Iowa travels to Columbus, OH and meets Greg Oden; Frosh abuses the Hawks, dunks ensue, Iowa's streakiness continues

Just like the Illinois game in Champaign-Urbana, Iowa's opponent on Saturday was rude to the rim. Value City Arena was the host of yet another dunkfest courtesy of Iowa's lack of interior defense. Freshman Greg Oden abused the rim on a constant basis in the second half of the ballgame.

Surprisingly, Iowa's Seth Gorney was able to do an average job against Oden in the first half. Unfortunately after taking a charge from Conley Jr., Seth wasn't able to return to the floor. Ohio State capitalized on Gorney's absence. Fouls began to mount up on the Iowa bigs, and being down a player on an already below average front court was too much to make up. I, for one, was astounding that Gorney's presence would turn out to be a turning point in the ballgame. Looby, Angle, and Tate were no match for Oden down low. After holding Oden to 11 and 5 in the first half (I say hold will complete seriousness in my tone), Oden exploded in the second half with 18 and 5 (8 for 8 from the field and most of the FGs being huge two handed Shaq-esque dunks).

Going into the ballgame, I assumed that Oden would be able to put 20 and 10 against Iowa. He finished the game with a career high 29 points, and added 10 boards. While Oden did lead the team with 4 turnovers, he was clearly the reason Ohio State won (and handily at that). The Buckeyes' perimeter shooting was horrid (2-12 in the first half, 6-20 in the game), but Oden was there to take the game into his own hands.

While I have not been a big fan of Oden (I still feel he isn't the best freshman on his own team and isn't as complete as Durant from Texas), he was able to prove to me that he's an absolutely force in college basketball. A game like the one played on Saturday magnified Oden's game primarily because Iowa's front court is one of the worst in the Big Ten.

That said, Iowa was very much in this ballgame with 13 minutes to go, but then Oden went off. The score wasn't indicative of how competitive the game was for 30 minutes (yes, I realize games are 40 minutes and that's what counts).

STICKIES OF THE GAME (stats from the game that stick out at me):

• Points off turnovers-IOWA 8, OSU 21 *
• Bench points-IOWA 9, OSU 24
• Points in the paint-IOWA 26, OSU 46
• Ohio State: 25-33 from 2 pt FG range
• Conley, Jr. had 10 assist, dude is crazy good
• Iowa outrebounded Ohio State

* - Stat of the Game

IOWA'S STREAKINESS IN OFFENSIVE PRODUCTION CONTINUED ON SATURDAY NIGHT.

During their 8-0 run early in the first half, they made 3 field goals in 1 minute, 31 seconds.
The last 8:21 of the first half, Iowa only made 3 field goals, yet they had 5 turnovers in the same amount of time. Ohio State's lead went from 4 to 11. See below.

