SB Nation - Jake Kelly

Big Ten Hoops: The Starting Five

Bama Hawkeye — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 10:45:09 -0000

Monday night, the 2009-2010 Big Ten basketball season got under way with a crushing performance by Ohio State. Yes, they only beat Alcorn State. The important thing is that the season is underway. By this weekend, every team will have tipped off. In an attempt to ~~provide great insight~~ ~~troll for hits~~ stop thinking about Ricky Stanzi's ankle, I am starting a new recurring (i.e. it will happen as often as I want it to) feature at The Rivalry, Esq.: The Starting Five. In it, we'll discuss five things about our hoops teams.

Since you probably think that we know nothing about basketball, we felt that it was important to look for an outsider's insight into the state of the conference. Chris from Blogging the Bracket, an outstanding SBNation college basketball blog, was kind enough to answer our initial Starting Five questions about the Big Ten.

1) Let's start with your predictions. Winning the league, you have MIch-----HOLD ON! WAIT A MINUUTE!!! You have Northwestern making the Field of 65. The Wildcats are, of course, the one BCS conference school that has never made it to the Big Dance. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Defend your projection.

This is not making me hate Northwestern less.

They were so close last season, and even though they lost Craig Moore, just about everyone else--led by Kevin Coble and Michael Thompson--is back. However, a lot of the supporting cast needs to step up. Wins in East Lansing and West Lafayette last season show they can win big games, but they have stop dropping games at inopportune moments. I feel they're due, especially as the two teams closest to them in the league, Penn State and Wisconsin, lost more experience after last season.

If Lighty stays healthy, Ohio State will make some noise.

2) At the top, it sure looks like it's Michigan State, Purdue, and then everyone else. If a third team was to rise up and win the league crown, who would it be?

Ohio State. Getting David Lighty back from injury will help them out a lot, and Evan Turner could be an even more dangerous player at the point, especially since managed the second triple-double in school history in his first game starting at that position on Monday night. Sure, the opener was against Alcorn State, but the Buckeyes looked like a well-oiled machine out there, especially when compared to the other BCS level teams in that played that night. If they can keep that up, it will be a three team race.

3) In your Pre-Season bracket projection, you have 7 Big Ten teams making the Field of 65. Is it safe to say that after a down couple of years, the Big Ten is back?

The Big Ten is definitely back. The league is frighteningly close to having every single team be competitive night in and night out, but I'll talk more about that when I get to your questions on Indiana and Iowa, as they're the current problem children. If the Hoosiers and Hawkeyes can get back to respectablility in a year or two, and Northwestern and Penn State, the two weakest programs traditionally, can keep their current level of competitiveness, the conference could be the most balanced in the nation.

4) How far away is Indiana from a) competing for an NCAA Bid; and 2) winning a Big Ten title?

It'll be when, not if.

I think they're a year away from getting an NCAA bid, thanks to the youth of the roster. Eleven underclassmen is a staggering total, so you have give them, especially the six freshmen, a year to get acclimated to the league and to each other. In terms of contending for the league title, I'd say it's going to take Tom Crean at least another two or years or so of recruiting to get them in a position where they can make a run.

5) Is this the year that the Big Ten finally wins the ACC/Big Ten Challenge?

The Big Ten has an excellent shot, as the ACC should only dominate in three contests--Maryland-Indiana, Virginia Tech-Iowa, and Duke-Wisconsin, and those are all in the Midwest. In the other games, I'd say the Big Ten team has at least a slight advantage, except for Michigan State-UNC, which is a push.

6) I was very surprised when I saw that you have Iowa pegged for a strong 11th Place finish. Then I saw that it was 11th in the Big Ten, not the nation. How would you rank Iowa versus the other last place teams in the 6 BCS conferences?

