Mentally? I don't know if this game was a hangover from the B1G championship, but its hard to get past these are their two worst games all year back to back, when you consider the total lack of production. NOT a good time of the year to look like they had NO idea what the heck they were doing on offense most of the game.
*****FDU vs Iowa NCAAT Game Thread*****
- Thread starter QChawks
- Start date
bench would be irrelevant if you could count on starters. But you can only count on 1So much for the concerns about when to put in the deep bench....
i don’t know what the point is you’re making. Except that it seems silly.
Not reading all of the threads, but Jan might need to read an ancient quote from a pretty successful coach from Iowa Fn City....... Scratch Where It Itches! If they can't stop Ava, why quit trying??? The whole,"They were trying to get others in the flow, gain confidence, etc." excuse isn't cutting it at this time of the season. Step on their throat early, let the starters rest, let the backups get in the flow in a positive way, get the W, and advance. Done.
Their coach was fired by St Joe's due to a sexual harassment issue with her husband and the players--and she retaliated against the players for reporting it.
She was also forced to resign from Fordham for being an abusive coach. She left abruptly one week before summer practice started. Many many players had filed complaints.
I'd be surprised, and pretty disappointed, if a B1G team hired her.
Though maybe Nebraska would hire her
Her elbow is still injured
She did have 16 rebounds, 4 assists, 2 steals and a block to go with her 13 pts
She’s also in her 60’s.Their coach was fired by St Joe's due to a sexual harassment issue with her husband and the players--and she retaliated against the players for reporting it.
She was also forced to resign from Fordham for being an abusive coach. She left abruptly one week before summer practice started. Many many players had filed complaints.
I'd be surprised, and pretty disappointed, if a B1G team hired her.
Though maybe Nebraska would hire her
Well that certainly explains it lol! Thanks for sharing that. And yes, she seems like a good fit for Nebraska if Williams is ever let goTheir coach was fired by St Joe's due to a sexual harassment issue with her husband and the players--and she retaliated against the players for reporting it.
She was also forced to resign from Fordham for being an abusive coach. She left abruptly one week before summer practice started. Many many players had filed complaints.
I'd be surprised, and pretty disappointed, if a B1G team hired her.
Though maybe Nebraska would hire her
I’d be shocked with her colorful past if her current players’ families don’t have their reservations.
It does when you consider Ava had to play 33 minutes in a game where Iowa was favored by 30+.
Ava wasn't tested today on defense. Virginia's center scored 20+.
Ava has to be exhausted playing in that heat...80+ degrees on the court.
They're not getting a week off until the next game.
Please don't tell me you think JJ coached a good game today?
Deal played 12 minutes in the 1st half and did little. Fortunately, JJ figured that out and Deal only played 2 minutes in 2nd half. Two airballs should have been an obvious clue.
JJ isn't helping AD's confidence when she leaves her out there when she's pressing or forcing things.
This isn't as complicated as you think.
Last edited:
Yes Chit Chat started most of the 2nd half of last season including their first round NCAAT game.
After almost upsetting NC State (with Saniya Rivers and Zaza James) in a tremendous game ACC tournament game....
Georgia Tech lost in a very bad showing in the first round of NCAAT to Richmond 74-49. Given that they had Kara Dunn, Dani Carnegie, Tonie Morgan, and Chat--it was not a good showing. They were a #9 seed.
Chat played 33 minutes. Was 2-7 from the field. I think 0-3 from 3.
Last edited:
I was at the game Center Court, Section A Row 15 behind the players' families. Three more family members were stuck in nosebleed seats, but when the Georgia fans left, we all moved to Section B Row 9. It was hot, but my family, who started in Row 38, said it was suffocating up there.
I think that Iowa has a tough time against scrappy little teams when games are called loosely. Ava had someone virtually trying to knock her over the whole game inside, but nothing was called. Not blaming the refs, but that's the kind of game where we underperform.
I gave Claude AI this Prompt: Write a post analyzing Iowa's play against a scrappy little team. Include other games this season against teams that play similarly. Provide that analysis in a format that I can paste into the above forum. The Minnesota upset (91-85 over #10 Iowa at Carver), the Northwestern scare, the UCLA blowout, the guard struggles, and the turnover/three-point defense issues are all confirmed.
Claude's Response:
That game today was uncomfortable, but it wasn't surprising — and that's the more concerning part.
Iowa has shown all season that it has one authentic Achilles heel: quick, guard-heavy teams that play disruptive defense and don't mind chucking threes. FDU fit that profile almost perfectly. They came in averaging 26+ three-point attempts per game and racked up nine steals today. The result was predictable. Iowa's perimeter players were harassed into irrelevance for three quarters, Feuerbach went 0-6, Houston contributed nothing offensively, and the bench combined for two points. Meanwhile we couldn't guard their shooters — 10 made threes against us is a disaster by any measure, especially from a 15 seed.
