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*****Iowa vs USC Game Thread*****

QChawks

QChawks

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Dec 17, 2022
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8pm on the ‘Cock

The Hawkeyes (18-2, 9-0) travel west carrying their 8 game winning streak to battle USC (11-9, 3-6).

The Trojans have had a rough season so far without their star JuJu Watkins. Although they have lost many close games to the leagues top teams and I expect tonight to be no different.

USC is not a great scoring team they try and win on the defensive side, giving up an only 59 points a game. As with all Iowa games, good ball handing and reducing turnovers will be very important.

This should be a grind it out type of game. In the end I think the hawks have too much offensive to slow down and win 73-66.
 
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Jonesy5960

Jonesy5960

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Feb 1, 2023
5,437
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RuggieC said:
I see ESPN has USC favored. Kind of surprised about that.
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I'm not. USC has lost a lot of close games, and the FPI is a prediction index, not a betting line. It gives a lot of heft to the home court advantage, using prior results. The women have been on a roll, but they haven't been nearly as dominant on the road which accounted for their only loss and some narrow victories. A 53% prediction for USC would probably flip to something like a 75% prediction for Iowa, were this game at Carver. I still think the betting line favors Iowa in this one.
 
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Hawk14

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This will obviously a tough game, especially if you go by recruiting player rankings. Supposedly USC has six 5-star players (minus JoJo) while the Hawkeyes have one. I’m not sure what that tells us but it can be interpreted a number of ways.
 
AFM22

AFM22

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Oct 31, 2022
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The announcers will talk about freshman Jazzy Davidson a lot, but the stats will show that Kara Dunn will be their best player tonight.
 
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Hawkeye_Miguel

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Hawk14 said:
This will obviously a tough game, especially if you go by recruiting player rankings. Supposedly USC has six 5-star players (minus JoJo) while the Hawkeyes have one. I’m not sure what that tells us but it can be interpreted a number of ways.
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Recruiting rankings become irrelevant by the time players are upperclassmen. That being said, as far as I'm aware for their current active players, Davidson and Smith are their only high 5 stars. The rest are 4 stars.

USC is going to be loaded next year with Juju back if they don't get killed by the transfer portal again. They're bringing in another #1 overall recruit. They'll have 3 of the previous 4 #1 recruits all on the same team: Juju, Jazzy, and Saniyah Hall, along with Kennedy Smith who was Top 10 in her class.

Our roster isn't really that far behind this year though. One 5 star, and everyone else that play are top 100 4 stars. I think Journey got unfairly demoted due to injury, so I consider her a top 50 player in her class as well
 
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Kceasthawk@77

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Hawkeye_Miguel said:
Recruiting rankings become irrelevant by the time players are upperclassmen. That being said, as far as I'm aware for their current active players, Davidson and Smith are their only high 5 stars. The rest are 4 stars.

USC is going to be loaded next year with Juju back if they don't get killed by the transfer portal again. They're bringing in another #1 overall recruit. They'll have 3 of the previous 4 #1 recruits all on the same team: Juju, Jazzy, and Saniyah Hall, along with Kennedy Smith who was Top 10 in her class.

Our roster isn't really that far behind this year though. One 5 star, and everyone else that play are top 100 4 stars. I think Journey got unfairly demoted due to injury, so I consider her a top 50 player in her class as well
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While I agree, its going to be really interesting to see just how all of that works. Having so many "top #1 players" usually means they all have some expectation of being the alpha dog. There were games where Juju's usage rate was way more then Clarks use to be. That game she scored 55-60 points I think the rest of the team only had 10 or 12 points. Thats obviously not going to fly with all these highly rated recruits.
 
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Jonesy5960

Jonesy5960

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Feb 1, 2023
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Kceasthawk@77 said:
While I agree, its going to be really interesting to see just how all of that works. Having so many "top #1 players" usually means they all have some expectation of being the alpha dog. There were games where Juju's usage rate was way more then Clarks use to be. That game she scored 55-60 points I think the rest of the team only had 10 or 12 points. Thats obviously not going to fly with all these highly rated recruits.
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I think Iowa fans should be really excited about the possibilities for their own team the next few years. Even with no portal additions, a starting lineup of CCW, Ava, Deal, Woliczko/Houston, and Stremlow is going to be competing for championships. Need some depth but that starting 5 is looking really good a year from now.
 
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Franisdaman

Franisdaman

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Nov 3, 2012
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Taylor made the trip

 
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Hawkapottomos Rex

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Jonesy5960 said:
I think Iowa fans should be really excited about the possibilities for their own team the next few years. Even with no portal additions, a starting lineup of CCW, Ava, Deal, Woliczko/Houston, and Stremlow is going to be competing for championships. Need some depth but that starting 5 is looking really good a year from now.
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I think Stremlow will serve us better as a 6th or 7th in the rotation if we want to field a final four caliber team. I say that being a big fan of hers, but she lacks some physical traits that are needed to be at the UConn level. The other 4 can hang in an
other year.
 
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Hawkeye_Miguel

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Hawkapottomos Rex said:
I think Stremlow will serve us better as a 6th or 7th in the rotation if we want to field a final four caliber team. I say that being a big fan of hers, but she lacks some physical traits that are needed to be at the UConn level. The other 4 can hang in an
other year.
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Agree. Emely on the other hand, if she comes back, is healthy, and really focuses and learns the system, could be at that level. Lots of ifs there though.
 
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Jonesy5960

Jonesy5960

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Kceasthawk@77 said:
Good for her. I thought Jan had said Taylor wasn't going to be going to LA with the team. Its good she'll be with them.
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That's really awesome. She might not be on the floor, but she's a great teammate and she deserves her spot on the bench to cheer them on and offer whatever insight she can to the younger players.
 
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Kceasthawk@77

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Jonesy5960 said:
That's really awesome. She might not be on the floor, but she's a great teammate and she deserves her spot on the bench to cheer them on and offer whatever insight she can to the younger players.
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Felt good to see the smile on her face when she got off the plane. Its been a rough few days for her and her family.
 
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Jonesy5960

Jonesy5960

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Hawkapottomos Rex said:
I think Stremlow will serve us better as a 6th or 7th in the rotation if we want to field a final four caliber team. I say that being a big fan of hers, but she lacks some physical traits that are needed to be at the UConn level. The other 4 can hang in an
other year.
Click to expand...
Maybe? I think she has excellent skills and performed admirably stepping in as point guard when Chit chat got hurt. I'm a numbers guy, and she has the second highest assist rate, the second highest steal rate, and the highest EFG% on the team in conference play today at 67%. Those are starter caliber numbers. Her turnover numbers are a little high, however. The rest of the season will be a good test to see how she performs with a lot of minutes.
 
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Conn53victor

Conn53victor

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Oct 15, 2014
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I'm flipping between Michigan-Indiana and Michigan State-Purdue. There's some messy basketball being played. I am glad we have Michigan at home and that Purdue is one of our remaining road games.
 
Conn53victor

Conn53victor

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Oct 15, 2014
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I'm listening on streaming radio to Mississippi State (2-5 in the SEC) embarrass #15 Tennessee (6-0). Tennessee down by 17 with 4:30 left.

And the Tennessee radio guy doesn't begin to compare to our Rob Brooks and Kathryn Reynolds. They start at 7:30. Gonna catch their wisdom and interviews at
https://hawkeyesports.com/hawkeye-radio-network
 
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