Jarrod Uthoff scored 24 points in the first half and a career-high 27 in the game.
By Kyle Mann
Several weeks ago, Iowa head coach Fran McCaffery said he hoped to see more aggression and assertiveness from senior forward Jarrod Uthoff, who will shoulder a heavy scoring load this season but routinely rejects the notion that he has to carry the team.
In Monday’s game against Western Illinois, Iowa fans got a glimpse of the Uthoff that McCaffery hopes to take with him into Big Ten play.
McCaffery has said it’s important for Uthoff to get plenty of looks, and it was clear early on that the ball was running through Uthoff. Even more so, it was clear that he was in a zone.
The Hawkeyes started the game with a 6-3 lead, and Uthoff first got in the board with a lay-up just over three minutes into the game. Brady Ellingson scored shortly after to make the score 10-3, and then observed with the rest of his team as Uthoff scored 9-consecutive points to go up 19-6.
“He couldn’t miss the first half; he was playing really well,” Mike Gesell said.
Uthoff had made it known that he was going to have a good night, starting the game 4-of-6 and hitting double digits still with 13 minutes remaining in the half. As good as he started, his most impressive stretch was still to come.
A Uthoff jumper had extended Iowa’s lead to 22 at 34-12, with eight minutes to go in the half, but Western Illinois used a run after that to cut the deficit to 34-19. Then, Uthoff started shooting again.
A stand-still 3 halted the Leatherneck run, and that was followed by another kick-out 3 assisted by Gesell. The next time down the floor, Uthoff was flat-out feeling it as he let one fly from several feet beyond the arc and rattled it home. All in all, an offensive rebound and lay-in the next time down the floor marked 13-consecutive points for the senior.
“It changes the whole complexion of the game. We already had a lead, then all of a sudden he does that,” McCaffery said. “They hit a couple shots right around there, as well. Just kind of nullified any run they were going to make. That’s obviously what you want your best player to do.”
Uthoff used his 11-point and 13-point stretches to score 24 points in the first half, only one off of his career high. He set a new mark, finishing with 27 points on 16 shots in 23 minutes in a lopsided 90-56 affair.
So was this Uthoff’s response to McCaffery’s challenge, or merely something that happened? With Uthoff, you can be sure he definitely didn’t set out to do anything special.
“If I’m open, I shoot it; if I’m not, I move it on and try to find other players, and fortunately for me the shots were dropping this game,” Uthoff said. “I wasn’t concerned about how many points I scored. I never am.”
Uthoff’s unselfishness is far from an act, and so long as he won’t be the guy to try to force his shot, nights like this will come from his ability as a pure shooter making good shots. For what it’s worth, his teammates weren’t all that surprised.
“I know what he’s capable of doing,” Adam Woodbury said “Sometimes you guys get on him for not being more aggressive, but he’s capable of doing that pretty much every night out.”
Gesell agreed, making an assertion Uthoff would never make on his own.
“We expect nothing less from him,” Gesell said. “He’s one of the best shooters in the country, one of the best players in the country, and he really showed that in the first half tonight.”
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