3 Takeaways: Iowa vs. Nebraska

LINCOLN, Neb. — Thursday night's game at Nebraska left the Iowa men's basketball team with more than a few things to think about. As Coach Fran McCaffery said afterward, there were good and bad things, and it's necessary for them to highlight both as a group.

Let's take a closer look at those, the biggest takeaways from the 93-30 double overtime loss to Nebraska, outside of Iowa's inability to finish Thursday.

1. One-man run

Peter Jok's superlative list seems to have no ceiling. The senior guard is in many ways the pulse of this Hawkeye team, and against Nebraska, he lived up to the hype he's built in the last year.

Jok finished the game with 34 points on 12 of 24 shooting overall, 5 of 11 from 3-point range and added six rebounds. Considering he had four points at halftime on 2 of 7 shooting, the second half and overtimes were something to behold. During the middle part of the second half, he scored 18 out of 20 points in a row for Iowa, including 16 straight — most of those spent bringing Iowa back from down nine.

'I just think he kept working,' McCaffery said of Jok. 'I think we did a better job of running our offense with a little more patience and working the ball to him and some other folks.

'I think he was a little more patient. I think he has to be.'

It was Jok's fourth 30-point game of the season (30 vs. Seton Hall on Nov. 17; 42 vs. Memphis on Nov. 26; 33 vs. Nebraska Omaha on Dec. 3) and made him the first Big Ten player to record four 30-point games before the month of February since Michigan's Louis Bullock in 1998-99.

His game was viewed up close and personally by Nebraska's Tai Webster, who guarded Jok and had 23 points, seven assists and six rebounds of his own. Webster, like most who watched what Jok had to offer Thursday, made his respect plainly clear.

'He's probably the best scorer I've played against, ever,' Webster said after the game.

2. Foul trouble

Fairly significant portions of Thursday night at Pinnacle Bank Arena were spent with both McCaffery and Nebraska head coach Tim Miles either upset with or questioning the game's officials.

Especially late in the game, there were a few confusing exchanges — like when a Tyler Cook tip-in was counted, an off-ball foul was called against Jok, and then the scorers lost track of whether Jok had four or five fouls. McCaffery said after the game the officials 'were trying their best to keep it clean and give both teams a chance. It's a tough game to officiate.'

His players were a little less diplomatic. Jok felt like his turnover at the end of regulation was a foul, saying, 'Personally, I got fouled. He smacked my hand. They said I lost the ball, but I don't know how I lose the ball like that without somebody hitting me.' Cook, who found himself in foul trouble for the second time in his three games back, flatly disagreed with what he was called for.

'I'm going to go back and watch the tape, but I didn't agree with any of the calls,' Cook said. 'The two in the first half, I thought I had my hands straight up. If you're going to come into my chest, of course my arms are going to move down a little bit.

'It's part of the game. I've been playing long enough to figure out that happens sometimes.'

That it's been two out of three games for Cook — he had four fouls against Purdue as well — is some combination of bad luck and bad technique, McCaffery said.

Iowa's head coach said after the Purdue game both Cook and Pemsl need to be better about positioning, and added hand placement to that assessment after Thursday.

'We talk about that all the time and it's tough because he's in there mixing it up. He just has to try to keep his hands up,' McCaffery said. 'Don't pick up one where you have your hand like (down and out of view). Get your hands where the refs can see them and maybe save one there.'

3. Back on the grind

There's no rest for the weary, as the old saying goes, and the Hawkeyes are becoming well-acquainted with that fact.

Iowa has approximately 63 hours between finishing the Nebraska game and tipping off at 3:30 p.m. on Sunday against Rutgers, so there's basically time to sleep, eat, practice and watch some film in the meantime. What there isn't time to do is feel bad about themselves, Jok said.

McCaffery said after the game the message will be to 'stay positive,' and to take not finishing that game as a learning tool. There's no official '24-hour rule' like Kirk Ferentz has for the football team, but that's basically what Jok said he plans to do.

'It's the Big Ten, man. It's a grind. We have to move on,' Jok said. 'It's going to hurt for us, but we've got to get back in film and get ready for Sunday.

'You've got to wake up and get ready for Sunday. For (the young guys), it's going to burn for them. But we've got to get back to work (Friday and Saturday). It's a grind.'

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