Eyes of the Enemy: Q&A with Black Heart Gold Pants
In preparation for Saturday’s match up with the Iowa Hawkeyes we sat down with Ross from Black Heart Gold Pants to answer some of our questions about the game. Be sure to check out Black Heart Gold Pants for all the Iowa coverage of the game.
How are Hawkeye fans felling about the season so far? You blew out Hampton and North Dakota State but then lost to two very good teams in Texas and Syracuse. What do fans think of the 4–2 start?
So far this season Iowa’s beaten the teams they were supposed to beat (the four mid-majors they’ve defeated), lost to the team they weren’t supposed to beat (Texas), and also lost a toss-up game (Syracuse). Iowa fans are concerned because the losses against Texas and Syracuse seem far more instructive than the wins over the likes of North Dakota State and Pepperdine. No offense to the Bison or the Waves, but Iowa’s going to see teams that look a lot more like Texas and Syracuse in the Big Ten than they are NDSU and Pepperdine. So Iowa’s struggles in those games have definitely been alarming, particularly coming off a 1–7 tailspin to end the season a year ago. But the only way to gauge Iowa’s progress is to see them play more games against power conference foes or top mid-major teams, which is why Iowa’s looming non-conference games against North Carolina, Iowa State, and UNI figure to be much more telling indicators for this Iowa team than games against Northern Illinois, Longwood, and Alcorn State (no offense intended).
When you look at Iowa’s roster all you see at first is size, size, and size with four of your top five scorers being 6'9 or above. Can you talk a little bit about the frontcourt and is that usually you biggest advantage when playing against mid-majors?
Iowa’s frontcourt is definitely their strength this season, against mid-majors or power conference opponents. Iowa’s best players are forwards Aaron White and Jarrod Uthoff and Adam Woodbury and Gabe Olaseni make a very solid 1–2 punch at center for the Hawkeyes. White is at his best attacking the rim; he maintains a high FG% (57%) by taking most of his shots in the paint and near the basket. He’s a terror in transition and he’s made strides this season in being able to get to the rim in half-court sets, too. Uthoff, on the other hand, is a more perimeter-oriented player; he has a picture-perfect jump shot and serious range (he shot 43% from deep last year and and is shooting 46% from that distance this season). He can be a matchup nightmare for defenders, too, as he’s far too tall for a guard to defend him, but he’s also quick enough to get around a lot of bigger guys. Woodbury and Olaseni are a potent force at center, too; combined, they’re averaging 17.0 ppg and 12.2 rpg this year. They also make a difference on defense; Olaseni averages 2.5 blocks per game and Woodbury is Iowa’s best post defender and excellent at altering shots and changing the way offenses attack Iowa’s defense. There aren’t many teams that can match Iowa’s size, so that’s definitely been an area that Iowa has looked to exploit this season (to considerable success).
Now that we’ve covered the frontcourt, can you talk a little about the guard play? No one really seems to be a statsheet stuffer but of course stats never tell the full story.
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Iowa’s guard play has definitely struggled this season and it was a very big reason in their struggles in New York City against Texas and Syracuse. Mike Gesell has a decent assist to turnover rate (around 2.5:1), but he’s really struggled shooting the ball (27% from the field, 33% from deep, and just 64% from the free throw line). He had his best game of the season earlier this week against Pepperdine (15 points on 4/7 shooting, 3/3 from deep, to go with 4 rebounds, 3 assists, and 3 steals), but he also had 0 points on 0/6 shooting against Northern Illinois (though he did have 5 assists). Josh Oglesby was supposed to be Iowa’s top deep threat, but he’s shooting 24% (7/24) on the season, which is a bit of a problem. Honestly, Iowa’s best guard this year has been Anthony Clemmons; he struggled a lot against Iowa’s two power conference foes this year, but against mid major opponents he’s averaging around 11 points, 3 rebounds, 2 assists, and 2 steals per game, while shooting 13/22 from the floor (9/13 from deep). But overall guard play has definitely not been Iowa’s strength so far this season.
Longwood has really struggled with zone defenses this year, do you expect Iowa to flash some zone in this one?
I do, yeah. Iowa plays a lot of man-to-man defense under McCaffery, but they’re not married to one particular defensive approach — they’ll run man and they’ll run zone and they’ll switch between them often if need be. If Longwood struggles to break down zone defenses, I would not be surprised to see Iowa set back a bit and force Longwood to shoot well enough to force Iowa to play more man. That said, I also expect to see a healthy amount of man defense and press coverage in this game because Iowa will want to get its transition game going and they’ve generally had more success at doing that out of tight man coverage or full court or three quarters court pressing.
It seems like Iowa has really struggled on the offensive end of the court this season shooting below the national average and turning the ball over a lot. Meanwhile the defense seems to really be producing. Is that a fair assessment at this point in the year or more of an aberration?
I think that in general, Iowa’s defense has been ahead of its offense this seasons, but a lot of the overall stats for Iowa so far this year are slightly misleading, due mostly to small sample sizes and quality of opposition. Iowa actually rates fairly highly in offensive efficiency (#49, per KenPom), but their offense certainly looked very poor for huge stretches of the losses against Texas and Syracuse (as well as their last two games, wins over Pepperdine and Northern Illinois). Likewise, their defense rates fairly high statistically, but they were an absolute sieve in the second half against Texas and for stretches of the Syracuse game. Most of Iowa’s good defensive performances came against overmatched opponents, frankly, so it’s hard for me to get a sense of just how good their defense is, frankly. That said, Longwood’s profile is much closer to the teams that Iowa has played well against defensively and I think Iowa presents some bad matchups for the Lancers, so I expect Saturday to be one of the defense’s better days.
What is your prediction for Saturday? I’m hoping there are lingering effects from tryptophan.
Short of an outbreak of food poisoning in Iowa City, I think this will be an easy Iowa win. The Hawkeyes simply have too much quickness, too much size, and too much overall talent for the Lancers. I’ll go with Iowa 77, Longwood 59.