The Hawkeyes could very well be the worst team in the Big Six conferences, though Providence and DePaul in the Big East will push them. Like Indiana, they're young, but Todd Lickliter's recruits aren't as heralded as Tom Crean's are. Jake Kelly's transfer to Indiana State is painful because he really came into his own last year, and Jeff Peterson heading to Arkansas means Lickliter has to find another point guard. Cully Payne could be a good one, but he is one of those freshmen, so there will be an adjustment period. But it's not like the cupboard is completely bare, as Matt Gatens, Anthony Tucker, and Jarryd Cole (if he stays healthy) are all capable players.

You hear that? Iowa has "capable players." That's high praise!

The Rivalry, Esq. thanks Chris for answering The Starting Five Questions about Big Ten basketball. Here's to a great Big Ten season.

Black Heart Gold Political Cartoons, Volume 1

Oops Pow Surprise — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 11:22:11 -0000

Todd Lickliter says "sometimes it's a little dark before the dawn." Perhaps that's not the most apt analogy.

Welcome To The Swift, Fiery, Horrific Destruction Of Iowa Basketball

Oops Pow Surprise — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 04:18:31 -0000

There's no way to sugarcoat this news or otherwise adequately prepare you for this news, so let's just get it right out: Jake Kelly is, barring a miracle, leaving the Iowa basketball team... and he's not alone.

(A perfect visual metaphor for what's happening in Iowa City.)

The majority of the Kelly rumors, which could be settled by as early as tomorrow (or today, or six months ago, depending on when you read this article), place him at Indiana State, much closer to his hometown of Carmel, IN. Sure, homesickness doesn't normally set in after two years, but recall that his mother had recently moved to Solon to be closer to Kelly. Just a few months later, she was killed in a plane crash, plunging the entire family into a sadness we couldn't possibly wish on the worst of our enemies. If Kelly wants to be closer to his family, we won't presume the authority to call bullshit or second-guess that decision.

DEPARTURE COUNT: 1

What's far, far more troubling is the exodus occurring with the rest of the program. To the best of our knowledge, Jermain Davis did not lose a mother in a plane crash recently, yet the junior college combo guard has decided that he'd rather exhaust his eligibility at Minnesota State, a D-II school in Mankato, than with the Iowa Hawkeyes.

(no, not these guys.)

Davis, if you'll recall, was an important role player in Iowa's backcourt during the early season; he was key in Iowa's beatdown of ISU, scoring 16 points and adding 6 boards and 5 assists.

But Lickliter thought him better for the bench, and decreased PT combined with an injury meant that those 16 points Davis scored against ISU matched his entire scoring output for the last nine games of the season.

Davis blamed the system.

"I was just unhappy here," Davis said Wednesday afternoon. "I didn’t really understand my role on the team."

[...]

"The style that we play is just so slow," Davis said. "I like to play more fast-paced, and force turnovers and stuff like that."

No word on how exciting Mankato is.

DEPARTURE COUNT: 2

Oh, we're not even close to done.

According to Dochtermann, Jeff Peterson is also gone daddy gone, his likely destination Missouri State. This is a mortal fucking lock for being an issue with Lickliter; Peterson was seemingly practically handed the starting point job coming into this season, and really has it for himself now with Kelly and Davis gone. Or had it, anyway.

We've written before that Peterson's bad tendencies boded ill for the Hawkeyes this season, but all the same, he was vastly improved over last season, especially from the field. Logic dictates that the rate of improvement would begin to decrease--he couldn't have put up .575 from the field, .917 from the line, and .525 from 3-point land next season, after all. But no matter your opinion of his performance, he's the kind of guy you keep around for the sake of experience, depth, and program continuity. Unless your name is Todd Lickliter, of course.

By the way, this completes Iowa's slide from "Every player who logged minutes at the point this season is coming back" to "They're dead; my God, they're all dead." Just worth pointing out, considering Lickliter's penchant for a guard-dominated offense.

DEPARTURE COUNT: 3

Remember Chanse Creekmur, last seen dunking on what was at least an 8'6" rim over a car?