8:21
GOOD! FT SHOT by Lighty, David           08:05  23-19  H 4  FOUL by Tate, Cyrus
GOOD! FT SHOT by Lighty, David           08:05  24-19  H 5
REBOUND (DEF) by Conley Jr., Mike        07:51              MISSED JUMPER by Gorney, Seth
TURNOVR by Oden, Greg                    07:41
                                     07:05              TURNOVR by (TEAM)
GOOD! JUMPER by Oden, Greg [PNT]         06:51  26-19  H 7
ASSIST by Conley Jr., Mike               06:51
                                     06:33              TURNOVR by Henderson, Mike
MISSED 3 PTR by Lewis, Ron               06:06              REBOUND (DEF) by Gorney, Seth
REBOUND (DEF) by Oden, Greg              05:57              MISSED 3 PTR by Freeman, Tony
MISSED 3 PTR by Conley Jr., Mike         05:46              REBOUND (DEF) by Haluska, Adam
FOUL by Terwilliger, Matt                05:12
                                     05:10  26-21  H 5  GOOD! JUMPER by Gorney, Seth [PNT]
                                     05:10              ASSIST by Freeman, Tony
GOOD! LAYUP by Terwilliger, Matt [PNT]   04:58  28-21  H 7
ASSIST by Conley Jr., Mike               04:58
                                     04:38              TURNOVR by Smith, Tyler
                                     04:38              FOUL by Smith, Tyler
GOOD! LAYUP by Butler, Jamar [PNT]       04:27  30-21  H 9
                                     04:12              TURNOVR by Smith, Tyler
MISSED DUNK by Cook, Daequan             4:09              REBOUND (DEF) by (TEAM)
REBOUND (DEF) by Cook, Daequan           03:48              MISSED 3 PTR by Smith, Tyler
TURNOVR by Cook, Daequan                 03:39
                                     03:39              TIMEOUT MEDIA
REBOUND (DEF) by Cook, Daequan           03:11              MISSED JUMPER by Johnson, Justin
MISSED 3 PTR by Harris, Ivan             03:04              REBOUND (DEF) by Smith, Tyler
                                     02:45  30-23  H 7  GOOD! LAYUP by Freeman, Tony [PNT]
                                     02:45              ASSIST by Smith, Tyler
FOUL by Cook, Daequan                    02:45              MISSED FT SHOT by Freeman, Tony
REBOUND (DEF) by Lewis, Ron              02:45
MISSED JUMPER by Oden, Greg              02:27              REBOUND (DEF) by Freeman, Tony
                                     02:20              MISSED 3 PTR by Freeman, Tony
                                     02:20              REBOUND (OFF) by Looby, Kurt
                                     02:14              TURNOVR by Smith, Tyler
TURNOVR by Harris, Ivan                  01:59
REBOUND (DEF) by Harris, Ivan            01:51              MISSED 3 PTR by Haluska, Adam
GOOD! FT SHOT by Lewis, Ron              01:37  31-23  H 8  FOUL by Freeman, Tony
GOOD! FT SHOT by Lewis, Ron              01:37  32-23  H 9
                                     01:26  32-26  H 6  GOOD! 3 PTR by Haluska, Adam
                                     01:26              ASSIST by Freeman, Tony
MISSED 3 PTR by Harris, Ivan             01:15
REBOUND (OFF) by Oden, Greg              01:15
GOOD! DUNK by Oden, Greg [PNT]           01:10  34-26  H 8
REBOUND (DEF) by Oden, Greg              00:54              MISSED JUMPER by Angle, J.R.
GOOD! DUNK by Oden, Greg [PNT]           00:44  36-26  H 10
ASSIST by Conley Jr., Mike               00:44
GOOD! FT SHOT by Oden, Greg              00:44  37-26  H 11 FOUL by Henderson, Mike
                                     00:19              MISSED JUMPER by Angle, J.R.
                                     00:19              REBOUND (OFF) by Looby, Kurt
REBOUND (DEF) by Conley Jr., Mike        00:11              MISSED 3 PTR by Haluska, Adam
TURNOVR by Conley Jr., Mike              00:02
FOUL by Conley Jr., Mike                 00:02

 

It's Official: USC is my Dark Horse this Year

The USC men's basketball team has greatly improved under the direction of Tim Floyd.

They have taken out Oregon, Wichita St, and Arizona; they also took UCLA down to the wire. They don't have many bad losses on their schedule so far (their worst would be an OT loss at home vs. S. Carolina in the first game of the season OR the K State loss in Vegas). The only thing hurting their RPI right now are the home losses they suffered (S Car, WSU, and UCLA).

Therefore, I present the University of Southern California Trojans with the Official Darkhorse Award.

Pat Hardy - "Alford unfair to point guard" - Cry me a river...

In his column on Jan 17, 2007, Pat Hardy writes that Iowa men's basketball coach, Steve Alford, made unfair comments about the team's point guard play at Indiana. Read the article here: Alford unfair to point guard

Pat Hardy

"Steve Alford reverted back to his old ways by throwing Henderson under the bus after the game."

Throwing under the bus? Hardly. Pointing out the truths of the game? Yes.

