I let this one sit an extra 24 hours as it's hard to stomach a home loss to an average team when you are trying for a B10 regular season title. But they didn't play like an average team in this one.
All that being said:
Bohannon lives or dies by his 3 pointers on offense, and guys are going to have cold days. Joe W as a potential NBA pro played well in the first half, but perhaps needed to be more assertive in the 2nd when our other guards were injured or AWOL from the scoring column (Connor, CJF, Bohannon and Joe W scored 1 point in 51 minutes in the 2nd half I believe, based on a Hoosier article).
It's the Big 10. That's basketball.
On to the next game.
All that being said:
- My main takeaway is to give Indiana credit for great defense and just move on. There are things we didn't do well but I think it is more about what they did than what we didn't do. Other teams deserve credit too.
- The first half wasn't perfect, but we were right on par with the betting line - Iowa by 10, 150 over / under is an 80-70 game and it was 37-31 at half. Indiana was missing FT's but I think that was built in as they haven't been great recently.
- The second half with CJF out became a game where they could double down more easily and their team did a great job of being physical with Garza and being physical on the boards. They were able to extend far enough out on Bohannon so as to not give him obvious looks. Their team isn't as skilled as Iowa, but their athleticism allowed them to double and recover and to extend on Bohannon without giving anything up.
- Jackson-Davis was good, but I was tired of Iowa giving him that same move over and over again (turn middle from the left block, then counter drop step for a layup). That has to be a tendency covered on film.
- Nunge needs to get into the defender before fading away. He fades away from inside shots too much, making them less accurate. Get a shoulder into their chest and make them take a half step back, then go into a SLIGHT fade to release your shot. He has a good inside shot, but not if he fades away right away and lets contact influence it.
- Interesting (and nice!) that Fran went with Murray in the 2nd half instead of Patrick, essentially bumping Connor to SG/PG with Bohannon. It may have been tempting for him to play Patrick at SG perhaps, but good to see that the most effective bench player was put in.
- Perkins didn't do much, but glad he got to play against his home state. Wish Nunge could have put up 15 and 10 against his home state, but unfortunately that didn't happen.
- When Phinesee drove and then pivoted into a baseline pass for the 3 to put Indiana up 5 with 6 minutes left, you could feel it might be a bad ending because Iowa was having to work so hard on offense and had so few options left - Garza was being mauled, Bohannon was ice cold, Wieskamp was inactive, and CJK was out.
- The three things I can think of if Iowa could do that last 20 minutes over again (hindsight):
- Run more action for Wieskamp and force him to help out more (set plays designed for him)
- Play Murray earlier despite the foul trouble - he is one of our few subs who can contribute from 3, off the dribble and off of offensive boards. We needed people who can score in the 2nd half, and I don't know why we worry about him fouling out, he's a substitute (!!). Patrick is aggressive which I like, but his floaters in the paint aren't as effective as Murray's typical shot attempts inside.
- Go with Murray AND Patrick more often and try to get more points in transition, with Bohannon and CJK sitting. I think Fran, like the rest of us, just assumed Bohannon would show up near the end, but it didn't happen, so I understand why he kept him in.
Bohannon lives or dies by his 3 pointers on offense, and guys are going to have cold days. Joe W as a potential NBA pro played well in the first half, but perhaps needed to be more assertive in the 2nd when our other guards were injured or AWOL from the scoring column (Connor, CJF, Bohannon and Joe W scored 1 point in 51 minutes in the 2nd half I believe, based on a Hoosier article).
It's the Big 10. That's basketball.
On to the next game.
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