Iowa men defend home court in dominating fashion in 85-60 win over Indiana
By Pat Harty
IOWA CITY, Iowa – Wisconsin guard Kamari McGee appears to have said just what was needed to get the Iowa men’s basketball team to play better on defense.
Because something has certainly lit a spark for Fran McCaffery’s team on the defensive end since McGee barely a week ago called out the Hawkeyes for not wanting to play defense.
That was obvious in Saturday’s 85-60 victory over Indiana as Iowa harassed, hounded and disrupted the Hoosiers on defense throughout Saturday’s victory, which improved Iowa’s record to 12-4 overall and 3-2 in the Big Ten.
Iowa graduate guard Drew Thelwell said this past Wednesday on the Hawk Fanatic radio show and podcast that the Iowa players took it personally what McGee said after Iowa’s 116-85 loss to Wisconsin on Feb. 3 in Madison, Wisconsin.
Thelwell also promised that Iowa would play better on defense against the Hoosiers and that was certainly the case as Indiana only shot 40.7 percent from the field and committed 16 turnovers.
Thelwell did his part on defense by collecting a game-high six steals.
“Going back to what everybody has kind of talked about, we needed to lock in on defense and get stops,” said Thelwell, who played his first four seasons for Morehead State before transferring to Iowa last summer. “And we showed that we can do that today.”
Iowa also showed once again that it can play offense as Saturday’s game marked the 10th straight game that Iowa has scored at least 80 points in a game.
That matches the longest streak of scoring at least 80 points since the 1988-89 season.

But this lopsided win started on defense and extended to the boards where Iowa had a 37-31 rebounding advantage.
“It was really good. It was connected,” Fran McCaffery said of his team’s defensive performance. “If you’re going to play zone, which we played good portion of the game, you’ve got to communicate. You’ve got to recognize actions. You’ve got to get over and you’ve got to get back because not everybody runs traditional zone offenses anymore. It’s more like motion. There’s still ball screens. There’s going to be overloads at some point.
“But if everybody is communicating you can contest. But the key to it all was not so much the activity or the defense, it was rebounding.”
All five starters for Iowa scored in double figure, led by senior forward Payton Sandfort with 23 points, including 21 in the second half.
Payton Sandfort was coming off an overtime win against Nebraska this past Tuesday when he scored all 30 of his points in the second half.
“I think that’s the energy we need to have for the rest of the year,” Payton Sandfort said. “Let the defense dictate how we’re going to play.”
Former Moline, Illinois high school teammates Owen Freeman and Brock Harding both recorded double-doubles for Iowa in Saturday’s win.
Freeman, a 6-foot-10 sophomore forward scored 16 points and grabbed 12 rebounds, while Harding a 6-0 sophomore point guard, scored 10 points and dished out 10 assists.
“It’s really special being able to play with him throughout the years,” Freeman said of Harding. “The bond that we have just for both of us to have the game that we did was a lot of fun.”
Sophomore forward Pryce Sandfort, who is Payton Sandfort’s younger brother made a 3-point basket that evened the score at 28 with 6:12 left in the first half.
His basket was the start of an 18-5 scoring run that Iowa had to close the first half, giving the Hawkeyes a 43-33 lead at halftime.
Iowa also had a 15-0 scoring run early in the first half, turning 4-0 deficit to into a 15-4 lead, while Indiana had a 13-0 scoring run in the first half.
The Hawkeyes shot a blistering 58.1 percent from the field in the first half, making 18-0f-31 shots from the field.
Freeman led Iowa with 10 points the first half, while Josh Dix and Harding scored nine each.
Indiana made a couple mini runs in the second half, but Iowa also led by as many as 30 points in the second half.
Indiana 7-0 center Oumar Ballo struggled to get many open looks in Saturday’s game and finished with just 10 points. He made five baskets, but only took seven shots from the field.
“Obviously, he’s great player, but obviously the double (team) was there and just trying to limit his touches as much as possible,” Freeman said.
Fran McCaffery was asked after Saturday’s win what has changed with his team since the loss at Wisconsin.
“I prefer to give them (Wisconsin) credit for how well they play,” Fran McCaffery said. “They played a masterful game against us. We did some things that we needed to improve on and we’ve done that. We broke the tape down and had individual meetings and got better.”
Josh Dix took a rough fall near the end of Saturday’s game and he seemed to be in some discomfort.
“If you ask him, he’ll say he’s fine,” Fran McCaffery said of Dix. “So we’ll found out.”
Iowa now hits the road for back-to-back games against USC on Tuesday and against UCLA next Friday in Los Angeles.
Both games as of Saturday night were still on despite the wild fires that have ravaged the Los Angeles area.
“As of right now, we’re going,” Fran McCaffery said. ”