This isn't a one-game aberration. Look at the pattern this season:
At Northern Iowa in November, a road game against a scrappy MVC team that presses and causes chaos, we needed to grind out a win and it was never comfortable. Minnesota came into Carver in February ranked lower than us, playing with a backcourt that pushes tempo and forces turnovers, and they walked out with a 91-85 upset. Minnesota's defense was allowing only 54.8 points per game, first in the Big Ten, and their guard Grace Grocholski was leading the nation in three-point percentage going in. That's a different flavor of the same problem: Iowa's bigs dominated the paint but the perimeter game collapsed under pressure and we couldn't contain their shooters. Northwestern in January was more of the same — Grace Sullivan put up 28 points against us and we were down to a six-point game late before finishing it off. And then there's the UCLA blowout, which was a worst-case version of what happens when a faster, longer, guard-heavy team commits fully to disrupting our offense before it gets organized.
The common denominator across all of these isn't talent. Ava Heiden is legitimate — she's going to be a problem for anyone. Stuelke's 16 rebounds today tells you who wins the inside battle against every opponent we'll see in this bracket. The problem is structural: this offense has no reliable three-point shooting, which means teams can pack the paint, play physical on the wings, force our guards into bad decisions, and live with the consequences. Iowa shot 1-13 from three today against a team allowing 51 points per game this year. You cannot have that in the tournament.
The free throw shooting (58.6% today) is its own conversation and also not new.
If we get Georgia in the second round — and based on the bracket that's a real possibility — we're going to see the same blueprint. Georgia's coached by former Hawkeye Katie Abrahamson-Henderson and plays a stifling defensive style that has given us trouble before. They're not going to try to outrebound us. They're going to make our guards beat them, the same way FDU did, the same way Minnesota did.
Ava was special today (29 points, 69% shooting, 7-7 from the line) and she literally carried us. The question going forward is whether we can ever build a complete team around what she and Stuelke do, or whether we're going to keep white-knuckling our way through games that shouldn't be close.
I think that Iowa has a tough time against scrappy little teams when games are called loosely. Ava had someone virtually trying to knock her over the whole game inside, but nothing was called. Not blaming the refs, but that's the kind of game where we underperform.
I gave Claude AI this Prompt: Write a post analyzing Iowa's play against a scrappy little team. Include other games this season against teams that play similarly. Provide that analysis in a format that I can paste into the above forum. The Minnesota upset (91-85 over #10 Iowa at Carver), the Northwestern scare, the UCLA blowout, the guard struggles, and the turnover/three-point defense issues are all confirmed.
Claude's Response:
That game today was uncomfortable, but it wasn't surprising — and that's the more concerning part.
Iowa has shown all season that it has one authentic Achilles heel: quick, guard-heavy teams that play disruptive defense and don't mind chucking threes. FDU fit that profile almost perfectly. They came in averaging 26+ three-point attempts per game and racked up nine steals today. The result was predictable. Iowa's perimeter players were harassed into irrelevance for three quarters, Feuerbach went 0-6, Houston contributed nothing offensively, and the bench combined for two points. Meanwhile we couldn't guard their shooters — 10 made threes against us is a disaster by any measure, especially from a 15 seed.
This isn't a one-game aberration. Look at the pattern this season:
At Northern Iowa in November, a road game against a scrappy MVC team that presses and causes chaos, we needed to grind out a win and it was never comfortable. Minnesota came into Carver in February ranked lower than us, playing with a backcourt that pushes tempo and forces turnovers, and they walked out with a 91-85 upset. Minnesota's defense was allowing only 54.8 points per game, first in the Big Ten, and their guard Grace Grocholski was leading the nation in three-point percentage going in. That's a different flavor of the same problem: Iowa's bigs dominated the paint but the perimeter game collapsed under pressure and we couldn't contain their shooters. Northwestern in January was more of the same — Grace Sullivan put up 28 points against us and we were down to a six-point game late before finishing it off. And then there's the UCLA blowout, which was a worst-case version of what happens when a faster, longer, guard-heavy team commits fully to disrupting our offense before it gets organized.
The common denominator across all of these isn't talent. Ava Heiden is legitimate — she's going to be a problem for anyone. Stuelke's 16 rebounds today tells you who wins the inside battle against every opponent we'll see in this bracket. The problem is structural: this offense has no reliable three-point shooting, which means teams can pack the paint, play physical on the wings, force our guards into bad decisions, and live with the consequences. Iowa shot 1-13 from three today against a team allowing 51 points per game this year. You cannot have that in the tournament.
The free throw shooting (58.6% today) is its own conversation and also not new.
If we get Georgia in the second round — and based on the bracket that's a real possibility — we're going to see the same blueprint. Georgia's coached by former Hawkeye Katie Abrahamson-Henderson and plays a stifling defensive style that has given us trouble before. They're not going to try to outrebound us. They're going to make our guards beat them, the same way FDU did, the same way Minnesota did.
