'Pretty much everything' goes wrong for 'disjointed' Iowa in rout at Northwestern

EVANSTON, Ill. – Iowa men's basketball coach Fran McCaffery didn't have much to say after his Hawkeyes got ran out of Welsh-Ryan Arena to the tune of an 89-54 loss to Northwestern on Sunday night.

In fairness, there wasn't a ton that had to be said. The game felt reminiscent of Iowa's losses to Virginia and in the Big Ten opener against Purdue, especially the latter with the Wildcats starting out with an 8-0 lead.

After the big win against Purdue last week, how disappointing was Sunday?

'Extremely,' McCaffery said.

The Hawkeyes (11-8, 3-3) were outscored in the paint, 42-18, got outrebounded 39-24, turned the ball over 14 times, shot 35.3 percent from the field, allowed the Wildcats to shoot 59.7 percent overall and 45.8 percent from 3-point range and gave up 18 points in transition.

Northwestern's Scottie Lindsey led the Wildcats (15-4, 4-2) with 22 points and eight rebounds, while Bryant McIntosh added 20 points and 10 assists.

The biggest issue the Hawkeyes faced?

'I would say this: pretty much everything,' McCaffery said. 'Clearly we were pretty disjointed tonight. There was a lot of other things, but, generally, that was the issue.'

The Iowa players said preparation over the weekend was good, that things didn't seem to set up for what they produced against Northwestern.

After outscoring Purdue 40-20 in the paint, outrebounding the Boilermakers, 35-28, and committing just 10 turnovers against a team many have picked to win the Big Ten and advance far into the NCAA Tournament, did anyone see this coming?

'No,' McCaffery said.

Performances like Sunday, Dec. 28 against Purdue and Nov. 25 against Virginia were ones many observers thought were in the past – even with a team as young as Iowa has. Four straight games decided by six points or less, and wins in three of those, made it seem as though the Hawkeyes had turned some kind of corner.

Instead, Iowa went to 0-4 in true road games and – as forward Tyler Cook put it – struggled with, 'our mental focus and toughness. They were more locked into what they wanted to do, and unfortunately we let them do what they wanted to do; so that's why the night went their way.'

To Cook's mental toughness and energy point, Jok echoed that in his comments to media after the game.

Jok once again put a lot on his shoulders, as he has after almost all of Iowa's losses this season. His four points on 2 of 9 shooting was a season-low, and his three rebounds in just 21 minutes of play were both low marks for conference play. McCaffery pointed to a back issue – one Jok acknowledged, but said, 'that's no excuse' – and the margin as the reason behind subbing him out with just more than eight minutes left and never putting him back in.

Forward Ryan Kriener, who was the bright spot for Iowa with 14 points on 6 of 7 shooting, said Sunday's loss wasn't because of Jok's off night, adding, 'it's not Pete's fault; it's a team thing. We should've played a lot better defense as a unit. You can't expect one guy to shoulder the scoring load every night. It's not his fault.'

There was something – or everything, to use McCaffery's terms – missing for Iowa.

Why the lack of focus; the lack of energy, as Cook and Jok put it?

'I wish I had an answer for (it), honestly. I don't know,' Cook said. 'We weren't locked into the game plan and what we needed to do defensively, and obviously didn't execute offensively so the ball was stagnant. We didn't move it side to side. We didn't put anything together today.'

When asked if there was anything he liked from Sunday's game, McCaffery replied, 'not much,' but included in the bit he did was Kriener.

The Spirit Lake native hadn't been getting minutes with Cook, Cordell Pemsl, Dom Uhl and Ahmad Wagner playing ahead of him. After Cook's 14 points and five rebounds, Pemsl and Wagner combined for four points and two rebounds. Uhl didn't play, dealing with the thumb injury sustained against Purdue.

Kriener backed up what he did in eight minutes against Purdue, and that did not go unnoticed.

'I've been saying for a while, that kid's too good; he needs to be playing,' McCaffery said. 'Well, he's going to play now.'

There wasn't much to say from McCaffery because what everyone saw from the Hawkeyes was worth plenty of words.

The Hawkeyes thought this kind of game was behind them, too, but such is life when Iowa is in the situation it is with a growing team.

The wave that is this season crested on Thursday in Iowa City and crashed on Sunday in Evanston. That doesn't mean it won't crest again, and the next game out against Maryland this Thursday back at Carver-Hawkeye Arena could well prove that.

'I felt like we were growing as a team and the young guys were getting better, but at the same time, it's a roller coaster,' Jok said. 'There's going to be bad times and good times. This is one of the bad times. We've got to keep getting better and learning from stuff; listening to coaches. It's a long year.

'We can't hang our heads down. We've got to get back in film and get better.'

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