Iowa adjusting on the fly heading to Notre Dame

IOWA CITY — The early ups and downs of Iowa men's basketball's season aren't a shock.

Coach Fran McCaffery and his players expected success, yes, but they also were frank about the fact that the team was far from a finished product. The trip to the Emerald Coast Classic was evidence enough, to be sure.

In losses to No. 6 Virginia and Memphis, the Hawkeyes committed 18 turnovers in both games, allowed 86 total points in the paint and 1.289 points per possession. And while the offense bounced back from being smothered by the Cavaliers' pack-line defense, bolstered by 42 points from Peter Jok against the Tigers, there's still a long way to go until Iowa is to the level it believes capable.

So does McCaffery push his players hard, still in November? Does he stay patient, knowing their youth? Does he let Jok, Dom Uhl and Nicholas Baer circle the wagons with the younger players?

With a trip to Notre Dame up so quickly after their return from Florida, the short answer is yes — to all three questions.

'There's no blueprint for that,' McCaffery said. 'I expect Pete to communicate, to perform; to perform under pressure and develop confidence among his teammates. I want them to rely on him, but take care of their own business.

'Sometimes we get on them, sometimes we just teach and coach; sometimes we just let them play. There's no substitute for experience.'

Sometimes getting back on the court so quickly after a rough stretch of games — in this case, tournament — is the best medicine. Sometimes all a team needs is a bye week to hit the reset button and recalibrate on the fly.

This isn't the first time McCaffery has had to deal with inexperience on one of his teams, and it won't be the last. It's also not the first time he's dealt with the grind of non-conference basketball, in which travel and tip times can be far from the routine they'll be able to develop come conference season.

McCaffery said Monday he's not sweating the short turnaround from Saturday's game against Memphis, the travel home, then right back out on the road to South Bend, Ind., to face Notre Dame.

The Irish (6-0) represent more of what the Hawkeyes (3-3) have struggled against so far this season, so it's not like things get easier.

Led by forward Bonzie Colson at 17.2 points per game, the Irish have four players who average double-digit scoring, shoot 47.2 percent from the field and 40.1 percent from 3-point range. They also are plus-7.8 in turnover margin and get assists on 62 percent of their field goals. McCaffery said they have the ability to go big or small, and 'if you look at their spacing and their ball movement, and their ability to put it on the deck and make plays for each other; then also make 3s, it makes them really hard to guard — not unlike Virginia.'

The way Iowa wants to play and the way it might have to play — for now, anyway — could be two different things. Ahmad Wagner said before the season that these could be the 'showtime Hawkeyes,' and while they've tried to run the floor and use their athleticism offensively, there have been cases where fast was too fast. There's not a lot of time to change philosophy on the fly, and McCaffery doesn't want to stunt his players, but the numbers are what they are.

The Hawkeyes average 16.3 turnovers per game, the fewest they've had in a game this season was 15 against Savannah State, and their turnover margin is minus-1.7. Iowa hasn't scored on a fast break since the UT-Rio Grande Valley game, either.

Christian Williams, Tyler Cook, Uhl, Baer and Jok have started all six games for the Hawkeyes so far, but that may not be the case much longer. McCaffery said 'contemplating changes (to the lineup) is probably exactly what I'm doing, but I haven't decided anything yet.' Freshman point guard Jordan Bohannon has played 22 minutes per game so far, and was in for long stretches of crunchtime against Memphis.

McCaffery does, though, have his best player scoring like crazy, all while dealing with what the head coach described as a shoulder 'impingement' since the summer in an interview with the Hawkeye Radio Network after the loss to Memphis on Saturday.

Jok is averaging 25.3 points per game, good for second in the country behind Marcus Keane of Central Michigan. He had to come out of the Memphis game due to the shoulder, but returned and finished out his career night, seemingly fine. McCaffery said Jok has gotten rest from practice on more than one occasion — including between the Memphis and Notre Dame games — but that there are no real worries.

'He's a gamer; he'll be fine,' McCaffery said.

Outside of Jok's output, the Hawkeyes will have constant adjustments necessary in the short term, with not a lot of time in which to make them and high-caliber opponents on deck and right around the corner.

'We have to be better in our anticipation of what's coming, rather than reacting to what's coming. We have to be more physical. … And that's just going to come with experience,' McCaffery said. 'You can't have 18 turnovers, and the other team has seven, and expect to win. That number has got to go down. So if we have to play a little slower or if we have to pass on some aggressiveness, and be a little more solid, that's what we're going to have to do — at least in the short run.'

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