Iowa shows inexperience during exhibition victory over Regis
IOWA CITY, Iowa – The Iowa basketball team showed its inexperience during a 95-73 exhibition win over Regis on Friday night.
Senior guard Peter Jok helped alleviate some defensive lapses, leading Iowa in scoring with 28 points on 7-of-9 shooting, including 5-of-7 from three-point range.
Iowa, which played four true freshman against Regis, struggled to defend the perimeter and committed 15 turnovers.
"We didn't really play the kind of defense we need to play," Iowa head coach Fran McCaffery said. "They really spread us out. They got in the lane, they made plays and made some shots. I thought our cohesiveness defensively is not what it needs to be. We've got to give them credit for that and we've just got to do better."
Iowa led 51-31 at halftime but a 13-0 Regis run midway through the second half cut the Iowa lead to ten at 64-54. During the under-12 minute timeout McCaffery lit into his players on the bench, smacking a clipboard out of a manager's hands out of frustration with his team's lack of effort.
"I think we got a little bit complacent there so I wasn't happy about that at all," McCaffery said. "We have to do a better job of getting (freshman forward) Tyler Cook the ball and recognizing, especially when we're in the double bonus early in both halves, we have to throw it inside, we have to drive the ball.
"I thought our effort level even when we got the lead was not what it needs to be. They hit some shots early, they came out ready and I think that was good for us to play against a team that was moving the ball and hitting shots but the complacency once we got up 20, there's no excuse for that, that cannot happen. You can't play that way, you can't play this game in spurts.
"In situations like that they can't take it personally. They have to recognize that what I'm saying is for their benefit. In situations like that you're looking for some corrections and to their credit that's what they did.
After the timeout, Iowa went on a 16-6 run over the next six minutes to widen the lead back to 20 at 80-60.
"They really worked together defensively that one stretch which was very impressive," McCaffery said. "There's no reason we couldn't have played that way all the time. Now, you're not going to get stop after stop because they've got some guys that can play and they proved that. But you're looking for that type of effort and intensity and execution consistently for 40 minutes. Everybody talks about execution on offense but there's execution on defense too and we didn't execute defensively."
Sophomore forward Nicholas Baer sees the lack of defensive execution as an opportunity for everyone to learn, not just the younger players.
"I think there were times in the second half where we were a little casual," Baer said. "I think that's something that's possible with a younger team, especially with a 20 point lead. There were definitely mistakes but they're all correctable, that's the good news so we'll go over the film and learn the teaching points and make sure to fix those up."
Besides Jok's 28 points, there were other positives to take from Iowa's performance as well. In particular the performance of the 6-foot-9 Cook who scored 15 points and pulled down six rebounds to go along with three steals in his Iowa debut, but also the fact that the Hawkeyes got to the free throw line 41 times.
"It was fun," Cook said. "We have a lot of stuff we have to work on obviously and should have beat them by more but they're a good team though. We have to pick up our effort defensively and our concentration defensively too. Our offensive execution wasn't the best tonight but it was good to get our feet wet."
Iowa hosts Kennesaw State in its regular season home opener next Friday at Carver-Hawkeye Arena.
Injury report: Freshman forward Ryan Kriener did not play. He was seen sitting on the bench with a boot on his ankle. It in unclear when he is scheduled to return to play.
Sophomore guard Brady Ellingson also did not play with an apparent ankle injury. Ellingson was able to participate in the team's shootaround prior to the game.