Iowa vs Ohio State Recap Part II: 70-48 L

Well, that wasn't surprising.

Bullet Points!

• You know that Iowa is in trouble if Andrew Brommer is the player of the game. In all seriousness though, Brommer played great last night. He had 12 points on 8 shots and 2 free throws (both of which, he actually made!). However, scoring was only a little part of what he did against the Buckeyes. He also had 6 rebounds (3 offensive and 3 defensive), 2 assists, 1 steal, and 3 blocks. Even more miraculous, was that he only had 3 fouls in 30 minutes of play. 
• Even though Brommer had a great game, I'm not on the "Free Andrew Brommer" bandwagon yet. Cole has hit a bit of a rough stretch (which continued last night), but he still has better number's than Brommer. Cole averages slightly more points per minute, 0.29 to Brommer's 0.27. He also grabs more rebounds. Brommer has pulled down 13.27% of all defensive rebounds and 9% of all offensive rebounds while in the game this year. Cole, on the other hand has grabbed 19.08% of all defensive and 12.75% of all offensive rebounds this year. They both have shot about a 51% effective field goal percentage, but Cole makes more of his free throws. The only outright advantage that Brommer has over him is in assists. At this point, I don't really buy into the Brommer hype until he starts becoming a more consistent scorer or better rebounder. 
• Gatens failed to reach double digits in points for the first time since the UNI game. What I found interesting was his shot selection. He went 4-11 from the floor, but only took 2 three pointers, both of which he missed. 4-9 shooting from two point range, isn't a real great percentage. Now, I fell asleep trying to watch this game on my DVR, but after this game and the Minnesota game it felt like Gatens had missed a lot of two point field goals lately. So, I looked it up in my handy spreadsheet. In January, Gatens has shot a FG% of 36.67% on two point field goals. In that same time frame, he has also shot 43.33% from behind the arc. Good to see the numbers match what the eyes are seeing.
• May followed up his great performance against Minnesota, with a not so great performance against Ohio State. In 18 minutes, May went 0-2 shooting, grabbed 1 rebound, had 1 turnover, and picked up 1 foul. I said Iowa needed a big game out of Gatens and May considering Ohio State would probably game plan for Basabe this time around. Well, those two didn't have great games, and Iowa got run out of the building.
• Since I haven't seen all of this game yet, I don't know what adjustments the Buckeyes made to guarding Basabe this time around, but he still had 11 points. They weren't as efficient as usual, since it took him 10 shots and 2 free throws, but it's good to see that Basabe hasn't hit that "freshman wall" and is still giving Big 10 teams trouble. 
• Cartwright was Cartwright last night. Scoring 10 points on an inefficient 13 shots. He also had 7 assists and 5 turnovers. Cartwright would be so good if he could cut down the amount of shots it takes to get him to double digits and if he could cut down on the turnovers. He will be a Senior next year, and if he makes those improvements, Iowa will be much better.
• Sullinger was relatively quiet this time around, only scoring 13 points and grabbing 9 rebounds. David Lighty was the star for Ohio State. He had 18 points (85.7% effective FG%), 5 rebounds, and 4 assists. They just have too many good players.
• Iowa had another bad shooting performance last night, shooting a 40.9% effective FG% compared to Ohio State's 52.7%. In Big 10 play, Iowa has shot a 47.2% effective FG%, and allowed opponents to shoot a 60.06%. Yep. That's why Iowa is 0-6 in conference play.
• Looking at points per possession, Iowa scored a whopping 0.69 points per possession (easily the lowest of the year). Ohio State averaged 1.01 points per possession. Not surprisingly, as Iowa has gotten in to Big 10 play, their points per possession has dropped and their opponents has risen. Take a look:

•  Iowa lost the rebounding battle again, as Ohio State pulled down 52.7% of all rebounds to Iowa's 47.3%. On the offensive glass, Iowa grabbed 33.3% to Ohio State's 38.7%. On the defensive boards, Iowa grabbed 61.3% compared to the Buckeyes 66.7%. It's starting to look like Iowa's one real strength is starting to diminish in conference play, as rebounding has been just as bad as points per possession recently:

•  The one real positive from this game, was that Iowa was good at causing turnovers. In fact, they forced a turnover on 29% of Ohio State's possessions. The bad news was they also turned the ball over on 33.3% of their own possessions.
• For assists, Iowa finished with a 0.52 assist to turnover ratio, finishing just 17.42% of their possessions with an assisted field goal. Ohio State finished with a 0.9 assist to turnover ratio, ending 25.89% of their possessions with an assist. 

To wrap this game up, it sucked. The end.