Iowa basketball entered Monday’s men’s contest at Ohio State shooting 51% from the field and 39.1% from deep. 

But the Hawkeyes’ high-octane offense did not show up in Columbus. On Monday, Iowa shot just 39% from the field and 28% from 3-point range.

Iowa was doomed by shooting struggles in the 82-65 loss.

Ohio State was mostly able to hold Payton Sandfort and Josh Dix in check. Sandfort had 13 points but was just 5-of-16 from the field. Meanwhile, Josh Dix didn’t score at all and was 0-of-7 from the field.

Monday had shades of Iowa’s offensive performance in last week’s loss to Minnesota. The Hawkeyes shot just 14.3% from deep against the Golden Gophers.

Iowa’s offense is what carries the team, and when the Hawkeyes have nights like these it’s very difficult to compete.

Iowa collapses in the second half

Iowa trailed by as many as 10 points in the first half but trimmed that deficit down to four at the break.

The Hawkeyes remained in the fight going into intermission.

But things started to unravel quickly after the break.

After an encouraging defensive performance in the first half, Ohio State shot 57% from the field after the break. Ohio State hammered Iowa on the boards in the second half, holding a 23-11 advantage, though that was in part due to the shooting discrepancy. Iowa wasn’t able to find a stable rhythm offensively.

The Buckeyes’ lead ballooned to as many as 25 points in what has become a familiar sight on the road for Iowa. The Hawkeyes were not able to sustain the level of offensive and defensive activity needed to win on the road. Ohio State looked comfortable and was in clear command of the game.

Ohio State outscored Iowa 52-39 in the second half.

Iowa’s road woes continue

The Hawkeyes still have not won a true road game this season.

Iowa is now 0-5. Only one of those games was decided by single digits. Other than that near-takedown of Michigan in December, Iowa has mostly not been very competitive. The Hawkeyes were clobbered by Wisconsin and UCLA. Monday fit right in with that narrative.

There are still more opportunities out there, but it’s not an encouraging development. Iowa goes on the road to Rutgers, Maryland, Illinois, Northwestern and Nebraska. Iowa’s troubles on the road makes the path the NCAA Tournament even more difficult.

Free throw issues still unsolved

The Hawkeyes again didn’t shoot well from the free throw line. Iowa finished Monday’s game just 10-of-17 from the charity stripe.

Seydou Traore was 7-of-10, Owen Freeman was 2-of-5 and Drew Thelwell was 1-of-2.

Had Iowa converted on every free throw, it still wouldn’t have been enough to turn the tide. But not taking care of the more controllable aspects like free throws makes winning an uphill battle.

The fleeting bright spots

Iowa stayed alive in the first half in part due to Freeman and Thelwell, who combined for 22 of Iowa’s 26 first-half points. That gave Iowa at least a chance.

Thelwell finished with a team-high 20 points on 8-of-10 from the field and 3-of-4 from deep.

Freeman slowed significantly in the second half, scoring just three points after the break. He finished the contest with 14 points.

Seydou Traore provided a boost in the second half, scoring 11 of his 13 points after the break.

But there were not nearly enough positive developments for Iowa to give Ohio State trouble, much less win the game.

Follow Tyler Tachman on X @Tyler_T15, contact via email at ttachman@gannett.com

STATE COLLEGE, Pa. — Penn State has lured Tom Knowles away from Ohio State.

The Nittany Lions hired Knowles to serve as their defensive coordinator. Knowles held the same position with the national champion Buckeyes for three years.

Knowles replaces Tom Allen, who left to take the same job with Clemson after Penn State fell to Notre Dame in the College Football Playoff semifinals.

Ohio State had the top-ranked defense in the country in 2024. The Buckeyes held opponents to 254 yards while going 14-2 and earning the program’s second national championship of the playoff era.

While Penn State will lose several starters off a defense that finished seventh in the FBS in yards allowed — including Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year Abdul Carter, who is heading to the NFL — defensive linemen Zane Durant and Dani Dennis-Sutton, linebacker Tony Rojas and cornerback A.J. Harris will return.

Penn State head coach James Franklin called Knowles “a strong strategist and excellent defensive mind.”

The hiring is a homecoming of sorts for Knowles, who grew up in the Philadelphia area. He played collegiately at Cornell before going into coaching. Previous coaching stops include Duke, Oklahoma State and Mississippi.

When Air Force Col. Cassie Barlow moved to Ohio to become the base commander at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, her teenage daughter enrolled in her 10th school in 16 years.

“The first thing I always thought about when we moved was: ‘Where is my daughter going to go to school?’” Barlow said.

Barlow’s daughter excelled in smaller schools but that wasn’t an option for those living on base, so Barlow enrolled her in a private school instead.

A new change in state law, which will take effect on April 9, will allow children of active-duty military parents to enroll in any public school − as long as the district has space for them.

Sen. Kristina Roegner, R-Hudson, championed the changes in Senate Bill 208, which passed with unanimous, bipartisan support. She said the new law is both a tool to recruit military families to Ohio and a way to express gratitude for their service.

“Education is one of the most important things that families care about because it defines the future for their children,” Roegner said. “We’re hoping that this will make it better for those people who are willing to lay their lives down for our country.”

Barlow’s daughter has already graduated high school. But she wears another hat as president of the Southwestern Ohio Council for Higher Education focused on workforce development. This bill will help recruiting military families to come and stay in Ohio.

“We are in an incredibly competitive workforce market right now. To be able to have something like this make us much more attractive to military members and to veterans,” Barlow said.

How would the change help military families?

Under current law, school districts must decide if they will allow students to enroll from other school districts under any circumstances. If districts allow open enrollment, the option can be limited to surrounding school districts. Soon, schools will make an exception for children in military families.

It’s not clear how many students might take advantage of the option. More than 7,300 students from military families were enrolled in Ohio schools during the 2022-2023 academic year, according to a legislative analysis. Many live near Wright-Patterson Air Force Base just east of Dayton or the Defense Supply Center Columbus in Whitehall.

School districts that enroll military children could see a bump in state money while districts that students leave might lose some funding, according to an analysis of the bill’s financial impact.

Ohio will join 17 other states that offer open enrollment for children of military families. The change will help military families, whose children change schools up to 10 times before graduation, said Shane Preston, the Great Lakes Region liaison at the U.S. Department of Defense-State Liaison Office.

“Military families are at a disadvantage when it comes to enrollment options available to their children, due to the timing of military-directed moves,” Preston told lawmakers.

Roegner introduced the bill to help military children after passing about a dozen laws that allow nurses, physical therapists, counselors, audiologists and other professionals to use their licenses from other states in Ohio. These licensure compacts help anyone considering a move to Ohio, she said.

When deciding where to move, families consider how hard it will be for their spouses to find work and their children to find a school, Roegner said. “Hopefully, this will make it easier.”

Jessie Balmert covers state government and politics for the USA TODAY Network Ohio Bureau, which serves the Columbus Dispatch, Cincinnati Enquirer, Akron Beacon Journal and 18 other affiliated news organizations across Ohio.