Indiana loss disappointing and deflating, but hardly reason to panic
Hoosiers expose some of Iowa's lingering weaknesses that often stay hidden during success
By Pat Harty
IOWA CITY, Iowa – You didn’t think Iowa would finish with just one loss in Big Ten play? And if you did, shame on you.
What happened Thursday night at Carver-Hawkeye Arena, while disappointing and deflating, was just life in the rugged Big Ten.
Indiana hung around in the first half despite shooting poorly, and then lifted its performance to another level in the second half and left Iowa City with an impressive 81-69 victory.
Iowa fell out of first place with its first loss at home this season, and sophomore guard C.J. Fredrick missed the entire second half with a lower leg injury, and when he will return is uncertain at this time.
Senior guard Jordan Bohannon was also held scoreless, and Iowa went over 10 minutes without scoring in the second half, so there’s a lot to digest after this loss.
But there is no reason to over-react, although, Fredrick’s injury is a concern.
Barring any late scheduling changes, Iowa has a week to regroup, recover and reenergize before facing Illinois next Friday in Champaign, Ill.
Bohannon has shown a knack for bouncing back from poor shooting performances, and he’s still the player on the team you would want shooting a 3-pointer in the final seconds with the game on the line.
Indiana provided the blueprint for how to defend Bohannon, and that’s by having an athletic defender get right up on him and never let him get loose.
Bohannon did shake free for some of his eight field-goal attempts, but for most of Thursday’s game, he had a defender in his face.
“They did what everybody does,” said Iowa coach Fran McCaffery. “They got up in his face and they chased him around and he had a couple in-and-outs early and just never really got comfortable.”
Indiana actually did what most teams try to do against Bohannon, only the Hoosiers did it much better.
One could argue that Iowa has better basketball players than Indiana from top to bottom, but Indiana has better athletes, and that helps on defense.
There is a reason Iowa hasn’t won a Big Ten regular-season title since the 1978-79 season, and that’s because it’s hard to win a Big Ten regular-season title.
It takes talent, experience, perseverance, endurance and some luck to win the Big Ten regular-season title.
Iowa has all of those intangibles, and until Fredrick was injured, luck also had been on Iowa’s side.
Fran McCaffery said his team struggled on defense and became too reliant on Garza to carry the offense against Indiana. Garza certainly did his part with 28 points and 12 rebounds, but Iowa only had one other player score in double figures, and that was Joe Wieskamp with 16 points.
However, Wieskamp only scored one point in the second half, and with Bohannon struggling and Fredrick injured, Iowa just didn’t have enough firepower to quell Indian’s upset bid.
“Our defense wasn’t good and our offense was a little bit stagnant, I thought, a little bit too relying on Luka,” Fran McCaffery said. “We did get it into the bonus. We did out-rebound them. But our defense, no matter what we were in was not good and I think it all stemmed from there.
“We did have some good looks at it. We had it at point blank range a couple times and we missed some free throws. It was a combination of errors there.”
There is a common theme with Iowa’s three losses this season to Gonzaga, Minnesota and Indiana, and that’s Bohannon having struggled in all three games.
When Iowa’s shots aren’t falling from 3-point range, the offense has a tendency to get stagnant and the defense breaks down.
There were several plays in Thursday’s game in which Indiana scored on wide-open dunks due mostly to Iowa’s lack of communication and awareness on defense.
“It’s upsetting we weren’t able to play to the level we know we can and we understand that,” Garza said. “It has to be used a lesson, not finger-pointing. We’re going to be better. I’m going to make sure that we’re better. I’m going to make sure that we don’t take anything for granted and that we’re going to see every game as the most important on the schedule. And I’m going to have to do that as one of the leaders on this team and I will do that.”
Garza was very critical of his performance against Indiana. He only scored three points in the final 12 minutes, all of which came on free throws.
“They, like a lot of teams, were just sending a lot of heat towards me,” Garza said. “Honestly, I didn’t do a good enough job dealing with the double team in the second half.
“I can’t turn it over that many times (four in the second half). I’m better than that, and I have been better than that, and I will be better than that. So it’s upsetting for myself. It’s something I work on every single day, and I’ve got to be better.”
The Iowa players said all of the right stuff after Thursday’s loss, which lowered Iowa’s record to 12-3 overall and 6-2 in the Big Ten.
Wieskamp said it was time for the players to look in the mirror and to pay less attention to the hype and high expectations.
And he’s right.
Maybe Iowa was too comfortable when it took the court on Thursday.
Maybe Indiana sensed that level of comfort and then pounced on the Hawkeyes.
The challenge is to not let this loss linger and turn into another loss.
Iowa still has to improve on defense, and has to figure a way to be effective on offense when the 3-point shots aren’t falling.
Right now, Iowa’s half-court offense is too reliant on Garza and on 3-point shooting.
But it’s also easy to become a prisoner of the moment, and to be overly critical after a loss.
Iowa had won five games in a row before Thursday’s loss, and hadn’t really had a bad performance.
It certainly isn’t time to panic, or to assume the worse.
There were no excuses or finger pointing after Thursday’s loss. The players spoke about being accountable and about learning from the loss.
And that’s encouraging.