Iowa - epic collapse against isu
- Thread starter Windy City Cat Fan
- Start date
Up by 20 in the first half, and then again in the second half at 16 minutes to go.
It has been a rough week for Hawkeye fans.
It has been a rough week for Hawkeye fans.
Jared Uthoff had 30 points at the half and then just 2 the rest of the way. ISU is tough at home, never quit believing.
It's a very different BIG so far this year. Three top 10 teams in Michigan State, Maryland and Purdue, two talented, explosive but enigmatic teams in Indiana and Iowa, one really bad team in Rutgers, and then the rest of the pack (including NU) which seems quite equal. Whoever stays healthy and gets better in that large group has a chance for the NCAAs assuming that the BIG gets seven bids (based on history and winning ACC-BIG challenge). Should be an interesting league season.
Iowa loses to a top 5 team on the road by one point. I've heard of worse outcomes, despite the way they did it. NU lost an NIT game once (ND or Depaul?) when they were up by 9 with a minute left (Jim Stack and co). UI had that classic NCAA game when they were down by 15 with 3 minutes left and won at the buzzer. Streaky poop happens in basketball. Doesn't mean I'd get down too much on Iowa.
Actually our win over Columbia last month was a little like the Iowa-Iowa State game last night. I don't think we ever led until overtime and trailed by 8-10 points for much of the game.
At the time, I was just relieved the win a game a knew we should win. In retrospective, BMac was astonishing. You could say that we were lucky to win that game...but that would diminish the fact that BMac literally willed us to victory.
It was DePaul at the Horizon (their home court). Kenny Patterson drained a shot from near mid court to beat NU. Demons kept fouling Cats' worst shooters down the stretch and Cats kept missing them.
Iowa's loss at #4 ISU by 2 still puts them in the no. 4 slot in the Big 10 behind MSU, PU and Md. They did benefit from a 30 pt. first half by Uthoff and he was bound to cool down in the second half, but right now Uthoff is playing like a Big 10 first teamer. No wonder that UW Bo Ryan tried to stop his transfer a couple of years ago. Iowa has weaknesses and Gessell made some weak choices down the stretch.
Speaking of UW, they played tough down the stretch today but fell short against Marquette. Whisky is really limited to 7 players. They miss Dekker. Part of the deal when you recruit a 5* is they usually leave early. With him this team competes for the Bog 10 title. Without him they just don't have the horses. Nigel Hayes is great, Koenig is good but the rest are just average. Hayes will wear down as the season progresses, he just plays so hard and is pretty much their entire offense.
Hayes tried to do too much on the final possession. Two bad misses. He's not a great shooter but does a lot of other things very well. I'd say there are lots more than usual tossup games for the Cats in the BIG this year. Just have to win a majority of them, esp. at home.