***Official 2014 Offseason Thread***

[HiawathaHawk]

If Iowa is going to be better next year, they need a PG to step up.

1. Gesell, by all accounts, is a hard worker. It's possible he could develop.

2. Clemmons, perhaps his issues this year were confidence/sophomore slump, but enough improvement out of him to provide what Iowa needs seems like a stretch.

3. Dickerson has to be as good as every Iowa fan that doesn't post on Halo thinks he is.

None of these are entirely far-fetched, but I don't know if any of them are safe assumptions either.

If Clemmons stays I'm optimistic that a combination of the above will happen. At least to the point of being a big upgrade on the last month.

I'll be excited to see Dickerson. I won't be excited for all of the PTL reports about him because he's probably going to tear it up in North Liberty.

 

[douglasbader]

I am really looking forward to the strength gains that this team can make in the off season, especially White and Woodbury.

The schedule worked out really horrible last year for a team in desperate need of strength. The season ran through the first week in April, and by the time these guys hit the weight room and got back into the swing of things it was May. Then you had White traveling out to Colorado, then to Russia, back to the United States, over to London, France and then back to Iowa. Not a whole lot of time to properly diet and lift.

Now they will be back in the weight room by April 1st and be completely uninterrupted in their diet and lifting schedule until the season starts. They should be able to make some significant gains this year.

 

[Mo T]

Shouldn't White have already seen his big strength gains?

 

[bigazzturkeylegs]

It's Iowa basketball. There are no safe assumptions.

It's safe to assume the worst.

 

[Hawkstrat]

Uthoff is usually a pretty bad interview to listen to (not a complaint, he just seems uncomfortable giving interviews), but I like some of the things he said after the game. He mentions one of the biggest lessons of the season is that he needs to gain weight.

 

[Hawk4Life25]

Fran's style of pushing tempo, running up and down, and scoring in transition favors the type of athlete that can do that...the sleek/slender types...I still think these guys can afford to put on a few lbs....obviously they need to be the right lbs.

I wish White had a thing he did really well in the half-court...I don't think you can say he excels at one thing or another.

 

[douglasbader]

Shouldn't White have already seen his big strength gains?

He has gotten stronger, but he is a lanky guy who will take time to grow into himself and his schedule has likely caused him to stall out.

Looking forward to these guys having a solid, uninterrupted off-season on campus this year. There are a lot of young guys who can really improve.

Woodbury - Continue to add strength and size. Think he will make some huge gains.
White - should add some significant strength and work on his post game.
Jok - will get a lot bigger, stronger and more athletic. I think he can and will have a Caris Levertt type of impact from year to year.
Olaseni - will continue to get stronger and be able to finish much better next year

I think those guys will be the most significant weight room improvement. Other guys need to work on their game, athleticism or don't have the body type to really make some huge strides by lifting.

Uthoff - I think he can get a lot stronger, but he is never going to get a lot bigger and doesn't have to. He should't be trying to add too much weight to slow him down, he just needs strength.

Gesell - while finishing at the rim is an issue, he needs to concentrate on fixing his jumper and becoming a knock down shooter. Learn to feed the post.

Clemmons - needs to get quicker and better at breaking people down off the dribble and hitting his jumper

Oglesby - Fran needs to get tough on him and he should lose 15 pounds. The shot and confidence improved, now he needs to get quicker.

Meyer - who gives a shit

 

[Dolomitey]

I don't actually care if Uthoff gains any weight. He's a great shooter that is inexplicably not that interested in shooting. That's the improvement I'd like to see most. Maybe some added muscle helps his confidence in that regard though.

 

[Mo T]

I would hate to see Uthoff gain much weight. His game isn't in the paint.

 

[FrodoTBaggin]

I don't actually care if Uthoff gains any weight. He's a great shooter that is inexplicably not that interested in shooting. That's the improvement I'd like to see most. Maybe some added muscle helps his confidence in that regard though.

Seriously. How many wide open spot up threes have we seen him pass up only to shoot it off the dribble. Drove me crazy most of the season.

 

[Hawkstrat]

He needs to get stronger. He had the ball ripped from him a shit ton of times. Nobody expects him to look like Stokes from last night, but he doesn't need to look anorexic either.

