Iowa sees slow start compounded, falls big to No. 15 Purdue

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — One problem compounded on another.

Such was the story of the first half, and ultimately, the game for the Iowa men's basketball team in its blowout, 89-67, loss at No. 15 Purdue on Wednesday night. The Boilermakers came out shooting well, the Hawkeyes did not. The Boilermakers swarmed to open shooters on defense, the Hawkeyes did not.

Purdue is the team Iowa expected, but in listening to its coach and its players, the Hawkeyes didn't do much to help themselves against one of the best teams in the country.

'We didn't play with the necessary poise to beat a ranked team that's this good. We just didn't,' Iowa Coach Fran McCaffery said. 'We got sideways early and then started quick-shooting the ball. You go on the road, get behind and start quick-shooting the ball, then you can't manage the game. We can survive 15, 16. You can't be down 24, 25.

'We had a chance to keep it at 15 with a little more intelligent play, a little more execution; a little better defensive presence, and we didn't do it. What I'm hopeful for is that we learn from that.'

Iowa (8-6, 0-1 Big Ten) was down 8-0 before the smoke settled from the pregame intro show inside Mackey Arena.

Behind 10 of 17 shooting from 3-point range, Purdue (12-2, 1-0) pulled away with relative ease. Iowa guard Peter Jok said after the game of those 17 first-half 3-point attempts, 13 of them were open — and the majority of those came while Iowa was in zone defense.

The Hawkeyes have talked a lot about communication and how that affects what they do and can anticipate on defense. McCaffery couldn't pinpoint just that, though, when it came to what Iowa did defensively.

While Purdue offers matchup issues any team could struggle with, Iowa falling into once again being reactive instead of proactive put the game out of reach early.

'When we went to the zone, I thought our awareness, our execution and our movement was really bad in the first half. If you do that, they're going to make you pay,' McCaffery said. 'It was pretty much everything. Communication, movement, recognition. We were staring at the ball a little too much.

'You've got to know the difference if they're flashing or ball screening up top. You've got area to recover to. If they skip it, you've got to get there. We were almost there. And you've got to get there.'

Iowa got 13 points and six rebounds from Jok, 12 points and two rebounds from Tyler Cook in his return from injury, 11 from Brady Ellingson on 3 of 3 shooting from deep and 10 points and four rebounds from Cordell Pemsl.

Jok was stifled by Purdue's hard double teams and quick help in the first half, totaling just two points by the break. While he came out more aggressive — as did the entire Hawkeye team, though more aggressive is relative — it was too little too late, he said.

The Hawkeyes got zero points combined from starters Ahmad Wagner and Isaiah Moss, the pair of which McCaffery said were forced out of rhythm early and were never able to find enough of one to make more of an impact.

Cook and Pemsl both dealt with foul trouble, and both ended the game with four — one of which was a technical on Pemsl for hanging on the rim after a missed dunk. Cook, who was lauded by McCaffery and Jok for his play upon return, said he tried to do too much early and that foul trouble affected his reintegration.

'I felt a little rust, too, coming back from missing a month of basketball,' Cook said. 'This is a tough team to come back against. I felt like I was trying to do too much at first and finally in the second half I felt a little more comfortable. … Obviously it was too late to make a big impact at that point.'

It would be easy to flush this from the Hawkeyes' perspective, but to a man, each of the players asked said that won't happen.

There was enough wrong Wednesday night that there are several options for McCaffery and his staff to pick from. Using Wednesday as a lesson was important, especially according to Jok — who once again shouldered blame for what the Hawkeyes lacked against the Boilermakers.

'We've just got a lot of learning points to get out of this game,' Jok said. 'The way we started is why we got behind by a lot. We couldn't recover from that. Individually, especially me, I wasn't really locked in in the beginning. We can't have that, especially as a leader.

'They're a great team, and in the second half we played better, but we can't come out like that, especially against a team like this.'

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