"Alford also blamed Henderson for causing the offense to bog down."

Well, when you turn the ball over 4 times, only have 1 assist, and score 5 points, I'd say that's an astute observation.

"It's also unfortunate and counterproductive because how does a player, even an experienced senior, benefit from being ripped publicly?"

It's called accountability, look into it.

"What's ironic about this is that Alford used Henderson's absence as an excuse for why Iowa struggled early in the season."

Pat needs a reality check.

Once Mike Henderson starts playing like a senior, perhaps then Alford will lay off Mike. There was nothing wrong in what Alford said in his quotes. The only apology that needs to be made is Mike Henderson to Hawk fans; his play has been awful at best. Alford was right to acknowledge the Hawks' lack of consistency early without Mike, they needed him in there to give them his ball handling skills, knack for getting to the hole, and leadership (something he was very efficient at the second half of last year). Once healthy, you'd think Mike would be able to get back to his old form, but right now the only thing he has been consistent at is getting called for palming.

Guess what, Pat? When players don't play well, they should be accountable. Don't whine about the coach. Mr. Hardy is probably one of those guys who blames the parents instead of the kids.

Iowa Hawkeyes Go Cold Again; Indiana Takes Advantage

For the second game in a row, the Iowa Hawkeyes came down with a cold (cold shooting that is). Iowa went over 8 minutes without a FG in last night's game against Indiana. The drought, similar to the previous one vs. Minnesota, ended up costing Iowa the game this time.

RECAP OF STATS

1st Half
Pt in Paint - Iowa 6, Ind 8
Pt off TO - Iowa 4, Ind 7
2nd Chance pts - Iowa 4, Ind 9

2nd Half
Pt in Paint - Iowa 26, Ind 14
Pt off TO - Iowa 8, Ind 4
2nd Chance pts - Iowa 13, Ind 2

Entire Game
Pt in Paint - Iowa 32, Ind 22
Pt off TO - Iowa 12, Ind 11
2nd Chance pts - Iowa 17, Ind 11
Rebounds - Iowa 33, Ind 32
FGs - Iowa 25/55, Ind 25/54
3 pt FGs - Iowa 2/10, Ind 8/21
FT - Iowa 12/16, Ind 13/17

Indiana's Last FG of the Game was with 4:58 left.

Iowa scored 0 FG from 15:42 to 7:17 (8 min, 25 sec) left in the first half
Iowa scored 1 FG from 15:42 to 3:37 (12 min, 5 sec) left in the first half.
Iowa scored 2 FG from 15:42 to :49 (14 min, 53 sec) left in the first half.
Iowa scored 3 FG in the last 15:42 of the first half.

