The Iowa men’s basketball team traveled to Madison, Wisconsin, Tuesday night in hopes of a sixth win in the Big Ten and a payback win after a narrow loss last season at the Kohl Center.
Instead, an 82-50 Wisconsin thrashing broke out and Iowa left with its sixth loss of the year and second in conference play. The win puts Iowa at 13-6 (4-2) and the Badgers at 17-2 (5-1).
From the beginning, Wisconsin looked far superior to Iowa. A quick look at the rankings could’ve determined that, but the disparity on the court looked much larger one might have expected for a game between the nation’s No. 25 team visiting the nation’s sixth-ranked team. With the score 4-4 in the early moments, Wisconsin went on a 9-0 run — ended by a Josh Oglesby 3-pointer — and never looked back.
The Badgers finished the half 11-of-28 from the floor including 6-of-14 from long range. Iowa, on the other hand, was 7-of-25 at the half, 1-of-7 from beyond the 3-point arc. The only successful triple of the period Iowa made was a Jarrod Uthoff trey from well beyond the arc as the game clock expired before the intermission.
Part of Iowa’s offensive struggles — especially early in the half — were because its offense rushed shots and seemingly tried to match the Badgers’ quick-scoring offense.
The second half wasn’t much better, with Wisconsin moving the ball through Iowa’s offense at will. Head coach Bo Ryan’s squad was able to assist on nine made shots in the half, which was two more than the Badgers’ first half total. Center Frank Kaminsky, who dished out 6 of those, which was only 1 fewer than Iowa’s team total. The Badgers also out rebounded the Hawkeyes by a 37-24 margin.
The carnage didn’t stop there.
Iowa, the team that ranked third in the league in free-throw attempts, only got to the charity stripe 10 times and made four. Aaron White only managed to get 5 shots off from the floor and had 7 points. The Badgers scored 11 points on 9 Iowa turnovers, while the Hawkeyes managed 1 point off of one Badger giveaway.
In all, four Badgers — Sam Dekker, Nigel Hayes, Bronson Koenig, and Kaminsky — finished the game with at least 13 points, 17 from Dekker.
Former Badger Jarrod Uthoff, who redshirted in his only season in Madison, led Iowa with 12 points on 5-of-10 from the floor and 2-of-5 from deep. Junior-college transfer Trey Dickerson scored 8 points in 10 minutes, while White and Peter Jok each had 7, and Adam Woodbury led Iowa with 5 boards.
If there was a bright spot for the Hawkeyes after the intermission, it was sophomore Dickerson, whose 8 points came on 3-of-5 shooting, 2-of-2 from beyond the 3-point arc. Dickerson hadn’t seen any action since Iowa’s win over North Florida, which marked the end of nonconference play.
Head coach Fran McCaffery and his team will do everything it can to put this loss behind them, and the Hawkeyes are slated to return to action on Saturday at Mackey Arena in West Lafayette, Indiana. That game is schedule to tip off at 11:06 a.m. and will be broadcast on Big Ten Network.
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