Harty: Iowa’s starters need more help in a hurry
IOWA CITY, Iowa – After Wednesday’s 67-59 loss to Wisconsin, Adam Woodbury dismissed any suggestion that the Iowa men’s basketball team is unraveling.
Iowa’s 7-foot-1 senior center made no excuses for his team losing three of its last four games. But Woodbury also stayed firm in his belief that the foundation still is strong heading into Sunday’s game at Ohio State.
“We’ve got a great season going,” Woodbury said. “It’s not time to cave in or throw the towel in. We’ve got more season to play and a lot of big goals still left in mind. So it’s not time to give up.”
If Woodbury feels that way, it’s probably fair to assume that his teammates feel the same way.
Iowa is hardly facing a crisis at this stage with records of 20-7 overall and 11-4 in the Big Ten. But it could soon become one.
What happens in the next three Big Ten games and in the postseason will go a long way in defining the team, but also the senior class.
That’s why I believe there still is reason to be optimistic.
Iowa’s four seniors, which also include forward Jarrod Uthoff and guards Anthony Clemmons and Mike Gesell, have persevered through both team and individual hardships on the court. They’ve been through so much together, good and bad.
I just can’t see them letting the season unravel.
The goal of winning a Big Ten regular-season title might not be achieved. But that wouldn’t necessarily make the season a failure. Success in the postseason has a way of healing most wounds.
Iowa’s four seniors are a proud and experienced bunch. They’re hurting right now, but they’ll bounce back because that is their only option.
There is no mercy in a Big Ten title race where only the strong survive.
It’s fun and exciting to think of Iowa playing in an NCAA Tournament game in Des Moines. But that is probably the furthest thing from the players’ minds right now. At least it should be.
Their only concern should be fixing what has caused Iowa to derail at the worst time.
The seniors are certainly partly to blame for the recent skid, but imagine the team without any of the four.
I know, it’s not pretty.
Imagine Iowa’s defense without Woodbury protecting the rim, without Uthoff blocking shots and without Clemmons and Gesell pressuring the ball.
Also imagine Iowa’s offense without junior sharpshooter Peter Jok draining one big shot after another.
Unfortunately, for Iowa’s five starters, there is only so much they can do. Woodbury grabbed 18 rebounds against Wisconsin, and yet Iowa still lost.
Not to single out Iowa’s bench, but they have to get better in a hurry.
Iowa’s bench has been outscored 123-28 over the last five games, including 23-4 against the Badgers.
Forwards Dom Uhl and Nicholas Baer bring versatility and energy off the bench. But neither has been a reliable scorer in the Big Ten.
The 6-9 Uhl combined to score 43 points in Iowa’s first five Big Ten games, but has only scored 13 points total in the last five games.
Baer scored 11 points in the Big Ten opener against Michigan State in which Iowa prevailed 83-70 at Carver-Hawkeye Arena. But he hasn’t scored more than eight points in a game since then and has been held scoreless in four Big Ten games.
Freshman forward Ahmad Wagner has helped as a defender and with setting screens and rebounding. But he also has scored two or fewer points in 11 of 15 Big Ten games.
Wisconsin, on the other hand, used nine players against Iowa on Wednesday and eight of them scored between five and 15 points. The Badgers also had six players that made at least one 3-point basket, while Iowa only had two – Jok and Uthoff made three and two, respectively.
Redshirt freshman guard Brady Ellingson only played five minutes against Wisconsin and missed his only shot attempt. Ellingson has been held scoreless in 11 of 15 Big Ten games, including the last five in a row in which he has played.
Combine that sobering statistic with freshman guard Andrew Fleming only appearing briefly in two Big Ten games and there is void in the backcourt. Iowa desperately needs for another perimeter scorer to emerge, but there are no signs of that happening.
Dale Jones being healthy would’ve helped Iowa’s perimeter shooting and its rebounding. But the 6-8 Jones, who is out for the season with a knee injury, isn’t a guard.
Iowa needs another shooter to emerge, or in the case of Uhl and Baer, to re-emerge because it’s getting more difficult to spread the floor and create space for Uthoff and Jok.
Iowa only made 8-of-30 field-goal attempts in the second half against Wisconsin, including 1-of-11 from 3-point range.
Clemmons and Gesell are both streaky shooters, but that didn’t stop Iowa from having success earlier in the season. And that’s because the bench helped to pick up the slack.
McCaffery has tried to defend his bench by blaming himself for not playing his top reserves enough in recent games. There is some truth to that. But there also is a reason McCaffery isn’t using his reserves as much as before. They apparently have done little to inspire his confidence in practice, and we’ve seen what little they’ve brought to the recent games.
McCaffery was asked after Wednesday’s loss how he plans to get the pep back in the step of his players. He started his answer by saying the Ohio State game will be televised on CBS. He then tried to stay positive.
“We haven’t played well in the last two games, yet we have done some good things in those two games,” McCaffery said. “You know, you tend to only focus on what we didn’t do, what we should have done. We did a lot of good things in both of these games. We didn’t do enough to win. We didn’t do enough at crunch time.”
That has to change in a hurry or that’s how this team will be remembered, for failing to deliver at crunch time.
And that would be a shame for the seniors.