 

[FrodoTBaggin]

Gaining some weight and strength is only going to benefit Uthoff. every ounce of weight he can put on, he needs to. He's never, ever going to get too bulky for his frame and he'll always look like a stick but whatever he can put on, he should. It's only going to help his quickness and explosiveness, not hinder.

 

[douglasbader]

He needs to get stronger. He had the ball ripped from him a shit ton of times. Nobody expects him to look like Stokes from last night, but he doesn't need to look anorexic either.

He will always be skinny, that is just his body type and reminds me of Jim Bartles. There is no reason he can't get a lot stronger in his forearms and shoulders so he doesn't get ripped.

The biggest advantage he has is his quickness and mismatch against other guys.

 

[Mo T]

I don't actually care if Uthoff gains any weight. He's a great shooter that is inexplicably not that interested in shooting. That's the improvement I'd like to see most. Maybe some added muscle helps his confidence in that regard though.

Seriously. How many wide open spot up threes have we seen him pass up only to shoot it off the dribble. Drove me crazy most of the season.

Sometimes guys are much more comfortable shooting off the dribble. Ogs is the exact opposite.

 

[FrodoTBaggin]

I don't actually care if Uthoff gains any weight. He's a great shooter that is inexplicably not that interested in shooting. That's the improvement I'd like to see most. Maybe some added muscle helps his confidence in that regard though.

Seriously. How many wide open spot up threes have we seen him pass up only to shoot it off the dribble. Drove me crazy most of the season.

Sometimes guys are much more comfortable shooting off the dribble. Ogs is the exact opposite.

Really? I had no idea. Huh.

 

[Slidewilly]

I know: TL, DR. Nevertheless...

The home conference season and the finish to the season were both the most disappointing I can recall. Something like I’d imagine repeated sledge-hammer blows to the gut would feel. In some ways it’s hard to generate much optimism for next season when you’re still reeling from how this one finished, but that’s what fans do. We’re wrong at least as often as often as we’re right, but hey, whatya gonna do?

There are two ways to look at our player losses from this season. If you look at it from the perspective of the first third-plus of the season and throw in the Michigan game at home, we’re losing a lot. Marble frequently carried us and Mel had some outstanding games. Even Zach often played well in that stretch.

If you look at it from the perspective of how they played down the stretch, we’re losing a lot less. Marble was spotty, Mel wasn’t himself after he got sick, and more than enough has been said about Zach.

I don’t look at the returning players and assume we’re screwed because some of them also didn’t play well down the stretch. Many of them also all played very well at times, and they have the chance to improve a lot in the offseason. You also can’t discount the possibility that they and everyone else may have gotten caught up in a bad-chemistry-induced funk for whatever reason, and that could’ve contributed to them not performing as well as they can. Although we didn’t benefit as much from the “experience bump” we might reasonably have expected from last season to this one, there was clear improvement from several of the guys and several also appear to have the capacity to get better.

Every coach and fan in the country probably convinces themselves they have great character and commitment returning on the team and that as a result they’ll improve more than their competitors by the next season, but I do believe we have guys who will work very hard to make the most of the talent they have.

The big challenges I see are (1) learning to play consistent defense throughout the season, (2) shooting better as a team from the field and the line, (3) developing a more consistent and effective half court offense, (4) finding a couple of guys we can go to in the half court to create a shot when nothing else is working, and (5) putting a more athletic team on the floor. Hey, that's not much, right?

To have a chance to get into the real NCAA tournament and not just the pathetic joke of a play-in game, we’re going to need major improvements/contributions from three or more of the following group of relative newcomers and first-year guys: Jok, Uthoff, Dickerson, Uhl, and the guy who takes the last ride, if there is one. That may be too much to hope for, but I’m going to hope for it because I’m sick of being irrelevant when March rolls around.

I agree with those who say we also need improvement from our head coach on a lot of fronts if the general trajectory of the program is going to remain upward.

 

[Hawk4Life25]

Too early to look ahead to what Big Ten might look like next year?

