Hawkeye men get first win under McCaffery

IOWA CITY - There's a point in any rebuilding basketball program when players' thoughts and body control merge into one flowing motion. For the Iowa men's basketball team, that moment may have come early in the second half against Louisiana-Monroe last night.

With Iowa leading by 13 points and shifting to a pressure defense, sophomore Eric May stole a pass at midcourt, drove to the basket and dunked it with authority. Iowa followed with another May jumper, then a drive by Cully Payne, a shot off the glass by Andrew Brommer and layup by Devyn Marble. You get the picture.

Iowa (1-1) cruised to its first win under Coach Fran McCaffery, 68-40, at Carver-Hawkeye Arena. It's too early to say the team has turned the corner, but with each possession the players are thinking less and reacting more, May said.

“We're transitioning to that, definitely,” May said. “That first game, we're all probably thinking too much and not just relaxing and playing. This game we finally just let loose and followed what we practiced, and it showed on the court.”

Iowa capitalized on 26 Louisiana-Monroe (0-2) turnovers, turning them into 26 points. But the Hawkeyes also turned the ball over 22 times, and the traveling calls were more than aggravating to McCaffery.

But he dwelled less on the turnovers and instead focused on the improvement his team made two days after losing by 10 points to South Dakota State.

“I thought tonight defensively, that's about as well as we can play,” McCaffery said. “(We) locked into their key personnel. Did some aggressive things in both halves. One was full court pressure in the second half. Then we did a little trapping in then first half.”

The pressure spurred the Hawkeyes on a 16-4 second-half run lasting nearly nine minutes. The offense was more fluid, and the fast break was more effective. After struggling with five fast-break points in the first game and a half, Iowa scored 14 fast-break points in the second half.

“The whole second half, I felt, we were playing together really well,” May said. “We were a lot more in sync this game.”

With Matt Gatens still out following surgery on a torn tendon in his left hand, Iowa went deep into its bench. Walk-on junior Jordan Stoermer, an Iowa City West graduate, scored seven points - all in the first half - grabbed three rebounds and had a steal in 19 minutes. Devon Archie, a red-shirt junior who didn't play last year after a shoulder injury, played seven minutes and threw down a thunderous dunk in the second half.

“I felt like after last game - we only played eight - we had a little bit of fatigue without Matt,” McCaffery said. “I wanted to make sure I got Stoermer and Archie in to make sure we had a fresh team. I think you saw the effect defensively in the second half in particular.”

Iowa plays three games in the Paradise Jam Classic in the Virgin Islands this weekend and opens Friday against Xavier. McCaffery said it's “a good possibility” Gatens will return for the tournament.