Sunday Night Hoops: PSU v Iowa
PSU up 7 right now. FS1 for anyone looking- good ball game so far.
February 21st, 2021 at 6:18 PM ^
I don't think PSU has even played particularly well thus far. Hopefully PSU can hang in theree for the final 16:30.
February 21st, 2021 at 6:35 PM ^
your nittany lions are hanging tough on the road. good for them.
EDIT: sorry nittany, you guys picked a bad time to go 0-fer-6 minutes on shooting. looks like your goose is cooked on this one barring a tremendous comeback effort.
February 21st, 2021 at 7:32 PM ^
They do compete on a game-in/game-out basis .... but they seem to have a knack for losing by 5 points whether the opponent is Iowa/Michigan on the road or Nebraska at home (ugh). As you said, terrible time to do nothing on offense, especially against a team that doesn't play good D anyway.
Not to talk too much PSU hoops here, but we'll see the coaching decision the AD makes in a few weeks. Ferry really can't stay. I'm not optimistic --- e.g., I'm expecting some sort of Patriot League hire (hello Matt Langel from Colgate!).
February 21st, 2021 at 6:29 PM ^
What’s happened to Iowa? I know they’ve still got Luke Garza but it just seems like they’ve fallen off a cliff relative to their preseason expectations.
I don’t follow their basketball program in depth. Do they just play poor defense or something? They shouldn’t be the type of team that’s in a dogfight with Penn a state in their own court.
February 21st, 2021 at 6:35 PM ^
It’s Garza and 3 point shooting basically. If they’re not on fire they can’t overcome their poor defense. Garza is basically a turnstile on defense. But he sure plays hard when his team has the ball.
February 21st, 2021 at 7:01 PM ^
But honestly, Garza and 3 point shooting should be enough to be a great, great team. It's just the coaching style that doesn't mesh with success.
February 21st, 2021 at 8:22 PM ^
My point is, 3 point shooting is variable. Based on defense and luck. So a bad night there and they can’t outscore their defense.
February 21st, 2021 at 6:43 PM ^
Fran's been the head coach of Iowa since 2010 which is hard to believe.
They have yet to get past the round of 32.
He's not a very good coach. He always pulls in really good talent, but they underachieve by a mile.
This current version of Iowa is loaded with ability. They got shooters, a great big man- basically anything you need to win a natty. But Fran has never, ever stressed defense, and they'll never win with him as HC.
February 21st, 2021 at 6:46 PM ^
Same problem Iowa's always had, you can't just ignore one side of the court and be anything more than they are.
February 21st, 2021 at 6:54 PM ^
Amazingly, they were #3 in the KenPom rankings before our win earlier today. They are currently #4. Without any defense, I don’t think they are a top 5 team.
February 21st, 2021 at 9:32 PM ^
To further the discussion...it's the defense. However, most here don't realize they were missing a hugely key player the past few weeks up until 2 games ago. CJ Fredrick is that player. He's an elite shooter and honestly one of their better defenders as small a thing as that is to say. He helps the spacing for the team to be truly good. Him back will get them back to near the levels of pre-injury (though he may not be fully healthy for the rest of the year).
Anyway, the defense. It's overall pathetic. Garza is bad and it is what is. But the way they leave shooters open so often is part mind boggling, part a realization of how slow they are laterally on the perimeter. The guys just are not made of very quick reflexes. Even in zone they have a tough time rotating back n forth to eliminate outside 3 balls.
February 21st, 2021 at 6:35 PM ^
I've got a nice buzz goin' right now (basketball variety), so the rest of the world's important events float by. Hakuna matata...
February 21st, 2021 at 6:43 PM ^
A tale of two halves here...no defense in 1H, all defense in 2H.
February 21st, 2021 at 6:47 PM ^
I love this. Relax kick back and watch other big ten foes after a huge Michigan win. I used to do this during football season. Now basketball has become the top sport for me. HAIL HOWARD!
February 21st, 2021 at 6:48 PM ^
Welcome to the correct side of the ledger. Happy to have you here haha.
February 21st, 2021 at 7:02 PM ^
Still not sure how Garza gets soo many damn calls. Just a bully on offense plus a lot of chicken winging but if the defender dares to breathe on him or box him out, he gets whistled
February 21st, 2021 at 7:02 PM ^
If the same crew from today do the game Thursday, Garza will score 40 points and half will be from the line. Good player but God he gets way too many calls.
February 21st, 2021 at 9:02 PM ^
I understand the star treatment with the whistle, but what got me in this game against OSU on rewatch is how often unequal the offensive fouls were called. We'll know how the game's going to be called if Garza is bailed out on the defensive end with offensive fouls on UM's bigs.
February 21st, 2021 at 9:55 PM ^
If he gets knocked backwards much like Cockburn then you know it’s a flop, they are too damn big. I’m hoping the refs will let them play underneath. Where I’ve seen a lot of fouls for Garza is when smaller guys get switched into him and they pretty much are guaranteed a foul call. We need to try to play him straight up the best we can.
as far as star treatment he’s been getting that for the better part of the last 3 seasons.
February 21st, 2021 at 7:22 PM ^
Not too concerned about Iowa unless they are hitting an insane amount of threes or Garza is getting the all star treatment all night long. Put Dickinson and Davis on him and play him straight up, it’s when people double team him when they have issues because he kicks it out to wide open shooters. He will have to spend a lot of energy on defense as well. We need to stay on their shooters. Put Livers on Wieskamp and Brooks/Brown on Frederick and that is their offense. They average 10 made threes a game and we average 8 so that’s fairly even.
February 21st, 2021 at 8:04 PM ^
That was an ugly game. I really don't see how Iowa has the #1 offense and their defense is definitely not good. I'm excited for Thursday
February 21st, 2021 at 8:19 PM ^
They score 87 ppg but as you said their defense is not good. I know we can score a lot of points but I’d rather not get into a score fest with them, that’s how they want to play. I kind of said above how I feel like we should play against them position wise.
February 21st, 2021 at 8:12 PM ^
In other games, Northwestern is in an absolute snoozer with Wisconsin.
February 21st, 2021 at 8:34 PM ^
Funny because about 3-4 games into the bigten season this would have been labeled as a top matchup. My how times have changed.
February 21st, 2021 at 10:23 PM ^
I’d rather see Iowa win. Let’s Michigan get a shot at beating another top 10 opponent.