The Iowa men’s basketball team continued its losing woes on Saturday against No. 21 Wisconsin, falling 74-63. The Hawkeyes led at halftime, but went into an offensive funk in the second half, scoring only four points in the final 7:36 of game action.With the loss, Iowa falls to 13-10 overall and 4-8 in Big Ten play and has now lost six out of its last seven games.
Second-year forward Pryce Sandfort turned in a solid performance despite the loss, collecting 14 points on 6-of-9 shooting. Third-year guard Josh Dix followed with 13 points and five rebounds on 5-of-12 shooting.
“I’m just sick of losing,” Sandfort said after the game. “That’s the mindset. I want to f*cking win.”
Spotty shot selection and disjointed offense defined Iowa in the first few minutes, but it still jumped out to an 11-5 edge thanks to a pair of triples from Josh Dix. But Wisconsin, who hit a school-record 21 three-pointers against the Hawkeyes on Jan. 3, responded with two threes of its own to tie the game heading into the first media timeout.
That pattern continued over the next frame. Iowa again hit a couple of triples to go up by six, but the Badgers answered right back with two of their own. Dix continued to earn his buckets, but the rest of the Hawkeye offense seemed disconnected and in a funk throughout much of the half.
“For the most part, we were pretty well attached to the to the shooters, and then we were able to cover for each other when it was a breakdown we had, we had either four or five ready to absorb the offensive player,” Wisconsin head coach Greg Gard said.
Both teams traded buckets for the rest of the period, but Iowa gained some separation thanks to a couple of hustle plays from Carter Kingsbury. The senior hasn’t seen much action this year, but made the most of his minutes in the first, coming out of nowhere for a putback tip in on the offensive end and snagging a rebound and nearly taking a charge on defense.
Judging by the atmosphere inside Carver-Hawkeye Arena, the folks watching on television may have thought the Hawkeyes were losing big at halftime. That wasn’t the case though, as a pretty fadeaway jumper by second-year forward Pryce Sandfort gave the Black and Gold a 39-37 edge at the break. Sandfort finished the half with a team-high 11 points on 5-of-6 shooting, followed by Dix, who had 10.
YES SIR!! 👏@prycesandfort x #Hawkeyes
pic.twitter.com/SpNPi8haot— Iowa Men’s Basketball (@IowaHoops) February 8, 2025
Losing streak continues
The opening of the second half was a near carbon-copy of the first half. Neither squad could seem to build much of a lead and played physical basketball the entire way. A couple of calls by the officiating crew irritated Iowa head coach Fran McCaffery and the Hawkeye faithful, but all of that was turned into a loud roar when Seydou Traore blocked Wisconsin center Steven Crowl at the rim.
Iowa could only translate that spark into a single point, and the Badgers took advantage by scoring the next eight points of the contest. But the Hawkeyes, as they have done so often under McCaffery, wouldn’t go down quietly in front of their home fans, and responded with a 6-0 run of their own to slice the deficit to just one point.
SEYDOU TRAORE IS HOSTING A BLOCK PARTY.
📺 NBC & Peacock pic.twitter.com/KiJYSr9v61
— NBC Sports (@NBCSports) February 8, 2025
Even with all of the new momentum, Iowa failed to capitalize on it, and fell into a six-point hole after allowing some easy Wisconsin baskets at the rim. Making matters worse, senior guard Drew Thelwell went down with an injury after missing a wild transition layup. He would later return to the game, but the injury clearly hampered his movement for the rest of the game.
The Hawkeyes could never find any sort of a rhythm offensively at any point in the half, and those mistakes eventually caught up to them in the game’s waning minutes. Iowa attempted a late rally, but couldn’t play defense without fouling, and the Badgers made their free throws to seal the victory.
“Thought we got sped up today, and I think that’s the learning process with a new group,” McCaffery said. “Two possession game, three possession game, four to five minutes to go and we were rushing, we were fouling.”
Up next
The Hawkeyes return to action on Feb. 12 for a road matchup against the Rutgers Scarlet Knights, who are 12-11 on the season. The Knights have a tough contest at No. 18 Maryland on Sunday afternoon before hosting Iowa.
Tip off is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. Central Time on Big Ten Network.