Hlas: ISU-UNI — The best in-state game won’t be played

DES MOINES — Let's petition the NCAA to give Iowa State and Northern Iowa another game, one against each other.

Let's determine this season's state-champion on the court, like it used to be before Iowa and Iowa State pulled away from playing both UNI and Drake every season. Let's put the full-of-flair Cyclones against the full-of-grit Panthers, and see who enforces the most will on the other.

Hey, maybe we'll get a decent in-state game for a change. Iowa's Hawkeyes certainly didn't provide us with one over the last two weekends.

Iowa has enforced nothing on anyone within its borders this season, nor will it barring a postseason rematch. Which seems like a wacky scenario given the way the Hawkeyes froze up in the second-halves against ISU and now UNI.

UNI's 56-44 win over Iowa Saturday night in Wells Fargo Arena showcased a lot of what is good about the Panthers and a lot of what isn't working for the Hawkeyes. You can pull out plenty of statistics, but here's one that's glaring:

The longer, taller Hawkeyes blocked two shots. The Panthers swatted six, including one by guard Wes Washpun of Aaron White with 1:16 left that was a finishing touch on Iowa's Hindenburg of a second-half offense.

Iowa was the team with the suffocating defense in the first half. UNI made just five 2-point baskets in the half. The Hawkeyes put their length and size to good use, playing the kind of defense that would sustain them if they sustained it.

'You can't simulate that in practice,' UNI Coach Ben Jacobson said. 'It bothered us in the first half.'

But as anyone who has seen Iowa's four losses knows, the Hawkeyes tend not to always play with the same spark as they start second-halves. It took 4:34 of the second half for Iowa to score a point, 6:45 to make a basket.

The Panthers seemed to add confidence with every trip down the court. Seth Tuttle, Wes Washpun, Jeremy Morgan, Wyatt Lohaus — all Iowans — seemed more and more assertive as the game grew older.

Meanwhile, all you saw from Hawkeye faces was frustration, hesitation, and finally, desolation. It looks like an extension from the February/March free fall of last season. Nobody stepped up in the second half. No one emitted any second-half sparks to reverse matters.

'I know there will be naysayers, people doubting us,' said senior forward White, who had two points after halftime. 'We've got to band together, fight through this little spell we're in.'

So at least there's an acknowledgment things need changing, because But here in the world where they live, the Hawkeyes have been downed by double-digits by Iowa State and UNI, and that leaves a mark.

First they got blasted out of their own arena by the Cyclones, then they got ground down by the Panthers in being held to a paltry 15 second-half points and 44 overall.

You go 3-of-24 from the field (0-of-7 from 3-point range) like the Hawkeyes did in the second half, you might as well be UCLA trying to beat Kentucky.

Let's not shortchange Northern Iowa here. Jacobson's men didn't get to be 10-1 without having and doing a lot of good things. The coach said the difference between his team of this season and last is an appreciation of playing good defense. But he also has great depth, guards who are unafraid to attack, and one of the most-underrated big men the state has had in Tuttle.

Unlike several of its Big Ten brothers, Iowa doesn't have a scarlet letter of shame as far as America sees it. Losing to Texas, Syracuse, Iowa State and Northern Iowa is not the same as falling to Incarnate Word, North Florida, New Jersey Institute of Technology and Texas Southern, which Nebraska, Purdue, Michigan and Michigan State have done, respectively.

'Four losses to essentially, four ranked teams,' said Iowa Coach Fran McCaffery. 'Four really good programs with really good players.

'It's one of those situations where you don't want to get too down on yourself, but at the same time you've got to be honest with yourself and change some things.'

The change better come soon. North Florida plays at Iowa Monday night. Just because UNI beat the Ospreys by 17 points doesn't mean the Hawkeyes can.