Voice of the Hawkeyes Board

I think Iowa makes a serious run, but the B1G is absolutely stacked in basketball. I'm willing to bet whoever wins the B1G has 4 or 5 conference losses.

I think we can beat out Purdue and maybe Michigan too. Michigan did get Trey Burke back, and have a good class coming in, but losing the guys that transferred will hurt them. Indiana,MSU, and OSU are on another level from everyone else though.

Great point about the significance of the non-conference games. That will be especially challenging for Iowa with so many new faces on the team. I could definitely see Iowa ending the season as an NCAA Tournament caliber team, but the key will be to have built the resume to back that up earlier in the season.

0 wins. Keep expectations low, satisfaction is high.

Well I ain't seen the schedule yet...we could be facing North Carolina, Duke, Kentucky and Lord knows who else. So no, 0 wins.

Exactly...welcome to my reasoning.

Ideally, the overall talent level of the 2012-13 roster should be much better than it was in 2011-12. White and Marble need to take another step up in their progression, and some of the incoming freshmen need to hit the ground running. The challenge will be developing those talented individuals into a cohesive team in time to win enough games games for the NCAA Tournament resume.

Only if...

-Marble has a huge break out year and becomes a legit conference star (16+ pts/gm)

-White doesn't have a soph slump like Basabe

-Basabe regains his frosh form and becomes the all-conference player that he is capable of

*also, they must stay healthy, but that goes without saying.

I doubt we see a sophomore slump for White. His skill set is so much different than Basabe's that I don't think you'll see the drop off. He can play inside and out and runs the floor all the time. That alone will get him on the board often with how Iowa wants to play. Basabe's problem was half the time, if he didn't get off to a good start, he might as well sit. I think we saw towards the end of the year he was becoming more active, and even if he wasn't scoring, he was impacting the game with rebounds or blocks which lead to high energy offensively.

If Gesell can run the show like I think he can, and definitely how Fran thinks he can, I think we'll be fine. Marble will be able to play his natural position of a 2 guard which will help him as well. White at the 3, Basabe can quit going up against 7 footers and play the 4(really needs to develop a mid range jumper to be successful), and Woodbury(with tempered expectations) comes in and plays the 5. His sizes alone will make an impact. I don't care what people say that watched him this year, he WILL make an impact. Watch him in AAU and All-Star games when he isn't getting triple team like he did in high school. He is going to be a stud. Maybe not as a freshman, but as he gets a little quicker and becomes a better leaper, He will be a great player at Iowa.

I predict 21 wins and a 7 seed in the tourney. 6th in the B1G.