***Iowa @ Penn State 2/28/26 - 11:00 a.m. - BTN***

[HiawathaHawk]

Just finished watching. WTF with Hausen. He did nothing for 10-15 minutes(?) and Folgers sat. Even a basketball dipshit like myself can see that was a terrible strategy.

Folgers was the reason we coughed up the lead(s).

 

[The Dad]

Ben McCollum (the Curt Cignetti of College Basketball) decided to play Hausen for like 12 straight minutes in a must win game on the road while he only played an athletic Tate Sage sat and picked his nose.

I demand to know who called him the Cignetti of basketball.

 

[The Dad]

Leave it to Iowa to find the one mentally soft Spanish athlete in the world.

 

[LifelongHawk]

Not a must win game

 

[ABeardedDragon]

I appreciate Cam giving up 3 fouls in a row on a single possession to put them in the bonus.

 

[L. Wade Childress]

Wait we fucking lost????

 

[Lil Scamp]

Watching the new mens basketball team is painful even when they win

Big back fran

 

[L. Wade Childress]

iowa sports are a huge waste of my time

 

[RecreationalGynecologist]

Ahh this is a transitional roster and has exceeded my expectations thus far. Once we have more bigs with experience, this program will take off. Settle down ladies

 

[HiawathaHawk]

 

[HiawathaHawk]

iowa sports are a huge waste of my time

K, bye.

 

[Greg Obrecht]

Ahh this is a transitional roster and has exceeded my expectations thus far. Once we have more bigs with experience, this program will take off. Settle down ladies

20 wins with this roster is pretty damn good. How many legit I am a giant douche players does this team really have?

 

[Lil Scamp]

20 wins with this roster is pretty damn good. How many legit I am a giant douche players does this team really have?

So boooooring tho

 

[douglasbader]

That and another quote he is pretty honest and forthright about things, but I think it's not really for some odd reason. Teams that suck at basketball but have rugged or superior athletes like Maryland, Rutgers and Penn State are being aggressive and taking you to the hoop over and over. I get they shot well from the outside, but I'd rather let them shoot all day from three and take away all the layups and point blank shots.

All of those are killing his team. The reason they are playing and gearing up for better teams and doing (mostly) better is those teams are more interested in playing basketball and his defense is better at guarding that.

 

[douglasbader]

Case in point, in the second half Penn State shot 19 times and only 4 threes. They almost didn't want to shoot those 4 either but they were mostly wide open (minus that step back rainbow three). The got to the line 10 times. The just put their head down and got to the rim. Simple as that.

 

[TurdBurgler]

Hausen today made no sense, he came in after coop hit his 4th 3, and Tate sage had 1 or 2 also. Why not roll the dice with him the games before where we couldnt score for shit?

I couldn't watch the 2nd half and not planning to. This loss can suck a fat one.

 

[douglasbader]

I like McCollum. He's doing a great job in the first year with an entire new roster that is basically Drake + Koch/Folgeraus. Iowa is going to be back in the NCAA Tourney.

He's young and 20 some months removed from being a Division II coach. He's making some pretty obvious mistakes, not because he's stupid or doesn't know what he is doing, but more because things that worked there and at Drake just don't work in the Big Ten. I think the games he mentioned and have been talked about (Minnesota, Rutgers, Maryland, Penn State) are a good example. Shit that works against the bottom of the MVC doesn't work against the bottom of the Big Ten. Too many athletes that can overcome being shitty basketball players.

Anyways, get at least one more win coming up before the tourney and start the part of the season that actually matters. Don't really care where they end up at this point as long as they are in. Get in, win a game, hope you get a great draw or there is an upset and try to sneak into the Sweet 16. Profit.

Going to have to have a really good offseason though. They need to buy 2-3 really good top level players out of the portal. Hope they have the $4m-$8m that is going to cost.

 

[Hawk&Balls]

Hope they have the $4m-$8m that is going to cost.

Uh

 

[douglasbader]

That's what it is going to cost to get 3 quality players out of the portal, especially a top PG and post player. If we don't have it, then really not much to talk about. Hopefully he can develop guys quickly!!

 

[Hawk&Balls]

That's what it is going to cost to get 3 quality players out of the portal, especially a top PG and post player.

Agreed

If we don't have it

Gulp

 

[HerkyHopeful]

God damn that was a frustrating game. Completely shit the bed every time they play at Penn State of all places. Now they need to win one of the next two for seeding.

 

[BillyBob]

Unless Iowa has an nil daddy or daddies, it’s not looking good

 

[L. Wade Childress]

Not trying to be negative, but if we lose our next two I’m going to be nervous on selection Sunday. They will be quad one losses, but that will leave us with a really ugly looking quad one record and three bad losses

We were like 90% to make the tournament, but that’s mainly because we were a huge favorite to win this game. The committee doesn’t look at our predictive rankings nearly as much as our record versus the quads.

 

[Verbal]

Well they probably will lose the next two, so I hope they win a game in the BTT, because I don’t want them riding a four-game losing streak into selection Sunday, no matter how soft the bubble is.

 

[gohawkeyes811]

Not trying to be negative, but if we lose our next two I’m going to be nervous on selection Sunday. They will be quad one losses, but that will leave us with a really ugly looking quad one record and three bad losses

We were like 90% to make the tournament, but that’s mainly because we were a huge favorite to win this game. The committee doesn’t look at our predictive rankings nearly as much as our record versus the quads.

Computer rankings are still pretty good. Play against the #2 team in the nation and on the road against a top 15 team. Two losses won't change their computer rankings much at all. I guess a terrible loss in the Big Ten tourney might make us sweat a little bit, but that's about the only thing I would think. I think Iowa is still in with 2 losses and a terrible loss in the BTT.

