3 Takeaways: Consistent inconsistency, Oglesby, officiating

IOWA CITY - If there's anything consistent about the Iowa men's basketball team this year, it's inconsistency.

A win at North Carolina was countered with losses to instate foes Iowa State and Northern Iowa. A 4-1 start in the Big Ten, which included a sweep against Ohio State, quickly sank to a 4-4 record. Decisive wins against Michigan and Maryland quickly became footnotes after losses to teams with losing Big Ten records.

'You look and say, ‘They played great in one game and they don't play so well in the other game,'” Iowa Coach Fran McCaffery said. 'That's sort of typified our season this year. Obviously that's a challenge for us to play better and more like we played against Maryland than like we played (Sunday at Northwestern).”

The Hawkeyes (15-10, 6-6 Big Ten) showed their inconsistency in a 66-61 overtime loss at Welsh-Ryan Arena. In the first half, Iowa failed to pressure the ball and rotate effectively, leading to six Northwestern 3-pointers and nine assists on 10 baskets. After halftime, Iowa struggled to finish at the rim.

Iowa missed its first eight shots in the second half until center Gabe Olaseni dunked over Sanjay Lumpkin with 12:11 left in regulation. Northwestern blocked 12 shots, and Iowa repeatedly missed opportunities to score inside while fouled at the basket.

The Wildcats answered every Iowa run. Hawkeyes guard Josh Oglesby hit 3-pointers on consecutive possessions to pace Iowa to an 8-0 run and its first lead at 38-36. Northwestern bounced back to score on its next three trips. When Jarrod Uthoff scored eight points in a four-possession span to push Iowa ahead 46-41, Northwestern's Tre Demps hit 3-pointers on back-to-back trips to retake the lead.

'We have had inconsistent stretches on both ends of the floor, and that's unfortunate,” McCaffery said.

The inconsistency spans Iowa's last four games. At Michigan, the Hawkeyes dominated in the paint, outscoring (42-16) and out-rebounding (33-17) the Wolverines. Against Maryland last week, Iowa outscored the Terrapins 38-18 in the paint and finished with a 30-19 rebound advantage.

Sunday, Northwestern (11-14, 2-10 Big Ten) outscored Iowa 18-12 in the paint and out-rebounded Iowa 39-38.

Offensive execution also has waned over the last four games. Iowa shot at least 53 percent in all four halves against Michigan and Maryland. Minnesota's pressure defense affected the Hawkeyes on Thursday, forcing 16 turnovers which led to 19 Gopher points. Northwestern's zone defense forced Iowa to shoot just 32.3 percent, the Hawkeyes' lowest in Big Ten play and third-lowest overall.

'I think we were getting decent looks,” Iowa guard Mike Gesell said. 'We were trying to attack and get to the free-throw line at times. We just weren't able to pull it out.”

One week ago, Iowa was discussed as possibly the second-best Big Ten squad. After a losses to teams with losing Big Ten records, many fans are making comparisons to last year's Iowa squad that lost seven of its final eight games and barely qualified for the NCAA tournament.

'Both teams were experienced. I think last year's team was much deeper,” McCaffery said. 'You would have thought with, especially our senior class, with Zach (McCabe) and Mel (Basabe) and Dev (Marble) and the juniors, we would have been fine. Our team this year you can say we're inconsistent, we lost two in a row, but I mean we're playing about the same.

'So I don't look at last year or the year before and say what's different about this team or that team. I'm going to deal with this team.”

Despite the back-to-back losses, Iowa still faces an advantageous schedule. Four opponents have a combined 12-39 Big Ten record. The other two include a road game at Indiana (8-5) and a home game against Illinois (7-6).

'We have the ability to win the rest of the games this year,” said Uthoff, who scored a game-high 25 points. 'Whether we do that or not, is really up to us. I think we have the ability to do it, I think we can. It's whether we choose to do it or not.”

2. Oglesby steps forward.

After an impressive freshman season, when he put up 24 points at Indiana, Iowa senior Josh Oglesby has struggled with inconsistency his final three years.

With two shot attempts in his previous three games, Oglesby's career was fading into the basketball twilight. Entering Sunday's game against Northwestern, Oglesby was shooting just 26.9 percent from 3-point range for the season and had scored 14 points combined in his previous nine games. The impact he made was minimal, if only because he wasn't taking open shots.

Sunday, Oglesby finally stepped forward. He hit back-to-back 3-pointers as part of an 8-0 run to give Iowa its first lead midway through the second half at Northwestern.

'I just kind of realized that my career is coming to an end, and I've got to start having fun with it and shoot when I'm open,” Oglesby said. 'Coach (Fran McCaffery) has been real supportive and keeps telling me to shoot. I think that's helped a lot.”

'It was great to see that,” Gesell said. 'He kills it every day in practice. As a point guard, I want him to keep shooting. I want him to shoot it every time he touches it. He did that (Sunday), and that's what we needed him to do.”

'I thought he was really good in a lot of ways,” Iowa Coach Fran McCaffery said.

Oglesby didn't score again, but his spacing forced attention from Wildcat defenders, which opened up teammate Jarrod Uthoff from the perimeter. Uthoff scored a game-high 25 points and hit five 3-pointers.

After the game, Oglesby was more down after the defeat than happy about his performance.

'The loss ... I'd rather be 0 for 6 and get a win than make a couple of shots,” he said. 'But we've got to bounce back and worry about the next game and put this behind us.”

3. Blowing the whistle.

Iowa Coach Fran McCaffery wouldn't address it and his players tried to avoid it. But it's laughable to suggest in a physical Big Ten basketball game that one team failed to commit a foul for the final 15 minutes, 58 seconds of regulation. It's even more ridiculous when you consider that one team had six fouls 4:02 into the second half and failed to commit another foul until overtime.

'Good defense,” Iowa's Aaron White said. 'I was 1 for 12. I couldn't make a shot.”

'There was a lot of contact,” Iowa forward Jarrod Uthoff said. 'As an offensive player, if you're the one creating the contact and he's straight up and doesn't move, that's tough. That's not really a foul.”

There's no question Northwestern played tremendous defense. Alex Olah was a difference-maker in the post. But no fouls, not even an 'oops” touch foul along the perimeter?

It's easy to criticize officiating (which I try to avoid) and a few of the league's top officials have retired in recent years. But it's also safe to say the one-year experiment to allow more freedom of movement has ended without a whistle.

l Comments: (319) 339-3169; scott.dochterman@thegazette.com