Predicting Iowa effort an inexact science
Iowa's Melsahn Basabe a rare bright spot in loss at Northwestern
EVANSTON, Ill. -It was an hour before tipoff Thursday. Iowa basketball coach Fran McCaffery was relaxing on the bench, watching Northwestern and Iowa warm up for their Big Ten game at Welsh-Ryan Arena.
McCaffery was asked which Iowa team would show up that night. He offered a wry smile. Translation: I’m not sure.
“I always knew with my Siena teams,” McCaffery said.
Those Siena teams went to the NCAA Tournament in 2008, 2009 and 2010. They were a mixture of athleticism and toughness. That is the blueprint McCaffery brought with him to Iowa. Now in his second season, it remains a work in progress.
Using the words Northwestern and manhandled in the same sentence takes some doing from a historical perspective. But that’s what happened Thursday night. The bad Iowa team was inside the black uniforms in a 83-64 loss.
The Wildcats scored from behind the arc (13-for-25 from 3), and in transition after some of Iowa’s 18 turnovers (13-2 edge in fast-break points against a Hawkeye team that likes to run).
On several occasions, Hawkeye defenders were a step slow to challenge defenders from behind the 3-point arc. It also appeared that concentration, and sticking to the game plan put in place at practice, were missing.
“There was a little bit of that,” McCaffery said. “You can’t argue with that.”
Iowa, dropping to 5-7 in the Big Ten and 13-12 overall, has a week off before playing at Penn State Feb. 16.
The Hawkeyes are the worst defensive team in the Big Ten statistically, so Thursday’s effort wasn’t a shock.
“I think legitimately there’s going to be a common trend,”McCaffery said. “I don’t think it’s any more complicated than that. Pretty simple.”
Bright spots were hard to find Thursday, though freshman forward Aaron White’s 17 points and career-best 12 rebounds and Melsahn Basabe’s 13 points and five rebounds off the bench deserve mention. It was White’s second double-double of the season, and first as a starter. He 19 points and 10 rebounds against Chicago State in the season opener Nov. 11.
“I thought he and Basabe were maybe the two bright spots,” McCaffery said.
Iowa will have to do a much better job of handling Northwestern’s 1-3-1 zone than it did Thursday if it wants to send seniors Matt Gatens, Bryce Cartwright, Andrew Brommer and Devon Archie out with a win in the final regular-season game against Northwestern March 3 at Carver-Hawkeye Arena.
“We’ve got to figure out that 1-3-1,” said Cartwright, who had five assists, five turnovers and just two points in 21 minutes. “I think we’re holding the ball too much, and maybe we’re too timid at times. We have to find the gaps.”
Category: Iowa Hawkeyes men's basketball
The Fightin Whities beat the bajebies outta us. Sad
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