Iowa men survive much-improved Rutgers on Sunday
By Pat Harty
IOWA CITY, Iowa – Survive and advance is a phrase often used to describe a team’s approach to competing in the NCAA Tournament.
It also works for the regular season because that’s exactly what the Iowa men’s basketball team did on Sunday by defeating Rutgers 68-62 at Carver-Hawkeye Arena.
The youthful Hawkeyes survived and now they advance to the next challenge, which for Iowa is a rematch against Purdue on Thursday at Carver-Hawkeye Arena. The Boilermakers defeated Iowa 89-67 in the Big Ten opener on Dec. 28 in West Lafayette, Ind.
Iowa struggled for much of Sunday’s game and trailed by as many as nine points in the second half against a Rutgers team that has been stuck in last place in the Big Ten since joining the conference.
The close score caused some to question whether Iowa suffered from a hangover effect on Sunday in the wake of Thursday’s double-overtime loss at Nebraska.
Iowa coach Fran McCaffery seemed confused by that question.
“It’s funny because I’ve been asked that question so many times in the last three days,” McCaffery said. “And when I was first asked the question, it was like do you think there’s going to be a hangover. I mean, hangover for what? We lost. So should there be a hangover? You should be ready to go back to work and ready to fight.
“But everybody seems to keep asking me the same question because clearly they think that was a possibility. And then we don’t play well in the first half and it sort of looks like, `well, maybe they just weren’t quite ready. But I thought we were ready. I thought Rutgers was ready, too.”
This was a game in which some fans might have to remind themselves that there is no such thing as a bad victory. Especially for an Iowa team that starts four freshmen and that lost to Nebraska-Omaha earlier in the season.
You cherish any win and move on to the next challenge.
McCaffery was more into praising Rutgers and its new head coach Steve Pikiell after Sunday’s game than making excuses for why the score was closer than some might have expected. McCaffery didn’t buy into the theory that his team struggled on Sunday because of having four freshmen starters.
“I think what you have to do is not jump to that kind of thinking,” McCaffery said. “I think you have to give more respect to our opponent and the job that coach Pikiell is doing with that program. They’re a different team defensively and they’re a different team offensively.”
Freshman forward Cordell Pemsl also refused to use the Nebraska loss as an excuse for why Iowa struggled with Rutgers on Sunday.
“Obviously, we were a little tired, but that wasn’t the reason for the way we performed for the first twenty-eight minutes of the game,” Pemsl said. “We knew that we needed to come out with more energy in the second half and we did that down the stretch.”
Senior guard Peter Jok led Iowa in scoring as usual with 18 points in Sunday’s game. But it was junior forward Dom Uhl who seized the spotlight by scoring 10 points, grabbing eight rebounds and blocking five shots in 23 minutes off the bench.
The 6-foot-9 Uhl had struggled in recent games and saw his playing time diminish.
But instead of pouting, Uhl just kept working on his game and waiting for an opportunity to shine.
“He was the man today,” McCaffery said of Uhl. “He was the difference in the game without question.”
Uhl deserves credit for staying the course and for trusting in the coaches to make the right and fair decisions.
“You just have to stay positive and trust in the coaches,” Uhl said. “You just have to keep working. That’s all you can do, really.”
Actually, being a good teammate isn’t all you can do. Some players might have resented losing their starting position to a freshman, as was the case with Uhl, and become a distraction.
“He could have hung his head,” McCaffery said. “He had a terrific practice yesterday. I just thought he earned the opportunity to get more minutes and that’s the reason we won.”
Iowa improved to 10-7 overall and 2-2 in the Big Ten with the victory, while Rutgers fell to 11-6 and 0-4.
“We’re getting better,” Pikiell said of his team. “It’s not easy and we’ve played three out of first four (Big Ten) games on the road against really good teams.”
Iowa seized the momentum and ultimately the lead after switching to zone press midway through the second half.
I think coach McCaffery does a great job, their defense affected us and we weren’t getting the ball where we needed to,” Pikiell said. “They did turn it up a notch on their homecourt. They got to the free throw line and we didn’t.”
Iowa made 16-of-23 free throw attempts, while Rutgers only attempted four free throws, making two.
Fans kept waiting for Iowa to make a run in the first half and it finally happened when Nicholas Baer drained a 3-pointer with 10 minutes, 23 seconds remaining before halftime. His basket triggered an 18-6 scoring run that turned a four-point deficit at 18-14 into a 32-24 lead with just under 3 minutes left in the first half. Dom Uhl capped the run by making a basket with 2:53 left before halftime.
But instead of building on the lead, Iowa didn’t score again in the first half, while Rutgers scored eight consecutive points to close the first half, which ended in a 32-32 tie.
Iowa’s performance in the first half, which included nine turnovers, a 20-15 rebounding deficit and just two free throw attempts, both of which were missed, left much to be desired.
The second half proved to be more of the same as Rutgers refused to wilt despite having never won a Big Ten road game.
The Scarlet Knights outscored Iowa 12-7 to begin the second half and led 51-42 when Dewshawn Freeman made a basket with 10:11 remaining in regulation.
By then it was obvious, sometimes painfully obvious, that Rutgers would be in the game until very end and might even escape with a victory.
The Hawkeyes turned a 51-42 deficit into a 59-55 lead thanks to a 17-4 scoring run that Jok capped with a breakaway dunk with slightly less than 3 minutes to play.
Iowa was clinging to a 61-59 lead when Jok made a basket with 2:15 remaining. Rutgers answered with a basket, but then Baer hit a baseline jumper, pushing the lead back to four points at 63-59.
Iowa made 5-of-6 free throws in the final 1:07 to survive.
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