 

[HiawathaHawk]

Not trying to be negative, but if we lose our next two I’m going to be nervous on selection Sunday. They will be quad one losses, but that will leave us with a really ugly looking quad one record and three bad losses

We were like 90% to make the tournament, but that’s mainly because we were a huge favorite to win this game. The committee doesn’t look at our predictive rankings nearly as much as our record versus the quads.

Fortunately you’re wrong about everything. Compare us to the actual bubble teams.

 

[L. Wade Childress]

Fortunately you’re wrong about everything. Compare us to the actual bubble teams.

that’s a good point. I have found it increasingly difficult to watch random college basketball games, and I forget how awful some teams are.

 

[HiawathaHawk]

that’s a good point. I have found it increasingly difficult to watch random college basketball games, and I forget how awful some teams are.

You don’t have to watch random games. You could just read any analysis by people with each track records or look at numbers.

 

[hawkstud44]

Not trying to be negative, but if we lose our next two I’m going to be nervous on selection Sunday. They will be quad one losses, but that will leave us with a really ugly looking quad one record and three bad losses

We were like 90% to make the tournament, but that’s mainly because we were a huge favorite to win this game. The committee doesn’t look at our predictive rankings nearly as much as our record versus the quads.

Games they should have won for sure but as far as the resume goes they'll have 1 bad loss. Minnesota was quad 1 and today was quad 2 loss. Maryland technically the only "bad loss" on the resume

 

[CamelTones]

This game didn’t really bother me. Stirtz had a couple 3s rattle out. They had one rattle around, bounced off off the back rim and go in. The possession where Iowa got 3 offensive rebounds, they had 2 open looks that didn’t go.

It’s basketball. This shit happens.

 

[L. Wade Childress]

You don’t have to watch random games. You could just read any analysis by people with each track records or look at numbers.

No

 

[The Dad]

This game didn’t really bother me. Stirtz had a couple 3s rattle out. They had one rattle around, bounced off off the back rim and go in. The possession where Iowa got 3 offensive rebounds, they had 2 open looks that didn’t go.

It’s basketball. This shit happens.

This is some next level Sunshine Boi faggotry.

 

[AZmessDAWG]

I hate the offense.

 

[Talkin' Goat]

I hate the offense.

I think it will be fine with more legit shooters. Like I’ve said before, Koch should be the #4 shooter and would be damn good in that spot. Problem is he’s the #2 shooter right now. Not his fault - just how it is. This team has no real center and pretty average shooting outside of Stirtz, and is still where they are. Get a few more pieces and things should get exciting. McCollum is learning a lot this year too, which will pay off next year. I suppose I’m overly optimistic, but I think we’re headed upward in a big way.

 

[CamelTones]

I hate the offense.

What would you change?

 

[HiawathaHawk]

I hate the offense.

You’d like it more if they hit open 3’s.

 

[The Dad]

Hitting open threes and not turning good looks into bad ones through overpassing.

 

[douglasbader]

What would you change?

Take good shots when they are open instead of running around like fucking ballerina's for another 8 seconds and launching a terrible shot would be a start.

 

[AZmessDAWG]

You’d like it more if they hit open 3’s.

Well duh.

 

[AZmessDAWG]

What would you change?

The reliance on the ball screen.

 

[AZmessDAWG]

You’d like it more if they hit open 3’s.

And this is kind of a bullshit response given you know I’m not just spewing BS.

Everything revolves around the ball screen. There are no pin downs, no post ups, no staggers plus they pass up soooo many open looks.

so yeah if they shot better sure. But they don’t.

 

[Talkin' Goat]

They pass up open looks because they don’t have the confidence they’ll make them (rightfully so for the most part). I think a fair amount of the over-passing is because of that. Not all of it though, because it definitely gets annoying as fuck at times.

 

[BBK]

We are kind of a shitty road team.

I think getting Banks for one more year would be good news. This would mean we would only be losing Stirtz from our typical rotation

 

[Hawkstrat]

Maybe this is pretty typical, but his answers about Hausen and Sage's minutes seemed odd to me.

 

[HerkyHopeful]

Sage should be playing more for sure. Good things happy when he's in

 

[6deuce]

Sage should be playing more for sure. Good things happy when he's in

And he’s a good shooter. Let’s get lucky Thursday then go buttfuck the bugeaters.

 

[Fletch]

Gonna have to get very lucky. Despite the loss to Duke, I think they’re clearly the best team this year.

 

[The Dad]

Hausen attempting to guard that guy in the post at crunch time…

 

[HiawathaHawk]

And this is kind of a bullshit response given you know I’m not just spewing BS.

Everything revolves around the ball screen. There are no pin downs, no post ups, no staggers plus they pass up soooo many open looks.

so yeah if they shot better sure. But they don’t.

If it’s just a preference thing, okay. He’s talked about how the offense will be different every year based on personnel but the numbers show that the foundation is the ball screen. If he gets more shooters and versatility, you can picture how much different everything looks.

Right now we don’t really have a low post option and most of the time we have 2-3 guys who don’t scare the opponent from 3. We still get a really high amount of shots at the rim off cutters and I think he does a great job of teaching guys reads and building in so many options.

They’re a very limited offensive roster and rank 34th in points per possession in the country. They’re 13th in the country in 2P% and 5th in the Big Ten because of amount of layups they’re able to create. If Cam and Banks are shooters, it completely changes how defenses have to play the screens as you know. Same if the kick out 3’s are going to guys who can hit at a higher rate and pull with confidence.

Looking at some of his targets and the way he talked around the Illinois game, I think that’s a little bit of his vision in the Big Ten. Will be interesting to see who he targets for PG and the last spot or two.

 

[B19Rob]

As annoying as the offense can be, according to KenPom they are more efficient than every Fran team except Garza's senior season.