Ava was special today (29 points, 69% shooting, 7-7 from the line) and she literally carried us. The question going forward is whether we can ever build a complete team around what she and Stuelke do, or whether we're going to keep white-knuckling our way through games that shouldn't be close.
Ava is what, 19, 20? She'll rest tonight and tomorrow and be just fine by Monday. The best part of youth is being young.
Hope you're correct!
But defensively, she'll have a bigger challenge than today.
You do know that Virginia/Georgia played before this game and Virginia won, right?
Fuerbach quit shooting in the 2nd half she was that bad (and knew it). It was literally 5 vs 4.
Iowa plays Virginia and I worry because teams that come out of the play-in and get on a roll are hard to stop.
Point being every game is different from one to the next. UVA was a last 4 in. My point isn’t that hard. Yes, we played very poorly, but before this we had been playing fantastic to end the season and into the B1G tournament before running into UCLA. I doubt we play that poorly against UVA. We’re 101/2 pt favorites and I think we cover. Lots of overreactions to 1 game. We’ve lost 1 game at Carver this year and I don’t think the 2nd one will be to Virginia.
And their center(s) will probably face their toughest player to guard all season. Outside of Betts, is there any big still in the tournament better (I honestly don't know)?
I know that Virginia won. Claude AI was a little slow on the draw.
Maybe so, but frankly her free throw % was pretty much in line with what it has been much of this year, and her career, so.....
So the 16 rebounds and 13 pts didn’t mean anything?
So YET AGAIN, who should have played Deals minutes? I think Strem must have had two fouls, regardless she also played like crap and had multiple ridiculously bad passes. Kylie was a disaster on offense especially driving or passing, (nothing new there either). Journey had 3 TO's in 4 possessions. CC was not aggressive at all most of the game. Once again you want to single out Deal for her poor play, but not ONE guard played worth a damn. MAYBE, just maybe if the others played better, and the game had some kind of ryhthem Deal wouldn't have to try so hard to force something to happen as NO one not named Ava was doing squat on offense, but lets put it on the freshman when all the more experienced back court players played like crap.
Last edited:
Good post, kind of. You realize before you ever posted this Georgia already lost to Virginia, right?
FDU shot 10-32 beyond the arc and Iowa was 1-13. Wright's average on the season is 48%. Stremlow, Deal and Kylie went a combined 0-8 and Wright went 1-5. Hopefully, that means that Iowa gets hot and shoots above their average from three the next few games.
Where did I say that??? He was responding to her free throw shooting being because her elbow was still hurting. Hence my reply. It has nothing to do with that. We've watched her shoot free throws for 4 years and her form is both horrible and non repeatable from one shot to the next, so you get a 50% free throw shooter if your lucky. And once again the issue popped up where the discussion is do you have to take your best rebounder OUT of a close game because you can't afford for the team to start fouling her in a close game. Its an issue, just as Ben had to pull Cam last night.
So this was actually the West High pep band! And some Northwest Middle School students too.
(They were playing Queen's "Don't Stop Me Now".)
(They were playing Queen's "Don't Stop Me Now".)
Last edited:
Both Stremlow and Houston have played well over the course of the season.
There is a better chance they can play their way out of a short term struggle during a game than a player who's had, basically, one good game all season.
I do agree that Deal's struggles again today weren't problem #1.
Last edited:
I don’t like the way we matchup with Virginia.
This board loves to hate Hannah.
We are starting a couple one dimensional players that almost cost us today, like Hannah and Kylie. Stremlow is talented but not good today obviously. Chit Chat and Ava need to carry us.
I would think Virginia's game plan is to take everything to the basket trying to get Ava in foul trouble early on. With Ava on the bench their chances rise greatly.
Hannah has been playing a very good all around game all year. She's a rebounding machine. BUT, you can't have her in the game when it's close and time for the opposition to start fouling.
She rebounds she gets fouled, she touches the ball she gets fouled, and a really smart Coach would make damn sure nobody but Hannah can take a pass if at all possible.
She's the weak link at that point in the game (and somehow Ava goes 7-7 on her line drives - wow).
We missed 7 free throws in a row in crunch time. And how you go 1-13 at HOME from 3? FDU was scrappy, Iowa got lucky in this one. Win and advance. Ugh.
We can all agree it was not a good game for the Hawkeyes. I like what Ava said in the post game press conference—“we find a way”. I believe in them to again find a way on Monday. For my own mental health I’m blowing off all the negative waves in this thread.
I'm not claiming Hannah is perfect, but she's excellent at more than one dimension. Obviously Ava is carrying. But Hannah did more than Chat to get us the ugly win yesterday. Hannah also did some heavy carrying in the 4th quarter against Michigan at the BTT.
I'm skeptical when Hanna steps to the free throw line.
Very happy when shes shooting it well
Never know what she'll shoot one game to another
Love he hunger to get the rebound.