Cold shooting sinks Iowa in loss at Michigan State

EAST LANSING, Mich. — Fran McCaffery saw something on Saturday at the Breslin Center he'd never seen done before.

The Iowa men's basketball coach watched his point guard Jordan Bohannon go 0 for 8 from the field and 0 for 6 from 3-point range. McCaffery has been watching Bohannon since the freshman was in seventh grade, and he said it was a first.

But it wasn't just Bohannon. Iowa lost its second straight game, 77-66, at Michigan State on Saturday, and the Hawkeyes guards shot a collective 5 of 32 from the field and 0 of 13 from 3-point range. When a team is 4 of 21 from deep and all four come from forwards — in this case Nicholas Baer and Dom Uhl — the level of difficulty goes through the roof.

'Our guards, we didn't shoot the ball well at all,' senior guard Peter Jok said. 'It's tough to win on the road, especially, when guards aren't making shots. Me, I didn't shoot all that well tonight. Isaiah (Moss) didn't shoot that well tonight. Jordan (Bohannon) didn't shoot as well as he usually does. It's hard to win when guards don't step up in that role.

'We were still in the game. We forced 21 turnovers. We just didn't shoot well. Collectively, when the guards don't play well — especially in the Big Ten in road games — it's hard to win.'

McCaffery encouraged his guards to keep shooting — Bohannon specifically — and given their numbers and proclivity for taking and making those shots, that edict won't change anytime soon.

What needs to change, McCaffery said, was how the offense flowed.

The Hawkeyes (14-12, 6-7 Big Ten) never got in a consistent rhythm offensively throughout the game, shooting 35.3 percent in the first half and finishing 32.8 percent for the game (21 of 64 from the field). When Iowa was at its best in its recent three-game winning streak, ball movement was at its best. McCaffery said it lacked decisiveness against the Spartans (15-10, 7-5).

'The ball movement was fine, it wasn't (lack of ball movement). It was ball movement with a purpose. We moved the ball, but we weren't working hard to get open,' McCaffery said. 'We weren't screening people, we weren't screening with a purpose, cutting with a purpose. We just passed it around. We got hung up more than a couple times at the end of the shot clock and put up a difficult shot.

'They defended well. They also kicked us on the glass pretty good. You can't come in here and get out-rebounded 46-32. That's going to make it really hard.'

Man-to-man defense has been a hallmark of Tom Izzo-coached teams, and as McCaffery said, it was again Saturday.

For Jok, who finished with 13 points (going 9 of 11 at the free throw line), eight assists and five rebounds, that man-to-man defense was a little more than just good defending. He said there were moments where the defense being played against him was borderline 'illegal defense on me, to be honest.'

The aim of physical defense is to get shooters out of rhythm and frustrated. While Jok has faced it all season — and acknowledged he would professionally, as well — the Spartans' defense seemed to stick out.

'They were grabbing me, doing whatever it takes. It was like a football game out there,' Jok said. 'Just the way they were playing me, there were two guys when I got the ball.

'I expect it by now. I feel like everyone is going to keep playing like that. I just wish the referee would watch me the whole time because I feel like they're playing illegal defense on me sometimes, grabbing me and not caring what's going on behind them. At the end of the day, at the next level it's going to be so aggressive, so I don't really care because it's kind of preparing me for the next level.'

Iowa overcame the poor shooting on offense with defense, and that enabled the 32-31 halftime lead. Christian Williams, who finished with four points and three assists, came in for Bohannon in the first half and had three straight steals that led to two scores.

The Hawkeyes forced 12 first-half turnovers and 21 overall, and got 21 points off those — 13 of which came in the first half.

The backbreaker of the night — the stretch that exposed the poor shooting — was when Michigan State was able to break the zone press a few times and cashed in on outside shots. That turned a one point Spartan lead in a back-and-forth game into a 12-point lead over the course of four minutes, and the Hawkeyes never recovered.

'We did not handle that one stretch where they separated from us, because they were not able to do that up 'til that point,' McCaffery said. 'And then all of a sudden you look up and it's 12 or whatever. So it's a credit to them. I thought at that point we needed a little more maturity in terms of shot selection, at least limiting them to one shot; knowing where guys are. They also made some 3s in that stretch so you've got to credit (Cassius) Winston, he made two. That was big.'

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