Lew Alcindor, Bill Walton, and John Wooden haven’t played or coached for UCLA inside Pauley Pavilion since the late 1960s and early 1970s, but the Iowa men’s basketball team allowed the 2024-25 rendition of the Bruins to look just like those famous squads on Friday evening in Los Angeles. The Hawkeyes fell in a dismal 94-70 showing, and it might not have been that close.
The loss concludes a dismal two-game defensive outing in California for Iowa, who allowed USC and UCLA to shoot at least 60 percent from the floor. The Bruins tallied a 62 percent clip on this night, including 34 percent from three-point range.
“I think that this is a terrific group of competitors, but I thought we made some mental errors,” head coach Fran McCaffery said after the game. “I didn’t see a lack of effort, but I saw a lack of execution of things we prepared for. And that’s disappointing, because that leads to falling behind.”
Third-year guard Josh Dix turned in a stellar performance despite the grisly defeat, collecting 19 points on 5-of-7 shooting from behind the arc, while second-year guard Eric Dailey Jr. led UCLA with 23 points, four assists, and two rebounds.
UCLA entered this contest fresh off a frustrating four-game losing streak in Big Ten play, but playing a poor Iowa defense seemed to cure those woes. The Bruins came in averaging only 67 points per contest, but were only 10 points behind that number after just one half of play.
Iowa entered this game determined to right the ship after the USC loss, but it was UCLA who came out and played inspired basketball. The Bruins couldn’t miss early, making their first nine buckets of the game before the first media timeout of the half. Hawkeye head coach McCaffery called a timeout, but his words offered no help to his struggling squad.
Only six minutes had passed in the period, but the scoreboard read – UCLA 28, Iowa 9. The Hawkeyes looked uncomfortable on every possession despite some open looks, and the floodgates continued to pour open. Iowa’s performance was even more surprising considering it was only one week removed from a 25-point beatdown against Indiana inside Carver-Hawkeye Arena.
The UCLA lead continued to blossom from there, and the Hawkeyes found themselves in a 57-24 halftime hole. The second half didn’t produce better results, and Iowa was forced to fly home from California without a victory.
Injury updates
Fourth-year forward Payton Sandfort suffered a shoulder injury during the first half and didn’t return to the game. TV cameras caught Sandfort icing the injured shoulder in a sling on the bench during the second period.
“He’s pretty sore and we’ll see how it is in the next day or two,” McCaffery said.
Up next
The Hawkeyes will return to action on Jan. 21 for a home matchup against the rival Minnesota Golden Gophers, who are 9-9 overall and 1-6 in Big Ten play. The Gophers currently occupy the bottom spot in the league standings, but scored an upset victory over No. 20 Michigan on Thursday evening.
“We will break down what happened and then try to improve on those mistakes,” McCaffery said. Win or lose, that’s what we try to do, is break it down, address what we did poorly, highlight what we did well, and try to be better next time out.”
Tipoff is set for 8 p.m. CT on Big Ten Network.