Any hopes of following up the women’s example of winning back-to-back Big Ten titles fell by the wayside for Iowa’s men’s basketball team on Thursday. The fifth-seeded Hawkeyes dropped their first game at the Big Ten tournament, falling 73-69 to No. 13 seed Ohio State in Chicago.
The good news for the Hawkeyes is that they’ve locked up an NCAA tournament bid, so Thursday’s loss doesn’t end their season. Yes, you can still bet on March Madness in Iowa and try to back the Hawkeyes.
But Iowa didn’t do its seed any favors with its output at the United Center. Here’s a look at the fallout from Iowa’s defeat against the Buckeyes.
Iowa Didn’t Get the Start It Needed
The Hawkeyes really could have used a hot start against the Buckeyes, which would have meant forcing turnovers and hitting 3-pointers. Neither happened. Ohio State mostly cleaned up the mistakes it made in Iowa City, committing just five first-half turnovers and eight for the entire game. Because of that, Iowa scored just eight points off turnovers and 10 points off the fast break. When facing a team that’s on its second game in as many days, you’ve got to push the pace more.
Iowa could have forced the pace had it gotten hot from 3-point range, but that didn’t occur either. The Hawkeyes shot 2-for-10 from behind the arc, with Kris Murray going 1-for-6. Iowa shot just 23.5 percent from deep for the game, connecting on a mere four 3-point shots.
Those two factors meant Ohio State never faced a situation where it could get knocked out of the game. The Iowa lead never got above five points, and that came at 9-4. Ohio State cut that lead to one within a minute, and the Buckeyes never once faced a hole of more than two possessions. The longer a lesser team stays in the game, the more it begins to believe it should win the game. Iowa needed to crush Ohio State’s hope early, and it never did that at all.
The block 🔥
The pass 🔥
The dunk 🔥
The stare 🔥— Iowa Men’s Basketball (@IowaHoops) March 9, 2023
Iowa’s Trending The Wrong Direction
When March rolls around, you want to be playing your best basketball. Iowa isn’t doing that. The rout at Indiana masked a lot of those issues, but the Hawkeyes are still not playing well at the worst possible time. Iowa enters the NCAA tournament as losers of four of its past six games, and if not for a miracle flurry against Michigan State, it would be five of six.
More concerning is who those losses have come against. It would be one thing if Iowa was losing to the likes of Purdue, Indiana and Maryland. Those are quality teams who have earned their way to higher seeds in the NCAA tournament. But Iowa ended the year with losses to Nebraska, Wisconsin and Ohio State, none of whom will play in the NCAA tournament. Those three teams all played Wednesday in the Big Ten tournament as punishment for finishing 11th or lower in the league. Iowa’s record against them was 1-6.
That underscores a hard reality with this team: Iowa’s ceiling is quite high, but its floor is very low. This team has proven capable of sweeping Indiana, yet lost to Eastern Illinois, a team so poor that it failed to qualify for the Ohio Valley Conference tournament. Iowa is equally capable of making a run to the Sweet 16 or losing by 20 in its first round game. With this team, any outcome is possible.
MURRAY ➕1️⃣
2H 15:14 | 𝓘𝓸𝔀𝓪 36, OSU 33 #Hawkeyes pic.twitter.com/PZiBpl5jAo
— Iowa Men’s Basketball (@IowaHoops) March 9, 2023
Could Rest and Reset Help the Hawkeyes?
Iowa’s players didn’t want to discuss the possibility that losing their first game in Chicago might benefit them in the long run. After the game, Filip Rebraca told reporters, “I guess it’s a plus that we’re going to get more rest this year, but we never want that. We want to be playing for a championship on Sunday.”
But every year, teams appear worn down by their conference schedule and lose in their conference tournament, then come back with lower expectations and play freely. Last year, that was Ohio State. The Buckeyes appeared cooked following a loss to Penn State in the Big Ten tournament. When they drew Loyola-Chicago in round one of the NCAA tournament, they were a trendy pick to lose in the first round.
Instead, the Buckeyes rebounded, knocking out the Ramblers and giving a credible showing in a second-round loss to Villanova. Iowa could do the same, depending on the draw they get. After taking a bad loss to the Buckeyes, Iowa will face another talented but inconsistent team in the first round, most likely as a No. 8 or No. 9 seed.
That could give the Hawkeyes an opportunity to knock out a No. 1 seed in the second round, as they’d have a reasonable shot against a high seed that didn’t play in the Big Ten meat grinder. Facing a team like Houston could give the Hawkeyes a chance at an upset.
The Cougars are insanely talented and disciplined, but they also haven’t faced anyone of NCAA caliber besides Memphis in almost two months. Free of the pressure of the Big Ten, Iowa could give its best performance if it can use this extra rest the right way.
Second Half… LET'S GOO! @FRebraca x #Hawkeyes pic.twitter.com/G46GvZ1dWX
— Iowa Men’s Basketball (@IowaHoops) March 9, 2023
Credits on Featured Image: Alexander Jonesi, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
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