As I have mentioned around these parts before, I was a Fran believer and supporter until the very end (even when it got contentious). To me, he resurrected this program from the greatest depths of hell
and brought Iowa Basketball into relevance again. From all of the All-Time great Hawks that he assembled during his time on campus (Devyn Marble, Jarrod Uthoff, Adam Woodbury, Keegan and Kris Murray, Luka Garza, Aaron White, Jordan Bohannon, Tyler Cook, Melsahn “Slime Time” Basabe, Joe Weiskamp and Mike Gesell just to name a few off the top of my head), to the Holy Buckets SI cover, to the Big Ten Championship and all of the fun and heart ache in between, it was all something that seemed impossible after Todd Lickliter ran the clown car off the road and into quick sand.
Hindsight being 20/20, there WAS a lot of good memories there and some heartbreaking ones.
Thus is life. But ultimately, it just got stale.
We all know it. We all saw it. Hell, Fran knew it, too. You could just…tell.
And it was time for a change.
And boy oh boy did we get change. Fun change. Exciting change. Goosebump worthy change.
Ben McCollum’s brand of basketball was jogo bonito. The passing…oh my word the passing. The amount of looks that offense created for each other, often times passing up solid looks for even better ones deeper into the shot clock was mesmerizing. It’s like they were a heavy weight boxer just attacking the body for 25 seconds before ultimately clocking you with a shot right to the chin. And they did it over and over and over again and consistently.
And the best part is, everyone cooked. Everyone flashed. Everyone was involved and fed off each other. It was like I had a new favorite player to watch every time they came down the court again. I haven’t seen cohesive basketball like that in a long, long time and I would be remiss to not openly appreciate the level of communication between the five guys on the floor throughout the entire game (I mean we could all hear it because of how dreary Carver was). It was both breathtaking and astonishing.
I’ll admit it, I was a little apprehensive about all of the Drake players following their coach to Iowa City at first, but it’s a great thing that they did. You can see the effect it’s already had on this entire roster. They have clearly led by example and raised the floor of this program from the jump because of their knowledge of the staff and how things need to run to be successful.
That’s some solid development and leadership by the Tie. Something that will surely be a major factor should Iowa make the Big Dance.
Just an outstanding opener. It was everything I could have hoped to see and yet, I’m still so in awe on how methodical they were on offense. How disciplined. How much they believe in their sets and play within them to find the best possible opportunity every possession and if all else fails, at least we have Bennett Stirtz with the ball in his hands.
It was surgeon like.
Speaking of Stirtz, I saw some people complaining about his minutes (36 LOL), but I’m going the opposite way. I want Bennet Stirtz to be Ben McCollum’s Jimmy Butler. He clearly has the stamina and his ability to play in a two-man game with dudes all over this roster makes him such a unique Swiss army knige for this offense. Let that kid control EVERY SINGLE UNIT and help him bring home every single piece of hardware possible.
You know what else I loved watching last night and was probably my biggest take away (outside of Carver being a graveyard…sorry I had to!)? That dog of a defense…especially on the perimeter. The effort that team took was inspiring. Legitimately inspiring. They had a hand in every passing lane and were blitzing all over the court. There was never a help side that wasn’t filled.
Not to beat a dead horse, but that was just such great team basketball.
If you’ve played at all, you know how much you need to LOVE the game and LOVE to compete to play defense like that. It’s clear, this team is in love.
And that’s what ultimately is going to take them far.
Are they a bit undersized? Absolutely. Will that be a problem in Big Ten play? At times, yes. Do they need to figure out how to snag some more defensive rebounds? Without question and I bet Ben already has them gassed in practice this morning to correct it. But you know how you make up for all of that? Sheer power of will and intensity – something I think this group will always give even when they are a bit undermanned and undersized.
Oh, and shout out to (in my best Dickie V voice) the new Mr. Bunniesssssssssssss, the pilottttttttt, the trampoline mannnnnnnnnnnnnnn, Tavion Bankssssssssss. OH BABYYYYYYYYYYYYY:
Fun.
I know it was one game, but it was probably enough for Gary Barta to give him an extension if he was still in charge… and that’s enough for me. I know there will be some trials and tribulations but this team can have success by playing within themselves, sticking to the team mantra, keeping up the communication and passing up the good looks for the perfect ones.
And honestly, if my brothers and sisters in Iowa can’t show up to Carver to root on all of that, well… shame on us.
