Connor McCaffery dishes, and Hawkeyes eat well in 92-75 win over Ohio State

IOWA CITY — Connor McCaffery was seventh on his Iowa men’s basketball team in scoring Thursday night.

He also was the player who did more than anyone to break the game open in the Hawkeyes’ 92-75 win over Ohio State at Carver-Hawkeye Arena.

The Buckeyes led 36-35 when McCaffery hit a 3-pointer with 2:20 left in the first half. Before the half was over, he fed Payton Sandfort for a 3-pointer, fed Kris Murray on a 3-pointer, and fed Tony Perkins on a 3-pointer.

That was a lot of good eating, and the Hawkeyes were ahead 47-36 at halftime. They never led by single-digits again.

McCaffery had seven points, six rebounds, two steals. Oh, he also had a career-high 13 assists and didn’t turn the ball over once. Quiz question: Who leads the NCAA in assist-to-turnover ratio?

That would be McCaffery, who has 89-to-22 for 4.05. He was the nation’s leader in that department in 2019-20, and would have been No. 1 last season had he enough assists to qualify.

McCaffery is second on the NCAA’s career assist-to-turnover ratio at 3.59. No. 1 is Iowa State’s Monte Morris, with 4.65, a mark that may stand for decades.

“He didn’t suck, I guess,” McCaffery said.

That’s what Ohio State’s players could have said about McCaffery on their way home late Thursday. His knack for putting the ball in the right place at the right moment was impeccable, be it in the half-court offense or in transition.

“I feel like there’s definitely times when you can kind of get in a zone as a passer just as like a shooter,” McCaffery said. “You’re just seeing things. You’re seeing cutters.

“I’ve got to credit my teammates as well, because if they’re not cutting, if they’re not running in transition, and especially if they’re not making shots, that doesn’t happen.

“I found Tony, I found Patrick (McCaffery), I found Kris, I found Payton. I feel like it was a pretty high dose of everyone.”

As Iowa was extending its lead to as much as 28 points in the second half, the only thing that seemed to annoy McCaffery was caused by brother Patrick. With 6:20 left, Patrick snatched a defensive rebound that Connor would have otherwise had.

Connor thought he was in triple-double range, you see. As it turned out, he only had six rebounds.

“At the time, I didn’t know,” he said. “I thought I had more than six rebounds. I guess I had a loud six rebounds. If I had like eight or nine, which is what I kind of thought I was at, I would have been more pissed after the fact.

“I was like ‘Bro, what are you doing? Get away from me.’”

Nonetheless, McCaffery’s numbers drew the admiration of Perkins, who had a game-high 24 points.

“I’ve never seen nothing like that,” Perkins said. “Thirteen assists and zero turnovers, that’s great stats right there. He was finding people, being unselfish. That’s just how he is.”

Iowa Coach Fran McCaffery said he’d never seen a 13-0. “A really impressive game by him on a number of levels. … He was spectacular tonight.”

The Hawkeyes were good, period. They shot 56.9 percent from the field, they out-rebounded Ohio State 30-22, they had just seven turnovers to OSU’s 14, and got 16 more shot attempts than the Buckeyes.

Iowa is 9-6 in the Big Ten, and heads to Northwestern for a 5:30 p.m. game Sunday against the 10-5 Wildcats.

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