Hawkeyes Headed to the Big Apple, Beat Virginia

JonDMiller

Publisher/Founder
Iowa beat Virginia 75-64 on Wednesday night to advance to the NIT semifinals for the first time in school history. Iowa will meet second-seeded Maryland on Tuesday, April 2, in Madison Square Garden.

Devyn Marble turned in his third-straight scintillating performance, scoring 24 points, dishing out five assists, recording three steals and three boards with just two turnovers. That matches his 24 points from Iowa's win against Stony Brook and the 28 he put up in Iowa's first NIT game against Indiana State. When you toss in his NIT game against Oregon last year, he has scored 107 points in NIT games in his career, or 9.6% of the 1,107 career points he has scored as a Hawkeye. He now has 527 points during this junior year in 35 games played, bettering the 522 scored by his father Roy during his junior year.

Since moving over to the poing guard position nine games ago for the injured Mike Gesell, Marble has averaged 18.6 points per game and has grabbed 37 rebounds and dished out 34 assists. In the game against Virginia, he hit some rain-making bailout shots when Iowa needed one, he hit a three-point shot when Iowa needed one and he hit his free throws when Iowa needed them.

Speaking of free throws, this game was another example of poor officiating. Even color commentator Dan Dakich said as much during the telecast and on more than one occasion. With less than four-minutes to go in the game, Iowa had taken just one free throw attempt. They wound up making 15 of 15 free throws before it was over as they had a double-digit lead and the Cavaliers were fouling Iowa on purpose. The officiating in college basketball this year has been the worst I have ever seen. The Hawkeyes made all 14 of their free throw attempts in the final 3:09 of the game. Iowa was whistled for 17 fouls to Virginia's 15. That's not a big disparity, until you see that Virginia committed eight of those fouls in the final four minutes of the game and each one of them was intentional in order to send Iowa to the line.

Zach McCabe and Adam Woodbury scored 10 each for Iowa, with Woodbury pulling down a team best eight rebounds. It's a surprise Iowa was able to win a road game over a Top 30 opponent with Aaron White recording just one basket and that one didn't come until there were just over seven minutes to play in the game. White wound up 1-6 from the floor but did hit all four of his free throw attempts. The 'Pack Line Defense' employed by Virginia most of the game was definitely not conducive to offensive put backs or transition baskets, as the Cavaliers were sending everyone back after shot attempts to limit any transition buckets. Melsahn Basabe didn't score a point, so when you add that with White's struggles and still Iowa won by double-digits? Go figure.

Eric May scored eight points, including two clutch three-point shots. It seems like every basket May has scored in the post season has come at an important time.

Iowa shot nearly 50 percent from the floor, including 8-17 from the three-point arc. Iowa won the battle of the boards 34-26 and Iowa had one less turnover, 15-16.

Iowa snapped Virginia’s 19-game home winning streak; a streak that dated back to Nov. 13, 2012. Iowa is also just the third team to score 70 or more against Virginia this season.

Iowa moves to 24-12 with the win, the third highest win total in school history. The 36 games are the most by an Iowa team in one season and Iowa will play at least one more next week at Madison Square Garden.
 


How can't you start Marble at point next year? He's not an NBA caliber PG maybe, but in college he's a matchup nightmare and can do so much with the ball.
 




How can't you start Marble at point next year? He's not an NBA caliber PG maybe, but in college he's a matchup nightmare and can do so much with the ball.

Frankly I think the time at PG helps his NBA prospects rather than hurting them. He's not going to be a big-time scorer at that level, nor is he going to be starting at the point. His best chance to stick is to be a reasonable scoring option with a well developed all-around game. I don't see how a year at the 1 in college hurts that.
 


Jon, did Marble not score against Dayton in the NIT last season?

Edit - He score 9 points against Dayton so 116 total points in the NIT.
 
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This is probably Iowa's biggest win of the year...came against a Pomeroy Top 30 team and on the road.
 


I'm glad to see you call the officiating for what it has been this year. College bb has some serious work to do in regards to the officiating. I think having guys like Dakich pointing it out more and more is really the only way the NCAA will eventually do anything. We need more folks in the public eye to call it out for what it is.
 


Perhaps Iowa's most complete game to date?

I have to think so. They led for the better part of this game, on the road, against a tough opponent. And better yet, they put this game away without letting UVA back in and giving them a shot to win it late.. The Hawks were $$$ down the stretch. That's what I've been wanting to see from this team all year.
 


