By Adam Hensley
The 92-78 loss to Notre Dame shed some light on the Iowa men’s basketball team. Here are some takeaways from the ACC/Big Ten Challenge.
Small lineup started game
Following freshman sensation Tyler Cook’s injury (he’s out three weeks with a fractured finger), coach Fran McCaffery shook up the lineup against the Fighting Irish.
Desiring a smaller, faster starting rotation, he plugged in Jordan Bohannon, Isaiah Moss, and Cordell Pemsl — all freshmen (Moss a redshirt freshman).
Bohannon, who normally fills the sixth-man role, played 32 minutes. The freshman recorded career highs in points (23), 3-pointers made (7), and assists (7), while also tallying only 1 turnover.
“He’s going to make 6 or 8 3s because he’s going to keep shooting them, and he’s going to work to get open,” McCaffery said after the game. “He’s a terrific shooter. Did I expect him to come in here and make 7 3s? No, I figured he would have some opportunities — that’s why I started him — and I’m really proud of him. I’m probably more proud of the fact that he had 7 assists and 1 turnover against a really good team.”
Fellow first-year Hawkeye Pemsl dominated in the paint, missing only one shot and scoring 18 points.
Moss received the starting nod for two reasons, his coach said.
“I thought two things; No. 1, he’s been playing better,” McCaffery said. “No. 2, I think I did him a disservice in the previous game by not playing him enough.”
Iowa won turnover battle, first time in three games
The Hawkeyes committed 18 turnovers in each of their Emerald Coast Classic losses. Virginia only committed 5 turnovers, Memphis 7.
Iowa’s ball security improved drastically against the Fighting Irish. In fact, the totals seemed to be the opposite of recent games.
Forcing Notre Dame into 14 turnovers, Iowa only turned the ball over 6 times — a season low.
“Defense was a lot better,” McCaffery said. “[Specifically] in attention to detail in the game plan.”
Iowa’s five starters committed only 4 turnovers.
Third time Iowa gave up 90+ points
The focus early on this season has been on defense. McCaffery and numerous players stressed that defense needed to improve the most.
Following the 14-point loss to Notre Dame, McCaffery said he thought the defense had improved.
“We clearly needed to improve,” he said. “Our defense has not been good in the previous six games. We still gave up 92, which is a credit to [Notre Dame] because I thought we played a lot better. But, they run really good action, and they run it a lot of different ways. You’re guarding action, but then you’re guarding personnel. You got a lot of weapons.”
Technical fouls for Cordell Pemsl — 1
Along with his first start, Pemsl picked up his first technical foul in a Hawkeye uniform.
His technical came after he turned and yelled in the face of Notre Dame’s Bonzie Colson.
“The important thing is you want him to continue to play with emotion,” McCaffery said. “He was just yelling. I don’t think he intended to be in [Bonzie] Colson’s face, that’s just where Colson was when he yelled. That was the unfortunate part of that situation. He’ll learn. He’s really smart.”