15:42
TIMEOUT media 15:14
GOOD! 3 PTR by Ratliff, A.J. 14:48 8-8 T 1
ASSIST by Bassett, Armon 14:48
BLOCK by White, D.J. 14:26
FOUL by Ratliff, A.J. (P1T1) 14:19 8-9 V 1 GOOD! FT SHOT by Haluska, Adam
14:19 8-10 V 2 GOOD! FT SHOT by Haluska, Adam
GOOD! LAYUP by White, D.J. [PNT] 14:06 10-10 T 2
FOUL by Stemler, Lance (P1T2) 13:22
12:34 FOUL by Looby, Kurt (P1T1)
TIMEOUT media 11:58
GOOD! FT SHOT by Bassett, Armon 10:54 11-10 H 1 FOUL by Tate, Cyrus (P1T2)
GOOD! FT SHOT by Bassett, Armon 10:54 12-10 H 2
10:29 FOUL by Freeman, Tony (P1T3)
09:52 FOUL by Freeman, Tony (P2T4)
GOOD! JUMPER by Calloway, Earl [FB/PNT] 09:27 14-10 H 4
GOOD! LAYUP by White, D.J. [PNT] 08:36 16-10 H 6
ASSIST by Calloway, Earl 08:36
FOUL by Stemler, Lance (P2T3) 08:06
GOOD! 3 PTR by Stemler, Lance 07:31 19-10 H 9
07:30 TIMEOUT 30sec
07:16 19-13 H 6 GOOD! 3 PTR by Haluska, Adam
07:16 ASSIST by Smith, Tyler
TIMEOUT media 06:46
GOOD! 3 PTR by Wilmont, Roderick 06:41 22-13 H 9
GOOD! TIP-IN by White, D.J. [PNT] 06:17 24-13 H 11
FOUL by Ratliff, A.J. (P2T4) 06:08
04:17 FOUL by Henderson, Mike (P1T5)
FOUL by Calloway, Earl (P1T5) 03:58
03:58 TIMEOUT media
03:36 24-15 H 9 GOOD! JUMPER by Smith, Tyler [PNT]
GOOD! JUMPER by Wilmont, Roderick 03:02 26-15 H 11
BLOCK by White, D.J. 02:47
00:48 26-17 H 9 GOOD! JUMPER by Henderson, Mike
00:48 ASSIST by Smith, Tyler
GOOD! 3 PTR by Wilmont, Roderick 00:27 29-17 H 12
ASSIST by Stemler, Lance 00:27
FOUL by Wilmont, Roderick (P1T6) 00:10
BLOCK by Ratliff, A.J. 00:02

Iowa scored 17 points in the first half, yet still only trailed by a dozen. Hawks then came out and put up 47 in the second half, but it was too little, too late. Hawks lose by 7.

Gophers vs. Iowa: 5 minute stretch in the game where only ONE BUCKET was made

Between 9:58 to 3:58 in the first half, Iowa and Minnesota combined for two points. A FIVE MINUTE STRETCH where only ONE BUCKET was made, a dunk by Smith. WOW! That's awful. Here's the events between 9:58 and 3:58 left:

MISSED DUNK by Gorney, Seth            09:43              REBOUND (DEF) by Coleman, Dan
REBOUND (DEF) by Johnson, Justin       09:37              MISSED JUMPER by McKenzie, Lawrence
MISSED 3 PTR by Johnson, Justin        09:27              REBOUND (DEF) by Coleman, Dan
REBOUND (DEF) by Smith, Tyler          09:11              MISSED 3 PTR by McKenzie, Lawrence
MISSED 3 PTR by Smith, Tyler           08:54              REBOUND (DEF) by (TEAM)
FOUL by Freeman, Tony (P1T4)           08:28
                                      08:06              MISSED LAYUP by Webster, Bryce
                                      08:06              REBOUND (OFF) by (TEAM)
                                      07:44              TURNOVR by Abu-Shamala, Jamal
TIMEOUT MEDIA                          07:44
MISSED 3 PTR by Freeman, Tony          07:28              REBOUND (DEF) by Payton, Kevin
REBOUND (DEF) by Henderson, Mike       07:01              MISSED LAYUP by McKenzie, Lawrence
GOOD! DUNK by Smith, Tyler [FB/PNT]    06:58  18-14  H 4
ASSIST by Henderson, Mike              06:58
REBOUND (DEF) by Johnson, Justin       06:40              MISSED 3 PTR by Abu-Shamala, Jamal
MISSED 3 PTR by Freeman, Tony          06:33              REBOUND (DEF) by Webster, Bryce
REBOUND (DEF) by Johnson, Justin       06:09              MISSED JUMPER by Williams, Jonathan
MISSED JUMPER by Henderson, Mike       05:59              REBOUND (DEF) by Abu-Shamala, Jamal
REBOUND (DEF) by Johnson, Justin       05:26              MISSED JUMPER by Abu-Shamala, Jamal
                                      05:15              FOUL by Webster, Bryce (P1T4)
MISSED JUMPER by Haluska, Adam         05:05              REBOUND (DEF) by Webster, Bryce
                                      04:54              TURNOVR by Payton, Kevin
MISSED LAYUP by Looby, Kurt            04:37              REBOUND (DEF) by Wilson, Limar
                                      04:28              TURNOVR by Wilson, Limar
MISSED 3 PTR by Haluska, Adam          04:18              REBOUND (DEF) by Nurumbi, Engen

Iowa 1-10 in the stretch, Minnesota 0-7.

