Voice of the Hawkeyes Board

Really happy for the kid, it was only a matter of time. Iowa's really struggled to put teams away late and shots like these are exactly what Iowa's been missing. This team could make some noise in the B1G tourney.

Oglesby stepped up big time yesterday. Good for him. Everyone knows he's a great shooter its just a matter of time before he really gains his confidence and goes off. Hopefully he's turned the corner.

I'm not sure that's fair. First of all he's only a sophomore. Look at a guy like Basabe who really struggled as a sophomore but has been huge this year as a junior. Not saying we'll see a similar improvement from Oglesby necessarily, but there's still plenty of time for Josh. Second, Oglesby is 6'5 and a much better passer, defender, and ball handler than most give him credit for. He's not outstanding by any means in those areas, but he's not some huge liability elsewhere on the floor a la Devan Bawinkel. I believe Fran has even called Oglesby one of the best passers on the team. Obviously his struggles shooting the ball have been disappointing, but the guy is only an underclassman with other redeeming qualities and its only a matter of time before he starts shooting like he can.

Other than the airport recently, haven't been to Minneapolis since 1980 and that was for the Iowa-Minnesota FB game at the old outdoor stadium -- pre-Hump Dome era.

I must say that 1980 was a good year for the BB Hawks -- Final Four!

I agree. I just see a lot of missed opportunities when he IS the offense for certain stretches of games. He also picks up his dribble a lot and doesn't seem to get the ball inside very well. Fran called him a great passer, but our big guys don't get many looks inside. He appears to be concentrating on taking his three heavily defended dribbles, and dumping it to the next guy up top he sees.

He IS young, and by no means a lost cause. I need him to find his CHI, then I'll hop on the bandwagon.

Haha, no, sorry, I was negative 6 years old in 1980, not 6 years old. I am hoping Minneapolis will be able to hold some tourny games after the new Vikings stadium is built.

Didn't catch that (-) before the 6.

And it's just as well that you missed the second half of that UNLV game back in '87. 18-point half-time lead quickly erased denying us a run to the Final Four. We finished 30-5 and should've won the NCAA title.

Just speculating, but just from observing the reaction and anticipation of the bench, it appears that they knew Oglesby was just a ticking bomb waiting to go off. They're the ones that see him in practice every day, so they should have a pretty good idea of how he can shoot when he's on.

But, he didn't 'go off' as some are saying -- he made 2, count that 2 three pointers, out of the 7 he shot. That is right in line with his season average of .266 which is the worst in the country for someone who shoots as many 3's as him.

Were they big shots he hit? No doubt. And, I give him credit for that because Iowa probably loses that game if he doesn't hit them.

But, I still find his amount of playing time and free reign at shooting 3s to be disproportionate to the terrible shooting percentage he shows.

It was finally nice to see him shot fake and make a jumper from inside the strip. But, the defender knows he will not and cannot drive to the basket, causing him to be one dimensional.

If I was an opposing team -- I would take a 2-7 percentage from 3 point land any day of the week against the team's supposed 'best' 3 point shooter.

I'm all for Josh - actually see potential and want him to succeed, but think Fran's "let him shoot his way out of it" mentality has gone too far. I would rather see McCabe or Marble take a 3 before Josh.

One great sign, IMO, from Iowa's perspective was what happened on the second three that Oglesby made. He typically looks to shoot whenever he's open and has his feet set. But on the second three, he wasn't nearly as open as he usually is when he takes those, and he was on the move. That may be a sign that he's mentally broken out of his slump, because it's an indication that his confidence is now much higher than it had been.