Michigan--Morgan graduates and Stauskas likely turns pro. GR III--hard to see him going pro. McGary also likely to return.
Wisconsin--Brust is the only notable Sr to graduate--
Michigan State--Appling and Payne graduate, Harris likely goes pro--not a great recruiting class coming in
Nebrantska-no major graduations, Petteway only a soph
Ohio State-graduate Craft and Smith Jr.---roster will be full of seniors next year and Matta has a nice recruiting class coming in...
Minnesota-Austin Hollins and Malik Smith graduate--recruiting class nothing special...
Illinois--Bertrand and Ekey graduate-recruiting class is a couple of decent post players
Indiana-Sheehey and Gordon graduate, Yogi and Vonleh likely going pro--couple of four star kids coming in
Penn State--Frazier gone, Newbill stick around or go pro?
NW--Crawford gone, bringing in a decent recruiting class
Purdue--no major graduations but I think Hammons turns pro--5 recruits coming in

New guys...
Rutgers--lose two seniors and have a crappy recruiting class
Maryland-no major graduations--not sure if anyone leaves early--very nice recruiting class coming in

 

[Mo T]

Seriously. How many wide open spot up threes have we seen him pass up only to shoot it off the dribble. Drove me crazy most of the season.

Sometimes guys are much more comfortable shooting off the dribble. Ogs is the exact opposite.

Really? I had no idea. Huh.

Then why would it drive you crazy to see him pass it up?

 

[FrodoTBaggin]

I don't have the patience to catch your drool in a cup today, Mo.

 

[ClintWalker]

Gaining some weight and strength is only going to benefit Uthoff. every ounce of weight he can put on, he needs to. He's never, ever going to get too bulky for his frame and he'll always look like a stick but whatever he can put on, he should. It's only going to help his quickness and explosiveness, not hinder.

I don't know....I have seen people that were really skinny end up pretty bulky. You never know.

 

[Hawkeye_Pierce]

You can take this with a grain of salt but someone I know is tight with the staff at Valley and they've kept in close contact with Jok throughout the season. Supposedly, Marble and Zach were abusive pricks and weren't well liked. This doesn't explain the collapse and it could be bullshit, but maybe it will be a case of addition by subtraction. And maybe there was something to the rumors (same source) that Gessell and Marble had an especially bad relationship.

In any case, I'm ready to turn the page on this season. They can't hurt us anymore...

 

[douglasbader]

The big challenges I see are (1) learning to play consistent defense throughout the season, (2) shooting better as a team from the field and the line, (3) developing a more consistent and effective half court offense, (4) finding a couple of guys we can go to in the half court to create a shot when nothing else is working, and (5) putting a more athletic team on the floor.

I think (1) will improve with Marble, Basabe and McCabe gone. They were all pretty bad on that end of the court and collectively Iowa should be improved while actually having more length and quickness. White, Olaseni and Jok must improve their awareness.

The (2) point was improved for the most part this year and I think will get better next year. I think Oglesby, Jok, Gesell, Uthoff will all be pretty good from the outside.

I have no fear of Marble leaving, so I think that (3) will improve with a quicker PG and (4) will be taken care of by Jok and Uthoff. The biggest thing again is getting a PG that can do to other teams what they do to us. Iowa doesn't need a guy who can get his own shot, they need a guy who can get the players we have easy baskets or set up to score.

Iowa will be more athletic next year by removing McCabe's 15 minutes per game, getting Dickerson and playing Olaseni more.

 

[ClintWalker]

Shouldn't White have already seen his big strength gains?

He has gotten stronger, but he is a lanky guy who will take time to grow into himself and his schedule has likely caused him to stall out.

Looking forward to these guys having a solid, uninterrupted off-season on campus this year. There are a lot of young guys who can really improve.

Woodbury - Continue to add strength and size. Think he will make some huge gains.
White - should add some significant strength and work on his post game.
Jok - will get a lot bigger, stronger and more athletic. I think he can and will have a Caris Levertt type of impact from year to year.
Olaseni - will continue to get stronger and be able to finish much better next year

I think those guys will be the most significant weight room improvement. Other guys need to work on their game, athleticism or don't have the body type to really make some huge strides by lifting.

Uthoff - I think he can get a lot stronger, but he is never going to get a lot bigger and doesn't have to. He should't be trying to add too much weight to slow him down, he just needs strength.