Iowa's Rankings / A Look at the Big Ten

Iowa's Rankings

RPI: 109 (moved down 1 spot)
Pomeroy: 68 (moved up 2 more spots)
Sagarin: 94 (up 6 spots)
Greenfield: 102 (up 2 spots)
Massey: 99 (down 1 spot)
Composite link from 26 ratings: 92 (up 22 spots)

Iowa's Highest Ranking - 57 (Lynch)
Iowa's Lowest Ranking - 124 (SAP)

How Weak is the Big Ten?

Looking at some RPI stats:

10. Wisconsin
13. Ohio State
22. Michigan
28. Michigan State
37. Illinois
44. Purdue

6 teams in the Top 45 RPI. While not world beaters, these teams all have respectable RPIs.

Michigan is at 57.

The thing is this, though. The BT is 5th in conference RPI.

Anyone Notice the Stats of the VMI Men's Basketball Team?

(photo courtesy of vmikeydets.com)

I stumbled upon some of their stats...crazy ass stats... out of 325 D-I teams (as of Dec 17, 2006)

#1 in the nation in scoring: 102 per game
#1 in the nation 3 pt made: 15 per game
#1 in the nation in steals: 16 per game (four guys in the Top 100 in the nation)
#2 in the nation in assists: 21 per game

but...

#231 in the nation 3 pt %: 32%
#325 in the nation def. scoring: 95 per game
#325 in the nation def. FG %: 53%
#310 in the nation reb. margin: - 8 per game
#307 in the nation fouls: 23 per game

That's some insane stuff there... I'll have to see if any of their games are on ESPN Fullcourt.

Thoughts After the Drake - Iowa Game

- Iowa's help defense is as bad as I can remember. It was a staple last year, this year it's a crutch. Which is sad because Looby should be excelling in help D.

- The Hawkeye bigs are a larger liability that I had first anticipated.

- Iowa only had three people attempt FTs. Three. Three guys made it to the line. They attempted less than they made. That's normally the opposite for an Alford team; not this year.

- Drake is a hell of a lot better than I thought they were. This is the best Drake team that I can recall in the past few decades. Very athletic and basketball smart, although Nick Grant is a bit cocky for his abilities... a bit of Shannon Brown in him, but for the wrong reasons.

- I didn't realize the rebounding discrepancy until the stat showed up. That was horrible.

- Keita's elbow was cheap.

- Haluska had a good first 14 minutes of the game, then Davis went to the box and one. Game over. Haluska started to force and was very impatient, made a lot of dumb plays the rest of the game. He is not a slasher/ dribble penetrator. He's a shooter, plain and simple. Haluska's D was atrocious, as well.

- Is there a person on the Iowa team that might think about stopping dribble penetration? Just a thought. We might want to hit that up sometime and work on it.

- Our bigs are worst than I thought (oh wait, I mentioned that already).

- Not as bad of a game as I thought it was going to be after I had read comments on some of the message boards. Drake was fired up, crowd was awesome. Drake went balls out, Iowa did occasionally (but not nearly enough). No loose ball hustles, lazy passes, and flat-footedness on the d end by the Hawks.

- Freeman lead the team in assists... with 3... 3 friggin assists. Where's Horner when you need him?

- Gorney took 1 shot all night. Looby took 1 shot all night. Tate didn't take a shot. Angle took 2 shots all night. 4 shots from 4 of our bigs. Doesn't take a statistician to realize that's not going to win many games.

- Iowa is very good at handling the press, but they are horrible at finishing after breaking the press. That is frustrating.

- Iowa STILL cannot get back on D in transition. I don't understand this one. Not hard to do, ESPECIALLY if you aren't crashing the boards.

