Iowa men crushed again on the road
Iowa State defeats Iowa 90-65 at Hilton Coliseum
By Pat Harty
With six newcomers on the roster and four true freshmen in the rotation, it was reasonable to assume that the Iowa men’s basketball team would suffer through some growing pains this season.
And now it’s happening just nine games into the season.
Iowa fell behind Iowa State by 20 points in the first half and by 32 points in the second half before losing 90-65 on Thursday at Hilton Coliseum in Ames.
The loss to Iowa State came three days after Iowa’s 87-68 loss at Purdue this past Monday. Iowa trailed Purdue by 21 points at halftime and by as many as 35 points in the second half.
Iowa fell to 5-4 with Thursday’s loss and will have to bounce back quickly with Michigan up next on Sunday at Carver-Hawkeye Arena.
The Michigan game will at least be played at home where Iowa is 4-0 this season.
Iowa also has three winnable nonconference games left on the schedule against Florida A&M, Maryland-Baltimore County and Northern Illinois, and 19 conference games still to play.
So, it’s way too early to panic, but this Iowa team certainly has problems, especially at point guard where Fran McCaffery used four different players at the position against Iowa State in hopes of getting a spark.
Nothing seemed to work, though, on either end as Iowa State shot 53.3 from the field, while Iowa shot just 38.6 from the field.
Iowa also committed 19 turnovers, was outscored 25-9 in points off turnovers and 48-16 in the paint.
It was just a mismatch from start to finish as many of the recent games have been in this series.
The Cyclones shredded Iowa in transition, and controlled the tempo defensively.
Fran McCaffery made his first change with the starting lineup this season as sophomore Josh Dix replaced sophomore Dasonte Bowen, who had started the first eight games at point guard.
It didn’t take long for Bowen to get on the floor, however as Dix picked up his second foul with 16 minutes, 22 seconds left in the first half. Dix spent the rest of the first half on the bench, while his team would go on to struggle for the rest of first half.
Iowa trailed 47-29 at halftime after having made just 9-of-26 field-goal attempts in the first half, and also committed 12 turnovers.
Payton Sandfort was the lone bright spot for Iowa on offense in the first half as he made four 3-point baskets and scored 14 points.
Iowa State, on the other hand, shot 54.5 percent from the field in the first half, only had four turnovers and had two players that scored in double figures and six that scored at least four points in the first half.
Iowa plays fast on offense, and is known for erasing deficits under Fran McCaffery with sudden scoring runs.
But just like against Purdue, the run never happened against the Cyclones.
Sandfort was held scoreless in the second half, while senior forward Patrick McCaffery was held scoreless for the entire game and only took three shots while playing 17 minutes.
Senior guard Tony Perkins only scored six points and spent much of the second half on the bench as Fran McCaffery turned to his younger players.
Senior forward Ben Krikke also was held to eight points, 10 below his team-leding average.
Payton Sandfort made a comment after the game that some guys were going through some things off the court, but he didn’t provide any more details.
Iowa certainly has gone through some things on the court in the last two games, and perhaps the best way to describe it is growing pains.
Bowen, who has struggled recently, scored 11 of his 13 points in the second half, while freshman forward Owen Freeman had 11 points and eight rebounds.
Iowa was used to having a reliable go-to scorer in each of the past four seasons with Luka Garza, Keegan Murray and Kris Murray filling that role.
But this team doesn’t have that type of player.
It relies more on a group effort, and when the entire group struggles, the results can be disappointing, as was he case in each of the past two games.