Gesell - while finishing at the rim is an issue, he needs to concentrate on fixing his jumper and becoming a knock down shooter. Learn to feed the post.

Clemmons - needs to get quicker and better at breaking people down off the dribble and hitting his jumper

Oglesby - Fran needs to get tough on him and he should lose 15 pounds. The shot and confidence improved, now he needs to get quicker.

Meyer - who gives a shit

These things would be good, but a PG that can slash to the basket (and finish) and distribute the ball would be the best medicine for this team.

 

[Hawkstrat]

I have trouble seeing Marble being abusive, and McCabe either really. Jok was the first player to tweet support of McCabe after the 'suck a fat one' incident, so it seems McCabe was well liked, despite being garbage for most of the conference season.

 

[FrodoTBaggin]

Yeah, I think that's another retarded rumor.

 

[Revolver]

Not trying to single you out, Pierce...but when people hear these rumors do they ever stop and think about how fucking stupid they are before posting them on Halo?

 

[Ben Kenobi]

Fran should demand that his players spend their offseason with Chris Doyle.

 

[Ben Kenobi]

Gregg Doyel with a nice article on Fran and his son. Doyel is a douche, but this is a nice effort at least.

Kamala says he didn't deserve to win.

Doyel penned a "Part 2" to the article including Kirk Ferentz. Apparently he couldn't fit this extra story into the original without it being somewhat of a digression. Glad to have him add it, though. We have some good people at Iowa. Their teams (and they) frustrate the hell out of me sometimes, but it's nice to have them there.

 

[Ben Kenobi]

The guys that could really swing it would be White finally hitting around 35% and possibly Dickerson hitting around that. Excited to have a quick, penetrating guard for next year. It was maddening watching almost every other team have quick guards that would tear us apart.

Saw a tweet about White only taking ~13% of Iowa's shots this year, and Marble had almost 200 more shot attempts than White. Crazy.

Did you see his attempts last night? Unless it's a runout or a backdoor lob, the fucker is totally discombobulated.

I addressed that subsequently in the thread, and I agree with you. Don't cherry pick.

 

[douglasbader]

Jok got 15 minutes or more playing time 7 times this season. He never scored below double figures and was 29-54 in those games. If you extend that out to whenever he had double figure minutes in a game, he still shot above 50% overall from the field and 40% from three.

That at least tells me when Jok gets steady minutes in the flow of the game (and I realize some of them were not good opponents and happened in garbage time) he is an efficient scorer and a good shooter. Like anyone, he struggled when thrown into a game cold, was asked to fire up a couple shots and then sat for the rest of the game.

He is going to be a very, very good player and I think better than Marble when he is done.

 

[douglasbader]

The other encouraging thing is how Fran went out of his way to give Jok more minutes at the end of the year after not playing him for most of the Big Ten season. It tells me that Fran realizes that Jok is good and has a skill set that Iowa needs and that will translate into a ton of minutes next year. I think he gets 20 minutes per game and is a 10 or 12 points per game scorer with games where he gets hot and has 25 or 30.

 

[Slidewilly]

As an aside, TOS is an absolute zoo today.

 

[valp0]

As an aside, TOS is an absolute zoo today.

 

[Hawkeye_Pierce]

Not trying to single you out, Pierce...but when people hear these rumors do they ever stop and think about how fucking stupid they are before posting them on Halo?

I'm not sure I've ever posted a rumor before. It was something that was mentioned to me and it's more than likely bull shit.

 

[Slidewilly]

I think Jok is more of a natural alpha dog than Marble. Marble should've been held back a year before starting school, but even that probably wouldn't have changed his personality much. I'm sure he's a great kid, but he's not a natural-born killer like the old man was.

 

[douglasbader]

As an aside, TOS is an absolute zoo today.

I went over and looked.

-There is a 46 post thread from some idiot hoping White will be a graduate transfer and leave the program
- A serious poll to ask if Fran is on the hot seat and should be fired

 

[The Dad]

Saw a tweet about White only taking ~13% of Iowa's shots this year, and Marble had almost 200 more shot attempts than White. Crazy.

Did you see his attempts last night? Unless it's a runout or a backdoor lob, the fucker is totally discombobulated.

