Lessons from Iowa’s thrilling defeat to No. 12 Illinois
The 16-11 Hawkeyes were on a roll coming into their matchup with Illinois on Saturday. They have defeated Michigan State and No. 21 Wisconsin in their last two games, moving up to eighth place in the Big Ten with an 8-8 conference record.
Playing Illinois, which is ranked 12th, twice is a great chance for a Hawkeyes team that is outside the bubble and wants to strengthen their case for the NCAA Tournament. That’s two possible Quad 1 victories, and victories over Northwestern and Penn State would also be highly desirable.
For the majority of the game, Iowa and the Illini were neck and neck. They gave it their all. Regretfully, they ran out of steam towards the end and stumbled as the Illini easily won 95–85. Here are several lessons learned from Iowa’s defeat by Illinois.
A thrilling offensive debut
The first part of this game is absolutely for you if you enjoy attacks. In the first half and a half, these two teams were trading buckets and showing that they could score. Encouraged by an Illini fan base hungry for a tournament game, both sides scored 60 points before the half’s ten-minute mark. This basketball game was enjoyable.
The Referee Program
I hope you understand that the first entry served only as a preamble to the second part, which was the main show. The true star of the show decided to arrive late, with only ten minutes remaining on the clock. The officials took care to constantly intrude themselves into the game, suddenly remembering that they were the ones that hundreds of people had come to witness.
With little under eight minutes remaining in the match, both sides were in the bonus. Each team attempted more than 20 free throws.
Iowa traveled to battle on hostile land.
The Hawkeyes put out a very great effort tonight. Iowa battled loudly from the start against a very difficult opponent, matching Illinois blow-for-punch. Iowa’s offense may be slow to get going on certain nights, but they were sharp from the start in this one. This is a game to be happy about if it happened earlier in the season.
Josh Dix leading the offensive charge
Josh Dix, a sophomore, had a big game because of his outstanding scoring, which kept the Hawkeyes in the contest. Having made nine out of fifteen of his shots, the sophomore guard led Iowa with 20 points. As the season has gone on, Dix has established himself as a dependable scorer for the Hawkeyes, particularly from the mid-range area.
Once again, Iowa’s defense proved to be their undoing.
Once more, the Hawkeyes’ performance on defense was simply insufficient. 95 points given up. Really, doesn’t that tell the narrative pretty much right there? Fran McCaffery’s team is the most contented team I’ve ever seen, willing to let their opponent shoot open 3-pointers all over them. This goes beyond this squad and their awful zone in particular. When teams play the Hawkeyes, they always seem to transform into the Golden State Warriors.
Not to mention that they failed to stop Coleman Hawkins, who scored 30 points against the Hawkeyes today and averages 12.3 points per game this season. How many more times did we have to witness Ben Krikke fall short of a far superior athlete in Hawkins before something had to give?
Simply put, it was a terrible defensive effort from a team that has far too frequently failed to win on that side of the ball. You can be sure that Iowa’s lack of success in the NCAA Tournament this year was not due to their inconsistency in shooting, their inexperience on offense, or even the biased calls from the officials. That fucking defense was the problem.