Indiana at Iowa: the last best chance for a victory? (plus Hoosier Headlines for February 28, 2010).

by John M (The Crimson Quarry) on Feb 28, 2010 11:31 AM EST Comment 0 comments

Iowa Hawkeyes
Current record: 9-19 (3-12)
Current RPI: 193
Current Sagarin: 168
Current Pomeroy: 147
2008-09 record: 15-17 (5-13)
2008-09 RPI: 121
2008-09 Sagarin: 81
2008-09 Pomeroy: 91
Series: IU leads 94-70
Last Iowa win: 1/24/2010 (58-43 in Bloomington)
Last IU win: 2/4/2009 (68-60 in Bloomington)
Last IU win in Iowa City: 1/2/208 (79-76)
Pomeroy scouting report
TV: 6 pm, BTN

It's easy to forget that barely more than a month ago, IU's season looked halfway promising. At that point, despite some ugly nonconference losses and the Maurice Creek injury, IU was 3-3 in the Big Ten, had narrowly missed a win against Illinois, and was on a two game winning streak that included IU's first road win of the Crean era (at Penn State) and an upset of a tournament contender (Minnesota). Unfortunately, the Iowa game began a nine-game losing streak that continues to this day and began a run of seven blowout losses in that nine-game stretch. Unfortunately, IU lost that game, badly, despite a less-than-excellent performance by Iowa. Here's what I said in my brief wrapup:

I knew a loss was possible. And Iowa win wasn't any bigger an upset than IU's recent wins over Minnesota and Penn State. Still, I didn't think IU was bad enough to be dominated by a 7-12 Iowa team that didn't even play that well. I don't mean to poor-mouth the Hawkeyes: they did some things very well. Most conspicuously, the Hawkeyes rebounded 18 of their 31 misses. IU had only 13 defensive rebounds. I can accept that something like this could happen this season against Michigan State or Purdue. I can't accept it against Iowa. Still, Iowa shot only 47 percent from the field and had 21 turnovers to IU's 16.

The Hawkeyes, currently tied with the Hoosiers in ninth place in the conference, haven't done much since the game in Bloomington, but have done much more than IU. The Hawkeyes manhandled a decent Northwestern team at home on February 10 and took Michigan to overtime, also at home. Iowa's blowout win over IU in Bloomington last month is Iowa's only road win since winning at (in?) The Citadel on November 20, 2008.

As I noted above, the most disturbing thing about the first game between these teams is that Iowa manhandled IU on the boards. The Hawkeyes were far above 50 percent on the offensive boards. After that debacle, IU made much more physically in the next two games, heartbreaking losses at Illinois and to Purdue a home. Unfortunately, the team has shown not a hint of that caliber of play in the six games since the Purdue game. IU has played worse in February than any other Big Ten team. Can the Hoosiers return that crown to Iowa? Are we going to have to wait until November to see the Hoosiers win again? We'll see. Here are the Hawkeyes' stats:

			FG			3PT			FT			Rebounds			Misc
	G	M	M	A	Pct	M	A	Pct	M	A	Pct	Off	Def	Tot	Ast	TO	Stl	Blk	PF	PPG
Matt Gatens	28	36.6	3.9	10.5	36.7	1.9	5.5	34.4	2.6	3.1	84.1	0.8	3.8	4.6	3.4	2.8	0.9	0.1	2.2	12.3
Anthony Tucker	11	31.9	4.1	11.3	36.3	2.7	8.7	31.3	1.0	1.8	55.0	0.5	3.0	3.5	2.9	2.9	0.5	0.0	1.9	11.9
Eric May	28	30.8	3.3	8.1	40.1	1.3	4.5	28.3	1.4	2.0	66.7	1.3	3.6	5.0	1.5	2.0	1.1	0.9	2.4	9.1
Aaron Fuller	26	23.1	3.2	6.9	46.1	0.2	1.1	20.7	2.4	3.4	70.5	2.8	3.2	6.0	0.7	1.5	0.4	0.2	2.2	9.0
Cully Payne	28	33.0	2.9	7.9	36.4	1.3	4.0	32.7	1.4	2.3	58.5	0.2	2.9	3.1	3.8	3.2	0.5	0.0	1.9	8.4
Jarryd Cole	28	24.6	3.3	5.6	58.2	0.1	0.2	40.0	1.5	2.4	65.2	1.9	3.1	5.0	0.5	1.5	0.4	0.4	3.2	8.2
Brennan Cougill	27	15.7	1.6	3.5	46.8	0.7	1.7	40.0	0.5	0.8	66.7	1.2	1.9	3.1	0.5	0.7	0.1	0.2	1.5	4.4
Devan Bawinkel	28	15.6	1.1	2.9	39.5	1.1	2.9	39.5	0.1	0.1	50.0	0.0	0.9	0.9	0.5	0.2	0.3	0.0	0.5	3.5
John Lickliter	17	9.5	0.7	2.2	31.6	0.6	2.0	29.4	0.3	0.4	83.3	0.1	0.4	0.4	0.8	0.6	0.3	0.0	0.9	2.3
Andrew Brommer	18	7.8	0.4	1.0	44.4	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.9	1.2	81.0	0.6	0.7	1.2	0.4	0.4	0.3	0.2	1.6	1.8
Nick Neari	6	1.3	0.0	0.2	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.2	0.3	50.0	0.0	0.2	0.2	0.2	0.3	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.2

Amazingly, Matt Gatens remains the only active Hawkeye in double figures. As for the Hoosiers:

