Points in Transition: Iowa vs. Michigan State preview

Fran McCaffery said Friday during a teleconference that he's ready to put the missed timeout at Minnesota behind him and his team. Not a bad idea — especially considering the Iowa men's basketball team is headed for a 5 p.m. date Saturday with Michigan State at the Breslin Center.

For each Big Ten game this season, we'll look at key players, strengths and weaknesses for both teams and the key to winning for both sides. Here's a breakdown of the matchup between Iowa and Michigan State:

Key player

Iowa: Jordan Bohannon, guard — He's played a lot of minutes in the last few games, and the way he's played in them means that's not likely to change any time soon. In the last four games: 45 minutes against Minnesota, 33 against Nebraska, 26 at Rutgers and 29 against Ohio State. In those minutes: 14 points per game and 3.8 assists to 1.7 turnovers per game. He's running the offense efficiently and taking care of the ball while he's at it.

Michigan State: Miles Bridges, forward — The freshman leads Michigan State in scoring (16.2 points per game), rebounding (8.1 per game), shoots 50 percent from the field (54.5 eFG) and 40.5 percent from 3. He's a tremendous inside-outside threat with his size, too, at 6-foot-7 and 230 pounds. His versatility was the first thing McCaffery pointed to when asked about him, and said it makes him tough to guard. Whoever gets this assignment first has a tough one.

Strengths

Iowa: Watching Iowa run its zone press often doesn't result in a lot of audible utterings of 'wow,' but that sure came out of plenty of people's mouths at The Barn on Wednesday night. It's not an overly complicated press — they've ran it all year, and teams mostly have handled it OK — but when it was at its best against the Gophers, the Hawkeyes' press was the biggest reason they overcame a 13-point deficit.

The way the players explained it, activity level has everything to do with that. Peter Jok led the way up front and got help from Bohannon and Brady Ellingson on the wings — getting to their spots quickly when the ball was reversed. As important, Cordell Pemsl and Nicholas Baer came up to deny the entry pass into the frontcourt.

It's hard to maintain that level of energy with the press and not tire yourself out — which did end up happening — and they can only run it off a made shot or free throw. Michigan State turns the ball over with fair regularity (hold that thought), so if Iowa can get this going again, it could cause the Spartans some problems.

Michigan State: Figuring out the Spartans this season is a bit like figuring out the Big Ten in general — about the time you think you know what's going on, something happens that makes you go, '…huh?' The bad part of that '…huh?' is coming in Weaknesses, but for now, let's look at what's gone right: particularly, shooting and playing at the Breslin Center.

When things have gone right for the Spartans, they've worked their actions to get open shots for guys like Bridges, Eron Harris, Alvin Ellis and Tum Tum Nairn. Michigan State has the third best overall shooting percentage in the conference at 47.8 percent and second best 3-point percentage at 38.8 percent. Furthermore, the Spartans rank second in effective field goal percentage at 55.2, according to KenPom.com. They take good shots, too, sitting second in percentage of shots blocked at 8.8 percent. Iowa has struggled locating shooters at times this season, and Michigan State could capitalize.

Michigan State is 6-5 in Big Ten play, 4-1 at home in conference — the only loss coming to No. 18 Purdue — and 10-2 overall at home this season. After a blowout loss at Michigan, Tom Izzo and Co. will come home with something to prove.

Weaknesses

Iowa: During Iowa's three-game winning streak, defense was far more consistent across the board at locating shooters and defending the ball screen. While the zone press was an understandable focus of Strengths, when the press wasn't causing the havoc it did for so much of the second half, Minnesota found open shots on the perimeter. The Hawkeyes got bit early by screen actions that clogged defenders chasing side-to-side in the lane, then ball movement freed up Gopher shooters.

Boom or bust is generally how it's been for Iowa when it comes to defense, and Wednesday was no different. When it was good (above), great things happened. When it was bad (more closely above) Nate Mason and Jordan Murphy made the Hawkeyes pay.

Facing a team that can shoot as well as the Spartans — and in a hostile environment — means defensive principles have to be at their highest levels.

Michigan State: The Spartans were considered before the season a team that could contend for the conference championship, but that might have been on reputation as much as anything. They lost a lot from last year's team and are in a similar situation to Iowa in terms of young guys being asked to do a lot — freshman Nick Ward has the highest usage rate on the team at 32.3 percent of possessions.

While the Spartans shoot well, turnovers, rebounding and a few defensive factors haven't been their friend. Based on conference stats only, Michigan State ranks 12th in the Big Ten in turnover percentage, 13th in offensive rebound percentage, 12th in opponent free throw rate, 11th in steal percentage and ninth in defensive turnover percentage. The Spartans are an average team in terms of getting to the line, but are 13th in the Big Ten in free throw percentage at 64.1 percent.

Izzo hasn't been able to find consistency in this version of his team, and it's frustrated him at times this year.

Iowa wins if …

the Hawkeyes can get the Spartans out of rhythm offensively, locate shooters and force turnovers. Iowa has to do that for all 40 minutes, too. The Hawkeyes allowed two stretches of poor defense — end of the first half and the second overtime — against Minnesota and it bit them bad. Consistency on that end is what it'll take Saturday.

Michigan State wins if …

the good version of the Spartans shows up to the Breslin Center, they don't turn the ball over and can keep Iowa from getting rolling in transition. In their wins, they've shut off what's made opponents tick offensively — disrupting shooters and controlling the glass — and in losses, their opponents have controlled the pace and gotten the looks they've wanted.

l Comments: (319) 368-8884; jeremiah.davis@thegazette.com