Pomeroy had them at #25 before the game. Best win of the year and the most critical time. Iowa is starting to really close out games in the last 8 minutes: Great to see!

We are so much better when Marble is healthy and able to make his cuts. We need to get Gesell healthy for next year!
 


Pomeroy had them at #25 before the game. Best win of the year and the most critical time. Iowa is starting to really close out games in the last 8 minutes: Great to see!

We are so much better when Marble is healthy and able to make his cuts. We need to get Gesell healthy for next year!

Playing in the NIT was definitely better for this team. Things are coming together in a way that would have been extremely unlikely in the NCAA tournament. They've figured out how to close games, just won a road game against a good team, and for the love of God...THEY'RE HITTING 3s!!!!! Iowa is shooting 40% from behind the arc in the last three games, and in high volume (6, 8, 8 made threes). McCabe has finally found his stroke again, which has given the offense a whole new element (he's hit on 7-12 going back to the MSU game).
 


Gesell needs to develop the Steve Kerr, Derrick Fisher role for the Hawks next year.

The ball needs to be in RDM's hands.

BTW: Maryland, Baylor, BYU and Iowa?

That's a seriously nice four team tourney.
 




Gesell needs to develop the Steve Kerr, Derrick Fisher role for the Hawks next year.

The ball needs to be in RDM's hands.

BTW: Maryland, Baylor, BYU and Iowa?

That's a seriously nice four team tourney.

Gesell is much more than a Derek Fischer type spot up shooter. I agree he's good off the ball, but he can do a lot more than just shoot.
 


Thanks for calling out the officiating in college basketball. It has been horrible. I'm not advocating for officiating to benefit one team over the other. I want to see officiating that is consistent on both ends of the floor for both teams. Where a foul is a foul and take out the grabbing, holding, pushing, bodying, hand-checking, etc. that slows the entire game down to a crawl. Let's get back to basketball and enough of Wisconsin 40 point slug fests with MSU football games a close second.

See the Stonybrook game on how the game should be officiated....that was an exciting game as a result.
 


I'm absolutely giddy about this team right now. I think most of us have sensed something has been gradually building since Fran got here, but the idea that we are going to head into next year with a reasonable expectation of making the tourney as a top-half seed (i.e. 8 or above) seems almost too good to be true after the stretch we've been thru.

Really pleased with the job Fran has been doing. I know this is not fast enough for some and for others there is the issue of the couple games that got away this year, but if you look at the big picture & take a long-view look at this, I think you have to be happy with where things are going. He's brought in a style of ball that the players & fans both dig. He's shown the ability to attract and retain talent. (which neither of our previous coaches could do) Guys are progressing, etc, etc. Things are pointing up and I hope we stay the course with this guy even when we eventually hit those bumps in the road you know are out there waiting for us.
 


I'm absolutely giddy about this team right now. I think most of us have sensed something has been gradually building since Fran got here, but the idea that we are going to head into next year with a reasonable expectation of making the tourney as a top-half seed (i.e. 8 or above) seems almost too good to be true after the stretch we've been thru.

Really pleased with the job Fran has been doing. I know this is not fast enough for some and for others there is the issue of the couple games that got away this year, but if you look at the big picture & take a long-view look at this, I think you have to be happy with where things are going. He's brought in a style of ball that the players & fans both dig. He's shown the ability to attract and retain talent. (which neither of our previous coaches could do) Guys are progressing, etc, etc. Things are pointing up and I hope we stay the course with this guy even when we eventually hit those bumps in the road you know are out there waiting for us.


+1 - Well said!
 




Objectively, I thought Iowa was the best team in this tournament and I continue thinking that going to New York. I think we win this thing.
 




Playing in the NIT was definitely better for this team. Things are coming together in a way that would have been extremely unlikely in the NCAA tournament. They've figured out how to close games, just won a road game against a good team, and for the love of God...THEY'RE HITTING 3s!!!!! Iowa is shooting 40% from behind the arc in the last three games, and in high volume (6, 8, 8 made threes). McCabe has finally found his stroke again, which has given the offense a whole new element (he's hit on 7-12 going back to the MSU game).

I think you are exactly right. I know a lot of people were shocked at such a low seed and I was pretty sure they got a fair seeding but to make the final 4 in the NIT shows how good they are right now. These games will turn out to be so much more productive than a first round NCAA Tourny loss.
 




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