Mission accomplished for Iowa men

IOWA CITY - Iowa Coach Fran McCaffery took the path of moderate resistance when scheduling his exhibition this year.

McCaffery picked Division II Northwest Missouri State, a program filled with veterans, a good point guard and reputation for good defense. Sunday, McCaffery's Hawkeyes overpowered the Bearcats 79-59 at Carver-Hawkeye Arena, but it wasn't the domination many might have expected. That's a good thing for McCaffery.

“You could schedule somebody that you know you're going to beat badly or you can schedule somebody that has juniors and seniors who are talented and a team that has an excellent coach,” McCaffery said. “It was not going to be an easy game; you knew it wasn't going to be an easy game when we scheduled it. But that's what I wanted for this team. I wanted us to be challenged, and we were in every way.”

Iowa controlled the exhibition from the tip and worked through multiple personnel combinations. Nine different players played more than 14 minutes, The play wasn't always crisp, but it usually was effective.

The Hawkeyes hit nearly half their shots, out-rebounded Northwest and had more assists (13) than turnovers (12). Iowa drove the ball to the basket and shot 31 free throws, making 25.

“We responded really well,” Iowa junior Eric May said. “Give them credit because they played really hard. It was a good team to play to figure out some things we needed to work on.”

Go to

http://thegazette.com/2011/11/06/iowa-controls-exhibition-pulls-away-for-20-point-win/ for the rest of this story.