By Hawk Fanatic

The Iowa men’s basketball team shot 53.3 percent from the field against USC on Tuesday, made 11 3-points baskets and only committed nine turnovers, and yet, still lost 99-89 in Los Angeles.

In other words, the Hawkeyes still have problems on defense.

Iowa had played better on defense in its previous two games against Nebraska and Indiana, both of which were victories.

But that wasn’t the case against USC, which shot a blistering 64.9 percent from the field and made 10 shots from 3-point range.

The Trojans also had a massive 37-20 rebounding advantage.

Of the nine players that saw action for Iowa in Tuesday’s game, seven had three or fewer rebounds.

The lack of rebounding combined with the lack of defense was too much to overcome as Iowa fell to 3-3 in Big Ten play and 12-5 overall.

Iowa is also winless in three Big Ten road games this season and now faces another road test against UCLA on Friday.

“There’s a lot of reasons for it,” Iowa head coach Fran McCaffery said when asked in his post-game zoom why USC was able to shoot 65 percent from the field. “We got off to a bad start. They got comfortable, they’re a driving team. I thought our defense was not what it needed to be. They made a bunch of threes tonight. That’s nit typically their strong point. They made them tonight and you could see that they were a team that’s gaining confidence.

“But our rebounding was not good, and we didn’t get to the offensive glass at all.

“But I thought we did some good things in the second half with our break and with our late-game stuff. We had some guys step up and make some shots to get back in the game.”

Fran McCaffery likes to play at a fast pace, and his teams always have the potential to make scoring runs, with his current team no exception.

Iowa has now scored at least 80 points in 11 straight games for the first time since the 1988-89 season.

And while Iowa did play better on offense in the second half against USC, especially in transition, it wasn’t enough to offset the poor defense and the rebounding deficiencies, both of which have been ongoing problems.

USC scored the first five points in the game and the last five points of the first half and led 48-32 at halftime.

Four of Iowa’s five starters scored in double figures in Tuesday’s loss, led by sophomore forward Owen Freeman’s with 23 points. He also led Iowa with six rebounds.

Senior forward Payton Sandfort scored 20 points and led Iowa with four 3-point baskets.

Iowa entered Tuesday’s game ranked second nationally in scoring and would go on to hit its average by scoring 89 points.

But this game was lost on defense, and on the boards.

The Iowa players had been putting more emphasis on defense after having been called out by Wisconsin guard Kamari McGee following Iowa’s 116-85 loss to the Badgers on Jan. 3 in Madison, Wisconsin. McGee said in the post-game press conference that Iowa didn’t want to play defense.

His words struck a nerve with the Iowa players, who vowed to play better on defense, which they did in the next two games against Nebraska and Indiana, but then failed to do so against USC.

Iowa has allowed 215 points in its last two road games against Wisconsin and USC, which is an average of 107.5 points per game.

Fran McCaffery said the location of Friday’s game against UCLA will be determined today.

Due to safety concerns about area wildfires, the No, 1-ranked UCLA women’s team will play Penn State tonight in Long Beach, 35 miles from UCLA’s campus.

Full postgame comments from Fran McCaffery here: