Iowa vs Purdue Recap

Not going to lie. I paid much more attention to the first half of this game than the second half. I had the game on the entire time, but got distracted by other things after halftime. I saw some of the action, but a lot of it seems like a blur of Iowa making some mistakes, making a few good plays, and then making even more mistakes. Not surprisingly, Purdue capitalized on these mistakes and ran away with a game that was never in doubt once the tip was won.

Bullet Points!

• Congratulations to the Hawkeyes on a new record today! This was their worst shooting game of the season. Previously this year they had shot a 38.97% effective FG% against Xavier. Today, they shot 38.46% vs Purdue. That is going to hurt the season average.
• The Hawkeyes are not a great shooting team to start with, as they came into the game shooting about NCAA average in effective FG%. But, Purdue is a really good defensive team. They came into the game today holding opponents to 43.1% effective FG% on the season. NCAA average was 48.9%. Yeah. They are good. 
• Iowa shot 37.78% on their two point field goals today. Interestingly enough, that is only second worst this year to the 33.33% they put up against Alabama (they won that game?). 
• The 7 three point attempts by Iowa is the least amount taken in a game this year. The previous least was 10 in the first game of the year against South Dakota State.
• Iowa made 12-16 free throws today, which marks three out of the last four games that they have made at least 70% of their free throws. So, maybe they're fixing that problem.
• Purdue was really focusing on Gatens defensively. They know he likes to catch and shoot from behind the three point line, and they limited him to three shots from there. Gatens went 4 of 10 from the field, and only 1 of 3 from behind the arc. He was still the only Hawkeye in double figures, with 13. But, it was harder than usual, coming on 10 field goal attempts and 4 free throw attempts.
• The Hawkeyes had a tough time converting on shots around the basket today. In the first half I specifically remember seeing Cartwright miss at least two layups after bringing the ball up court and getting into the paint right away. Brommer also missed a layup pretty horribly, and I still have no idea what that was about. Marble missed one or two pretty close to the hoop also. There were probably more, but there were so many of them they all started to blur together for me (notice a trend?). Early on, Iowa actually would have been more in the game if they hadn't missed all of these.
• Remember when I said JaJuan Johnson was their best shot blocker? He had 4 blocks. Purdue, as a team, had 9 blocks. 
• Also, remember when I said they had shooters? Well, Ryne Smith, who shot 49.1% from three point range coming into the game, shot 6 of 9 from there. ISU's Christopherson, OSU's Diebler, and now Purdue's Smith. Iowa has to find a way to shut down opposing teams shooters. 
• Devon Archie got 20 minutes of playing time today. Mostly due to the fact that Iowa was getting killed, and Basabe and Cole seemed to be ineffective down low. Basabe had 8 points and Cole had 6, but Basabe pulled down 3 rebounds and Cole pulled down 0. Archie is by no means a better player than either Basabe or Cole, but he is the teams best rebounder. He has proven it time and time again while in the game, that he can be a rebounding machine. Today was no different, he grabbed 2 offensive rebounds and 6 defensive rebounds. I really wish he could put it together, because he is a great rebounder when he is on the court. The problem is, he doesn't see the court that often.
• Oh yeah. In 20 minutes of play, Archie grabbed 38.71% of all defensive rebounds available while on the court. The next best on the team was Brommer with 17.2%. 
• Iowa ended 16.27% of their possessions with an assisted field goal today. Unfortunately, they ended 23.67% of their possessions with a turnover. A 0.69 to 1 assist to turnover ratio. 
• Purdue ended 30.91% of their possessions with an assist today, and only 19.14% with a turnover. That was good for a 1.62 to 1 assist to turnover ratio.
• Remember how rebounding was supposed to be Iowa's strength? Yeah, well, not so much today. Purdue grabbed 55.38% of all rebounds compared to Iowa's 44.62%. On the offensive boards, Iowa grabbed 23.53% and Purdue grabbed 32.26%. Defensively, Iowa pulled down 67.74% and Purdue pulled down 76.47%. Probably didn't help that Cole didn't grab one single rebound and Basabe only had 3. 
• Overall, Iowa scored 0.77 points per possession, beating their previous low of 0.88 against Alabama (they really did win that game). While, Purdue scored 1.10 points per possession. 