- Drake shot very well. They had the touch even with a defender in their faces.

- I'll say it again, I was dead wrong on JR Angle. He is a bright spot on the team for sure. I love his D, and I think he needs to get more involved on the O end.

- We really could use a healthy Mike Henderson.

- Tyler Smith should be busting out soon. He looks like he wants to take over, but just doesn't do it. We will not win many games if we have to rely on Haluska game in and game out. Iowa can win without Adam's game, they just need to play that way. Iowa has done it earlier in the year when Haluska played poorly; they need that anytime Haluska has a bad game. They have the guys to do, they just need to do it. I'll put that one on the coach. Alford needs to let Haluska know that when he is off, to let the rest of the team pick it up, otherwise he just forces it and it's a no win situation.

- Gorney: Time to put up. Get tough. Punch somebody. Spit in someone's face. Do something mean. Take a lesson from Cyrus and get aggressive. Anything. Show me anything. Please.

Iowa Basketball: Predicting the Rest of the Season

NON-CONFERENCE

5 games left on the non-conf slate to finish out 2006. 4 of 5 at home.

Iowa St
at Drake
Georgia St
Tex South
Cornell

Hawks should be able to ride a 5 game win streak into the BT schedule.

9-5 (0-0)

CONFERENCE

16 games, 8 home, 8 away. tOSU, Michigan, NW, Purdue - only play once. No @ NW this year.

Mich St - W
at Illinois - L
Minnesota - W
at Indiana - L
at Ohio St - L
Penn State - W
Wisconsin - L
at Michigan - W
Indiana - W
at Minnesota - W
at Wisconsin - L
N'western - W
at Mich St - L
Purdue - W
at Penn State - W
Illinois - L

I see the games home vs. MSU, at Indiana, home vs. Illinois, and at Michigan as going either way though.

18-12 (9-7 Conf.) plus Big Ten Tourney (1-1 maybe 2-1)

SEASON

19-13 on the year.

Problem is I don't see enough quality wins in a down conference to get Iowa to the dance right now. I still think Iowa is a bubble team, but I don't know if they'll have enough. My preseason prediction of Iowa getting into the dance isn't looking good (esp. after throwing away a tremendous chance at a quality win at home vs. UNI).

Iowa - Alamo Bowl; Minnesota - Toilet Bowl

As I stated previously in my blog, Iowa would get a better bowl than Minnesota this year. It has just been reported that Iowa has accepted an invite to the Alamo Bowl; Gophers get the last bowl offered to the Big Ten, the Insight.com bowl - USA Today Article

BIG TEN BOWLS

1. Ohio State - National Championship - $14-$17 million
2. Michigan - National Championship/Rose Bowl - $14.998 million
3. Wisconsin - Capital One Bowl - $5.312 million
4. Penn State - Outback Bowl - $2.85 million
5. Iowa - Alamo Bowl - $1.65 million
6. Purdue - Champs Sports Bowl - $862,000
7. Minnesota - Insight.com Bowl - $750,000

Alamo Bowl - Not too bad for the 9th place team in the Big Ten, and loser of 5 out of the last 6 games.

Congrats on the Toilet Bowl, Gophers. Maybe next season some of your fans will show up to the games and then you might be able to get more $$$ from bowl games. The University of Iowa will receive over twice the amount of money the U of M will, all thanks to its fan because clearly the Iowa Football team itself isn't worthy of it. Sure, the Big Ten has revenue sharing, but it's nice to see Iowa bring a bigger check home than Minnesota, esp. after what I have witnessed from Minnesota fans.

Iowa is lucky they have been selected to play in this bowl, they sure don't deserve it. Look, I am not happy about seeing Iowa in the Alamo Bowl. I'm not trying to rub anything into the University of Minnesota. I am just trying to show what kind of effect a passionate fanbase can have the outcome of a season. This was the perfect example. Should Iowa be going to the Alamo Bowl? Absolutely not; but they are. And there is a reason for that.