Yeah, he's "exploring other options." Always good to see your top junior prospect get cold feet, right? RIGHT?!

DEPARTURE COUNT: 4

There's lotsundlotsen rumbling that this revolt started in part over the mistreatment of David Palmer and Lieutenant J.R. Angle by Lickliter (we're pretty sure the seeds of discontent were sown well before this season tipped off; more on that later). While Angle is finally graduating (after not seeing one single second of playing time on Senior Day; the Angle family thanks you, Lick!), El Presidente has another year of eligibility.

Palmer also graduates in May, according to Dochtermann, and unless there's a graduate program in Iowa that he's in love with and he's wanting another year with this program, Palmer'll be hitting the ol' dusty trail too. This is the only departure of the group that's stuck strictly in the realm of "conjecture" at this point, but after getting done so hard that multiple players are walking off the team in disgust, why would Palmer even consider coming back? That's so El Unpresidential.

DEPARTURE COUNT: 5

So... how was your Wednesday?

Penn State Falls in Iowa

BSD — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 14:16:25 -0000

Final - 3.7.2009	1	2	OT	2OT	Total
Penn St. Nittany Lions	24	32	8	3	67
Iowa Hawkeyes	24	32	8	11	75

Complete Coverage >

It was a valiant effort by our cardiac kids. They trailed by nine points with 2:23 to go in regulation. I was just about to turn it off but decided not to. I'm a masochist who believes you have to suffer through the bad games if you want to truly enjoy the good ones. I started getting that tingly feeling inside when Talor Battle rattled off 11 straight points. Then David Jackson poked a ball loose and Stanley Pringle raced the length of the court for a layup and drew a foul. And before we knew it we were back in the game and going to overtime.

But ultimately a double overtime game after an emotional game less than two days earlier was too much, and Penn State just ran out of gas. Much like this recap.

The Good

I'm so impressed with the way this team closes out their games. How many times have they overcome deficits late in the game to pull out a win? When they get inside of five minutes they make every possession count and do what they need to do to get back in the game and win. If they could just play with that level of focus and intensity for 40 minutes they would be unstoppable.

Penn State shot 10-of-12 from the free throw line. Most of that was Talor Battle who shot 9-of-11.

The Bad

In a game that went into two overtimes, the bench only played a combined 62 minutes. By comparison, the starters played a total of 198 minutes. Is anyone surprised we ran out of gas at the end? All they could do is pass it around and throw up desperation threes.

Speaking of which, Talor Battle has seriously lost his outside touch. He only made one of eight attempts, and some of those attempts made you scratch your head. It's almost like he was getting so tired he didn't want to exert the effort to drive to the net or even run the offense.

Jake Kelly killed us. The guy was running a 102 fever and lit us up for 22 points. We couldn't stop him. Of course he was also extremely lucky banking in two three pointers. When crap like that is going down on the road it's always an uphill battle.

The Ugly

The Iowa fans crying and bellyaching after every little whistle that didn't go their way. There was a string where Penn State was getting a lot of calls, but they were good calls. Shut up.

What was with Ed not calling a timeout with ten seconds to go in regulation? Instead the let Battle take the inbound pass and dribble up the court where he threw up an uneccessary three point shot from way too deep. Why didn't he drive the lane like he did against Illinois on Thursday night? Maybe he was too tired to finish, but he could have drawn the defense and probably found Jones wide open underneath or something.

Ed did the same thing last week. I'm not talking about the drive where Battle made the game winning shot. I'm talking about the possession before that. Down by one inside of 30 seconds Ed opted to run the offense instead of using his timeout. The result was a careless turnover by Battle that nearly cost us the game. Use your damn timeouts and draw up a play, Ed. You don't get to carry them over to the next game.