Wrapping this up, I figured a blowout like this was coming. Iowa has such a young team, and five of their players (including Archie who sat out last year) were playing in their first Big 10 road game. Purdue is a good team with no weaknesses. Add in that home crowd, and I figured it wouldn't be pretty. Next up for Iowa is Northwestern, and I really want to beat them. We can't lose to them in football and basketball this year. That one will be in Carver, so forget about Purdue and prepare for a good game. I know I've already erased this massacre from my DVR and mind.

Comparing Iowa to the Rest of the Big 10 Under Kirk Ferentz

Kirk Ferentz became the Iowa coach in 1999. In the last 12 seasons Ferentz has had the same offensive and defensive coordinator. One of them is regarded as a genius of his trade, while the other is, well, not so highly regarded. The genius, and rightfully so, is Norm Parker who has given Iowa a reputation of great defenses. Ken O'Keefe is the not so highly regarded coordinator. Since O'Keefe has been offensive coordinator, Iowa has had some good offenses, but they've also seen some bad ones. Now, O'Keefe tends to get all the blame for Iowa's offensive strategy. I tend to believe that if Iowa had another offensive coordinator, not much would change because Ferentz is the boss and he tends to be very conservative.

Under Ferentz, Iowa has been a run first team no matter what. Ferentz is the kind of coach who has no problem late in games running the ball three times, punting it, and letting his defense win the game. He also is the kind of coach who will get up on a team by three scores in two quarters and then milk the clock the last two quarters (see 2010 Penn State). Iowa fans cannot complain too much, as Iowa has been successful under Ferentz. But, I wanted to look at how Iowa's offense and defense compared to the rest of the Big 10 in the Ferentz era to see if the praise of Parker and criticism of O'Keefe is warranted.

Iowa vs Purdue Men's Basketball Preview

Iowa goes on the road for the first time in conference play this Sunday, taking on Purdue. This would be the third Top 25 team in a row that Iowa has faced. So like usual, if they were to somehow come away with a victory this would be a huge upset. But, can they keep it close? Let's hope so. Here is how they match up.

Like always, here is Iowa's offense:

Just like last time, 100 is NCAA average. Anything below is below average, and anything above is above average. Iowa shot above it's season average vs Ohio State, which bumped them up slightly to exactly average by NCAA standards in shooting. However, they didn't get to the free throw line as much as they had been, so they were knocked down just a notch below average in free throw rate. However, thanks to Basabe and Cole rebounding well vs Ohio State, Iowa's offensive rebounding went up. It is now 14% above NCAA average for the year. Iowa's offense looks pretty average, but their one strength is rebounding.

Iowa's Biggest Strength: Rebounding

The one thing I've been really impressed with from the Hawkeyes men's basketball team so far this year has been their rebounding. So, here are a few graphs to show you what I mean.

The first graph shows the percentage of defensive rebounds Iowa has pulled down every game. The white line is the NCAA average. As you can see, for the most part this year Iowa has been above that white line in almost every game. Especially, around late November when Cole seemed to be recovered from the injured foot. Also, you can see that the only game in which they lost the defensive rebounding battle, was Long Beach State.

Now, Offensive Rebounds:

We have the same thing for offensive rebounds too. Long Beach State is the only team to crash the offensive boards harder than the Hawkeyes. Iowa is also above the white line in offensive rebounding in just about every game so far this season too.

I am becoming more impressed with this team's rebounding, especially after what they did against Ohio State. I wondered if their rebounding would decline once they got into the tougher competition of the Big 10. I know it's only two games in, but so far they are showing that their rebounding skill is for real.

Iowa vs Ohio State Recap

Well, that game was fun. Even though it was a loss, I thoroughly enjoyed watching last night's game. I mean, Iowa led at halftime only to give it up, but come back from a double digit deficit and lose by five to the second ranked team in the nation. I'm not usually a moral victory type of person, but for a young team in their first year under a new coach, I would consider this a great outcome. I predicted a double digit loss, and that's what it looked like would happen when Ohio State went on their run in the second half. But, Iowa played tough and clawed back into the game. They even got within three with thirty seconds left. They didn't win last night, but this team showed a lot of heart.