By Pat Harty

IOWA CITY, Iowa – The circumstances for Saturday’s game against Purdue is what Ben McCollum probably had envisioned when he was hired as the Iowa men’s basketball coach last March.

Carver-Hawkeye Arena was packed with the first sellout in the McCollum era; the fans were highly energized and ready to do their part, and the Hawkeyes were firmly in position to make the NCAA Tournament for the first time since the 2022-23 season.

But then the game started and that’s when everything unraveled for Iowa as the 13th-ranked Boilermakers administered a deflating beat-down, winning 78-57 to sweep the season series.

Iowa fell to 18-7 overall and 8-6 in the Big Ten and has now lost back-to-back games after falling at Maryland 77-70 this past Wednesday.

Purdue improved to 21-4 and 11-3.

And while making the NCAA Tournament still is well within Iowa’s reach, Saturday’s loss showed again where Iowa is most vulnerable, especially on offense where a lack of consistent scorers, besides star point guard Bennett Stirtz, continues to be a problem.

Stirtz was the only player for Iowa to score in double figures with 19 points. Iowa’s next highest scorer was senior forward Tavion Banks with nine points.

“I don’t think we were ready to play today, and it definitely showed” said Stirtz. “We’re sorry to our fans who showed up for that and had to watch that.”

Iowa only shot 38 percent from the field, making just 20-of-53 field-goal attempts, including 6-of-22 from three. The Hawkeyes also struggled from the free throw line, making just 11 of 17 attempts.

McCollum started his post-game press conference by thanking the fans for showing up.

Iowa’s home attendance had dropped dramatically in the latter years under previous head coach Fran McCaffery.

McCollum, who was born in Iowa City and raised in Storm Lake, has been on a mission to fix that problem.

“It was awesome that they showed up,” McCollum said of the fans. “I’m disappointed in just us. We just weren’t great. But I thought they (Purdue) were really good, too. I thought they were pretty tuned up.”

There were a number of statistics that help to illustrate Iowa’s lack of offensive flow, but perhaps the most telling is that Iowa’s starters only combined for three assists, including just one for Stirtz.

McCollum said Purdue’s size and strength was a factor in both losses this season as it disrupted Iowa’s offensive rhythm and flow.

“Again, I have to watch it, but I know even in the game there, I don’t know how many assists we had, but we’d get to the rim and there would be three people on us and we’d just shoot it,” McCollum said. “It’s like, pass the ball. It’s just the size thing that you’ve got to make sure that you’re getting used to and stuff like that.

“It’s part of the growing pains for some of these guys. We’ll continue to grow and get better and figure it out.”

Purdue center Daniel Jacobsen, who is listed at 7-foot-4, caused problems for Iowa near the basket as he finished with three of Purdue’s four blocks.

Purdue star point guard Braden Smith was held to just five points, but he compensated by dishing out 12 assists and having just one turnover.

The Boilermakers had four players that scored in double figures in Saturday’s win, and all nine of Purdue’s players that saw action in the game scored at least four points.

Purdue head coach Matt Painter said his team changed its defensive approach with Stirtz in Saturday’s game compared to first meeting in West Lafayette, Indiana.

In the first game, which Purdue won 79-72, the Boilermakers focused much of their attention defense on containing Stirtz and it worked for the most part.

The problem is that Tavion Banks, Tate Sage and Kael Combs combined to make nine threes for Iowa in the first game, whereas in Saturday’s game they didn’t make any.

“I just thought, and it wasn’t always this way, but we just kind of over-did Bennett Stirtz,” Painter said of the first game.

Stirtz entered Saturday’s game having combined to score 122 points in the last four games.

“What he’s done in the last eight to ten gems in the Big Ten doesn’t happen very often,” Painter said of Stirtz. “To say he’s an efficient player in an understatement. He’s a very good player. He can pass the basketball. he can pick his spot. He just has  real mature pule to what he does and in the last couple games they needed those makes. There’s just no way around it.

“They need those makes and they need scoring from guys in other areas to be able to get that balance. And the ball doesn’t always go in. But I thought from our standpoint, we didn’t over-do him this time.”

Purdue led by as many as 15 points in the first half, and by 11 points at halftime (36-25).

Iowa shot just 28.6 percent from the field in the first half, making just 8-of-28 field-goal attempts, including just 2-of-12 from three.

Stirtz was held to seven points in the first half, and he actually spent a brief time on the bench when McCollum benched all of his starters.

Looking for a spark on offense in the first half, McCollum inserted 6-11 freshman center Trevin Jirak in the game and the West Des Moines Valley graduate responded by scoring six points.

He also made a three that Iowa desperately needed as it was trailing 30-15 at the time. Jirak hadn’t made a three since December.

Purdue had a 23-17 rebounding advantage in the first half and a 21-13 advantage in bench points.

Iowa also had two starters – Cooper Koch and Kael Combs – that were both held scoreless in the first half.

Braden Smith only scored one point in the first half, and yet his tam still led by 11 at the beak.

McCollum made a lineup change to start the second half as junior forward Alvaro Folgueiras and sophomore guard Isaia Howard replaced forward Cam Manyawu and Kael Combs.

However, Combs was inserted back in the game barely one minute into the second half as McCollum continued to search for the right matchups.

The Boilermakers expanded their lead to 41-25 on layup by Braden Smith with 18:19 left to play. It was Smith’s first basket of the game and it caused McCollum to call a quick timeout with the game in danger of slipping away as kt eventually did.

The schedule doesn’t get any easier with Big Ten contender Nebraska coming to Iowa City on Tuesday.