Harty: Iowa’s seniors achieved everything but elite status
BROOKLYN, N.Y. – The four senior starters on the Iowa men’s basketball team can take pride in knowing they made the program better than when they arrived.
They took something that was in shambles and made it respectable, winning 89 games over four seasons and playing in three consecutive NCAA Tournaments.
They re-energized the fan base and made Iowa relevant again.
They took a chance when all Fran McCaffery could promise them was hope and playing time.
They thrived as student-athletes and as citizens, receiving numerous academic accolades and behaving like gentlemen off the court.
But what they failed to do is make Iowa elite as we so painfully saw on Sunday as No. 2 seed Villanova pounded the Hawkeyes 87-68 in the second round of the NCAA Tournament at the Barclays Center.
Iowa and Villanova could play 10 times and the sharp-shooting Wildcats probably would win eight or nine of the games.
They’re just better than Iowa, which was seeded seventh in the tournament. Villanova is elite, whereas Iowa is good.
That’s a big difference, as we saw on Sunday.
“I think they can go a long way,” McCaffery said of Villanova, which improved to 31-5 with Sunday’s victory. “They’re a really difficult team to guard.
“Villanova is a team that I look as an elite team. But I look at them more as an elite program than anything else.”
The Hawkeyes flirted with being elite this season when they won 10 of their first 11 Big Ten games and climbed to third in the national rankings.
But they failed to sustain it much beyond January and finished the season with a 22-11 record.
And then on Sunday, the Hawkeyes failed to sustain much of anything positive in what proved to be a humiliating defeat and a horrible way for the seniors to exit.
Iowa senior center Adam Woodbury praised Villanova for playing harder than his team. That raised a few eyebrows with reporters, but it was more a case of Woodbury praising the Wildcats than ripping his team.
“It was pretty evident,” Woodbury said. “That’s a hard-playing team. “They’re a Final Four team. They’re a two-seed for a reason.”
The Iowa players knew that Villanova would try to pounce on them early, but they still had no answer for it.
Villanova had an 11-0 scoring run and two 8-0 scoring runs in the first half and led 54-29 at halftime.
The outcome was pretty much decided at that point.
“We knew that was going to happen, but I think in a way it did surprise us, which is disappointing,” said senior point guard Mike Gesell. “And it’s disappointing that we dug ourselves that big of a hole because we knew what they wanted to do and we knew that’s what they were going to do.
“We got a little bit sideways in the first half and then we weren’t able to make adjustments fast enough to stop us from being that big hole.”
The Hawkeyes weren’t able to make adjustments because Villanova is the better team, as shown by its domination in the first half. The Wildcats had what their head coach, Jay Wright, described as the best 20-minute performance in quite some time on Sunday, while Iowa sputtered on the big stage and with the season on the line.
Villanova has won 93 games over the past three seasons, but this marks the first time the Wildcats have advanced to Sweet 16 since 2009.
“We’re thrilled that we came out and played a first half like that,” Wright said. “When I shook hands with Fran, I just said, `hey, I’m sorry. We haven’t played a first half like that in a long time.’”
It never is a good sign when the opposing coach apologizes for his team playing so well against your team. Wright meant no disrespect, but the Hawkeyes also did nothing to earn his respect on Sunday.
Iowa’s starters were held scoreless for more than 8 minutes in the first half. That wouldn’t happen to an elite team.
You could argue that the Iowa program is in the exact same position it was at the end of last season when it lost to Gonzaga in the second round of the NCAA Tournament by the exact same score of 87-68.
The Iowa program didn’t regress this season, but it also didn’t climb to the next level.
This marks the first time in six seasons under McCaffery that Iowa failed to accomplish more than the previous season.
Take away the gritty performance by walk-on freshman forward Nicholas Baer and Sunday’s beat-down would’ve been worse. Baer scored 15 points off the bench, including eight consecutive points midway through the first half when Iowa’s starters were in a deep freeze.
“It’s a great honor to play in the NCAA Tournament and it was a goal of ours from the beginning of the season,” Baer said. “It’s sad we had to lose today. But I really enjoyed playing with these seniors, and I’m going to miss playing with them.”
Iowa fans also will miss the seniors next season. They might not feel that way right now in the wake of Sunday’s loss.
But wait until the 7-foot-1 Woodbury isn’t there to protect the rim on defense. Wait until senior forward Jarrod Uthoff isn’t there to score in double figures in virtually every game. And wait until Gesell and fellow senior guard Anthony Clemmons aren’t there to stabilize the backcourt.
The seniors never achieved greatness as a unit and they failed to advance to the Sweet 16, which Iowa hasn’t done since 1999. But they helped Iowa win at least 20 games in four consecutive seasons.
Gesell also became Iowa’s single-season assist leader this season, while Uthoff became Iowa’s first All-American since 1997.
At some point, the seniors will look back and appreciate everything they have accomplished.
“It’s not going to be for a while, but I’m proud of the guys I played with the last four years,” Woodbury said. “It’s been a great run and I will always be grateful to the University of Iowa.”
The Iowa fans also should be grateful for what the seniors have accomplished.
That still doesn’t excuse Sunday’s performance. But the good still outweighs the bad with with the seniors, even without the program reaching elite status.