Sunday, March 6, 2011

Iowa vs Purdue Round II Recap: 67-65 W

WOOOOOOO!!!! That was easily the best win of the season, and a signature win for McCaffery. But, even better, it was also a the best possible way to send Jarryd Cole out. I'm sorry Jarryd had to be witness to such a down period in Iowa basketball, but I'm glad he got to exit Carver in style. Awesome. Fucking. Game.

Bullet Points!
  • Shooting-wise, holy shit (I swear when I'm excited), Iowa went and did what Purdue did to them in the first match up. Iowa didn't shoot great, putting up a 45.8% effective FG%, themselves. However, they held the Boilermakers to a 39.9% effective FG%. Iowa made 46% of their two point shots, 30% of their three point shots, and 63.2% from the free throw line. Purdue made 45.4% of their two point attempts, 20% of their three point attempts, and 58.8% from the charity stripe. A clean sweep for the Hawkeyes. That hasn't happened very much in Big 10 play. 
  • Where did the Hawkeyes learn to grab defensive rebounds like that? They pulled down 73.5% of Purdue's misses, which is their second best defensive rebounding rate in conference play, after grabbing 75.86% in their second game against Michigan.  Iowa also won the offensive rebounding battle, reeling in 30.8% of their own misses. While, Purdue came away with 26.5% of their own misses. Overall, Iowa was able to corral 54.55% of all rebounds, leaving Purdue with the other 45.45%. 
  • Sticking with rebounding. Iowa had all five starters and Eric May, off the bench, grab at least 5 rebounds. Cole had 10, Basabe had 8, Marble had 7, Cartwright had 6, and Gatens and May had 5. Iowa was dominant on the boards yesterday.
  • Iowa did lose the turnover battle. They gave up the ball on 18.6% of their possessions, compared to Purdue's very low 10% turnover rate. But, who cares. Iowa still won!
  • In the preview for this game, I called Jarryd Cole the wild card. Well, needless to say, he was. On his Senior Day, Cole put up 16 points on 12 shots (58.3% effective FG%) and 2 free throws (1.24 points per scoring attempt). He also came away with a double-double, pulling down 10 rebounds. He finished with an offensive rebound rate of 9.6% and a defensive rebound rate of 17.8%. He was especially great in the first half, as he really helped keep Iowa in the game when they struggled early.
  • Staying on Cole. He went 6-6 on shots in the paint, while going 1-6 from outside the paint. However, that 1 shot he made outside of the paint, put Iowa up 63-59 with 1:44 left in the game. If he would have missed that shot, Purdue would have had a chance to tie the game. Instead, Cole's jumper kept them down by two possessions. Cole picked a great time to hit his first long jumper of the day.
  • Cartwright was amazing this game. He shot way above his season average, scoring 13 points on 8 shots (68.7% effective FG%!) and 5 free throw attempts (1.25 points per scoring attempt!). He also had 7 assists and 6 rebounds, while only turning the ball over twice. This was one of the best games I've seen him play all year. 
  • Cartwright really had some nice plays in this game. The first that sticks out in my mind, was when he was in transition and he threaded a bounce pass into a streaking Cole, who was able to get a layup off it. I still have no idea how he got that ball in there. 
  • Another play, was when Cartwright and Brommer played the pick and roll beautifully. Purdue didn't communicate very well. Both defenders went to Cartwright, instead of switching or fighting through the pick. This led to a nice bounce pass and a very easy dunk for Brommer. 
  • Cartwright also had a simple play, that was probably nothing, but I found it beautiful. He did a nice pump fake, that got his defender in the air. This allowed him to take one dribble to the right, and nail a wide open mid-range jumper. 
  • The final play that stuck out to me was, of course, the off balance jumper he hit with 31 seconds left, to make it 65-61. I felt like I was reliving the game at Indiana (also nationally televised), as Cartwright made a big shot in the clutch, that helped seal an Iowa victory. Watching the ball bounce around on that rim like it did, had to be nerve racking for the players. Because it sure as hell was nerve racking for me.
  • One final Cartwright bullet point. When he left the game due to injury, I think every Hawkeye fan thought Iowa was screwed. I know I did. But, the Hawkeyes played tough, and held on to this game. Kudos to whole team for playing through adversity like that. Also, Kudos to Cartwright, for playing injured in the second half. He was clearly not himself after exiting the game, but he was still able to come back in and hit the big shot at the end of the game. I cannot overstate how pleasant of a surprise he has been this year. 
  • Basabe had a rough first half. He went 0-4 from the field, including a missed dunk. His lone point in the first half, came from a free throw. However, Basabe more than made up for it in the second half. He went 5-6 from the field, scoring 10 points. He also came up with 8 rebounds (5 offensive and 3 defensive). He led the team in offensive rebounding, with a 16.5% offensive rebound rate. He also had a big block on a lay up attempt by Purdue's Lewis Jackson with 4:51 left in the game. Basabe turned a mess of a game around, and made it into a great performance by him. 
