Hey Hawk fans I needed a little bit a time before I could re watch the game that took place in Ames last Friday Night. Now that I have re watched the game I can finally write up a review. Now the officiating wasn't great but I'm going to try not to blame this loss on the officiating. In the first half Iowa completely outplayed Iowa State except for one stat Iowa State went to the foul line 20 times compared to just 9 for Iowa. It seemed to me that Niang lived at the foul line all night but with the new rules it is a lot harder to defend without fouling. Especially on a guy with the size and skills of Niang he is very good at drawing contact he went 8 for 10 at the free throw line. I had no problem with the officials calling Iowa for fouls on him but when Iowa State was playing the same defense that Iowa was they were not getting called for fouls I have a problem with that. Iowa State shot 36 free throws in the game, they were in the bonus with 9:43 to go in the first half, and 9:50 to go in the second half. Coming into this game Iowa had made more free throws than their opponents were shooting. They averaged only 16 fouls per game yet were called for 27 in this one. Okay I'm getting off topic a little bit lets try to break down the game not look at the officiating.
Iowa played better than Iowa State for 38 minutes of this game they just let up at the wrong time allowing Iowa state to go on an 8-0 run to finish the game with an 85 to 82 victory. As an Iowan this was a fantastic basketball game to me it was a heavyweight fight and it felt bigger nationally than a normal Iowa and Iowa State game. Hilton Colosseum is a very difficult place to play and a very tough place to come in to win a basketball game. This was Iowa's first road test of the season but Iowa wasn't phased at all by the crowd controlling the game for all but 2 minutes. Iowa's star players came to play on Friday Night Aaron White had his best game at Iowa scoring 25 points with 17 rebounds. If he can play like that all season we are a legitimate Big Ten Title contender. Devin Marble had another good game with 19 points 6 assists he continues to be the guy we need him to be. Adam Woodbury really had a nice game also he didn't score a lot but grabbing 11 rebounds getting 5 points with a couple of assists. The one thing he needs to work on is knowing when to take a risk going hard after a loose ball he plays the game so hard that sometimes he picks up a foul he doesn't need too. The back court was outstanding for the Hawkeyes as Clemons, Marble and Gesell combined to score 32 dishing out 15 assists with only 2 turnovers. That is the type of play Iowa will need in the back Court to have a chance to win a Big Ten Championship.
The Front Court was pretty good also dominating the rebounding battle 49 to 35 including 14 offensive rebounds which led to 13 second chance points. Aaron White was the leader he plays small forward but he plays inside a lot of the game. On the season Iowa has had good production off the bench in the front court that wasn't the case Friday. Zach McCabe who came in as a 50 percent 3 point shooter was 0-7, Gabe Olaseni who had provided a lot of energy this season only had one dunk in 10 minutes, Melsahn Basabe only had 4 points and 6 rebounds. Adam Woodbury only scored 5 points but he had 11 rebounds. Our power Forward center position combined to score 11 points Iowa is going to need more production from this group in the Big Ten Season. Iowa's bench was outscored for the first time this season they came in averaging 48 points off the bench which is a little skewed due to the competition but they lost this battle to ISU 19 to 18 Friday. The Hawk bench had been good all season but it seemed that Uthoff was the only guy that was able to provide a spark as he scored 12 points on 5 of 10 shooting while grabbing 5 rebounds. Peter Jock only scored 2 points off the bench he looked a little bit shaky but that is expected from a Freshman in his first road game. Usually Iowa is going to get more production from the bench so that was a big factor in the loss to Iowa State Friday.
Now lets take a look at some of the team stats Iowa shot good enough from the field to win the basketball game shooting 47 percent in the first half and 45 percent in the second half. That is plenty good enough to win a basketball game. Three point shooting wasn't nearly as good as it has been this season as Iowa went 4-17 from beyond the arch only 23.5 percent. On the season Iowa was shooting a lot better from 3 the biggest reason for that was Zach McCabe's shooting, Friday he just couldn't get anything to fall. Free throws Iowa shot good from the line in the first half shooting 8 for 9 but in the second half they couldn't make the big free throws to put the game away only hitting 6 for 12 including 2 front ends of a 1 and 1 plus the last 2 free throws Gesell missed at the end of the game. Even though Mike missed those 2 free throws he still played a great game scoring 11 points and dishing out 6 assists with 0 turnovers. Iowa did everything right to win that game they just couldn't seal the deal from the foul line the good thing is that it's December these guys will learn from this. I imagine we will see them in this scenerio again but this time Iowa will come through to win a big road game.The Hawks only turned the ball over 11 times which is great as you want to keep that number around 10. Iowa defensively was pretty good also they held Iowa State to only 6 made 3 pointers on the season they were averaging 10 a game. The free throw line was the biggest difference in this game as ISU got to the line 36 converting 23 while Iowa got there 21 times making 14. I think the play that started the come back for Iowa State was when Woodbury fouled out in the second half the Hawks did a pretty good job on Georges Niang. Niang made both free throws to cut the lead to 3 if Iowa gets a stop there the game is likely over instead a foul things get crazy. Then on the other end Iowa took the clock all the way down missed the shot but Aaron White got the rebound in this situation Iowa should have called timeout even though there was a lot of contact on the steal by the Cyclones. Ejim makes a pair than we all know the free throw story at the end of the game. The last Possession Iowa couldn't draw up a better play a wide open 3 for your best shooter it just wasn't meant to be.
Now Iowa will finish up the Non Conference portion of the schedule with a game against Arkansas Pine bluff on Sunday Afternoon. Even though Iowa couldn't pull out wins against Villanova or Iowa State don't worry about the RPI if Iowa wins the games they are supposed to they will without a doubt be an NCAA Tournament team. After Arkansas Pine bluff it is time to start the BIG Ten season Iowa will begin the season at home with a game vs Nebraska on December 31st they then go to Wisconsin who is ranked number 4 in the country on January 5th, than at home vs Northwestern. I think Iowa should start at least 2-1 if not 3-0 Wisconsin is good but Iowa plays a style that tends to frustrate the Badgers that should be a Marquee game on January 5th. So the Non Conference portion of the schedule is nearly over things didn't go exactly how we wanted but big things are still ahead for the Iowa Hawkeyes. The Next game I will be previewing will be the Nebraska Basketball game plus watch out for my preview of the Outback Bowl Thanks for Reading
GO Hawks.
No comments:
Post a Comment