On to the Big Ten Tournament

So we went into Saturday with a chance for a #2 seed in the conference tournament. Instead we end up with the #6 seed and a dreaded rematch with Indiana. Yay tie breaker rules! Here's a game where we have nothing to gain. Just playing the Hoosiers is going to drag down our RPI. Lose and we are probably looking at the NIT. Beating them will do nothing except drain our weary legs so we're nice and soft for Purdue in the next round. We may up playing both Indiana teams in Indianapolis. Talk about a lousy draw.

But I don't feel good about playing Indiana. Beating the same team three times in one season is difficult. Last year we choked against an inferior Illinois team we beat twice in the regular season. And the Hoosiers are showing signs of putting things together. They played us tough in the Jordan Center last week and they gave Michigan State a run for their money after that. Right now our team just seems completely beaten down and running on empty. Indiana has nothing to play for so they'll be loose and aggressive. I don't have a good feeling about this game at all.

The Problem(s) With Iowa Basketball

Oops Pow Surprise — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 16:40:51 -0000

Though we haven't spent much editorial space on the Hawkeyes' basketball team (largely because their games have been scheduled for Friday nights, Sunday mornings, and the curious "as soon as you fall asleep"), we're still watching, thinking, fact-gathering. And though the team is undoubtedly improved--even with a 1-3 conference mark, they're 11-6, and they didn't get their 11th win until February 2nd last season--that 1-3 record isn't quite where fans would like to see the Hawkeyes.

The animus has reached such a fever pitch, in fact, that the basketball forum on our favorite Hawkeye message board (no, not that one; not that one either) has become a functionally unreadable cacophony of "FUCK THE SYSTEM" and "LICKLITER WOULD RATHER PLAY HIS SYSTEM THAN WIN" and "SPEED IT UP YOU COCKMASTER." Setting aside the nonsense, like the notion that there's a coach anywhere that doesn't want to win, there are three glaring faults with the Iowa basketball team (the first feeding the last two), and while Lickliter isn't absolved of blame, they're all matters of personnel.

1) This team is still incredibly young. Here are the players who have been in the Iowa program for at least three years:

F Cyrus Tate (SR)
F J.R. Angle (SR)

Basically one legitimate, clear-cut starter, and then DanJRous. There's your long-standing, institutional knowledge.

And the list of players in their second year:

G Jeff Peterson (SO)
G Jake Kelly (SO)
F Jarryd Cole (SO)
F David Palmer (JR)

This list is even more depressing, because it goes (in order): a 2-star prospect who should have redshirted last season and who wouldn't start on most teams this year; another kid who maybe should have redshirted (but played well) and may have regressed from last year (though we can kinda understand why); an undersized forward whose PT has been cut in half in the aftermath of a major knee injury, and that guy from 24.

That's it. The rest are first-year players, and it's looking increasingly like the foundation of the program will be built on the first year guys instead of the sophomore class. It's one thing to have a young team; it's even worse when the weaknesses are largely contained to the more experienced players. Indictment of Lickliter? Maybe, but what is any coach going to do with, let's say, Cole or Peterson? They're not BXI-level players yet.

2) Cyrus Tate and Anthony Tucker are out. With Tate in the game, Iowa at least has a shot at establishing a semblance of an inside game, whether it be through scoring, rebounding, or defending the opponents' #1 big man. But when Tate went down yelping during the Minnesota game, all hell broke loose, and what was a suffocating dominance of the Gophers turned into, well, justifiable cause to suffocate yourself.

Obviously, It really didn't help when Jake Kelly, holding the ball with about 4 seconds to play and a chance to tie the game with a 3, instead hoisted a half-court shot that mysteriously failed. But Minnesota got back into the game by dominating the boards and jumping passing lanes while Iowa fruitlessly tossed the basketball back and forth around the perimeter, utterly devoid of an inside threat on offense.

