Iowa went on the road to San Diego to take part in the the Rady Children’s Invitational non-conference tournament and face another non-conference test — but just like last week against Creighton, Iowa wasn’t up to the task against Oklahoma. The Hawkeyes fell behind early and were never able to find enough good shooting to climb back into the game, losing 79-67.
Here are three takeaways from Thursday’s loss:
Neither team shot well on Thursday, especially from behind the arc. Iowa and Oklahoma combined to go 2-for-22 from deep in the first half, with both makes coming from Oklahoma. Things didn’t get much better in the second half — 6-of-21 total. Iowa went 4-of-13 from long range, but those late makes came only after Iowa was already down 16 — and after the Hawkeyes had missed their first 14 3-point attempts.
Those struggles from behind the arc continue a trend that began against Arkansas State:
Shooting like that won’t many (or any) games. There are some good shooters on this Iowa team, but they weren’t good in this game — Patrick McCaffery (0-for-3), Tony Perkins (0-for-4), and Payton Sandfort (0-for-5) combined to go 0-for-12 from deep.
Against Arkansas State, Iowa was able to overcome a bad shooting night by getting to the free throw line an absurd 46 times. That’s not a very sustainable approach, though, especially against better opponents that can defend without fouling. Iowa made just 18 trips to the free throw line against the Sooners.
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This game got out of hand in the first half and (especially) early in the second half when Iowa’s starters were in the game — they simply couldn’t match the production of Oklahoma’s starters. Ben Krikke had 11 points on 4-of-9 shooting and was one of the only bright spots for Iowa’s starters. Iowa needed to try to get him more touches as one of the only Hawkeyes who could put the ball in the net at a decent rate.
Tony Perkins and Patrick McCaffery, two senior leaders for this Iowa team, couldn’t buy a shot — Perkins finished with 6 points on 1-for-10 shooting, while McCaffery had 2 points on 1-for-7 shooting. McCaffery and Perkins are two of Iowa’s top four scorers this season; when they go 2-for-17 and score 8 total points, it puts a lot of pressure on the rest of the Iowa team.
Payton Sandfort couldn’t hit anything behind the 3-point arc (0-for-5), but he did go 5-for-5 on 2-point attempts. Sandfort also found other ways to contribute a bit, tying for team-highs in rebounds (7) and assists (2). Outside of Krikke, he was probably Iowa’s most effective starter.
If there was anything encouraging for Iowa in this game, it was probably the play of some of the freshmen. Iowa’s young bench provided a spark at times in this game and provided some positive contributions. To wit, every Iowa starter had a +/- that ranged from -13 to -17, while every Iowa bench player had a +/- that ranged from 1 to 5. The bench players did have the advantage of playing in garbage time and putting up numbers in less meaningful minutes, but it was still encouraging to see them producing.
Owen Freeman played the most minutes of any reserve (19:26) and had the best game, scoring a team-high 13 points (on 5-for-10 shooting) and grabbing 7 rebounds as well. He also had three of Iowa’s four blocks in the game. Freeman has impressed at almost every opportunity this season, both in combination with former high school teammate Brock Harding and on his own, especially with his touch around the basket and his footwork in the paint. Freeman probably needs to be playing as many minutes as he can handle.
Brock Harding made two of Iowa’s four three-pointers in the game and also had two assists. His size and defense may pose some limitations, but his distribution on offense is definitely noteworthy. Ladji Dembele only had two points, but he had three rebounds and a block and his energy and athleticism helped Iowa when he was on the court. He finished +5 for the game despite having three turnovers.
NEXT: Iowa returns to action on Friday, November 24 against Seton Hall (4-1) at 5:00 PM. FOX has TV coverage.