1. If you live by the three, you sometimes die by the three.
It was a bad first half. Let’s get that out of the way. Shots wouldn’t fall, and UAPB’s own scoring, coupled with that Florida A&M loss last winter, made the terror of an historic upset all too real.
In the second half, things were fine. The threes fell. But the question has now been posed: Will Iowa State always shoot this many threes this year? And that question brings with it another: Will they be able to make those threes consistently?
2. Rebounding is still an issue.
It was a problem last year. It was a problem yesterday. Part of this can probably be attributed to the smaller lineup Steve Prohm employed, but playing with a smaller lineup doesn’t suddenly make a failure to rebound on defense less damaging. On the brighter side, Iowa State limited turnovers to a reasonable rate.
3. The defense is the weak side.
This isn’t all that surprising. It was the weak side last year. It was the weaker side for a good team in 2019. It was the weaker side for a bad team in 2018. The last time Iowa State’s defense was better than its offense, per KenPom, was 2010, when Greg McDermott was still the coach. This is normal. Just checking in on the normality.
4. Darlinstone Dubar has our attention.
The impact freshman, at least in yesterday’s game, was not the big man from Oskaloosa. It was the medium man from the Pennsylvania prep school.
Dubar was not the best player on the court, but he made one of the biggest impacts, creating six second chances on the glass, four of which led to points, including five of his own seven. Is he the sixth man? We don’t know that yet. Prohm probably doesn’t know that yet. But it appears he’ll be, at the very least, a significant factor for the Cyclones.
