TAMPA, Fla. – Iowa men’s basketball’s celebration after its 67-61 first round NCAA Tournament win over Clemson on Friday was short-lived. Head coach Ben McCollum urged the team to remain leveled and focused on the road ahead.
However, there was a lot of good to take away from the Hawkeyes’ outing Friday night. Bennett Stirtz, despite finishing the game with a team-leading 16 points, struggled to put the ball in the basket, going 4-of-17 from the field. It was the others that stepped up when needed.
Kael Combs was right there with Stirtz with 15 points. Alvaro Folgueiras came off the bench and hit all seven free throws on the way to 14 points. Tate Sage dug Iowa out of a slump midway through the second half with seven timely points. And when in doubt, all Hawkeyes attacked the basket and drew fouls, going 24-for-31 as a team from the line. Iowa’s free throw makes and attempts were both season-highs.
On top of the scoring contributions, Iowa won the rebounding battle by a 40-27 margin. Seven of eight Hawkeyes that saw the floor logged at least four rebounds, including Cam Manyawu’s first game this season with double-digit rebounds with 10.
“The main thing is that we’re in the Big Ten all year, and we’re used to that physicality,” Stirtz said postgame on Friday. “We really wanted to prove a point that we were gonna outbound [Clemson], and we thought if we did, we were gonna win.”
To get that first round victory was a nice confidence booster. But now, Iowa turns its focus towards top-seeded Florida.
Following the Iowa-Clemson game, the Gators historically dismantled 16th-seeded Prairie View A&M, 114-55, to earn a second round bid. The 59-point margin of victory was the second-largest in NCAA Tournament history, only trailing Loyola-Chicago’s 69-point victory over Tennessee Tech in 1963.
Florida shot 45-of-70 from the field in its victory, good for a staggering 64 percent. As for the rebounding battle, it wasn’t close – 54-20 in favor of the victors. Not to mention 64 paint points as well.
Unlike Clemson, the Gators’ play style is nearly the opposite of the Hawkeyes. Florida plays a very fast-paced style of offense, which sits 29th of 365 qualifying teams in the KenPom’s adjusted tempo standings. It leads the country with 45.7 rebounds a game – no other team averages more than 43 – while Iowa is 357th of 365 teams with just under 30 a game.
Florida is 5-5 in games where it attempts under 65 shots. McCollum said that the team doesn’t try to play slow, rather its defense and ability to get a shot off offensively sets the tone more often than not. It’ll be a battle of the paces on Sunday.
“They do a good job at forcing their pace,” McCollum said. “It’s one of the unique situations they do a good job of… Whatever pace that allows us to try to score more points, then that’s what we’re gonna play at.”
The Iowa-Florida second round matchup will take place in the Gators’ backyard of Tampa – a two-hour drive from the University of Florida in Gainesville. The stands were flooded with blue and orange during the Florida-Prairie View A&M matchup, and loud cheers and chants could be heard clearly from the tunnels behind the court.
During Iowa’s game against Clemson, where was a fair turnout of black and gold filling the stands. The location will play a major factor in which team has more fans show up, however, all the Hawkeyes can do is lock into their play on the court.
“This is us against them, so we can’t worry about the outside noise,” forward Tavion Banks said. “We gotta stay together and keep fighting, no matter what it is.”
Iowa and Florida’s round of 32 matchup will tip off at 6:10 p.m. CT Sunday, March 22, at Tampa’s Benchmark International Arena. TBS will broadcast the contest.
