Next Up - Indiana
Indiana (9-8, 4-2) at Iowa (14-5, 2-4)
4:05 pm CST

Iowa begins the long, uphill climb toward salvaging its season after opening the Big Ten season with 4 losses in their first 6 games. The first step of that journey is a home game with Indiana.

As you might have noticed, the loss to Northwestern slightly dampened my enthusiasm for this season, and in that spirit, today's post is brief. I still think Iowa is one of the top four or five teams in the Big Ten, and I wouldn't be surprised if they pull off an upset against one of the remaining games against Michigan State, Wisconsin, or Illinois. But that's not to say they won't surprise us against Northwestern, Michigan, etc, for the opposite reasons.

All stats are for Big Ten games only
Stats Glossary

Points per 100 possessions
Ind offense = 105
IA defense = 99

Ind defense = 104
IA offense = 99

Four Factors.............Indiana................Opponents
adjFG%........................0.490.....................0.456
TO / poss.....................0.199.....................0.222
Oreb rate.....................0.304.....................0.361
FTA / FGA...................0.480.....................0.409

Four Factors................Iowa...................Opponents
adjFG%........................0.474......................0.483
TO / poss....................0.226......................0.272
Oreb rate.....................0.333......................0.360
FTA / FGA...................0.378......................0.398

Individual Offense
Indiana.......................MPG............Floor%.........Off Rtg........%Poss
Bracey Wright.............39.7.............0.466................98............32.5%
D.J. White....................31.8.............0.642..............128............22.1%
Robert Vaden..............33.2.............0.432..............101............19.1%
Marshall Strickland......35.5.............0.383................86............12.7%
A.J. Ratliff....................29.2.............0.444..............108............13.5%
Pat Ewing.....................14.0.............0.558..............109............11.9%
Roderick Wilmont.......11.2..............0.478..............102............19.0%
James Hardy...............10.8.............0.390.................85............13.2%

Iowa............................MPG.............Floor%..........Off Rtg.....%Poss
Pierre Pierce...............38.7 ..............0.423................89............30.3%
Jeff Horner..................38.0 ..............0.418 ...............98 ............17.0%
Greg Brunner ............35.7 ..............0.536 ..............112 ...........22.3%
Adam Haluska ...........27.0 ..............0.441 ..............102 ...........20.0%
Erek Hansen ..............19.8 ..............0.374 ................79 ...........11.1%
Doug Thomas .............17.0 .............0.532 ..............106 ...........16.9%
Mike Henderson ..........11.2 .............0.239 ................49 ............11.5%
Carlton Reed ...............12.0 ............0.400 ...............103 ...........14.9%

A team led by Pierre Pierce against a team led by Bracey Wright.....you think we'll see a few missed shots tomorrow?

Numbers of note
- Indiana has only rebounded 30% of their misses, so this could be the second game in a row that Iowa doesn't get crushed on the boards.
- D.J. White has been very good on offense this year. He's made as many FG's as teammate Bracey Wright (36), but has taken 42 fewer shots (97 to 55). White has a head start for Freshman of the Year, and Penn State's Geary Claxton looks to be his only challenger.
- Iowa's Big Ten opponents have turned the ball over on 27% of their possessions. That might mean that Iowa's defense has been very good. It might also mean that Iowa's offense should score more points with all those extra opportunities. Either way, 27% is a lot of turnovers.

Like I said, I'm still pretty bummed about Wednesday's game, so writing about Hawkeye basketball hasn't been that fun lately, and I haven't done much of it. I'll let you digest all these numbers - let me know if you have any questions.

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