3 Takeaways: Williams ignites Iowa's bench

IOWA CITY — Lackluster bench play has coincided with much of Iowa's recent slump. But Tuesday in an 81-78 loss to Indiana, Hawkeye reserves played their best game at the most opportune time.

Iowa's bench scored 27 points, its most since putting up 31 in the non-conference final against Tennessee Tech. Many were important baskets, and all were valued efforts.

Freshman post Ahmad Wagner, who injured his hip Sunday at Ohio State, scored 11 points on 5-of-6 shooting and grabbed nine rebounds in 17 minutes. Red-shirt freshman forward Nicholas Baer drilled back-to-back 3-pointers to help Iowa erase a 14-point deficit and tie the game. Perhaps most surprising, freshman guard Christian Williams scored eight points and pulled down three offensive boards in 12 minutes.

'So proud of those guys,' Iowa Coach Fran McCaffery said. 'Ahmad was struggling (Monday) walking around. He said, 'Coach, I'll be ready.' He was fabulous. Baer was great, Christian Williams was great. I thought Dom Uhl's energy level, though he doesn't have a lot to show for with the stats, I thought he really gave us great effort.'

Williams' minutes were vital, especially with senior guards Mike Gesell and Anthony Clemmons in foul trouble. Before Tuesday's game, Williams had appeared in only six Big Ten games for a total of 21 minutes. He played three minutes on Sunday at Ohio State but his aggressiveness made an impact on Iowa's coaching staff.

'(McCaffery) liked that,' Williams said. 'He told me (Monday) after practice, 'Stay ready.' That's what I did.'

Williams entered the game with 13:18 left in the first half and he rotated between the off-guard and point guard positions. He missed his first shot, then knocked down a jumper. Williams then started attacking the rim. Twice he drew contact on Indiana forward Troy Williams while shooting in the first half. Christian Williams scored on one of Troy Williams' fouls, and he had all eight points by halftime.

'He gave us fabulous minutes because we put him in at the wing, we put him in at the point, defensively, a huge steal late,' McCaffery said. 'He got off the glass. He can help you in a lot of ways. He really played with the confidence that you need to play with to win.'

'(Assistant) Coach (Kirk) Speraw just tells me to attack defenders,' Williams said. 'They're backpedaling in transition and just do what I do best. My transition game is pretty good.'

Gesell played only six minutes in the first half. He touted how Williams has grown as a player throughout this season.

'The more aggressive he gets, the better he becomes,' Gesell said. 'That was awesome how he stepped up (Tuesday) when me and Sapp (Clemmons) were in a little bit of foul trouble. We really needed that from him, and he picked us up. He has a very bright future here at Iowa, and he's going to continue to step up throughout this season.'

Williams is one of five true freshmen on Iowa's roster. He's a sleek, 6-foot-6, 200-pound combo guard who can run and defend. At Decatur (Ill.) St. Teresa, Williams was a first-team Class 2A all-state player and set a county record with 1,587 points. At times this year he struggled to grasp Iowa's system. But he always showed his promise in practice.

'The first time we played Michigan State, Coach Speraw actually had me on their scout team playing as Eron Harris and he told me to just play like I play,' Williams said. ''Play like you're playing in a park,' and that's how I did and that's what kind of helped me (Tuesday).'

2. Trouble with the clutch. Iowa remains unable to break through in tight, close games, a trend that has roots several years deep.

Over the last three years, the Hawkeyes have played 15 games where they had a chance to tie or win a game with 11 seconds or less left in regulation or overtime. Iowa owns a 4-11 record in those games and its success rate is stunningly bad.

The Hawkeyes have attempted 15 shots in those games and have connected on only two. Both were made by Jarrod Uthoff and both took place last year. The first was a 3-pointer at Northwestern that sent the game into overtime in an eventual loss. The second was a jumper at Minnesota in a tie game. That was the only game-winning shot in the 16 situations spanning 15 games.

This year Iowa has taken six shots in the final four seconds with a chance to win or send the game into overtime. Four different starters have taken a turn. Trailing by three against Indiana, Anthony Clemmons missed a 3-pointer with three seconds left, and Peter Jok missed a triple with one second left.

At Ohio State, guard Mike Gesell had his layup blocked with three seconds left in a two-point game. Earlier this year, Uthoff missed a 3-point attempt with 2.4 seconds left down one at Iowa State. In the ACC-Big Ten Challenge against Florida State, Gesell drove the baseline, but his shot hit the back of the glass with the game tied. In the Advocare Invitational, Iowa trailed Dayton by three, and Jok missed a 3-pointer with four seconds left. Iowa is 1-4 this year in those games.

Only in three of those situations did the Hawkeyes call a timeout, one of which was Tuesday. Iowa center Adam Woodbury called time with 2.1 seconds left against Indiana when he rebounded Clemmons' misfire. The only other timeouts were called in 2013-14 — one before a second free throw was attempted by Michigan State in overtime; the other when Illinois hit its own 3-pointer with 0.6 seconds left.

Overall, in 15 games (16 situations counting late-game and overtime against Michigan State in 2013-14), Iowa is 2-of-15 shooting with two turnovers and one game where they failed to take a shot (Syracuse last year). Five games were at home (one win, no successful shots), seven on the road (two wins, both field goals) and three neutral site games (one win, no successful shots).

3. Looking ahead. Iowa (20-9, 11-6) finishes at Michigan (20-10, 10-7) on Saturday. From there, sorting out the Big Ten Tournament seeding is complicated because six teams have 11 wins in Big Ten play.

If Iowa beats Michigan, the Hawkeyes have a reasonable chance at the fourth or fifth seed. We'll mark Michigan State with a pair of wins this week against Rutgers and Ohio State and concede Wisconsin (Minnesota) and Maryland (Illinois) wins as well. Should Purdue beat Wisconsin and Indiana beat Maryland (along with an Iowa victory), that would create a four-way tie between Maryland, Iowa, Wisconsin and Purdue. Among the four, Maryland would have the best overall record at 3-2. Purdue (3-3) and Iowa (2-3) are deadlocked and Wisconsin is 2-3. Maryland would be the third seed.

Then in a new tiebreaker among Iowa (2-1), Wisconsin (1-2) and Purdue (2-2), the Hawkeyes would become the fourth seed, Purdue the fifth and Wisconsin the sixth.

If Wisconsin wins at Purdue on Sunday, then the Badgers would tie Michigan State for the second seed but lose the tiebreaker and fall to third. Maryland and Iowa would share fourth place, and the Terrapins own the head-to-head match-up and win that tiebreaker.

If Iowa loses to Michigan, the Hawkeyes, Wolverines and Buckeyes would tie for the sixth seed. Ohio State beat both in their only match-ups and becomes the sixth seed. If Michigan State finishes second, then Iowa wins the tiebreaker with Michigan to become the seventh seed.

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