Tate may or may not be back for the Hawks' next game against Purdue; God help us if he's not and his minutes go to Cole (who's basically Hot Rod Thompson with two more inches and one fewer knee) and Dr. Disaster, Andrew Brommer. Brommer may well one day be a serviceable big man in the league, maybe even by a year from now, but Good Jesus, the last Hawkeye I can remember getting major minutes while being so terrifyingly unsuited to be on the court was, like, Alex Thompson. So the question is, can Tate go from wearing a walking boot on Sunday to playing one week later? And speaking of questions, why in the hell is Iowa playing another Sunday morning game?! Is this enough to get Barta fired?

And then there's Anthony Tucker.

The Frozen Caveman Shooter is still on the bench, now recovering from mononucleosis, a particularly insidious disease for a basketball player. High-level guard play is usually based on shooting ability, usually based on ball-handling, and usually based on knowledge of the offense. It is ALWAYS, however, based on conditioning, which suffers in a bad, bad way with a case of mono. At this point, it's probably gravy if Tucker sees more than 5 minutes a game before March rolls around.

That's a shame, because as anyone who watched him play before the retardations set in knows, he has a gorgeous release on his jumper (that sounded Kincheny) and it was no accident that he was leading the team in scoring. There's a lot to be said for confidence in a shooter, and there isn't an ounce of panic in Tucker's game. Sure, Bawinkel's fine in replacement, but he's clearly not as good, especially with the ball in his hands. Tucker is a much more natural player overall, and like Tate, Iowa needs him back.

3) The team is sorely lacking at the point. One of the hallmarks of a good perimeter-oriented team is the ability to effectively distribute the ball, usually via the point guard. While we don't doubt Matt Gatens' basketball acumen, he's definitely not the kind of ball-handler (lol) you want bringing the ball up against a press, or trying to shake a good defender 1-on-1. He's not that athletic.

So while Gatens is probably your highest basketball-IQ guy, the point responsibilities go to Jeff Peterson, who as we discussed before, is not very good yet. Jermain Davis has also seen some time bringing the ball up the court, but he's definitely not a natural 1-spot and is at his most effective on the wing.

Peterson, to be sure, has shown some improvement; his shooting totals are way, way up across the board, and his steals have vastly improved as well. Of course, that's with 15 fewer BXI games than last year, but hush, folks, details. The one area where Peterson hasn't improved is turnovers; those remain at 3.1 per game, same as last year, and likely to rise now that there's no more superdirectionals or "Bryant" on the schedule. And having a point guard who can't effectively and smartly distribute the ball or at least set it in motion to eventually hit the open man on the wing is basically a guarantee of not making the tournament.

The one seriously glaring problem with this point guard situation is, um, Lickliter gave away a returning senior starter at that very position. Yes, Tony Freeman drove Lick insane, but it's not like World B. Freeman was the only thing keeping that team from sustained success. They were just plain bad, and without depth at the point (seriously, you couldn't tell Palmer or Lieutenant Angle that they "didn't fit into your vision for the team" instead?), this team might be just as bad when the dust settles on the conference standings in March.

Look, we're not saying "Iowa + Freeman = 17-0 in 08-09!!!", but this is a team that could desperately use his athleticism (especially now that he's not coming off a squeaky wheel) and his ability to hit contested shots. We understand that the Iowa offense is predicated on ball movement and getting guys open shots, and really, to that specific end, it hasn't been ineffective (check out that PPS). The problem is what happens when there's 5 seconds left on the shot clock, the man with the ball is covered, and there's no readily apparent 3-pass progression to get the ball to a wide-open shooter (or even if the guys are in place, defenders are laying back and praying for a pass through their lane). Freeman had a rather uncanny ability to get a good shot off under pressure, moreso than what most of the guys on this current iteration of Iowa Basketball have.

At the very least, keeping Freeman would have given Lickliter an opportunity to show potential recruits that he allows point guards to excel and put up stats in his system. Considering Lickliter's alternative course of action and the landscape of incoming commits, we're a little less than optimistic that this offense is fewer than 2-3 years away from really clicking. Hope Lickliter's got a Plan B, and soon.