Seton Hall defeats Iowa 91-83
By Pat Harty
IOWA CITY, Iowa – Fran McCaffery was in no mood to hear about growing pains or youth after watching his team get shredded by Seton Hall on Thursday.
“The truth of the matter is we had a pretty experienced team out there,” McCaffery said after the 91-83 loss at Carver-Hawkeye Arena. “Everybody wants to talk about youth. That was a pretty experienced team out there that did not defend.
“So we’ve got to get better.”
Iowa’s defense was especially poor in the second half when the Pirates shot a sizzling 65.5 percent from the field, making 19-of-29 field goal attempts. Seton Hall outscored Iowa 50-24 in the paint and 28-9 in bench points.
“I would like to have seen us play better defense collectively for the duration, but particularly the second half,” McCaffery said. “You can’t give them 66 percent. You’re not winning. We changed defenses. We went to the press. We went to the zone and we just didn’t perform to the level that’s necessary.”
Even with all the defenses lapses, Iowa still stayed within striking distance until the very end. Senior guard Peter Jok made a 3-point basket that trimmed the deficit to 77-72 with 4 minutes 11 seconds remaining.
Iowa also cut the lead to five points at 88-83 in the final minute, but Seton Hall center Angel Delgado made 3-of-4 free throws in the final 35 seconds to secure the victory.
“We didn’t help in the gaps as much, we knew this was a driving team and I know they got to the rim a little too easily,’ said Iowa sophomore forward Nicholas Baer. “Especially when we have experienced guys coming back, myself (Peter) Jok, we know better than that. We know that we have defend a team like that a lot better.”
Seton Hall’s quickness and aggressiveness caused problems for Iowa on both offense and defense. Point guards Christian Williams and Jordan Bohannon both had three of Iowa’s 17 turnovers.
The Hawkeyes also missed 13 free throws, although, Seton Hall was even worse, missing 14 of its 31 free throw attempts.
McCaffery might have been sending his players a message by refusing to use youth as a reason for losing, but it was a factor. Nearly half of Iowa’s roster was in high school last year and most of the other players were buried on the bench last season.
Jok is the only returning starter from last season and he played like a veteran, at least on offense, scoring a career-high 30 points, along with grabbing 11 rebounds.
Freshman forward Tyler Cook complemented Jok on the inside by scoring 24 points, but he also missed seven free throws and grabbed just two rebounds.
“I liked a lot of the things he did,” McCaffery said of the 6-foot-9, 253-pound Cook. “And as he figures it out, he’ll get even better at it.”
Seton Hall was a major step up in competition for Iowa, which defeated Kennesaw State and Savannah State in the first two games by scores of 91-74 and 116-84, respectively. The Pirates returned four starters from a team that won 25 games last season and defeated eventual national champion Villanova in the Big East Tournament championship game.
The challenge for Iowa is to learn from the experience and realize that defense is a group effort that requires effort, focus and communication.
You can’t fault Iowa’s effort against Seton Hall, but the focus and communication left much to be desired.
“We didn’t help each other, our team defense was really bad,” Jok said. “But we’re going to work on that and get better.”
Iowa still has 28 games to get better, starting with another likely mismatch against the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley on Sunday at Carver-Hawkeye Arena.
Thursday’s game was fun to watch as both teams made some spectacular individual plays.
Seton Hall also had its own star freshman as guard Myles Powell came off the bench to score 26 points.
“He’s special,” McCaffery said.
One game certainly doesn’t make or break a basketball season. But this one game, which was part of the Gavitt games, served notice that Iowa still is very much a slow work in progress
A lack of experience certainly contributed to Iowa's problems against Seton Hall. Just don't say that to McCaffery because he isn't buying it. At least not publicly.