellenson (6-11) played right into his strengths. His defense in particular on Ellenson was textbook. It was a big reason Ellenson, Rivals' #11 recruit in the nation, was 1-8 from the field for 3 points.

This year's Hawkeye squad has much better shooting than the teams of the past few years. There are often 3-4 players on the court who are strong threats from 3. They were 12-22 from 3 last night.

It's a cliche, but I think this team will go as far as their defense takes them. With Uthoff playing the 4 and Jok playing the 3, they aren't going to be a great rebounding team. They will also be missing a lot of easy baskets White and Olaseni got them. On the nights the 3s aren't falling, they'll need to be able to grind out wins. With 4 seniors and a junior starting, they should have the focus to do it.

I see them as a tourney team, but not necessarily in the top group in the league.

 

[Walker Fan]

Chaneccooms had it right. When your 5-star top-10 high school recruit Henry Ellenson Marquette goes 1-8 from the field and turns the ball over 3 times, Marquette will have trouble beating teams let alone from a school from a Power Conference like Iowa. Also, Iowa shot over 50% from 3 pt. 12-22. Is that sustainable? Most likely not. The competition playing high school in Rice Lake, WI (reference to Henry Ellenson) is a little different than against schools from power conferences. Also, if you look at Marquette, their only victory is against IUPUI 75-71, so they have not been overly impressive. They also lost at home to Belmont which is a quality basketball school but not a team you should lose to at home if you are planning to make the tourney. Remember Wojo is fighting NU for recruits so I would say their slow start is in part due to poor performances by players and the coaching staff including Wojo.

As for Iowa, they have started the past two seasons strong and then faded in the last half of the seasons. For example, they traveled to Chapel Hill to play UNC last season and beat the vaunted UNC Tarheels. I think when they are shooting well and shoot over 50 percent from 3s, they will be tough to beat. But in the words of former NU coach and Arizona Cardinals' Coach Dennis Green, I am not ready "to crown [them]".

 

[chaneccooms]

As for Iowa, they have started the past two seasons strong and then faded in the last half of the seasons.

Iowa won its last 6 games of the regular season last year to finish third in the Big Ten. If that's fading, I'll take it.

 

[yiana]

Chaneccooms had it right. When your 5-star top-10 high school recruit Henry Ellenson Marquette goes 1-8 from the field and turns the ball over 3 times, Marquette will have trouble beating teams let alone from a school from a Power Conference like Iowa. Also, Iowa shot over 50% from 3 pt. 12-22. Is that sustainable? Most likely not. The competition playing high school in Rice Lake, WI (reference to Henry Ellenson) is a little different than against schools from power conferences. Also, if you look at Marquette, their only victory is against IUPUI 75-71, so they have not been overly impressive. They also lost at home to Belmont which is a quality basketball school but not a team you should lose to at home if you are planning to make the tourney. Remember Wojo is fighting NU for recruits so I would say their slow start is in part due to poor performances by players and the coaching staff including Wojo.

As for Iowa, they have started the past two seasons strong and then faded in the last half of the seasons. For example, they traveled to Chapel Hill to play UNC last season and beat the vaunted UNC Tarheels. I think when they are shooting well and shoot over 50 percent from 3s, they will be tough to beat. But in the words of former NU coach and Arizona Cardinals' Coach Dennis Green, I am not ready "to crown [them]".

Go check Iowa's schedule last year. They dominated teams after that overtime lose in Evanston.

 

[Walker Fan]

My point was not to crown Iowa this season. One week ago, they lost to Augustana who is not a Division 1 school. Then they beat Marquette and shoot 12-22 from 3s and some are saying that they are so tough.

As for last year, they won six games to end the season (Rutgers at home, a struggling Nebraska team, Illinois at home, Penn St. on the road, at Indiana (Indiana struggled at the end of the season) and NU at home). All of these teams were in the bottom of the Big 10 aside from Indiana who struggled at the end of the season. Iowa then lost to Penn State in Round 1 of the Big 10 tourney. My comment was more applicable to the prior year (2013-2014 season - look it up) when Iowa started out strong and some were predicting them as a sleeper Elite 8 or Final 4 team and they lost a ton of games at the end of the season and dropped from a low seed to a no. 12 seed and lost to Tennessee in Dayton in the First Four part of the tournament. But nice try.