JonDMiller
Publisher/Founder
The Iowa men’s basketball team fell behind 21-5 to start Sunday’s game at home against Minnesota. If anyone decided to leave at that point in time, you could not have blamed them.
The only thing that left at that point was Minnesota’s ability to make baskets and will to win as the Hawkeyes went on a 16-2 run and would lead by five at the break en route to a 72-51 win where Iowa outscored Minnesota 67 to 30 since the 12:57 remaining mark of the first half.
That’s a complete and total reversal of fortunes in the game and saved Iowa’s slim NCAA tournament chances.
Iowa shot 48.8% from the floor to Minnesota’s 36.2 and the Hawkeyes were 25-31 from the free throw line in this contest. The Gophers are a great rebounding team and Iowa held their own on the glass, losing that battle 31-30 but they made up for it by forcing 17 Gopher turnovers compared to just 12 of their own.
Devyn Marble and Aaron White led Iowa with 15 apiece but Eric May’s overall game might have been player of the day worthy. He played havoc in the passing lanes, he disrupted alley oops, grabbed a team best seven rebounds and had two steals. Zach McCabe also scored 10 points off the bench for the Hawkeyes and Mike Gesell scored 11 and had four steals.
Minnesota is a Top 50 RPI team and Iowa has few wins against that level of competition, despite several close calls. The Hawkeyes shot at an NCAA at large bid is still a relatively long odds affair. Iowa has five games left beginning with an 8pm tip Thursday night at Nebraska. That game will be tougher than the records would indicate as the Huskers have played most opponents ‘ugly good’ at home this year. It’s a game Iowa has to win. Then Iowa hosts Purdue six days later before going to Indiana and returning home to play Illinois and Nebraska.
In my opinion, Iowa needs to go 4-1 over their final five games of the regular season, with the likely loss at Indiana. Of course, if they beat Indiana and went 2-2 in the other two games, that’s still a path to the dance. However, I don’t think a win in Bloomington is in the cards so Iowa cannot afford a misstep in the other four games.
Of course there is always the automatic bid of winning the Big Ten tournament, but Iowa isn’t going to win four games in four days in this year’s league.
So the path is simple; just keep winning. Iowa is riding a three-game winning streak right now and if they did close out winning four of their next five, that would be seven out of their last ten in the regular season.
The only thing that left at that point was Minnesota’s ability to make baskets and will to win as the Hawkeyes went on a 16-2 run and would lead by five at the break en route to a 72-51 win where Iowa outscored Minnesota 67 to 30 since the 12:57 remaining mark of the first half.
That’s a complete and total reversal of fortunes in the game and saved Iowa’s slim NCAA tournament chances.
Iowa shot 48.8% from the floor to Minnesota’s 36.2 and the Hawkeyes were 25-31 from the free throw line in this contest. The Gophers are a great rebounding team and Iowa held their own on the glass, losing that battle 31-30 but they made up for it by forcing 17 Gopher turnovers compared to just 12 of their own.
Devyn Marble and Aaron White led Iowa with 15 apiece but Eric May’s overall game might have been player of the day worthy. He played havoc in the passing lanes, he disrupted alley oops, grabbed a team best seven rebounds and had two steals. Zach McCabe also scored 10 points off the bench for the Hawkeyes and Mike Gesell scored 11 and had four steals.
Minnesota is a Top 50 RPI team and Iowa has few wins against that level of competition, despite several close calls. The Hawkeyes shot at an NCAA at large bid is still a relatively long odds affair. Iowa has five games left beginning with an 8pm tip Thursday night at Nebraska. That game will be tougher than the records would indicate as the Huskers have played most opponents ‘ugly good’ at home this year. It’s a game Iowa has to win. Then Iowa hosts Purdue six days later before going to Indiana and returning home to play Illinois and Nebraska.
In my opinion, Iowa needs to go 4-1 over their final five games of the regular season, with the likely loss at Indiana. Of course, if they beat Indiana and went 2-2 in the other two games, that’s still a path to the dance. However, I don’t think a win in Bloomington is in the cards so Iowa cannot afford a misstep in the other four games.
Of course there is always the automatic bid of winning the Big Ten tournament, but Iowa isn’t going to win four games in four days in this year’s league.
So the path is simple; just keep winning. Iowa is riding a three-game winning streak right now and if they did close out winning four of their next five, that would be seven out of their last ten in the regular season.