  • Staying on Basabe. After he missed a wide open dunk in the first half, he had some great ones in the second half. Marble found him early in the second half, in transition, for an alley-oop. For some reason, it was my favorite this season. Even surpassing the near half-court alley-oop's from Cartwright to May earlier this year.  He also had a put back dunk, on a long two point shot from Jarryd Cole with 3:44 left in the game. Apparently, Purdue thought they didn't need to put a body on Basabe, who then stuffed down Cole's miss with authority. This dunk made Carver go bat shit crazy, and put Iowa up by three. It was big play's like this, that helped Iowa finish Purdue off.
  • Gatens didn't have a monster of a game. But, he was key down the stretch. He came away with 2 defensive rebounds in the last 4:06 seconds of the game. In the last 4 minutes, he also had a key layup and then hit two free throws with 6 seconds left. This was clearly a team effort at the end of the game, and Gatens played a big part in this win.
  • Marble had an up and down game, but I thought he handled the pressure of replacing the injured Cartwright very well. Marble didn't have any assists or points during Cartwright's stay on the bench. However, he also only had 1 turnover. He wasn't spectacular by any means, but the important thing was that Iowa was able to hold the lead without Cartwright for about 9 minutes of the second half. That is very impressive, when you consider how young Iowa is, and how often they have just flat out blown games in the second half this year.
  •  Just like his performance in the second match up with Michigan State, Andrew Brommer put on a clinic on how to foul. He didn't foul out this time, but instead of 5 fouls in 13 minutes, Brommer decided to increase the rate of his hacktastic ways. In his 5 minutes on the court, he averaged 1 basket every 5 minutes (though, it was a nice pick and roll dunk), 1 rebound every 2 minutes and 30 seconds, and 1 foul every 48 seconds on the court. Congratulations Brommer! Just when I think you can't possibly surprise me with your fouling abilities, you go and pull this out of your bag of tricks. 
  • JaJuan Johnson put up 22 points and 12 rebounds yesterday. Considering, that it took him 23 shot attempts (39.1% effective FG%) and 6 free throw attempts (0.85 points per scoring attempt), I would consider that a successful defensive effort by Iowa. He really had to work hard for almost every basket he had. Unlike Illinois, Purdue wasn't really able to make use of their height advantage against Iowa.
  •  With 8 seconds left in the first half, Iowa missed a three pointer with the shot clock running down, but looked to secure an offensive rebound. The referees blew the whistle, however, and called it a shot clock violation. The ball clearly hit the front of the rim, which altered the flight path of the ball. However, Hightower and his pals couldn't be bothered to even review the play. This pissed me off, but even more hilariously, this pissed Fran off. Fran had to be restrained by his assistants, which made for a great shot by the ESPN cameras. I hate Ed Hightower, but I love the emotion that Fran shows for his team and the game in general. I'm glad that he is the head coach of my favorite college basketball team.
  • With 1:13 left in the game, Matt Gatens came down with a defensive rebound, and immediately gave the ball to Devyn Marble. With Iowa up by 4, Marble was immediately fouled by Purdue. I also immediately blew a gasket. Gatens is the best free throw shooter on the team, making 87.06% of his free throws this year. Marble, on the other hand, is only better than Archie and Brommer on the team at shooting free throws. That is not a compliment. Being the 51.56% free throw shooter that he is, Marble missed the front end of a one-and-one. Lewis Jackson came up with the rebound, and streaked down the court for an easy layup, making it 63-61 Iowa. My worst nightmare was coming true, I thought to myself. Gatens should have known Purdue would foul there. He should have held onto the ball, and he should have been the one at the free throw line. If Iowa makes both of those free throws, they push it to a 6 point lead. Luckily, that little mistake, didn't end up costing Iowa the game. Luckily, for my blood pressure that is.
  • With 11 seconds left in the game and Iowa up 63-65, Iowa had to inbound the ball on Purdue's side of the court. Preferably, Iowa wanted the ball in Gatens hands, since he is the best foul shooter. Purdue called a 20 second timeout, which gave Iowa a chance to huddle up and draw up a play to get the ball into Gatens. However, Fran used Gatens as the inbound man, causing a little bit of confusion on the part of Purdue. When the play started Cartwright flashed out of bounds, took the pass from Gatens, who then stepped inbounds, and caught a pass from Cartwright. The wide open Gatens, then streaked down the court before getting fouled on a layup attempt. This play was not only awesome because it got the ball in the hands of our best shooter, but it also took 5 seconds off the clock. Gatens then, of course, hit both free throw's to clinch the game. I just want to say that Fran was a genius here. Do you remember how Iowa handled the press under Lickliter? I remember the Iowa vs Penn State game at Carver, two years ago. Iowa was up by 8 or 10, with a few minutes remaining, and Penn State was able to take it into overtime, by pressing and causing turnovers. Lickliter would have never drawn anything up like that. Once again, I can't express how happy I am that Fran is the coach of this team.
  • Overall, Iowa wasn't an offensive juggernaut today, averaging 0.96 points per possession. However, they outscored Purdue, who averaged 0.93 points per possession. And that's all that matters.
  • We beat the sixth ranked team in the nation. Suck it OMHR!!!! WOOOOOO!!!!

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