Great win against NW - no concerns

IowaCityLit

All-Conference
Aug 30, 2025
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Coming back from the west coast, a little sluggish, against a feisty team embarassed their last game. NW has been similarly competitive against good teams. Ran into a buzz saw against Illinois.

Win and move on. Getting much closer to becoming a tourney lock in year one under BM.
 

Kirbs

Senior
Jan 8, 2023
156
434
63
This game had the perfect recipe for an upset, including that freshman guard for NW who was averaging 3.5 points/game and didn’t miss a shot until the end of the game. Meanwhile, Iowa’s supporting cast wasn’t really playing well. Thank goodness Stirtz was wearing a jersey with Iowa on the front.
 
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IowaCityLit

All-Conference
Aug 30, 2025
925
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I think fans need to accept that after the top 5teams there isn’t a big talent gap between 6-18. Iowa , Wisky, IU, UCLA talent isn’t that much better than NW or Rutgers or Penn State. Iowa has talent but not really anyone who can just create offense individually except for BS who doesn’t exactly ooze athleticism. They have system talent. And they’re extremely well coached. But a lot of good coaches in the B10. Be ecstatic with the win and move on.
 

DukeSlater

All-Conference
Jul 2, 2023
1,770
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A 2 win B10 team that we blew another big lead against on our home floor. I wish I shared your optimism.
I guess you haven't been watching much basketball. Purdue eked out a 68-64 win over Oregon @ West Lafayette a few days ago, and today USC hit a layup at the end of OT to nip Penn State. The worst teams in the BIG aren't bad. They are inconsistent. When things fall just so, they can get blown out. When things falls their way, they can take you to the wire, but they'll usually lose anyway.

And in the women's game, Minnesota shot 77% from three and beat Iowa a couple days ago 91-85. Today, Minnesota played @ a woeful Rutgers team, shot like 30%, and won 64-53. And one of Minnesota's stars who went wild against Iowa was 0-10 from the field today.

That's why they play the games.
 

TailgateTom

All-Conference
Oct 6, 2003
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I guess you haven't been watching much basketball. Purdue eked out a 68-64 win over Oregon @ West Lafayette a few days ago, and today USC hit a layup at the end of OT to nip Penn State. The worst teams in the BIG aren't bad. They are inconsistent. When things fall just so, they can get blown out. When things falls their way, they can take you to the wire, but they'll usually lose anyway.

And in the women's game, Minnesota shot 77% from three and beat Iowa a couple days ago 91-85. Today, Minnesota played @ a woeful Rutgers team, shot like 30%, and won 64-53. And one of Minnesota's stars who went wild against Iowa was 0-10 from the field today.

That's why they play the games.
Watching lots of basketball
 

RoseBowlorBust

Heisman
Jan 4, 2019
4,708
10,211
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Coming back from the west coast, a little sluggish, against a feisty team embarassed their last game. NW has been similarly competitive against good teams. Ran into a buzz saw against Illinois.

Win and move on. Getting much closer to becoming a tourney lock in year one under BM.
I am 💯 in this camp. NW a desperate team I was concerned about and got the win. Beat Maryland!
 

Matt1nb7

Senior
Mar 29, 2024
375
980
93
Ok.. but Shelstad didn’t play so it doesn’t matter that he was out for a month possibly making their metrics worse. It doesn’t need to be a ranking representing him if he didn’t play.
If you drop the games Bittle didn’t play Barttorvik still has NW higher by a few slots.. I understand games aren’t played on a computer though.
 

Hawksfor3

All-American
Dec 5, 2016
5,216
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i’m also bummed about this team…i don’t see them cracking elite 8 ceiling

:)
 

IowaCityLit

All-Conference
Aug 30, 2025
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Slow starts are a concern. Ben started his press conference saying so.
I think sometimes this can be a result of tempo. Iowa is close to the bottom of temp metrics. They need to be executing really well early on in the half court. Just not a lot of opportunities for fast break points or generating offense off turnovers early.
 
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TampaHawkFan

All-Conference
Aug 6, 2025
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Big ten is a grind even at home at times, just win and move on to next game, not every game is going to be 15 point win
I found myself wondering if this Iowa team is playing better on the road than they are at home, for whatever reason. They've had some big road wins, but seemed to come out a little flat at home in some games, don't shoot it well and so on (Rutgers, USC, Today, etc.).
 

RuggieC

Senior
Mar 30, 2014
380
782
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I just think we need a few more offensive sets for someone behind BS. Also Early in the game our guys looked so tentative on offense. They would drive halfway to the hole and stop. It was an awkward offense. Love these guys but beyond Bennett they need to step up and believe in themselves. Hell…I do!
 

uihawk82

All-Conference
Nov 17, 2021
2,283
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I just think we need a few more offensive sets for someone behind BS. Also Early in the game our guys looked so tentative on offense. They would drive halfway to the hole and stop. It was an awkward offense. Love these guys but beyond Bennett they need to step up and believe in themselves. Hell…I do!
Banks needs to be that other guy on the floor I think and he has shown spurts of really good play, injury has maybe slowed him down
 
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