People forget that Joe W. is only a sophomore and if people weren't thinking he's about to play in the NBA they'd realize that teams are focusing all of their energy on him on the perimeter. He's just not yet good enough to overcome that. He needs another scorer on the perimter (CJF and/or JBo) to take some heat off of him. He's got a four-game slump going that coincided with CJF's injury. He's not shooting well even when he's open.
Joe W. is a true sophomore and people are expecting him to play like Jok was when he was a RS junior or RS senior. The expectations for Joe are way too high, especially when he's the only consistent perimeter scorer besides Garza (who also had a bad shooting night from 3). Stop with the "Will Joe W. go pro" talk and recognize the kid has a lot to learn still. He's also a true sophomore so he doesn't have upperclassmen confidence like a RS junior or senior Jok or Uthoff. Jok was all but invisible as a RS freshman (equivalent of Joe W.'s age). Uthoff was sitting out a year after transferring from UW at Joe W.'s age.
Not having JBo, CJF, PMac, and Nunge is taking its toll right now. Iowa won 2 amazing games without those guys AND while Joe W. was playing poorly. Garza also had an "off" game--for him--and, well, I won't comment on the officiating in the second half related to Iowa's bigs. MSU is a rugged, mugging defensive team that gets away with a lot at home. Always have, that's why it's tough to play there. Give Weiskamp a break--and part of giving him a break is recognizing he's not yet junior-grade or senior-grade Jok or Uthoff. He'll pull out of his slump, but he's not yet good enough physically or mentally to do it without some perimeter scoring help. He'll fight through it.
And to whoever said he gave up, that's BS. He was hustling the whole game. He just didn't have it last night and the wear-and-tear of dealing with being "the guy" on the perimeter is taking its toll on him this late in the season. Iowa gets CJF back and he's near 100 percent and Iowa can still do some damage in March. If he doesn't come back ... well, Iowa's been doing better than anyone could have reasonably believed the past three games with a bench this short and only three legitimate scorers for teams to worry about, starters and bench combined (Garza, Kreiner, and Joe W.).
