Hawkeyes erode on road again, courtesy of defensive-minded Cyclones

AMES — The last six games in the Iowa-Iowa State men’s basketball series have been settled by an average of 20.3 points.

It’s been perhaps the worst great-rivalry game in the sport, and hasn’t been indicative of a nightmarish season to come for the loser. The Hawkeyes won 75-56 last year in Iowa City and the Cyclones reached the NCAA tournament. The Cyclones won 73-53 here in 2021, and Iowa went on to 26 wins and the Big Ten tournament championship.

However, there’s little question the 5-4 Hawkeyes must evolve into something a lot more than the version we saw in their 90-65 loss to Iowa State Thursday in Hilton Coliseum. Otherwise, the only times ESPN’s Joe Lunardi will use the word “Iowa” in his NCAA tournament gobble wobble will be when it’s followed by the word “State.”

This was Iowa’s third true road game, and third time it got handled. The score at Creighton was 92-84, but the Bluejays led by 17 points midway through the second half. The score at Purdue Monday was 86-67, but the Boilermakers were up 35 at one point.

Iowa State led the Hawkeyes 88-56 with 3:53 remaining and finished with its largest margin of victory in the 77-game series.

“It was a full 40 minutes,” ISU Coach T.J. Otzelberger said. “If you look at the focus, the effort, the intent, execution of the game plan, our guys did the job and they stayed locked in.”

The Hawkeyes were locked out. Iowa State established an aggressive, physical mindset from the start. Cyclone frontline players Tre King and Robert Jones were a combined 10-of-11 shooting in the first half by going directly to the basket time after time.

Iowa got 14 of its 29 first-half points from Payton Sandfort. Those came entirely from 3-pointers, or free throws after getting fouled on a three.

For the second-straight game, the Hawkeyes shot under 39 percent. For the second-straight game, their foe shot over 52 percent.

Mackey Arena and Hilton are two of the toughest environments in college basketball, but this was no contest times two.

“Honestly, I think it starts with we're getting down so bad in the games,” Sandfort said. “It's hard to shoot when you're down and everybody's screaming at you. We’ve got to come out with more fight. Make it more of a back-and-forth game and then I think the offense clicks.

“It just starts on defense.”

That’s Iowa State’s mantra. It threw double-team after double-team on Hawkeyes with the ball, and rattled them. ISU stole the ball 12 times, its season average. It forced an Iowa season-high 19 turnovers. Five different Cyclones blocked shots.

At the other end, they drove and drove. Guard Keshon Gilbert would get a defensive rebound and have his mind made up to go straight downcourt to the basket. “Straight” isn’t entirely accurate, since he left Hawkeyes in his wake with some of his spin moves.

Gilbert is a tough, built 6-foot-4 guard. He scored 25 points, drew seven fouls, made all three of his 3-pointers, and had six assists and three steals. Otzelberger recruited Gilbert to UNLV.

“That’s my dawg, I ain’t gonna lie,” Gilbert said about Otzelberger in July. Gilbert’s a dawg himself.

On the other side, Iowa’s starters didn’t have much bark. Sandfort was the only one who topped eight points. The four other four starters combined for just five rebounds.

“They need to better than they were tonight,” Iowa Coach Fran McCaffery said of his vets, “and they will be.”

What separates the really good teams from the others is an ability to compete on the road. It’s easy to be confident and aggressive at home, which the Hawkeyes need to be Sunday afternoon when they face Michigan.

“We have to do more screening, more cutting, more penetration,” McCaffery said. “We just kind of moved it side to side and somebody shot it at the end of the clock. We need more activity to challenge the offense in a better way.”

There’s no one going to the NBA after this season the way there was on the last three Iowa teams. There are no All-America types. This has to be nine or 10 players with defined roles on offense who play consistently adequate defense.

“We’ve just got to keep loving each other, keep encouraging each other,” Sandfort said. “It really starts right now, but we’ll respond.”

It’s a long way from now to March and the Hawkeyes have lost to no one but good teams. But it’s the way they’ve lost that’s the concern.

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