By Adam Hensley
Hawkeye basketball will try to bounce back tonight after consecutive losses in the Emerald Coast Classic over the weekend.
Iowa will clash with Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana, as part of the ACC/Big Ten Challenge at 8 p.m.
Iowa faltered in both losses in Florida, coming up short against a suffocating defense from No. 6 Virginia and high-flying offense from up-tempo Memphis.
“We’re a young team,” guard Peter Jok said in a release. “It’s not an excuse, but it’s still just the beginning of the season. We’re six games in, and we have a lot of season to go.
The Hawkeyes battled the Cavaliers in their first Emerald Coast Classic matchup and fell, 74-41. Shooting was a struggle; the team could only muster 31.8-percent shooting (while Virginia sank 48.3-percent of its shots).
Memphis proved to be a different beast. Offense was nowhere to be found against Virginia, but in Iowa’s second game of the tournament, that’s what kept the Hawkeyes in the game.
Jok erupted for a career-high 42 points in the 100-92 loss to the Tigers.
Iowa (54.5-percent from the field) clicked from downtown, netting 47.8-percent of its shots from 3-point range, including 8 makes from downtown by Jok.
The main concern came in the form of interior defense.
Memphis gouged Iowa in the paint.
McCaffery proclaimed Iowa’s all-around defense “unacceptable” in the final tournament game.
When clicking on defense, Iowa’s success jumps off the page. Through the past six seasons, when Iowa holds opponents under 61 points, the Hawkeyes are 61-2.
For Iowa to have a shot against an experienced, deep Notre Dame squad, the focus remains on the defensive side.
Not only defense but the turnover differential is another aspect of play McCaffery wants improvement in.
In both Emerald Coast Classic outings, Iowa turned the ball over 18 times in comparison to 12 takeaways.
“We have to do a better job at taking care of the ball; we’re turning it over too much,” McCaffery said in a release. “When we’re making a run, you have an ill-advised turnover at the wrong time trying to force the ball. We have to move the ball, and we’ll get good shot opportunities.”
Notre Dame, which received the second-most votes among the non-ranked teams in the AP Top 25, will not be an easy opponent.
Taking the back-to-back losses in stride, McCaffery’s squad is focused on the task at hand, not the tournament results.
“Two games is not going to define our season,” Jok said in the release. “We have to work hard, listen to what coach has to say, and go from there.”
Iowa does have a streak going in its past three ACC/Big Ten Challenge games. The Hawkeyes are 3-0, with their most recent win coming from a home contest against Florida State last season.
In that three-game stretch, the Hawkeyes took down the Fighting Irish, 98-93, in 2013. However, last season both teams met in the Advocare Invitational, and Notre Dame handed Iowa a 68-62 loss — which also happens to be the last time the Hawkeyes suffered a two-game losing skid in nonconference play.
McCaffery faces off against a familiar foe. From 1988-99, McCaffery served as an assistant coach on Notre Dame’s staff.
As far as injuries go, Dale Jones, who has had limited playing time this season because of various injuries, will miss eight to nine weeks with a fracture in his right wrist.
