February 7th, 2021 at 2:26 PM ^
IU sweeps Iowa, helps their resume for sure.
February 7th, 2021 at 3:55 PM ^
A .500 B1G record isn’t getting in the Tournament.
February 7th, 2021 at 4:26 PM ^
You sure about that? Minnesota is most likely a tournament team and has a sub-.500 B1G record at the moment. Indiana certainly still has work to do, also with a sub-.500 B1G record, but they have been projected into most tournament brackets that I've seen. Rutgers is only one game over .500 and will likely finish right around a .500 record; they're most likely a tournament team as well. Maryland sits on the bubble at the moment, but a few more upset wins on their resume and they will make the tournament with a sub-.500 B1G record. Hell, even Iowa might finish the season around .500 in the B1G, are they not a tournament team?
February 7th, 2021 at 4:35 PM ^
We had a .500 B1G record last year and would have gotten in. The league is tough.
February 7th, 2021 at 4:50 PM ^
How awesome would it be to get 8 or 9 BIG teams in the tourney - and Sparty (the #4 team in the country earlier this year) not being one of them!
Maybe they will get a rematch w Duke in the NIT finals...
February 7th, 2021 at 6:04 PM ^
CBI final.
February 7th, 2021 at 2:26 PM ^
Good for us, but this is really showing how weak of a coach Fran is. He's got a talented, experienced team with the likely NPOY and they're collapsing down the stretch again.
February 7th, 2021 at 2:41 PM ^
One of the MGoOverlords was promoting Fran for B10 coach of the year. That’s not happening now. He’s been out-coached by Archie (is it Archie?) Miller twice now.
February 7th, 2021 at 2:53 PM ^
sitting garza the final 7-8 minutes of the first half with two fouls and a comfortable lead likely cost them the game. he ended up with 2 fouls. if he plays 4-5 more min, they likely win.
February 7th, 2021 at 2:53 PM ^
Sitting that NPOY for like 12 minutes may not have been his best move.
February 7th, 2021 at 3:16 PM ^
About as bad as the Packers kicking a field goal.
February 7th, 2021 at 3:41 PM ^
And hiring Joe Barry
February 7th, 2021 at 3:44 PM ^
Almost as bad as sitting Trey Burk down for 15 minutes during the NCAA championship game. Thanks Beilein.
February 7th, 2021 at 4:12 PM ^
Well there was this kid named Spike who scored 17 during that time.
If Garza's replacement had played similarly, that'd be another story.
February 7th, 2021 at 9:23 PM ^
The block was clean, and so was the team!
February 7th, 2021 at 2:27 PM ^
Incredible that Iowa managed to lose that game. Terrible offensive performance, Garza sitting a lot in the first half didn't help. Some credit to IU's D but mostly it was Iowa sucking.
February 7th, 2021 at 2:28 PM ^
Garza sure not playing like the POY lately.
February 7th, 2021 at 3:49 PM ^
The nation crowned that guy in November when he was pounding baby seals.
February 7th, 2021 at 4:31 PM ^
He's good. He dropped 30 on Gonzaga. But even he can't overcome Franbruary.
February 7th, 2021 at 2:28 PM ^
Did you see the talking heads after the game? One of them—Hummel?—said he watched the game and STILL didn't know how Indiana won.
February 7th, 2021 at 2:33 PM ^
Iowa is 5-4 in 2021–they may not be that good.
February 7th, 2021 at 3:27 PM ^
That’s what I was thinking. Maybe just not as good as everyone thought.
February 7th, 2021 at 4:53 PM ^
They are very good. So is rest of the BIG. Have never seen this conference so strong and deep. I am sure the 13th place Spartys would agree...
February 7th, 2021 at 5:33 PM ^
They’re in 12th now thanks to 2 wins over Nebraska
February 7th, 2021 at 2:34 PM ^
Yep, McCaffrey is leading his team on its annual descent of doing the least with the most. Ever wonder how a team can have a starter who plays 24 minutes a game, averages less than 4 points a game and has shooting splits of 34/27/55 (which is a lot of the reason he averages 3.7 points a game)? Oh, yeah...because his name is Colin McCaffrey. Of course, Fran's other kid came off the bench today to pump in 0 of 5 shots from the field. Go Hawks!
February 7th, 2021 at 2:36 PM ^
Pump in 0 of 5...haha.
February 7th, 2021 at 4:27 PM ^
Firing blanks
February 7th, 2021 at 2:43 PM ^
Patrick will be a really good player but yes...watching Connor most of the time is so annoying. Someone else on that bench just has to be able to do things a hair better than what he offers.
