Iowa vs Michigan State Round II Recap: 66-85 Loss

For the record, I didn't actually watch this game, as life got in the way of me enjoying this 19 point ass-kicking at the hand of the Spartans. That means that this post will be straight from the box score, since I didn't see what actually happened on the court, and it'll probably be pretty truncated too. I do, however, have this game on DVR. But, after looking over the box score, I'm not so sure I want to sit down and put myself through that kind of pain.

Anyhow, Bullet Points!

• Let's start with shooting. Iowa shot a lowly 41.07% effective FG%. They made 52.27% of their two point shots (good), 60.61% of their free throws (bad), and 0% of their three pointers (ugly). Michigan State, on the other hand, put up a 60.91% effective FG%. They converted on 54.55% of their two pointers, 50% of their three's, and 66.67% of their free throw's. You aren't going to win many games when you get out shot by that margin.
• Looking at rebounding, Michigan State grabbed 53.62% of all rebounds, compared to Iowa's 46.38%. The Spartans also beat the Hawkeyes on the offensive glass, 30% to 28.21%, and on the defensive glass, 71.79% to 70%. After they grabbed 40% of their own misses in the last game against Iowa, I'm surprised they only came down with 30% this time. 
• Iowa ended 16.74% of their possessions with an assisted field goal. They also ended 15.35% of their possessions with a turnover. Those two totals were good for a 1.07 assist to turnover ratio. Michigan State finished 27.87% of their possessions with an assist, while only giving the ball up on 18.12% of them. Good for a 1.54 assist to turnover ratio. If you haven't noticed, there wasn't much that Iowa won this game. 

• This game ended up having a lot more free throw shooting than I thought it would, based on their season stats. Iowa came away with a 0.59 free throw rate (free throw attempts per field goal attempts), which is much higher than their 0.35 season average. Michigan State also went way above their season average, coming into this game at 0.36, and putting up a 0.49 mark. Coming into this game, Iowa averaged 16.3 fouls per game, and Michigan State averaged 18.7. Both teams committed 23 fouls in this game. Iowa had two players foul out (Basabe and Brommer), and one player with four fouls (Cole). Michigan State had three players finish with four fouls. What the hell was going on in this game?

• Staying on the fouling issue. Brommer spent 13 minutes on the court, scoring 2 points, grabbing 2 rebounds, blocking 2 shots, and committing five fouls. That is an average of 1 point, 1 rebound, and 1 block per six and a half minutes on the court. That is also an average of 1 foul every 2 minutes and 36 seconds. But, he did make both of his free throws. Progress!
• Gatens scored 13 points on 11 shots and 6 free throws (0.94 points per scoring attempt). He continues to struggle with the whole putting the ball in the basket thing lately. His 0.33 points per minute in February/March, tied his November, in which he was coming back from an injury, for his worst scoring month this year. He's still averaged almost 12 points per game in February/March, it just took him more shots to do so.
• Cartwright had a good shooting game, by his standards. He scored 11 points on 11 shots and 2 free throws (0.92 points per scoring attempt). He also came away with a 2 to 1 assist to turnover ratio, with 6 assists and 3 turnovers. 3 turnovers is pretty good, but Michigan State is really bad at forcing turnovers. So, 3 turnovers against them, also seems a little high to me. But, now I'm nitpicking. 
• Looking at the box score, I don't know how to feel about Basabe's performance tonight. On one hand, he was his efficient shooting self, putting up 13 points on 9 shots and 5 free throws (1.14 points per scoring attempt). He also came down with 3 offensive rebounds, which was good for a 12.31% offensive rebounding rate (a little below his season average, but still great). On the other hand, he fouled out, and only grabbed 1 defensive rebound (a pathetic 5.33% defensive rebounding rate). I wonder if his performance was as perplexing to those who watched this game?
• Eric May continues his descent from best player on the team in November, to role player without much of a role in February/March:

•  Cole continues to play well lately. He put up 10 points on an efficient 7 shots and 5 free throws, though, he did miss 3 free throws. He continues to be very good on the defensive glass lately, as he grabbed 5 defensive boards (6 total rebounds), for a 22.99% defensive rebounding rate. In February/March Cole has a 16.67% defensive rebounding rate, which is up from his 11.42% in January. Keep it up Jarryd.
• I'm not going to cover the Michigan State players in depth. Kalin Lucas put up a lot of points, and sprinkled in some assists to go along with it. Draymond Green decided to dabble in a little bit of everything. You know, just the usual stuff for a post player, points, rebounds, and assists. Durrell Summers decided he wanted to go against the grain, and do a whole lot of nothing.
• Iowa's terrible shooting led them to an anemic 0.92 points per possession. While, Michigan State was the exact opposite, coming away with an average of 1.18 points on every possession. If you wanted to know why Iowa lost, this bullet point would suffice.