Illinois 75, Iowa 65
Iowa fought back from yet another big deficit to scare another great team, but Illinois was too strong down the stretch and maintained its perfect record.

The Hawks kept the score close for most of the first half and were tied with 4:45 left, but a 16-8 Illini run put Iowa down eight at halftime. Illinois stretched their lead to 11 early in the second half, but then Iowa began to chip away. Iowa drew plenty of fouls early in the half and made 11 free throws in a ten minute stretch to supplement a couple big threes and trim the lead to two points. Iowa was still down only two with 4:30 to play, but that was as close as they would get, as Dee Brown put them away with two open court layups and a nail-in-the-coffin three.

Yesterday I pointed to what I thought were some important things Iowa needed to do to win this game, or at least keep it close. I stressed the need for good shooting games from Jeff Horner and Adam Haluska, keeping Illinois off the offensive glass, getting to the free throw line, and keeping Greg Brunner and Haluska in the game. How did the Hawks fare? Glad you asked - let's take a look.

Outside Shooting
This wasn't necessarily a strength for Iowa, as they made only 4 of 11 attempts, with Horner and Haluska making 2 each. What was important, though, was that for once they didn't force the outside shot. They generally only took what was available, and these two guys are pretty effective when they wait for that open shot.

Controlling the Glass
Let's face it - Iowa dominated Illinois when it came to rebounding. The Hawks had 13 offensive rebounds to Illinois's 13 defensive rebounds. It's not everyday you see a team grab 50% of its chances for offensive rebounds. Brunner came up huge with 5, while 7 of 8 Iowa players had at least one. Iowa did just as well defensively, limiting Illinois to 8 offensive rebounds and a 26% offensive rebound rate. Haluska led the team with 6 defensive boards, and Brunner and, surprisingly, Mike Henderson were next with 4 each.

Getting to the Line
Yesterday I said I thought Iowa needed to shoot a lot of free throws, for the double effect of easy points and racking up fouls on Illinois. It was beautiful watching exactly that take place in the second half, as Iowa was in the bonus at the 12:27 mark. Roger Powell, Jr. picked up four and could only play 11 minutes. Iowa took advantage by making 21 of 26 free throws, or 81%. Haluska and Brunner were aggressive enough to each shoot 7 FT.

Keep the Scorers on the Floor
Iowa had a little scare when Brunner picked up his third foul early in the second half, but he managed to stay in the game without anymore trouble for most of the game. Haluska ended up with three fouls, including two irritating fouls on breakaway Dee Brown layups that ended up as three-point plays. As I'm sure many Hawk fans shouted at their TV's - either let the guy go or make sure he doesn't make the shot.....and don't make the same mistake twice! But aside from Brunner's two fouls in the first half and third early in the second, foul trouble wasn't an issue for the Big Three, as Horner, Haluska and Brunner were on the court for 38, 38, and 33 minutes.

But if Iowa dominated the rebounds, did well at the line, at shot nearly as well as Illinois, you're probably asking how they could lose by 10. And if you looked at the box score, you know turnovers killed the Hawks today. They finished with 21 to Illinois's 10. Several of them were travels in the lane that could have been called fouls, but way too many of them were unforced.

Game Notes

• There were a few decisions by Steve Alford that stood out to me. The first was keeping Brunner in the game after picking up his third foul with 18:13 left. Iowa was already down 10 at the time, and I think the game could've gotten out of hand in a hurry without Brunner's ability to score and rebound. I'll give the coach some credit for avoiding what is a reflex for many coaches and sticking to his guns.
• A couple other choices really irked me, both at the time and in hindsight. My problem was basically that Henderson and Erek Hansen were both in the game for a long stretch (the last 7 minutes or so) at the end of the game. Coach, haven't these guys done enough to establish their worthlessness? Alford took Thomas out with 7:25 left because he picked up his third foul. Don't you think Thomas could play a few more minutes without fouling out? Even if he does foul out, 3 minutes of Doug and 4 of Hansen is better than 7 minutes from Hansen. Hansen ended up allowing some easy buckets in the paint, including a lob right over him to James Augustine on an inbounds play. I've mentioned plenty of times that I don't like seeing Henderson getting the big minutes, and the team seemed to be doing fine when Reed was in today. Henderson would go on to throw an inbounds pass that got stolen and led to a back-breacking layup from Brown toward the end.
• Horner seemed pretty decent today. It sounded like he was taking some heat from Alford after the Purdue loss, and he responded fairly well. To use a cliche, he really played "within himself." He wasn't forcing shots, like tends to do, so he was able to make half of his tries. He picked up six assists, one of his higher totals in a while, but did have five turnovers.
• Today's "why Mike Henderson shouldn't play so much" thought - just take a look at the guy's line. 27 min, 0-4 FG, 1 ast, 6 TO. Great job, PG. Credit the guy for his 5 rebounds and for actually making 4-4 FT (were you as surprised as I was), but give Carlton Reed a few more minutes already.
• I really like the way Haluska has played since Pierce left. With Pierre around, Adam was forced into waiting for a jump shot, and that role seemed to restrict his scoring ability, since he's not a "pure" shooter. When Pierce played, 88 of Adam's 162 FGA were threes, or 54%. In the last five games, those numbers are 27 of 62, or 44%. He's taking the ball inside a lot more, where he can take advantage of his size and strength, and he gets to the line, where he's certainly more effective than Pierce could ever hope to be. Iowa's offense hasn't suffered without Pierce because Haluska is no longer limited to being a one trick pony.
• Let's revisit a sore subject (with me anyway). No one expects many points from Iowa's non-Brunner big men, so these players can basically distinguish themselves by rebounding and playing good defense. I hear Alford spew off a list of stats in every post-game interview, so why does he continue to ignore Hansen's inability to rebound? Today : Hansen - 27 min, 2 reb.......Thomas - 12 min, 4 reb.......Thompson - 9 min, 2 reb. This isn't some fluke, Coach, this happens every game. I don't see any reason Hansen should play 27 minutes today when Thomas and Thompson are fully capable of not getting abused the way Hansen does.
• It was great to have a such an energetic crowd today - the student section actually stood through all the timeouts, and the entire arena was on its feet for several extended sequences. When Iowa was on its 11-2 run to go up 11-7, there were times I couldn't even hear the refs whistle, and that was only from about 10 rows up. Two other plays that caused sheer chaos - Doug's dunk in the first half, and Haluska's three in the second half that capped a run and cut Illinois's lead to 2. Seriously, Coach, if you must ignore Thomas's rebounding ability, at least play him for his ability to make the fans go absolutely crazy.
• You think Iowa missed Pierce's defense today? In Champaign, Deron Williams could only manage 4 points on 5 shots against Pierre. Today, he took 16 shots and finished with 18 points, all from the floor. Speaking of great defense, don't overlook the job Haluska did on Luther Head today. Head came into the game averaging 17.6 ppg in Big Ten games, third in the conference, but he only shot 1 of 7 today.

That's all I have today. Check in tomorrow for updated conference stats.

PermaLink |