The Iowa men’s basketball players got together to discuss the season during their weeklong break.
By Ian Murphy
Amid two losses in the last three games and a stagnant defense, the Iowa men’s basketball team held a players only meeting.
The Hawkeyes lost to lowly Penn State on the road 79-75 Wednesday and dropped to No. 8 in both the AP and USA Today Coaches polls Monday. The meeting was held Feb. 20.
“The seniors led it,” freshman Nicholas Baer said. “It was really good for us.”
The meeting comes on the heels of the bench seeming to disappear, with just 16 points in three games, allowing a season high 85 points to the Indiana Hoosiers, and a defensive scheme unquestionably broken by the last three opponents, including Minnesota.
The Gophers have just one win in the Big Ten with two weeks left in the season.
The seniors, Jarrod Uthoff, Anthony Clemmons, Adam Woodbury, and Mike Gesell, along with junior Peter Jok, make up the starting five and the bulk of the Hawkeye points, although they haven’t been immune from struggles either.
With exception of Jok and Uthoff, the starters have been as inconsistent as the rest of the team over the three-game stretch. While Jok and Uthoff continue to pile on points in any way they can, the Hawkeyes are actively looking for others to emerge.
“When you have two really good scorers like that — you look at every team, a lot of them are just like that,” head coach Fran McCaffery said. “They’re going to take the bulk of the shots, they’re going to take the bulk of the free throws.”
That strategy has worked for much of the year, but with two weeks left in the conference season, the Hawkeyes’ issues are being zeroed in on by opponents.
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With a Wisconsin team that still includes Nigel Hayes, winners of eight of its last nine coming to town Wednesday, a trip to Ohio State this weekend, a rematch with Indiana, and closing out the season on the road at Michigan, the meeting might have come at the perfect time.
No matter how down Ohio State and Michigan are this season, the Hawkeyes are not looking past them.
The teams were mostly mum on the content of the meeting, but panic button doesn’t seem pushed either. The Hawkeyes are still on the cusp of a Big Ten regular season title, only a half game back, and still ranked in the top ten nationally.
They still have a national player of the year candidate in Jarrod Uthoff. They still have a chance at the No. 1 seed in the Big Ten tournament, and winning that tournament could very well lead to a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament come mid-March.
Reading into the players only meeting would be unwise. The team says things are well.
“We’re fine,” Uthoff said. “We just wanted to get together and talk about some things.”
We’re fine,” Uthoff reiterated. “We’re anxious for Wednesday.”