I addressed that subsequently in the thread, and I agree with you. Don't cherry pick.

I wish White would cherry pick.

 

[douglasbader]

Iowa has a much more favorable Big Ten schedule next year. They only play Michigan and Michigan State (at home) once. No long road trip to Maryland or New York either. Indiana, Penn State and Purdue are on the road, but they should be the same or worse next year. Get to have some revenge at home against Illinois.

The non-conference schedule is pretty exciting. You have a early season highly publicized ESPN tournament at Madison Square Garden where you get to play at least 2 of Texas, California or Syracuse. They get to play Iowa State at home, UNI in Des Moines and the Big Ten/ACC Challenge likely at Pitt, NC State, Miami or even North Carolina.

That is a much improved schedule with 4 or 5 games against potential Top 30 competition with 3 of them being on the road or at a neutral site. As long as they don't completely fuck up the rest of the non-conference by scheduling sub-250 teams, the RPI should be through the roof.

 

[Berzerkenpas]

rpi won't be an issue

 

[Match34]

Plus with the way Iowa crashed and burned this year, the pollsters won't be so anxious to rank them highly. Or to rank them at all. That will buy the team a little extra time to fly under the radar.

 

[douglasbader]

We aren't going to have to wait very long to see if this team is worth a shit. They are going to be thrown in the fire right away.

 

[Slidewilly]

I'd like to be in the room when the staff talks about scheduling. I hope they break the pattern of packing the home non-con schedule with chaff, but I'll believe it when I see it.

I think this season will prove to have done some damage on the margins for ticket demand. I don't think we're talking about guaranteed sellouts for a lot of games. For a variety of reasons they need to start offering a more respectable home non-con slate. I don't know what's prevented them from doing it in the past (the usual issue is the unwillingness of the HM conference team to play home-and-home or insistence on two-for-1's with teams that aren't chopped liver), but they need to find a way to get past that.

 

[Slidewilly]

Buh-bye, Craft--you fuck.

 

[douglasbader]

I think Fran is stubborn and too loyal, but I also don't think he is stupid. He knows that messing around and never settling on a rotation hurt him this year, and my guess is he won't make the same mistake again.

 

[douglasbader]

I'd like to be in the room when the staff talks about scheduling. I hope they break the pattern of packing the home non-con schedule with chaff, but I'll believe it when I see it.

I think this season will prove to have done some damage on the margins for ticket demand. I don't think we're talking about guaranteed sellouts for a lot of games. For a variety of reasons they need to start offering a more respectable home non-con slate. I don't know what's prevented them from doing it in the past (the usual issue is the unwillingness of the HM conference team to play home-and-home or insistence on two-for-1's with teams that aren't chopped liver), but they need to find a way to get past that.

You need to be realistic about this. Iowa isn't Michigan State or Kentucky and can't afford to play that type of schedule. You need at least 7 or 8 guaranteed wins at home and the non-conference is only 12 or 13 games at the most.

If Iowa is already playing UNI, Iowa State, Texas/California, Syracuse and a high level team in the Big Ten/ACC Challenge, then you can't really pack in any more dangerous teams. That is 5 potential losses, so you need 7 cupcakes. The whole issue is make sure the cupcakes are ranked in the 150 range instead of sub 250.

 

[CamelTones]

I wouldn't mind a home and home with a team like UMASS or Dayton. They don't have to schedule schools like Okie State etc. just a decent team every now and then.

 

[Match34]

I do think it would be awesome to talk about how UNI doesn't deserve a home and home with Iowa and then turn around and schedule one with Dayton.

 

[Mo T]

I do think it would be awesome to talk about how UNI doesn't deserve a home and home with Iowa and then turn around and schedule one with Dayton.

This.

 

[douglasbader]

I wouldn't mind a home and home with a team like UMASS or Dayton. They don't have to schedule schools like Okie State etc. just a decent team every now and then.

What is the incentive?

 

[roseboundhawk]

I wouldn't mind a home and home with a team like UMASS or Dayton. They don't have to schedule schools like Okie State etc. just a decent team every now and then.

What is the incentive?

We don't have to watch another 100-55 game at carver against maryland eastern shore.