Two reasons that Virginia is the 2013-2014 anti-Iowa:
1) They are the #1 scoring defense (54.7 / game) and kempon has their adj-D at #3. Defense is pride, effort and, come tournament time, when shooting slumps can happen on neutral courts and different venues, defense travels.
Iowa is 84th in NCAA and 10th in B1G in scoring defense (allowing nearly 70 ppg). We've witnessed over the last week that they are far worse than that, right now. Iowa's strategy regarding defense is less about locking teams down and
preventing them from scoring and more about playing the percentages of the other team -- let them get their shots but expect they will miss more than not -- and don't allow 2nd chances.
Last year, when Iowa was a sucky shooting team, their only hope was to focus on defense. This year, Iowa has a sucky defense because they simply are not emphasizing it. Their entire focus is on quick transition offense and outscoring other teams. The problem occurs when other teams have good shooting nights (fOSU, Wisconsin, Minny, Indiana) and decide to outrun Iowa (Minny and Indiana) because the Hawks aren't focused on defending. As Iowa experiences more and more of those prolonged scoring droughts (anything over 4 - 5 minutes will doom the Hawks) they simply don't have the defense to weather it.
2) Tighter rotation. 8 guys avg 10+ minutes / game. That 8th guy = 11.8 mpg. Top 7 guys go 18.6 - 30.7 mpg.
Meanwhile, Iowa has 10 guys avg 12+ minutes / game. The 10th guy (Clemmons) = 12.8 mpg. The next 9 all average over 16.3+ mpg!! One of your key strengths this year -- size and length -- have your post players (Woody, Gabe, McCabe) all averaging only 16.3 mpg. Take a look at this and go figure ...
Iowa Official Athletic Site - Men's Basketball Talk about complete dilution of talent, mismanagement of personnel due to a blind perception that quantity = quality.
It's the old football cliche, "When you have 2 QB's, you have none." Well, it appears when you have 2 platoons in basketball, you have none.