By Ian Murphy
The Iowa men’s basketball team lost to archrival No. 5 Iowa State in fantastic fashion, but the Hawks said the positives takeaways exist.
Senior Jarrod Uthoff had a career day, racking up 30 points in the first half and 32 overall.
“I was cooking,” Uthoff said, putting it simply. The career day came one game after he put up his previous career high, 27, against Western Illinois.
And while the 83-82 loss certainly stings, he said, the team can put its finger on at least part of the problem.
“Basically on offense, we didn’t have a lot of spacing and ball movement,” Uthoff said. “We tend to get standing around.”
Head coach Fran McCaffery said the team would move on from the Iowa State loss in time for Drake on Saturday Des Moines.
The Hawkeyes have to move on, he said, and having a veteran team certainly helps.
“Whether you win or you lose, you’ve got to move on, and that’s how I look at it,” McCaffery said. “We want to win to get better. We’re playing a really good team that we have a lot of respect for in an excellent environment.”
Some Hawkeyes called the game a learning experience.
It could prove to be. The Hawks still have dates with top-10 teams in Michigan State and Maryland this season.
But senior Anthony Clemmons said he was grateful the Hawkeyes don’t have another team similar to Iowa State.
“We’re in the Big Ten,” Clemmons said. “We probably won’t be in many situations like that.”
Goodbye, Bo
Wisconsin head coach Bo Ryan retired effectively immediately on Monday night after the Badgers’ victory over Texas A&M-Corpus Christi.
Ryan led Wisconsin to two Final Fours, seven Big Ten championships, and 14 NCAA Tournament appearances. He leaves with 364 wins at Wisconsin, a school record. Longtime assistant Greg Gard will step in as the interim head coach.
McCaffery offered Ryan congratulations on a job well-done.
“He’s done a fabulous job there. It’s hard to do what he did once, one year, and to do it consistently well in this league is very difficult,” he said. “And I think that’s what has been impressive to me, because I’ve watched him from afar before I came into the league.
“He came in and put his style in place, and [the Badgers have] been consistently good.”
Iowa will play Wisconsin in Carver-Hawkeye on Feb. 24.
Late-game time-outs
McCaffery elected not to call a time-out with nine seconds left on clock against Iowa State, He elaborated on his decision on Tuesday, noting, among other things, a time-out allows the opponent to make substitutions and set up a defense and, possibly, a play.
He said this complicates making a play call to his team, because his team then needs numerous play calls depending on the personnel.
“If it gets fumbled or there’s a charge or something, you feel, geez, we should have taken a time-out, but I’ll always let my guys go,” McCaffery said. “We already have it called, and there’s no reason to have to take one, plus you might need it later.”