Iowa State 77, Mississippi Valley State 59
by CrossCyed
on Nov 29, 2008 3:06 PM CST
in Basketball
Well, for about 30 minutes of that game, I thought we were in serious danger of losing to Mississippi freaking Valley freaking State.
The first half, the threes were simply not dropping for Iowa State, which isn't a good thing when you're struggling to get your inside game going. Of course, MVSU hasn't shown they can defend any shots, especially twos, all year, so the itchy trigger finger from behind the arc had me a bit confused. Of course, the amount of three pointers we take is a fundamental difference between the coaching staff and myself.
Our defense wasn't a big issue today. Allow 59 points and you should win every time (and McDermott is something like 20-0 at ISU when allowing fewer than 60 points....that should happen).
The offense, however, will live and freakin die by the three point basket. Just under half of our shots (24 of 53) were from behind the arc. Somehow, some way, we hit 11 3's, seven of which came in the second half.
This team is going to be frustrating to watch all year long. We'll lose games we shouldn't. We'll likely win games that we shouldn't.
Hopefully, Jamie Vanderbeken and Justin Hamilton can team up to provide some post support down low, as we've been faring pretty badly in the paint for a team that has, in Craig Brackins, a pretty good threat under the basket. In an ideal world, we could get 10 points a game from each of those guys.
Hamilton is intriguing in that you can see he's got potential. Maybe he'll find a game where it clicks, because I've ben impressed by his positioning and movement on the block all year, as well as his defense. If he continues to improve, he'll be a valuable post player, hopefully sooner rather than later.
Hopefully, we can figure out how to balance our offense sometime soon. The Northern Iowa game will be a very tough game for this team (McDermott is 0-7 versus the MVC at ISU, 49-48 in his career), and could have an impact on such a young team. A loss at UNI wouldn't be a killer (to what, our CBI hopes?), but we have to prove that we can beat them. I don't care that it's his alma mater or the fact that it's the last team he coached. We're sure as hell not paying our coaching staff to lose to UNI. Hopefully, that has stopped.
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I agree this team will live and die by the three which could get us some nice upset wins when they get hot. I don’t like the fact we didn’t just pound the ball inside more against a much weaker front court.
I like’d Hamilton today, he reminds me of a young Homan. Kind of raw skills, but a big body that can muscle around the basket on rebounds and defense. He could be a nice compliment to Brackins in the paint, doing the dirty work so Craig doesn’t get in foul trouble.
While Staiger was hitting shots today, he had good looks and none of the shots missed by much. He’ll definetely have some 20 point games this year.
Our backcourt carried us today with Garrets penetration and Peterson’s knack for long rebounds and timely shots.
It still eats at my soul how much better this team would be if Johnson had stayed. Especially with our new shooters spreading defenses he’d have a great year.
by McBlog on Nov 29, 2008 4:40 PM CST 0 recs
Hamilton
is a bigger body than Homan, and I think his progression could take him farther.
I wish we weren’t so perimeter oriented. But that’s a person preference.
by CrossCyed on
Nov 29, 2008 4:55 PM CST
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Not feeling Hamilton today.
I didn’t really think Hamilton looked that good out there today. He’s still pretty raw and can be clumsy. He didn’t do well on the defensive end and McDermott kept talking to him about that.
You gotta get past the whole WJ thing. We’d be much better at rebounding and scoring but what can you do? We’re better off in the long run without him if he didn’t want to be here.
by mplscyclone on
Nov 29, 2008 4:56 PM CST
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