Iowa sees 'obvious' fixes it needs out of loss to Seton Hall

IOWA CITY — Iowa wanted this test.

The Hawkeyes wanted to see where they were three games into the season with a young squad that is loaded with potential. Where were they exactly, less than two full weeks into the season? Was the team defense ready for a high-caliber opponent?

After 40 minutes of frustrating basketball, Iowa got its answer in the way of a 91-83 loss to Seton Hall at Carver-Hawkeye Arena. Coach Fran McCaffery said it wasn't about youth Thursday night, though.

'I think anytime you take the floor, you learn something,' McCaffery said. 'I would like to have seen us play better defensively collectively for the duration, but obviously in the second half.

'We just didn't perform to the level that's necessary. And the truth of the matter is we had a pretty experienced team out there Everyone wants to talk about youth. That was a pretty experienced team out there that did not defend. We have to get better.'

McCaffery wasn't the only one who refused to use youth as an excuse, as you'd probably expect from a team that takes its cues from the fiery head coach.

While guys like Peter Jok and Tyler Cook — on the opposite ends of the spectrum, experience-wise — didn't go so far as to call themselves experienced, they saw what happened in front of them the same as everyone else did.

Iowa allowed 50 points in the paint to Seton Hall. The Hawkeyes (2-1) allowed the Pirates (3-0) to go 19 of 29 from the field in the second half, after going to the break up, 44-42. Iowa had difficulty guarding against dribble penetration, and then after going into zone to combat that, trouble effectively closing out on 3-point shooters.

'Our team defense was really bad, but we're going to work on that and get better,' Jok said. 'We can't use (youth) as an excuse. We're basketball players. Coach has been talking to us all year — all summer until now about defense. That's the main thing we have to get better in. Tonight, we didn't do a good job at it. That's the main reason we lost the game, because we were right there.'

Cook laid it all out when asked about the team defense.

He took a share of the responsibility for the lack of rim protection Thursday night. Adam Woodbury isn't walking through the door to do that job any time soon, and Cook has that role primarily going forward. McCaffery said there's 'a lot of work to be done, yeah.' He said five guys being on the same page, effort issues and recognition issues led to 'a lot going on there.'

It was a recipe for a loss, and one that any level of experience would've taken, they said. If teams play like that and communicate that ineffectively, it's nearly impossible to beat a team like Seton Hall, which has four of five starters back from a team that won the Big East Tournament.

'To us it's obvious because he's been preaching the same thing from Day 1. It's on us to carry it out,' Cook said. 'Coach can't go out there and play for us. We've got to be able to communicate. We've got to be able to know what guys are going to do. We've got to be able to help each other. We've got to stay in the gaps. We've got to do a better job on interior defense. We've got to be able to play against these guys early in the season. They're a great team. We should've pulled it out, but we'll learn a lot from it.'

It wasn't all bad Thursday night, though the guys who shined offensively didn't really want to hear any of that.

Jok led Iowa with a career-high in points and rebounds with 30 and 11 on 11 of 21 shooting. Cook also set his still-very-young career high with 24 points on 9 of 15 shooting — highlighted by a reverse pivot dunk in the second half that got 10,391 fans inside Carver-Hawkeye Arena on their feet. Neither player wanted to dwell on that, though. Cook said 'I could've scored 100, but if we took the L it doesn't matter.' Ditto for Jok. Cook also went 5 of 12 from the free throw line, a stat he was none-too-pleased with, to be certain.

The other nine Hawkeyes who played combined for 29 total points, but McCaffery attributed that more to the way he deployed his rotation than any kind of struggles. He stuck with primarily a seven-man rotation in the second half, 'loading up' his more experienced players with more minutes.

But still, the issues are obvious. Seventeen turnovers were too many, and McCaffery said they 'came in bunches,' and on quick closeouts Iowa point guards Christian Williams and Jordan Bohannon might not have been quite ready for.

Iowa wanted the test, and got it. No team ever wants to take a loss, but Thursday night was nothing if not teachable.

'It's going to take a lot of work, but we know what we need to do. So in that sense we're not too far,' Cook said. 'At least we know what we need to get better at. It's just on us now to go out and execute not just in practice but in games, too.

'We've just got to be able to do it in a game and be consistent with it and I think we'll be in good shape after that.'

Iowa is next in action on Sunday against Texas-Rio Grande Valley.

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