Iowa still trying to find the right formula on the road

IOWA CITY — Iowa men's basketball coach Fran McCaffery said after his Hawkeyes lost at Purdue to open the Big Ten season that sometimes teams have to go through an experience to come out the other side with real knowledge to be applied later.

What he didn't say then was whether it was just one experience or multiple for that knowledge to sink in.

The simplest answer is there isn't an answer. Every team grows at different rates. Every team adjusts to adversity in different ways. Every team; every year. McCaffery didn't use that as an excuse for why the Hawkeyes are still winless in true road games, rather pointing out it's one factor among many.

It just also is the factor that can be agonizing because of its uncertainty and timeline.

'I do think this team has the ability to understand what's happening,' McCaffery said. 'Eventually what you've got to be able to do is put together two halves and most importantly close out close games. That's the hardest thing on the road. That's where the experience factor comes in. You look at Melo Trimble and the plays he makes — forget about our game; look at the other games and why (Maryland is) 17-2. He's done some amazing things. He has that confidence in himself. Our guys have that as well, but it still takes a little bit of time.'

Youth has been the narrative and will continue to be, whether the Hawkeyes (11-9, 3-4 Big Ten) win or not. Iowa goes to State Farm Center in Champaign, Ill., to face Illinois at 8 p.m. (BTN) on Wednesday. If the Hawkeyes win that game, it'll likely be because one or more of their freshmen stepped up. If they lose, it'll likely be because more than one freshman didn't.

No matter how it's sliced, that's how it'll be because of who plays and when.

McCaffery plays 11 guys regularly. In addition to starters Peter Jok, Jordan Bohannon, Isaiah Moss, Cordell Pemsl and Tyler Cook — though that might change, according to McCaffery — Nicholas Baer, Ahmad Wagner, Dom Uhl, Christian Williams, Brady Ellingson and now Ryan Kriener get extended minutes. Dale Jones' return from injury adds a 12th. McCaffery pointed out it was Bohannon and Pemsl, two freshmen, who played the best in their first true road game at Notre Dame, and that it was Moss who lifted them in the first half at Nebraska.

But those three, plus Jok and Cook, get consistent minutes. So does Baer, who averages the fourth most minutes per game while coming off the bench. Uhl, Wagner, Williams, Ellingson, Kriener and Jones have to show they deserve to be on the floor in just a few quick possessions. Uhl has had to watch the last two games with a thumb injury, but McCaffery said he thinks Uhl will play at Illinois, 'and I think he'll be really good.'

Being able to develop confidence away from home while trying to make an impact in a small space of time is packed with personal pressure, and something McCaffery acknowledged is hard to manage.

'That's almost the only fair way to do it. I struggle with that sometimes, too, because think about the pressure that puts on those guys,' McCaffery said. ''If coach puts me in, I'm going to get three minutes to prove I can play, otherwise I'm not getting back in.' That's a tough spot to be in, and I don't like to do that to players. You're weighing the sense of fairness at the front end to the sense of reality on the back end. And I guess what's going to end up happening is I'm going to kind of go with it as the game goes on and if I see a spot for a certain guy (I'll) get him in there.'

The Hawkeyes have to gain experience as a group while individuals gain time on the court necessary to get that experience in the first place. McCaffery has to manage playing a rotation that will be efficient and effective while also growing guys individually so they even have a spot in the rotation.

All that is hard at Carver-Hawkeye Arena; it's even harder when adding a hostile environment.

McCaffery pointed out there have been stretches of games on the road this season where Iowa seemed to have it figured out, but also the obvious that 40 minutes of figured-it-out-basketball has yet to be put together.

There's no easy answer — except that it all takes time.

'I think you've got to go through that to understand, start-to-finish, what's necessary. That starts with preparation and then it goes through the start of the game, how you manage the end of the first half, the start of the second half; how you manage the end-of-game situations, and how you deal with different lineups that may end up on the floor,' McCaffery said. 'We have a lot of guys who play. I'm not playing seven guys. That's easy to figure out. When you're playing as many guys as I'm playing, who knows what lineup is going to be on the floor?

'That takes time for all those guys to develop the confidence necessary to compete successfully and to understand how to play together on the road.'

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