Iowa men have no answer for UCLA in 94-70 beat-down in Los Angeles
By Hawk Fanatic
This maybe would have been understandable if it were the late 1960s or early 1970s, the way in which the UCLA men’s basketball team dismantled Iowa on Friday in Los Angeles.
But it’s more than half century later and the current UCLA team entered Friday’s game at Pauley Pavilion mired in a four-game losing streak and with serious offensive deficiencies.
UCLA head coach Mick Cronin also recently called out his players for being soft, and Pauley Pavilion looked half empty on Friday.
And yet, despite all those problems, UCLA crushed Iowa 94-70 in a game that never was competitive.
The way Friday’s game played out was sort of like how the Bruins used to abuse overmatched opponents under the legendary John Wooden in the 1960s and 1970s.
However, the one glaring difference, of course, is that the current UCLA team has been mediocre at best this season, and even worse in conference play.
Until Friday.
UCLA was locked in from the beginning on both ends of the floor and played so well that maybe even John Wooden would have been impressed.
UCLA made its first nine shots from the field and had a 31-9 lead with 11 minutes left in the first half.
The game was essentially over at the point.
UCLA led 57-24 at halftime, its most points in a half since 2016.
“Them scoring 57 in the first half can’t happen,” Iowa junior guard Josh Dix said on the Learfield post-game radio show. “As a team, we’ve got to do better defensively and on the glass.”
UCLA shot 65.7 percent from the field in the first half and had 18 assists on 23 baskets.
Iowa shot 38.1 percent from the field in the first half, making just 8-of-21 field-goal attempts.
UCLA also had a 17-8 rebounding advantage in the first half and only committed three turnovers to Iowa’s 12.
“The start was really bad,” Iowa head coach Fran McCaffery said on the Learfield post-game radio show. “They scored the first nine possessions and we couldn’t get a rebound.”
Iowa expected the Bruins to press more on defense, but instead they played more half-court defense and never really handled it very well.
“We settled for the some jumpers, and they weren’t awful shots, but we settled for some jumpers and they were beating us on the glass again,” Fran McCaffery said.
What happened in the second half didn’t really matter as Iowa never made a serious run.
Iowa senior forward Payton Sandfort also didn’t play in the second half after being helped off the court in the first half with an apparent shoulder injury.
Iowa fell to 12-6 overall and 3-4 in the Big Ten, while UCLA improved to 12-6 and 3-4.
Iowa also fell to 0-4 in Big Ten road games and has given up 85, 116, 99 and 94 points in those four losses.
Iowa also lost both of its games in Los Angeles this week, falling to USC 99-89 this past Tuesday.
Dix led Iowa in scoring against UCLA with 19 points on 7-of-11 shooting from field.
Sophomore forward Owen Freeman was the only other player for Iowa to score in double figures with 11 points.
Iowa will face Minnesota in its next game on Tuesday at Carver-Hawkeye Arena.