Iowa vs Minnesota Recap

Bullet points!

• This game was a story of 2 periods for Iowa. In the first half, I was updating my like nine Twitter followers that Iowa was attempting to finish the 1st half with more turnovers than field goals made. Well, the good news was, they didn't. The bad news was, they had 8 turnovers and 8 field goals made in the the first half.
• Iowa shot 8-25 from the field and 2-11 from three point range in the first half. Good for a 36% effective FG%. Not good.
• In the second half, Iowa was hot for the first 10 minutes and then cooled off during the last 10 minutes. For the second half they shot 14-34 and 4-8 from three point range. Good for a 47.1% effective FG%, which is slightly below average, but better than 36%. They outscored the Gophers in the second half 40 to 39. Too bad they were outscored 19 to 30 in the first half.
• Overall, Iowa shot 22-59 and 6-19 from three point range. Good for a terrible 42.4% effective FG%, which is about 6% below their season average. They did make 9 of their 11 free throws. So, that was good. Unfortunately, they only made it to the free throw line 11 times. 
• Minnesota didn't shoot all that well from the field either. Iowa held them to a 45.7% effective FG%. About 5.5% below their season average. The big thing on offense for Minnesota was free throws. They got to the line 37 times! Their free throw rate (free throws attempted per field goals attempted) was an absurd 0.80 (!) because they took 46 shots from the field and 37 free throws. That is pretty much double Minnesota's season average. 
• 13 of Iowa's 23 fouls came from Cole with 5 (fouled out), Basabe with 4, and May with 4. 
• The players of the game for Iowa were Basabe and May. First, Basabe. He only took 3 shots (made 2 of them) and had 4 rebounds (2 offensive and 2 defensive) in the first half. Not a huge part of the offense. In the second half, Basabe exploded for 16 points on 6 field goals and 4 free throws. He also grabbed 9 rebounds (3 offensive and 6 defensive). He finished the night with a double-double 20 points (66.7% effective FG%) and 13 rebounds. He grabbed 14.6% of all offensive and 26.1% of all defensive rebounds. Both of which are above his season average. Hopefully we can see more of this Basabe as the season goes on.
• It was good to see May have a good game after dealing with an injury lately. Like Basabe, he was relatively quiet in the first half offensively, minus a nice fastbreak dunk. In the second half, May went 4-6 including 3-3 from behind the arc, scoring 11 points. For the game, May scored 16 points with a 75% effective FG%. 
• Cartwright had 10 points in this game, with most of them coming in the second half. I was impressed with his play in the second half, but for the game he still had at least one missed lay up that bugged me. He did go 4-5 from the free throw line, but it still took him 10 shots to get his 6 points from field goals. I'm just hoping he can be a more efficient scorer.
• Gatens scored double digits again. The problem was it took him 21 shot attempts to score those 13 points (30.9% effective FG%). Similar to the Purdue game, Gatens shot 30% (3-10) from three point range. Gatens tried to get in the paint and draw the foul against the Gophers, and it never worked. Every time he would get into the paint his shot was blocked as he went to the ground. Gatens is the best player on the team, but he has always had trouble when he's contested in the lane.
• I found it funny that Iowa's best shooter (Gatens) and Minnesota's best shooter (Hoffarber) were both cold on the same night. Unlike Gatens, Hoffarber made none of his three point attempts. He was 2-10 from the field and 0-4 from behind the arc. For once, Iowa held the opposing team's shooter in check this year. 
• The Gophers had a block party on Sunday night. Ralph Sampson III swatted 7 or 19.4% of the Hawkeyes total shots. As a team, Minnesota blocked 12 of Iowa's shots (20.3%). That along with the free throws killed Iowa in this game.
• Another thing that killed Iowa was Minnesota outrebounding them. It's not really surprising since Iowa wasn't really favored in rebounding. But, Basabe was the only one that actually seemed to stand a chance at pulling the ball down against the Gophers. Minnesota grabbed 56% of all the rebounds to Iowa's 44%. They also grabbed 42.9% of the offensive rebounds (horrible) and 69.2% of the defensive rebounds. Iowa managed to secure 30.8% of the offensive rebounds (5% below season average) and 57.1% of the defensive rebounds (12% below season average).
• Iowa finished 20% of their possessions with an assisted field goal, and 16.7% of their possessions with a turnover (thanks to only turning the ball over twice in the second half). Good for a 1.2 to 1 assist to turnover ratio. 
• Minnesota finished 28.33% of their possessions with an assisted field goal (85% of their field goals were assisted...), and 18.3% of their possessions with a turnover. Good for a 1.55 assist to turnover ratio.
• Iowa averaged 0.98 points per possession. Minnesota average 1.15 points per possession. 
• To sum it up, Minnesota free throws, blocks, and rebounding are what killed the Hawkeyes in this game.