Iowa men lose big at Northwestern
By Pat Harty
For those wondering how the Iowa men’s basketball team would respond in a game in which Peter Jok wasn't himself, the answer came on Sunday against Northwestern and it wasn't pretty.
In fact, it was ugly and embarrassing.
Northwestern shot 60 percent from the field and had 15 more rebounds than Iowa while cruising to an 89-54 victory at Welsh-Ryan Arena.
Maybe the only thing more surprising than the final score was Jok’s stat line, which included a season-low four points on 2-of-9 shooting from the field.
Iowa coach Fran McCaffery said after the game that Jok was slowed by a stiff back that tightened up on Jok in the second half.
“We tried to get him ready and get him going, but it got to the point where I wasn’t going to push it with him and put him back in there risking further injury,” McCaffery said on his post-game radio show.
So at least there was an explanation for why Jok failed to deliver on the road, but now you wonder if his team truly is that helpless without him.
Imagine if 6-foot-9 freshman forward Ryan Kriener hadn’t come off the bench to score 14 points on 6-of-7 shooting from the field. The final score could have been worse.
Kriener's sudden emergence as a go-to player on offense is something nobody except for Kriener probably saw coming.
How could you?
The big kid from Spirit Lake barely had played until McCaffery used him for eight minutes in last Thursday’s 83-78 victory over Purdue at Carver-Hawkeye Arena. That was long enough for Kriener to score six points and grab two rebounds.
That little flurry was easy to dismiss as a fluke, but not two times in a row, not a 14-point performance on the road in which you make shots from all over court, including one 3-pointer.
Kriener has earned a spot in the rotation and will stay in the rotation if he keeps scoring at this rate. Iowa needs a post player who can make medium-range shots, and in the last two games Kriener has made that look easy.
“I thought Ryan Kriener was spectacular,” McCaffery said. “I’m so impressed with that kid and his toughness and his concentration.
“At the beginning, he was a freshman trying to figure it out and as practice has continued and we’ve played some games, he’s got it all figured out. He’s just tremendous. So I’m really proud of him. And obviously, he’s going to get a lot more playing time.”
Iowa was in striking distance after Nicholas Baer made a 3-point field goal with slightly more than 13 minutes remaining the second half, trimming the deficit to single-digits at 56-47.
But then Northwestern responded with a 12-0 scoring run that swelled to a 28-6 run, putting the game out of reach.
Iowa offered little resistance on the boards where Northwestern had 11 offensive rebounds.
Iowa only made two 3-point baskets in the first half, each by freshman point guard Jordan Bohannon, and just four overall on 17 attempts.
Jok had half as many fouls as he did points in the first half with two and four, respectively.
You kept waiting for Jok to erupt in the second half, but it never happened as he was held scoreless.
Iowa is now one-third of the way through the 18-game Big Ten schedule and will bring records of 11-8 overall and 3-3 in the conference into Thursday’s game against 16-2 Maryland at Carver-Hawkeye Arena.
Assuming Jok gets healthy, you would expect Iowa to bounce back and perform with energy and with far more efficiency against Maryland because for one, the game is at home where Iowa seems to be gaining power and confidence, and because this Iowa team has shown a knack for bouncing back.
You don’t have a 3-3 record in conference play without having the ability to bounce back.
“Nobody feels sorry for us,” McCaffery said. “We’ve got to get back and get to work. We’ll get home late tonight. We’ll get to work. We’ll have them ready.”
This loss was similar to the Big Ten opener on Dec. 28 at Purdue where Iowa lost 89-67 in a game in which the Hawkeyes trailed by 24 points at halftime.
Iowa responded to the Purdue loss by defeating Michigan 86-83 in overtime four days later on Jan. 1 in Iowa City.
“The last time this happened was Purdue, obviously, and I think we bounced back really well from that one,” Kriener said. “So it’s a little bit of a wake-up call. We’re going regroup and we’re going to learn from it just like we did against Purdue, and hopefully, it’ll light a little fire under us and we’ll be back out there and go to work.”
That’s really all a team can do is go back to work. It’s the same after a win. Either way, you learn from it and move on.
Much of Iowa’s work will be on the boards where McCaffery clearly was frustrated and disappointed with his team’s performance against Northwestern. He pointed out that freshmen forwards Tyler Cook and Cordell Pemsl both only had one rebound apiece in the first half.
“That’s unacceptable,” McCaffery said. “Those guys have got to rebound better. They’ve got to set up shop and get into those guys who are climbing their backs.
“That’s inexperience and they’ll get it figured out. They’re greet kids. They’re relaly good players. I love them both, but tonight they got schooled by some veteran guys and they’ve got to figure out. And the only way to do it is to go through it.”
McCaffery also pointed out the positives, including that Cook battled to score in double figures, finishing with 14 points.
“He’s growing,” McCaffery said of the 6-9, 253-pound Cook. “And it doesn’t happen without mistakes. You’ve got to let those guys make some mistakes.”
It deserves mentioning that the Iowa players wore t-shirts in pregame warm-ups honoring former guard Kenny Arnold, who has battled the effects from a brain tumor for over 30 years. Arnold currently lives in a care facility in his hometown of Chicago, but couldn't attend the game.
His situation helps to put Sunday's loss in perspective.
Iowa performed woefully, but it was just one game and one loss.
This is a young Iowa team that still is feeling its way through the conference.
Its star player wasn't himself on Sunday, but the supporting cast didn't handle Jok's absence very well.
The challenge now is to make sure that Sunday's beat-down doesn't linger and turn into two losses.