Iowa’s youth movement not enough against Notre Dame
By Pat Harty
The Iowa men’s basketball team lost another game and one of its key players on Tuesday, but it also might have found something in defeat – a point guard.
Freshman Jordan Bohannon made his first career start and seized the moment by scoring 23 points and dishing out seven assists during a 92-78 loss to Notre Dame in South Bend, Ind. The former Linn-Mar star also had only one turnover in 32 minutes of action.
“I was telling people earlier, it’s quite a jump going from high school to being a starter on a Big Ten team playing at Notre Dame and trying to do the right thing and trying to execute on time,” Bohannon said on Iowa’s post-game radio show. “But you’ve just got to take it all in, take it one play at a time.”
The 6-foot Bohannon was part of a new starting lineup that also included fellow freshman forward Cordell Pemsl and freshman wingman Isaiah Moss.
Pemsl has been Iowa’s other freshman power forward since arriving on campus, but that changed on Tuesday, partly out of necessity.
With his more celebrated classmate, Tyler Cook, out for three weeks with a broken finger, Pemsl seized the moment by scoring 18 points on 8-of-9 shooting from the field.
His breakout performance came in a loss, but the fact that it came at all is significant for an Iowa team that was suspect before Cook’s injury occurred.
“We played four years together on the AAU circuit, so you can already tell that we’ve got a real good connection and good chemistry out there,” Bohannon said of the 6-8 Pemsl, who graduated from Dubuque Wahlert.
It’s probably too early to say that Iowa coach Fran McCaffery has found his new point guard, but there is reason to be optimistic with Bohannon’s performance.
Iowa only had six turnovers as a team after having 18 turnovers in the previous game against Memphis.
“There are so many things that I’m proud of right now, starting with our turnovers,” McCaffery said. “Notre Dame doesn’t turn the ball over, typically, but we turned them over 11 times in the first half, but we only had six for the game. That gives you a chance to win. I thought our ball movement was really good.”
Moss scored five points in his first start, while Brady Ellingson also scored five points off the bench.
Junior forward Nichoals Baer stuffed the stat sheet again with eight points and 12 rebounds.
“I thought we had a lot of really good individual performers,” McCaffery said.
Senior guard Peter Jok wasn’t among that group for a change, though.
Iowa’s leading scorer only made 4-of-20 shots from the field and was held to 15 points after scoring a career-high 42 points against Memphis in the previous game.
“I think Pete was feeling a lot of pressure with Tyler being gone and have to score the ball,” McCaffery said of the 6-9, 253-pound Cook. “We don’t need him to get forty every night. We need him to get twenty, twenty-five and make some opportunities for other people, which he’ll do.”
Despite allowing 92 points, McCaffery said he liked his team’s defensive effort for about 32 minutes, saying it was terrific. He said fatigue became a problem in the second half as Notre Dame slowly pulled away.
McCaffery was upbeat after Tuesday’s game because there were some positive from which to build.
The problem is that it came during yet another defeat, Iowa’s fourth in its last five games, lowering the team’s record to 3-4.
Notre Dame practically lived at the free throw line, making 30-of-33 attempts.
This marks the first time since McCaffery’s first season at Iowa in 2010 that the team has been below .500 at this stage.
Iowa never has regressed under McCaffery, but that could change this season, which continues on Saturday with a game against Nebraska-Omaha at Carver-Hawkeye Arena.
It’s still way too early to bury the current team, but it already was considered vulnerable heading into the season with four new starters and seven freshmen on the roster.
And now the best of the seven freshmen is out for three weeks with an injury, leaving Iowa with a huge void on the frontline.
Pemsl filled that void on Tuesday, but still it wasn’t enough.
The nonconference schedule still has a few potential rough spots with games against Iowa State and Northern Iowa remaining. Iowa catches a break with the Iowa State game being at Carver-Hawkeye Arena and with the Northern Iowa game being played at Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines as part of the Big 4 Classic instead of in Cedar Falls.
But the more a team loses in the nonconference portion of the schedule, the less margin for error it has in conference play.
Iowa is trying to make the NCAA Tournament for a fourth consecutive season under McCaffery.
Tuesday’s game might have been a breakthrough for Bohannon and Pemsl, but it still ended in defeat