The Iowa Hawkeyes (3-0) have done what they’ve needed to do in three times out this season. They’ve hosted three inferior* teams so far this season and will face two more before the schedule ramps up against
Ole Miss in Palm Springs, CA. It’s largely par for the course as 14 Big Ten teams have started undefeated with the marquee victories being Purdue at Alabama and Illinois vs Texas Tech, though there are probably a dozen other wins over power conference teams.
*to be fair, not sure Ben McCollum was expecting Xavier to be a like Q3 game but that’s where Bart Torvik currently has them
As far as the 4 conference losses, there’s been little shame attached to them unless you want to rag on Minnesota for the point differential in their loss to Missouri or Maryland’s loss to rival Georgetown. Point being, there’s been little ventured little gained, and no real surprises among the results (unless you want to “WTF?” Oregon beating Hawai’i and Rice by a combined 5 points).
That will continue through much of this week. Though Michigan State will look to take down a second SEC foe tonight against Kentucky while Illinois faces Alabama the following night. Wisconsin heads to Salt Lake City to take on BYU. Like most other teams, Iowa’s got a pair of buy games until their schedule ramps up in earnest during #FEASTWEEK.
Here’s what I’ll be looking for in their final two games before hitting the road:
Continue establishing an identity on both sides of the court
Offensively, there has been very little drop-off from what we saw under Fran McCaffery. Yes, Bennett Stirtz makes heavy use of the governor when setting the pace for this team but it is not done by way of pounding the ball at the top of the key for 20 seconds before a single action. Ben McCollum has them running clever stuff and getting incredibly high percentage looks for a variety of players.
Iowa currently ranks 7th in the nation in eFG% offense, which makes a lot of sense when you look at their shot charts:
That’s 8 shots out of 148 (5.4%) outside the lane but inside the 3 point line and an incredible structure to build an offense. Because of that (and the subpar opponents, though there are many teams playing subpar opponents), Iowa is shooting 66.0% from 2, good for 2nd in the country. Those shots will get harder to come by but the dedication to layups & 3s is a good structure to establish now before the competition ramps up.
The other key to Iowa’s offensive identity remains the reliance on Bennett Stirtz. While he’ll go stretches where he hangs out in the corner while the other 4 are running actions, there’s no doubt that this is his team. He’s gone over 20 points in each of Iowa’s 3 games and is averaging 5.3 assists per game. Watching him, it’s like he can never take a bad shot, which means he should probably take more. Not yet though.
Defensively, this is a team which just never gives up on a play. Watching them on defense, there’s rarely a time when a primary defender gets beat but doesn’t do what he can to get the edge back. It’s resulting in more fouls which has turned stretches of games into absolute slogs but it is also creating an ecosystem where Iowa can leverage substantial runs to build leads. So far, Iowa’s had runs of 19-2, 11-0, 16-2, and 13-0 to assert themselves. More importantly, they’ve not allowed any runs from opponents to let them back in games with their three double digit wins.
Crucially, Iowa is very comfortable turning defense into offense with their ability to get steals and go the other direction. They’re forcing turnovers on nearly 25% of opponent possessions, with their steal rate of 11.9% ranking 83rd in the country. In the latter years of Fran, that stat rarely exceeded 10% and is something to monitor as the schedule tightens up.
Do any rotation players emerge?
So far, McCollum has been very happy to play the hot hand which has meant Stirtz alongside a variety of teammates. 6 players have notched double-digit scoring outings (Tavion Banks & Alvaro Folgueiras have done it twice) but I’ll be surprised and say that Brendan Hausen only getting to 10 in the first game behind 7/7 shooting from the line has been a surprise.
When the senior guard transferred in from Kansas State, he figured to be a shoo-in starter at shooting guard alongside Stirtz. But he’s topped out at only 14 minutes against Robert Morris and has been a deeper bench guy than expected. Freshman Tate Sage is getting more minutes/game than him right now which probably wasn’t on anybody’s bingo card.
It’d be nice to see him get it going in Iowa’s next two games because having that knockdown shooter who really forces defenses to adjust is not necessarily something Iowa has right now (though Folgueiras & Cooper Koch as stretch bigs does invert the offense a bit).
This week:
Tonight, 11/18: Southeast Missouri Redhawks (1-3) at Iowa, Carver-Hawkeye Arena, 7:30 PM Big Ten Network
Thursday, 11/20: Chicago State Panthers (0-4) at Iowa, Carver-Hawkeye Arena, 6:00 PM BTN Plus
Interesting to see such short rest between games but I think it’s McCollum playing a little bit of chess with the schedule. It’s a low stakes rep for the coaches & players to execute a short scout. Plus I wouldn’t be surprised if they look a little slow on Thursday after a hard practice on Wednesday. Then they have plenty of time before Ole Miss next week.
