Fran McCaffery lamented Iowa’s inability to get defensive stops when it needed them after losing to Nebraska last week. On Sunday, the Hawkeyes couldn’t get a defensive stop — period.
Iowa (11-11, 3-6 Big Ten) allowed No. 16 Indiana (17-5, 5-5) to shoot 55.2 percent on the way to a 103-89 defeat at Assembly Hall in Bloomington, Ind. It marked the first time a Hawkeye team surrendered 100-plus points since a 106-92 loss to eventual national champion North Carolina on Nov. 24, 2004. Incidentally, the last time the Hoosiers tallied triple-digits in a Big Ten game was in a 110-79 victory against Iowa on March 12, 1995.
Indiana only hit 4-of-16 3-point shots; instead, it inflicted most of its damage inside. The Hoosiers tallied 58 points in the paint.
"Obviously, we wanted to contain the dribble. We didn’t do that," McCaffery said in a postgame radio interview. "Our rotations on [dribble] penetration were not good. That’s where we gave up all the lay-ups."
Indiana forward Cody Zeller scored a game-high 26 points on 11-of-12 field-goal shooting. The 6-11 freshman sensation flushed 7 dunks on the Hawkeyes after entering the game with 32 on the season.
Most of Zeller’s baskets came on dump-offs after teammates drove and drew the attention of the Iowa defense.
"It was off help [defense] recovery. It was penetration and help," McCaffery said. "He has a great pair of hands around the basket. He finishes. They really didn’t go to him that much. It was off of other stuff that they were doing."
Iowa only trailed 32-31 with 7:05 remaining in the first half, but Indiana went on a 22-5 run to take a 54-37 halftime lead. Eight of the Hoosiers’ 20 offensive rebounds came during that half-ending run.
"We can’t give up 8 offensive rebounds in the last 31⁄2 minutes," assistant coach Kirk Speraw said in a halftime radio interview. "We were doing OK, and then they’re missing shots and getting them back on tips and second chances. We have to fight through that fatigue a lot better than we did."
The defeat was the Hawkeyes’ first under Fran McCaffery in which they scored 80 or more points. They had been 9-0 this season and last when reaching the 80-point plateau.
Freshman guard Josh Oglesby spearheaded Iowa’s offensive outburst with a career-high 24 points in only 20 minutes of play. The Cedar Rapids native was 8-of-12 from the floor, including a 6-of-8 3-point clip.
"I kind of got in a rhythm," he said in a postgame radio interview. "Coach set up plays for me, and they went to me. I knocked them down."
Matt Gatens also played well, scoring 20 on 9-of-13 shooting. Sophomore forward Zach McCabe was held to 3 points after tallying back-to-back 20-point games.
Iowa will try to snap a three-game losing streak on Wednesday when it hosts Minnesota (16-6, 4-5) at 7:36 p.m. The Golden Gophers have won four of their last five games after starting 0-4 in Big Ten play.
"Minnesota is playing as well as anyone in our league right now," McCaffery said. "They have a number of quick, athletic wings who can go off the dribble. Another severe test for us in terms of guarding the ball."
The Hawkeyes won their first meeting with Minnesota, 64-62, on Jan. 4 in Minneapolis. Gatens scored 19 and added 6 rebounds and 3 steals in the victory.
"We played a lot of zone up there. They’ll be ready for that this time," McCaffery said. "We have our hands full."
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