Harty: Never thought this Iowa team would have a moral victory
IOWA CITY, Iowa – The Iowa basketball fans who I know mostly can be divided into two groups right now.
In one group are those who agree with Iowa coach Fran McCaffery, who said after Tuesday’s 81-78 loss to Indiana that his team had turned the corner despite losing at home, despite losing its fourth game in a row and despite losing on Senior Day.
In the other group are those who scoff at that suggestion, those who believe that the Iowa blew another opportunity because it failed to execute when it mattered the most.
Iowa has lost five of its last six games, along with any shot of winning the Big Ten regular-season title for the first time since 1979.
Indiana clinched the title outright with Tuesday’s victory, its second victory over Iowa this season. By handling the Big Ten grind better than any other team, the Hoosiers did what the Hawkeyes seemed poised to do in January and early February.
In order to end the misery, Iowa will have to defeat Michigan on Saturday, which is also Michigan’s senior day.
Crisler Arena in Ann Arbor, Mich., should be an emotional scene on Saturday as Wolverine fans pay tribute to a Michigan team that is likely headed to the NCAA Tournament despite playing for much of the season without star guard Caris Levert because of an injury.
When shooting well from the perimeter, Michigan can beat just about anybody.
But when Michigan’s shots aren’t falling, it can lose to just about anybody.
Sound familiar?
It should sound familiar because that also describes Iowa at this stage of the season.
Senior forward Jarrod Uthoff only made 5-of-17 field-goal attempts against Indiana, marking the eighth consecutive game that he has made fewer than 50 percent of his field-goal attempts.
Uthoff made at least 50 percent of his field-goal attempts in four of the eight games before that, seven in which Iowa prevailed.
“I had a bunch of good looks and they just didn’t go down,” Uthoff said after Tuesday’s loss, which lowered Iowa’s records to 20-9 overall and 11-6 in the Big Ten. “That’s the way it goes sometimes.
“I had a couple good looks to tie it at the end and those didn’t go down.”
Iowa’s other go-to player, junior guard Peter Jok, is also in a shooting slump, making just 12-of-37 field-goal attempts in the past three games.
This comes after a stretch in which the West Des Moines native shot at least 50 percent from the field in eight of 10 games.
Jok has been sick recently, but McCaffery said Jok was fine on a Monday teleconference.
McCaffery also seemed convinced after Tuesday’s loss that his team would be fine. That was the narrative for everybody on the team except senior center Adam Woodbury, who was visibly upset, telling reporters that losing sucks.
Woodbury was in no mood to discuss a moral victory. He vowed to keep working hard and to get better.
But he refused to acknowledge that Iowa did much of anything positive in Tuesday’s game.
“It wouldn’t be hard to play better than the way we had been playing,” Woodbury said.
I was surprised that more of the players didn’t respond like Woodbury did on Tuesday. It was weird listening to players on a team that was ranked as high as third nationally just a few weeks ago talk about turning the corner during a costly conference loss.
I figured this Iowa team was above having moral victories, but apparently not.
We keep coming up with reasons for why Iowa is struggling, but they seem to change with each loss. The bench can’t be blamed at the present time because it outscored Indiana’s bench 27-19 in Tuesday’s game.
Iowa missed nine of 27 free throw attempts, but the Hoosiers shot even worse from the free throw line, missing half of their 20 attempts.
The fact that Tuesday’s final margin was just three points might have worked against Iowa, considering the Hawkeyes are just 3-7 in games decided by six or fewer points this season.
The inability to hit clutch shots makes it extremely difficult to win close games, especially against teams that are familiar with your personnel and playing style, as is the case with the teams in the Big Ten.
The good news that can’t be disputed is that Iowa’s four seniors still have an opportunity to end their careers on a high note. No matter what happens against Michigan on Saturday, or at the Big Ten Tournament next week in Indianapolis, making the NCAA Sweet 16 for the first time since 1999 would heal a lot of wounds.
The Hawkeyes have shown that they can perform at a level that is needed to make a run in the NCAA Tournament. They just haven’t shown it for a while, although, some would say they showed it against Indiana on Tuesday.
It all depends on your point of view and whether your glass is half full or half empty.