Kentucky definitely deserved to lose that one. They have no offense what so ever and if it wasn't for Rekalin Sims' offense spark last night, Iowa would have blown us off the floor. On offense, we have to find a way to get Patrick Sparks going; Iowa was double teaming almost everytime down the court, so he was really having trouble finding his stroke. And how about Rajon Rondo's 19 rebounds! It's pretty sad that our PG is the only one that can rebound the dang ball. Until we get Morris back, Rondo will have to keep picking uo the slack and keep rebounding... But anyways, congrats to Iowa; they should be a real contender in the Big 10 this season, IMO. Welp, I we got WVU in the consolation game tonight at 7:00 on ESPNU.
Speaking of Rondo, that was his only bright spot of the game. He couldn't make a shot all game because of Iowa's defense. Only shot 1/9 and his only field goal came with about 5 minutes left in the game. This definitely won't be a shooting night he'll want to remember any time soon. Anyways, it was a good game in general. Very defensive oriented, as neither team could really ever get anything going offensively. If it wasn't for Mike Henderson and Greg Brunner, the Hawks wouldn't have done too much either. Those two really saved the Hawkeyes offensive game because neither Haluska or Horner did well last night. Nevertheless though, this is a big win for the Hawks, showing they can beat a top 10 team, and this should give them confidence going into tonights game against Texas.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting Voodoo Child:</div><div class="quote_post">Not to rub anything in, because West Virginia lost, but surely you've got to see both Texas and West Virginia in a whole new light after this game. Texas was right in the palm of West Virginia's hand at the end, but they just choked under the pressure. It could have very easily been a West Virginia win. I'm still sticking by my prediction of Iowa over Texas. The Hawkeyes looked horrible shooting the ball and had a lot of opportunities to take a commanding lead and blew them, yet they still came out with the victory over #7 ranked Kentucky. That's impressive. There's no way they'll shoot as bad as they did tonight against Kentucky when they face Texas. BTW - Welcome back CUSA! Long time no see; are you going to have time to get back to posting again?</div> Welp, I'm sure going to try School's been taking up a lot of time. If you ever seen me on AIM, I'm probably doing school work...
Kentucky won the consolation game over West Virginia by a final score of 80-66. Patrick Sparks went off by going 7-11 from beyond the arc for 25 points, he also had 7 assists to go with that. Rondo put up another double-double with 15 points and 11 boards. The 2-3 zone that UK played really shut the WVU guards down and they shot a dismal 10-37(27%) from beyond the arc. We had no answer for Pittsnogle who had 27 points, but I was very proud of how we shut down their guards. I know we lost a very tough game last night against a solid Iowa team, but coming out of the tourney with a win over a top 15 team really does feel good!
Iowa is playing well against Texas right now and they are leading by 7 at halftime with a score of 31-24. Adam Haluska scored 15 of Iowa's first 19 points and has been the key player in this game. This game looks as if it will come down to the wire since both team's are playing very hard. Although this game is nowhere near as exciting as MSU vs. Gonzaga, it's still a good game between two Top 20 teams.
Is it just me or are Texas and Daniel Gibson both tremendously overrated? I was impressed with Gibson in his freshman year, but I never really considered him a top five point guard like most people because his point guard skills are really off. Decision making, court vision, unselfishness - haven't seen any of those traits in Gibson so far against Iowa. Did anyone else see him nail Lamarcus Aldridge in the back on a fastbreak? First of all, don't give it to Aldridge on the fastbreak when he's just as far down the court as you are and one of your wings is practically all the way down at the basket. Second of all, make sure he knows the ball's coming to him. Horrible decision making...
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting Voodoo Child:</div><div class="quote_post">Is it just me or are Texas and Daniel Gibson both tremendously overrated?</div> Ummm...yeah, I must agree with both statements. Gibson doesn't seem to have the skills to play PG from what i've seen; he had 9 turnovers last night, but made up for it with solid shooting. That description sounds a lot like a SG if you ask me... Either Texas is overrated, or Iowa is just that good...but either way, Texas hasn't played like the #2 team in the country so far...
Texas is overrated every year. I can't wait till they lost to Baylor or something this year and everyone can get off the damn bandwagon
Iowa held it's own last night from what I saw. Had the lead a good part of the game, but just couldn't hold it together in the second half. Haluska really slowed down after his hot start, as he ended up with only 23 in the game. What really hurt the Hawks was that, outside of Haluska, the offense was horrid. Horner only had 9 pts on 2/12 shooting, Brunner only had 6 off 2/11, and Henderson was held to 2 off of 0/2 with both his points coming from the line. If the Hawks are going to contend this year and live up to their expectations for a change, they really need everyone to give contributions. They can't have just one player show up each night and expect to win. In the last couple games, only one of their big three has really shown up, against Kentucky it was Brunner, last night it was Haluska. They really need to get all three of them going if they're going to be successful this year. Beyond that, they need consistent contributions from Henderson and the rest of the supporting cast. Last night, they got solid contributions from Thomas, but that was all. He was the only other guy in double figures. More people need to step up. The Hawks won't have a lot of success this year if they don't get more out of Horner, Haluska, and Brunner on a consistent basis. However, it is still early in the season, and despite inconsistency, the Hawks have proven to be (at least so far), as good as advertised, as they did knock off a good Kentucky team, and took a good, even though overrated, Texas team to the limit. Hopefully the Hawks can get everything going, that way they can show their true potential.