February 7th, 2021 at 2:55 PM ^
I'll grant the possibility of his eventually being a good player, but a REALLY good player? Right now, he's not even the best freshman on the team.
February 7th, 2021 at 11:23 PM ^
Yes, my guess is that kid is pretty legit. Yes, Kenyon Murray is playing quite well for a freshman but as a 3-4 year player, I'm projecting Patrick to be all-Big10 caliber.
February 7th, 2021 at 2:56 PM ^
well, with the covid rule, i wouldn't be surprised if they all come back again...even garza. lol.
February 7th, 2021 at 3:11 PM ^
And their defense will still be pathetic!
February 7th, 2021 at 2:35 PM ^
I've always thought iowa would benefit greatly if their players had a camp Sanderson. They always look out of shape to me.
February 7th, 2021 at 3:10 PM ^
Take note from their wrestling team. (This take may be dating myself 10 or 15 years.)
February 7th, 2021 at 3:17 PM ^
I’m not sure whether they’re out of shape or not, but that team desperately lacks athleticism. No speed/springiness in their entire starting five
February 7th, 2021 at 11:07 PM ^
Good point. None of them ever seem to look particularly ripped.
February 7th, 2021 at 2:37 PM ^
Iowa has one job now: beat osu
February 7th, 2021 at 2:37 PM ^
Illinois looks like the biggest threat remaining when Michigan starts playing again. They beat Iowa, then beat Wisconsin by 15. They still have to play OSU, but outside of that their remaining schedule is pretty easy.
A 2 game lead on them might be enough, but they're right there.
February 7th, 2021 at 2:57 PM ^
Illini still have to go to Minneapolis. They crushed the Gophers the first time around, but then so did U-M.
February 8th, 2021 at 11:05 AM ^
After that Minnesota win, they're 0-3 with losses to Maryland, Purdue, and Rutgers. They're struggling right now.
February 7th, 2021 at 2:40 PM ^
Iowa has really been missing CJ Frederick lately. He's been hurt and though he's gotten in a few games now it's been spot duty and he's clearly ailing. Now, no, the team with the NPOY shouldn't likely be losing this many games lately. However, we saw what losing one player can do recently and it didn't go well at all. We missed him defensively and we missed his floor spacing. Frederick is one of the best shooters in the country and Iowa's spacing misses him dearly ( I think he may be decent defensively as well but on an Iowa team that isn't saying much).
February 7th, 2021 at 2:41 PM ^
Does Fran know that he's allowed to coach the defense too? All he needed was like a top 70 defense this year to be a top 10 team and the defense is even worse
February 7th, 2021 at 2:42 PM ^
It's baffled me that ever since we went out and got a defensive coach and saw how huge that can payoff, that McCaffrey hasn't done the same over the last 3-4 years. It's pathetic.
February 7th, 2021 at 3:02 PM ^
Absolutely. It also comes from your top players. Garza is never going to be a good defender but he's not particularly active or engaged on that end, and you have to assume that trickles down to the rest of the team. I think the reason it worked with Yaklich and Beilein is that he had guys like Simpson, Matthews, Teske, Wagner, etc. who were good players but who also tried on defense and bought into the principles. Heck, Duncan Robinson was as bad a defender as we had seen when he started at UM and toward the end was a plus defender against most guys. Fran probably can't recruit a Matthews or Simpson-type athlete but his whole team seems to just be rushing back to shoot the ball.
February 7th, 2021 at 3:12 PM ^
Sure, Iowa doesn't have the best athletes, but they could 100% be taught better team defense or have a scheme to make them at least passable. Iowa's defense was #130 prior to this game and moved up to #121 after a loss to Indiana. They're that bad
February 7th, 2021 at 9:06 PM ^
This is spot on. When you're top player is terrible at D, it's hard for the others to rise, knowing how weak that link is.
February 7th, 2021 at 2:52 PM ^
Ah yes, just checked the calendar - it's Franbruary.
February 7th, 2021 at 2:53 PM ^
I know Brian and others really like Fran's offense but this season looks exactly like every other Iowa season under him, where they can score a lot early on and then teams figure out how to slow them down a bit and their defense can't step up.
I can't tell if he's a bad coach or just an average one who sets higher expectations than are reasonable, but this was a top-5 team nationally a couple weeks ago that's a late comeback against MSU away from losing 5 in a row.
February 7th, 2021 at 2:54 PM ^
IU should have beat Illinois.
February 7th, 2021 at 3:05 PM ^
so were gonna win the big ten without playing any games? i dig it!