Time is running out for the Hawkeyes to sew some wins together.
Currently sitting tenth in the Big Ten standings with a 5-7 conference record, the Iowa men’s basketball team needs to go 6-2 in their last eight games to conclude the regular season with a winning record.
“It’s definitely go time,” graduate forward Ben Krikke said at media availability on Friday. “We’ve lost a few games that … we felt we should have won … I’m still encouraged. Still a very positive mindset.”
Dissecting loss to Penn State
Iowa’s latest game took place at State College, Pennsylvania against Penn State on Thursday, where the Nittany Lions downed the Hawkeyes, 89-79. Iowa led by seven with just under eight minutes to go when Penn State got hot, scoring on 12 of their last 13 possessions to take the 10-point victory.
The Hawkeyes shot 33-of-59 from the field, totaling 55.9 percent for the contest. The Nittany Lions drew 22 fouls and forced 18 turnovers – the second-most turnovers in a game this season for the Hawkeyes.
“[Penn State] is going to scramble your offense,” Iowa head coach Fran McCaffery said after the loss. “You have more guys handling the ball. More passes have to be made. They are going to be up in the passing lanes getting deflections. We had some guys that made some very uncharacteristic turnovers for them. But you’ve got to credit your opponent on that.”
Scouting Minnesota
Iowa will host Minnesota at Carver-Hawkeye Arena on Sunday at 2 p.m. The Golden Gophers own a 15-7 overall record and a 6-5 record in Big Ten play, sitting firmly at the fifth spot in the conference standings.
The two teams first saw each other on Jan. 15 in Minneapolis, Minnesota, where the Hawkeyes took an 86-77 victory. McCaffery notched his 272nd win to become Iowa’s all-time winningest coach.
Second-year guard Josh Dix started in place for fourth-year forward Patrick McCaffery, who was out with an ankle injury. Dix poured in a career-high 21 points while Krikke tied his season-high with 25 points to guide the comeback win.
“They really jumped out on us,” Fran McCaffery said of the first matchup against Minnesota. “It was 14-3 and we kind of stayed the course. We got really good play off the bench … it’s just typical of this league right now.”
Third-year forward Dawson Garcia leads the charge for the Golden Gophers, averaging 17.3 points per game – sixth-most in the Big Ten – and 6.5 rebounds. He logged 30 points in the first meeting with the Hawkeyes, all coming from within the arc.
The efficient scoring inside was the catalyst for Minnesota as they hit 23-of-29 shots for a whopping 79.3 percent within the arc. But the three-point shooting of the Golden Gophers was their demise, going 5-for-29 from deep – a detrimental statistic for a team where nearly 40 percent of its shot attempts come from three-point range.
For the season, Minnesota is shooting 47.5 percent from the floor, good enough for fourth place in the conference, two slots behind Iowa. The pair of schools also find themselves in the top three in assists per game for the Big Ten, with the Golden Gophers ahead in second place with 18.27 dimes per contest.
The well-roundedness of Minnesota is something that Fran McCaffery credited his Minnesota counterpart Ben Johnson for ahead of Sunday’s contest, highlighting third-year guard Elijah Hawkins and first-year guard Cam Christie as players who “fit [the system] and then also fit the culture.”
“Sometimes you get a lot of good players, you put them in and it just doesn’t work. And we’ve all seen it happen, too. So you [have to] give him credit … he and his staff have been able to do that.”
