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Gonna do a quick Iowa bball thread. Going to try not to bitch about or trash anyone. Just want to tweet through some stuff in my head that I think Iowa should try to do if they're going to win meaningful games and make a deep tourney run.
Everyone knows the starters can't defend, but one thing that especially hurts them is how much the top guys in the 2-3 zone take risks. When the ball gets dumped into the paint, the guards (especially Connor) like to crash hard and try for a steal. This sends everyone scrambling.
This works against bad teams. It works against young/unskilled posts, but good teams rarely have those. Scouting report says a quick pass to the elbow forces a 2 on 1 with the low man. He commits up you kick to the corner. He sags corner it's your shot. Either way it's an open 3.
It also means that you have multiple defenders flailing and out of position scrambling to close out on shooters which makes collecting long rebounds next to impossible. Obviously, open 3s and defensive rebounding are huge problems for Iowa.
The obvious fix would be to play man to man, except Iowa isn't skilled enough to do that for more than short stretches. So, if you're going to play 90% 2-3 zone I'd play the 3/4 court trap into a very conservative 2-3 zone. Make them beat you with their scheme.
You've gotta do something to make these teams get a little off balance without putting your worst defenders in impossible spots. That's a tough order, but one Iowa must figure out if they want to be more than modestly successful.
If Iowa wants to modestly improve on defense without changing scheme, they've got to become less reliant on the starters. Give up a little offense and spacing to keep one of Perkins/Toussaint in for long stretches of both halves. Same probably needs to happen with Murray/Nunge.
I know Fran loves to lean on his starters, but right now he's trying to do it for all but about 6-8 minutes each half. That means roughly 60% of the time he's playing Iowa's worst defensive lineup. That's gotta change.
I'd kind of try to pair at it this way, Perkins/Connor and Jordan/Joe T should be looked at as being the same "position" in this setup. Try and keep one of the bigger guards with one of the smaller guards at all times. Cab double up on Connor/Perkins but not Jordan/Joe T.
Jordan has the bad hips and plays worse defense. I'd sub Perkins or Joe T for him at the 14 or so minute mark unless he's scorching hot. Bring the other in at the next media timeout. Unless the offense really grinds to a halt, ride that as long as you can, ideally for 8-10 min.
I think you want Bohannon at no more than 24 mpg. Connor should be roughly the same. I'd think bringing in some guard defense for large chunks of each half will throw the opponent off as much as any major scheme change. It's worth a shot, things can't get much worse on that end.
The timing of the Murray/Nunge subs are also important because they seemingly fit with everyone. I'd prioritize getting Murray out there first for either of Weezy/CJ. Get some rebounding/cutting out there first. You also want Nunge to be freshest for the non-Garza minutes.
Pat McCaffery should mostly be used as an energy guy. Enough with him being the first or second sub. He's best in the 3/4 court trap. Prioritize getting him out there when you run that, ideally with Murray too. He should be a 12 or so mpg guy unless he's going off.
CJ is kind of the odd man in this formula. I just don't know how much he can be counted on with this injury. When healthy, I'd like to see him or Weezy as the lone starter with the bench guys for the bulk of the time. You've got to do something to make those two be aggressive.
None of these things should be too hard to follow. It's a rough blueprint that Fran mostly already sticks to. His problem is, as it always is, that he's a spectator on the bench too much. He lets runs and iffy lineups get away from him before he realizes there's a problem.
And I think all of this is because Fran is simply a blueprint coach. He has a gameplan coming in, and it's all he knows how to do. It's why he mass subs and never calls timeouts. He just lets the game flow and then he pops in whenever someone gets tired or gets in foul trouble.
But if Iowa is going to make a run, he needs to figure out how to optimize lineups, take timeouts when necessary, and take the occasional risk when a guy is in foul trouble. My fear is he's just not capable of being that guy.
This was all a very long way to say Iowa needs to lean on the bench a bit more, stagger their subs, mix in the 3/4 court trap more often, and have Fran be an active coach, not a spectator occasionally. None of that feels like it should be a huge ask, but it probably actually is.
Hawks get another chance to get right in a couple of nights. Hopefully, we see a smarter, more well coached team next time out.
