Woodbury’s best skill was defense/eye gouging/jump ball cheating. 
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The skillset is part of it but if you watch Iowa these guys are also horribly coached. They run a zone that makes no sense whatsoever (Garza and his infinite speed comes out to the wings to contest 3s in their zone) and the players don’t even seem to know where they’re supposed to be. In the OSU game, it felt like every single OSU possession ended in a wide open shot and they only had to run one action or one screen to get the wide open shot. I can buy that Iowa is limited in what they can do defensively due to player limitations. I still think a decent defensive coach would get this team in the top 50 of AdjD.
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Has anyone taken a crack at trying to guess what the rescheduling might look like? I’m mainly curious when we think the Illinois game will fall. That one seems like it will be kind of important.
I agree the coaching is poor, but I question if any coach could get them to top 50 on defense playing Garza and Bohannon heavy minutes.
Iowa has some players that can defend better, but since they are apparently less effective on offense Fran chooses to not play them much. Fran clearly favors players for offense and clearly spends more time coaching/practicing on that end of the floor.
I agree that Bohannan and Garza are poor defenders but my point is that they’re ALSO poorly coached. It’s one thing to struggle to stop dribble penetration or not be able to move your feet quick enough to rim protect but it’s another thing to be leaving guys wide open after a couple of passes because you’re completely out of position.
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yes, I agree they are poorly coached on that end
Just perused some Iowa blogs and they are real unhappy (and deservedly so). Lots of calls for a new coach (doubt that happens) and edicts to start tuning out.
Given that this has been the rap on Iowa for a pretty long time, it’s curious that Fran doesn’t see fit to address it, even have a ready answer about his rationale.
I’m sure it is a frustrating stretch for Iowa. They are still #5 on KenPom but have dropped 4 of their last 5 games. Big Ten is brutal this season and just not enough games against bad teams to feast on for a pretty W/L record.
Beilein struggled with mediocre to poor defense until he brought in Billy Donlon and then Luke Yaklich (to replace the departed Donlon). Seems like Fran could do some soul searching and find his Yaklich to take the next step.
Eye opening to me on the “Iowa is poorly coached on D” take was the end of the OSU game when Ahrens got loose for 2 wide open 3’s. The scouting report has to be make that guy do anything but shoot 3’s and there he was left alone at a critical point in the game.
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I think this is the key and I do think there’s evidence that getting to mediocrity on defense is possible with the players they have. Michigan’s defenses before Donlon/Yaklich weren’t the tire-fire that Iowa has had lately. That’s the key - can Iowa play defense ranked around 60-80? Or are they going to be 100+?
Now…as much as I saw clear improvement at Michigan when those guys arrived despite playing some moderately athletic guys like Mo Wagner, Duncan Robinson, etc…I do still wonder how much of our improvement correlated with the arrival of Charles Matthews (the best wing defender I’ve ever seen at Michigan), Xavier Simpson (a better defender at PG than all other Beilein PGs), and Jon Teske (a better defender at center than all other Beilein centers). Coaching helped…but we also had a lineup ideally suited to play defense.
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This is what I was seeing too. It’s really eye opening when the mistakes are completely mental in addition to being physically not that good of defenders.
Ahrens has attempted 88 shots this year 86 of them have been 3. This isn’t just an Iowa thing and teams want Ahrens not to shoot 3s but he will continue to do it.
In Big Ten play, Iowa’s opponents attempt 40.9% of their shots from 3. That’s the most in the Big Ten. Those opponents are making 36.7%, which puts Iowa 13th in the league in 3 pt % defense. You could make a case that they’re the victim of hot shooting teams. I believe it’s a pattern of them not being able to defend and leaving good shooters open.
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Agreed. All you have to do is watch a few Iowa games. It’s striking how many wide open looks teams get from 3, and it’s often good shooters who get those looks. Guys are not “open for a reason”.
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There was play against OSU where Washington had the ball at the top of the arc and just kinda slowly dribbles to the left wing and then set his feet and picked up his dribble and hesitated a split second before shooting, and there was no Iowa player nearby.
I would delete the “with the media” part.
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I agree with this, but Beilein’s teams were NEVER as bad defensively as Fran’s. I mean Iowa’s defense is REALLY bad.
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A couple of schedule tweaks:
Looks like Illinois will play Nebraska on Friday:
Nebraska Updated Schedule (Feb. 8-14)
Mon. (Feb. 8): at Minnesota, 7 p.m. (BTN)
Wed. (Feb. 10): vs. Wisconsin, 8:30 p.m. (BTN)
Fri. (Feb. 12): vs. Illinois, 8 p.m. (BTN)
Sun. (Feb. 14): at Penn State, 2 p.m. CT (BTN)