Hawkeyes red-faced, Panthers red-hot

[pullout_quote credit="Fran McCaffery, on UNI making 20 more free throws than Iowa attempted" align="left"]Interesting statistic[/pullout_quote]

CEDAR FALLS -- Long-term, the binge-collecting of technical fouls Tuesday night won't mean a thing to Iowa's basketball season.

This was an 80-60 loss to Northern Iowa, the Hawkeyes' fourth double-digit loss of the season and certainly not their last.

Short-term, the T after T after T (one for head coach Fran McCaffery, one for an unidentified Iowa assistant, one for player Zach McCabe) in a 20-second stretch of the second-half helped turn a 47-45 UNI lead into a 55-45 advantage, and the game was as good as over with 9:26 left.

McCaffery got his money's worth with another technical and automatic ejection with 4:47 left, and the McLeod Center crowd had a good time watching their state rivals in meltdown mode.

But what did all that heat and hysteria really mean? Not much.

You didn't like the officiating, Iowa? Fine. But the Panthers had the better team coming into this game, had the better team in this game, and have the better team as we move closer to conference play for both squads.

It wasn't the trio of Bo Boroski, John Higgins and Paul Janssen that caused the Hawkeyes to miss all but one of their dozen 3-point tries, and it wasn't the refs who helped UNI swish 11 of its 21 threes.

But as for the 29-3 edge the Panthers had in made free throws? “Interesting statistic,” said McCaffery.

So was Iowa losing by 20 when it made eight more baskets than UNI. You don't see that one every night.

McCaffery played it coy when answering postgame questions about the officiating, deflecting them or barely addressing them at all.

It was a good postgame game plan. Nothing he could have said afterward would have done any good, and he got his message across to the refs loud and clear before getting escorted out of the gym, anyhow.

“That really burns my biscuits!” McCaffery yelled at the officials at one point. Or words to that effect.

You could criticize the Iowa coach and his staff for letting their emotions help ride their team out of a close game. But it's a fine line on the sideline. You've got to stick up for your team in December so it knows you've got its back over the long haul. Especially on the road.

Standing there and taking it isn't McCaffery's way, nor would you want it to be. But if you think the referees decided this game - with the enormous differential in foul shots or not - you didn't notice the guys wearing purple and white.

Northern Iowa did next to nothing in the first five minutes in falling behind, 10-0. Maybe it was stunned from seeing the Hawkeyes hit four jumpers in that run. But over the next 35 minutes, UNI did what UNI does. Which is play rugged defense, protect the ball, and get good mileage out of its possessions.

This team doesn't rank among Ben Jacobson's best. Not yet, anyhow. But here it is at 8-1, a legit 8-1. It has wins over teams from the Big Ten, the Big 12, the Big East, Conference USA and the Mountain West. It won by 17 points at Old Dominion, which was in the NCAA tourney last season.

It's too early to take such stuff seriously, perhaps, but the Panthers were fourth in the nation in the RPI standings before Tuesday's play.

“They're young,” Jacobson said of his guys. “The guys that are back are in different roles, new roles.

“I will tell you they're doing a heck of a job. I love how they're playing. The thing that I'm impressed with is they're getting better game to game.”

Of course, this game means a lot to Northern Iowa. Jacobson said he could sense his team's readiness at Monday's practice, at Tuesday's shootaround, in the locker room before the game, and during those 40 minutes when the Panthers and their fans got after it.

Iowa goes to Iowa State Friday. UNI, still the best basketball program in the state, has now beaten both.

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