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With Payton Sandfort or not, Hawkeyes need win over Gophers to reverse recent skid
Iowa senior forward’s status is unclear for team’s home game against Minnesota Tuesday
Jan. 20, 2025 2:44 pm, Updated: Jan. 20, 2025 3:01 pm
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IOWA CITY — There’s only one real question for Iowa entering its home men’s basketball game against Minnesota Tuesday night.
Is Payton Sandfort playing?
The senior forward suffered a shoulder injury in the first half of the Hawkeyes’ 94-70 loss at UCLA last Friday in Los Angeles and sat out the second half. Monday, Iowa Coach Fran McCaffery was noncommittal on Sandfort’s status for the game against the Gophers.
Sandfort averages 16.2 points, second on the Iowa team. He also is second in rebounds with 5.1 per game, and this is a club that needs every rebound it can scrounge.
It could also use some defense. Playing at home against Minnesota (1-6 Big Ten, 9-9 overall) would seem to help the cause. The Gophers have been outscored by 11.1 points per game in league play.
Iowa (3-4, 12-6) has statistical things of its own that are cringeworthy. First, some good things. In conference games, the Hawkeyes rank first in 3-pointers, 3-point percentage, fewest turnovers and turnover margin.
However, they are last in scoring defense, field goal percentage defense, 3-point percentage defense, rebounding margin, offensive rebounds per game and defensive rebounds per game.
Are there quick-fixes for such things? Playing Minnesota in Carver — no matter how small the crowd may be on a frigid weeknight with an 8 p.m. start — might be one.
Big Ten teams are shooting 54.4 percent against the Hawkeyes, and 43 percent from 3-point distance. Then you tack on the stat that Iowa has rebounded just 23.1 percent of its own missed shots in league games, and it’s a formula for bad results.
“We would like them to rebound better,” McCaffery said. “We obviously start a small lineup, so it puts a lot of pressure on our perimeter players to rebound
“We traditionall started a big lineup. Pretty much most of the time we had a traditional 4-man (power forward).”
For 6-foot-8 Ladji Demeble and 6-7 Seydou Traore, it may be time for their close-ups.
Comments: (319) 398-8440; mike.hlas@thegazette.com
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