Defensive lapses a trend in Iowa's road losses

EVANSTON, Ill. - Defensive lapses once again burned Iowa in a road defeat Thursday night, and the statistics are starting to become a trend.

In three of Iowa's four Big Ten road losses, the Hawkeyes allowed their opponents to shoot better than 55 percent from the floor. At Northwestern in an 83-64 loss, the Wildcats sank 56.3 percent of their shots. Additionally, Northwestern made 13-of-25 3-point attempts and had 22 assists on 27 baskets.

Those numbers identify a proficient, patient offense combined with a defense that either loses focus or intensity on several possessions.

“I think legitimately there's going to be a common trend,” Iowa Coach Fran McCaffery said when asked about his defense and road losses. “We're not executing at the level we need to to win. I don't think it's any more complicated than that. It's pretty simple.”

Iowa (13-12, 5-7 Big Ten) allowed Indiana to shoot 55.2 percent - 33-of-51 from two-point range - in a 103-89 loss at Bloomington. At Michigan State, the Spartans hit 61.7 percent, including 55.6 percent from 3-point range in a bruising 95-61 Iowa loss. Michigan State effectively ran its offense, getting 25 assists on its 37 baskets.

“Sometimes it ends up being a snowball effect,” Iowa guard Bryce Cartwright said. “Sometimes we're good, sometimes we're not. I think (Thursday is) one of them days where they got easy shots, and we ended up getting down on ourselves. One shot after another kept going in. It seems like that's been a theme.”

Iowa is last in the Big Ten in scoring defense (72.5), allowing 5.5 points more than 11th place Northwestern. Iowa's defense also is last in field-goal percentage (45.9), ranking 286th nationally.

“I think it's a constant theme in our losses, not only on the road,” Iowa freshman Aaron White said. “When we come out and we don't bring intensity and we don't stick to the game plan, it's tough to win, obviously in this league when you're not guarding.

“We don't come out with the same defensive intensity that we do when we're playing Michigan at home or we're playing Wisconsin. It's tough. I don't really have an answer as to why some games we do and some games we don't. It's something we've got to keep working on.”

Iowa's turnovers on offense also impacts the team's defense. In Iowa's four Big Ten road losses, the Hawkeyes average 17.25 turnovers to only 13 assists. In each game the Hawkeyes had more turnovers than assists.

Against Northwestern, Iowa had 18 turnovers to 14 assists. Iowa struggled against Northwestern's 1-3-1 zone defense, and the Wildcats capitalized.

“We're turning it over, and they're coming down hitting 3s,” White said. “You look at the numbers, a lot of it attributes to, I think, we didn't handle the 1-3-1 well. We turned it over way too many times.

“When you turn it over and they come down and run 30 seconds off the clock and they hit a 3, and you come back down and make another turnover, it's tough. We kind of dug ourselves a little hole there and couldn't bounce back. It's disappointing.”