			FG			3PT			FT			Rebounds			Misc
	G	M	M	A	Pct	M	A	Pct	M	A	Pct	Off	Def	Tot	Ast	TO	Stl	Blk	PF	PPG
Maurice Creek	12	25.4	5.8	10.9	52.7	2.5	5.6	44.8	2.4	3.2	76.3	1.6	2.3	3.8	1.8	1.5	1.4	0.4	1.8	16.4
Verdell Jones III	27	30.7	4.6	11.9	39.1	0.6	2.4	26.6	4.5	6.1	73.8	0.9	3.1	3.9	3.3	2.8	1.0	0.5	1.7	14.4
Christian Watford	27	27.8	4.0	10.4	38.4	0.4	1.4	31.6	3.7	4.6	80.0	2.1	3.7	5.9	0.6	2.3	0.5	0.6	2.1	12.1
Devan Dumes	26	18.2	2.2	6.5	33.1	1.2	3.7	32.6	1.5	2.2	71.4	0.5	1.7	2.2	1.2	1.6	0.9	0.1	1.9	7.0
Jeremiah Rivers	27	29.4	2.2	5.6	39.3	0.0	0.2	0.0	1.7	3.1	56.0	0.9	3.7	4.6	3.9	2.9	1.4	0.7	2.7	6.1
Jordan Hulls	27	23.7	1.9	4.8	38.8	1.3	3.6	37.5	0.8	1.0	78.6	0.7	1.4	2.1	1.5	0.9	0.6	0.0	1.8	5.9
Derek Elston	27	14.4	2.0	4.3	47.0	0.3	0.7	38.9	0.8	1.3	61.1	1.6	2.1	3.7	0.4	1.1	0.7	0.3	1.9	5.1
Tom Pritchard	27	20.9	2.0	3.3	60.2	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.7	1.8	36.7	1.7	2.0	3.6	0.4	1.1	0.6	0.6	3.2	4.6
Bobby Capobianco	27	11.0	0.9	2.0	41.8	0.1	0.4	33.3	0.2	0.6	35.3	1.2	1.3	2.4	0.3	0.6	0.3	0.3	2.1	2.1
Matt Roth	2	5.5	0.5	1.0	50.0	0.0	0.5	0.0	1.0	1.0	100.0	0.5	0.5	1.0	0.0	1.0	0.0	0.0	0.5	2.0
Daniel Moore	24	7.7	0.4	0.8	55.6	0.1	0.3	33.3	0.6	0.7	82.4	0.2	0.5	0.7	0.4	0.5	0.5	0.0	1.0	1.5
Bawa Muniru	17	3.4	0.2	0.4	42.9	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.2	0.5	37.5	0.4	0.4	0.7	0.0	0.2	0.1	0.3	0.5	0.5
Tijan Jobe	19	4.7	0.2	0.5	44.4	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.2	0.5	0.7	0.0	0.3	0.0	0.2	1.1	0.4
Brett Finkelmeier	10	2.2	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.2	0.4	0.6	0.0	0.1	0.0	0.0	0.2	0.0
Kory Barnett	10	2.0	0.0	0.4	0.0	0.0	0.4	0.0	0.0	0.2	0.0	0.0	0.1	0.1	0.0	0.0	0.1	0.0	0.0	0.0
Steven Gambles	7	1.7	0.0	0.3	0.0	0.0	0.1	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.4	0.1	0.6	0.0	0.3	0.0	0.0	0.1	0.0

One need not look at the tempo-free stats to see the inefficiency in this offense. IU's top six active scorers are shooting below 40 percent. Tom Pritchard is shooting 60 percent from the field but only 36 percent from the line and is rapidly entering Steve Sax territory at the line (Google it, kids). It's an ugly line, except for the guy at the top.

And now, the promised headlines:

Iowa men's basketball: Devan Bawinkel set for last home game(The Des Moines Register)
"The lone senior on the roster, Bawinkel will play the final home game of his college career Sunday when Iowa hosts Indiana. Bawinkel will be honored in a pregame ceremony."
Crean pushes Hoosiers to finish strong (The News-Sentinel - Fort Wayne IN)
"The Hoosiers are struggling, reeling, collapsing and Tom Crean has had enough. He's voice is in tatters. He's eyesight is worsening. His sleep is, well, who has time to sleep or eat when there is a program to rebuild, a tradition to restore, a nine-game losing streak to end."
Indiana men’s basktball looks to beat Iowa, end nine-game losing streak (The Courier-Journal)
"Crean said there's no question in his mind that his players overlooked Iowa the first time the teams met. Since that game, the Hawkeyes dropped seven of eight games."
AL HAMNIK: Crean, IU fans play the waiting game (NWI Times)
"What it looks like to me is those two losses to Illinois (72-70) and Purdue (78-75), back to back, just sucked everything out of them," said Dakich, now a fixture on the Big Ten Network. "They lost confidence and a little bit of hope. It happens even at the pro level."
Hoosiers are 'tired of losing' (Evansville Courier & Press)
But in front of 16,078 at Assembly Hall, the Hawkeyes battered the Hoosiers. Iowa not only won 58-43, it dominated rebounding 39-23 (including 18 offensive) and limited IU to 16-of-45 shooting with an astonishingly low three assists. "This all came down to our lack of willingness to be in a fight today," IU coach Tom Crean said afterward.
Hoosiers take long look at themselves (Post-Tribune)
"Indiana lost its ninth consecutive game Thursday and has been spending a lot of time since the loss in the film room. Rather than focus on Iowa, IU coach Tom Crean wants his players to focus on themselves, and take a good, long look at the way they played during a 32-point blowout to No. 19 Wisconsin."

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