By Pat Harty

IOWA CITY, Iowa – Even the emotion from honoring a Hawkeye legend wasn’t enough to inspire the struggling Iowa men’s basketball team.

The Hawkeyes continued a disturbing pattern of falling behind early and then never put forth much of a fight while losing to third-ranked Purdue 87-64 on Saturday at Carver-Hawkeye Arena.

Purdue bolted to a 24-6 lead and led by 31 points at halftime before expanding the lead to 37 points in the second half.

The loss would’ve been horrible under any circumstance, but Saturday’s beat-down came on a day when a near-sellout crowd of 14,822 packed into the arena to honor former Hawkeye Chris Street, who was killed in an automobile accident 25 years ago this past Friday.

Street’s parents attended Saturday’s game, as did former Iowa coach Tom Davis, former assistant coach Gary Close and a number of former Iowa players.

The hope was that Street’s memory would inspire the Iowa players to perform well, but hope soon gave way to frustration and sadness as Purdue dominated from start to finish behind a starting lineup with four seniors.

“I would say this; Purdue has got a special team,” said Iowa coach Fran McCaffery. “They’ve really played well this year. They’re 19-2 for a reason. They shoot it. They throw it inside. They share it.

“I think it’s hard when you have that many seniors, and all of whom want to be recognized to just play that unselfishly. That’s really impressive, and I think it’s a credit to Matt and the job that he’s done with that team. We got outplayed by a really good team. They’ve been doing it to everybody.”

McCaffery was referring to Purdue coach Matt Painter, who played for Purdue at the same time Street played for Iowa in the early 1990s. Painter and Street became friends while playing together on a Big Ten all-star team in college.

Painter knew that Carver-Hawkeye Arena would be lit with emotion, and Purdue had struggled to win there recently.

But there was no struggle for Purdue on Saturday.

The Boilermakers took the crowd out of the game immediately and shredded Iowa’s sieve-like defense by making a school-record 20 3-point baskets, many of which came on uncontested shots. Purdue made 11-of-16 3-point shots in the first half.

“We knew them honoring Chris and being the 25 years, we knew the fans would come out to support their team,” Painter said. “But also support the Street family.

“So we talked about it a little bit as a staff.”

Painter also prepared his team for the early 11 a.m. tip-off.

“Some teams aren’t very good at noon,” Painter said. “Some of them are just getting rolling. But this team, this is our third noon game, we’ve played well, especially in the first half.”

It doesn’t seem to matter when, where or under what circumstances Iowa plays because the team is likely to struggle as evidenced by its records of 1-7 in the Big Ten and 10-11 overall.

Iowa has to win eight of its final 10 conference games just to finish .500 in the Big Ten.

McCaffery asked fans not to give up on his team, but judging from some of the responses on social media, it might be too late for that.

“It’s going to take everyone in the program to get this turned around,” said Iowa sophomore point guard Jordan Bohannon. “We’re not going to stop working. That’s none of the characteristics that we have as individuals.

“We’ve just got to get ready for Tuesday.”

Iowa will face another team that is struggling in Wisconsin at 6 p.m. on Tuesday at Carver-Hawkeye Arena.

McCaffery focused more on praising Purdue than criticizing his team during his post-game press conference. He had no problem with his team’s effort, especially early in the game, and he believes that his messages still is being heard by the players.

In McCaffery’s opinion, Saturday’s mismatch was more about Purdue’s strengths than Iowa’s weaknesses.

Maybe so, but some Hawkeye fans will struggle to see it that way or refuse to see it that way. And you really couldn’t blame them.

It’s hard to accuse the Iowa players of quitting on Saturday because in order to quit, you have to start something and Iowa offered little to no resistance from the beginning.

Iowa played without sophomore forward Ryan Kriener due to concussion symptoms, but it probably would've taken LeBron James to make Saturday's game competitive.

McCaffery ripped into his players during an early timeout after Purdue had started to pull away, but it had no effect.

Purdue kept making wide open 3-point baskets, while Iowa struggled in every facet of the game, but especially with perimeter defense. Big Ten opponents are now shooting 45 percent from 3-point range against the Hawkeyes.

Purdue center Isaac Haas only scored three points in Saturday's game, which is 11 below his average. But the 7-foot-2 junior wasn't needed due to the 3-point barrage.

Freshman center Luka Garza was the lone bright spot for Iowa on offense, scoring 19 points on 8-of-10 shooting from the field. But he only scored four points in the first half.

The halftime ceremony in honor of Street gave fans something to cheer about, especially when Tom Davis was introduced, along with Street’s parents.

But it came on the heels of a first half in which Purdue shot a blistering 69 percent from the field and led 51-20 at halftime.

The game for all intents and purposes was over at halftime, and probably earlier than that, considering Purdue led by 18 points midway through the first half.

The Hawkeyes had so much to play for on Saturday including pride, and yet they performed woefully.

The same things that made Street such a great player, things like hustle, awareness and competiveness, were missing on Saturday.

Purdue is obviously a great team, but it shouldn’t be able to come into Carver-Hawkeye Arena on a day in which Iowa is honoring a legend and deliver a beat-down.

Iowa’s performance on Saturday was inexcusable, embarrassing and disturbing. It makes you wonder if McCaffery has lost the players because there seems to be a disconnect somewhere.

Iowa had no reason to come out flat against the third-ranked team in the country, and with Street being honored, but that’s what happened.

Purdue did a better job than Iowa of honoring Street by playing the game the way it should be played with passion, energy and awareness.

“I have full confidence in our team that we’ll be able to move past this and learn from it and get a win on Tuesday,” said junior forward Nicholas Baer.

That is what you would hope and expect the Iowa players to say publicly because even if Baer didn’t feel that way, it would make no sense to share it with the media.

But you have to wonder about the confidence of the Iowa players.

A team that was picked to contend for an NCAA Tournament berth is now fighting to stay out of the Big Ten basement nearly halfway through the conference schedule.

Iowa hasn't finished below .500 in conference play since McCaffery's second team finished 8-10 in 2012.

The situation has regressed to where this season is bringing back memories of the three disastrous seasons under former coach Todd Lickliter, who was fired in 2010 after just three years on the job. Iowa finished 4-14 in the Big Ten in Lickliter's final season. 

Baer acknowledged that it’s hard to stay confident when you play as poorly as Iowa did on Saturday.

“I think so, but I think it’s also a very important thing that we have to maintain is that confidence level, that belief that we can turn this around, that belief that we can win games at this level,” Baer said “Obviously, it’s a challenge and something that we’re going to continue to work on. I think it starts in practice and carries over into games.”

Baer said he remains confident because in his opinion Iowa continues to practice well, including in the days leading up to Saturday’s drubbing.

The fans and the media only get to watch the games, though, and right now they’re mostly a disaster.

McCaffery has built up a lot of good will by leading Iowa to six consecutive postseason tournament appearances, including the NCAA Tournament in three of the last four seasons.

But his current team shows signs of unraveling, and with no hope in sight.

Expecting Iowa to defeat Purdue on Saturday would’ve been asking a lot, probably too much.

But expecting Iowa to be competitive and to play with passion wasn’t asking too much.