Three takeaways: Gesell, shooting slumps, smaller bench

IOWA CITY - Iowa point guard Mike Gesell needed a reminder of his best offensive attributes Monday night, and his coach provided it in clear fashion.

On Pepperdine's first possession of the second half, Gesell secured a steal, then raced up the court. Then his wayward pass sizzled out of bounds, prompting a discussion with Coach Fran McCaffery.

'The first possession of the second half, he makes an unbelievable steal,” McCaffery said. 'Comes down the floor and throws the ball away. And I said to him, I said, ‘Mike, I said, who stopped you?' I said, ‘Nobody. You just, you were coming down and you were going to make a pass to somebody.' I said, ‘You keep going until somebody stops you. Every time you come down, until somebody stops you, you keep going.'”

That was a message Gesell seemed to absorb as part of a 72-61 win. He finished with 15 points, including nine after halftime. After his coaching session, Gesell had three assists and no turnovers and played 17 minutes in the second half.

'I was trying to make a play, and Fran got on me for that,” Gesell said. 'He told me to just continue to be more aggressive, and I think I was able to be more aggressive the rest of the game.

'I just told myself, ‘Keep shooting, keep shooting.' I'm very confident in my shot. I didn't shoot it well in New York, but I'm the type of player that I feel like I'm a great shooter and I'm going to continue to shoot the ball.”

Gesell (6.6 points, 4.0 assists per game) struggled mightily from the field in Iowa's previous four games, shooting a combined 7 of 25. Many of the shots were rushed or contested. Monday, he was 4 of 7 and employed his midrange game with pullup jumpers. He ignited a crucial 11-3 run with a jumper, a pair of free throws and a 3-pointer.

'In New York I think I was really overpenetrating at times and wasn't utilizing my shot fake,” Gesell said. 'Each game is a little bit different. I think I was taking better shots and picking my shots well.”

Gesell's confidence seemed to translate to his teammates. The Hawkeyes (3-2) combined for only five more turnovers after Gesell's out-of-bounds pass. Iowa also picked up its defense, scoring 13 points off 11 Pepperdine turnovers in the second half.

'He had a couple of turnovers because he was trying to make the perfect play, he was trying to set us up,” Iowa forward Aaron White said. 'I think as the game went on, he did a good job of taking what the defense gave him. They weren't stopping the transition; he was driving to a hole. If he drove to the hole and got stopped, he kicked it out. He made his shots. It was a big-time game for him. Hopefully he can carry it over to the rest of the season.”

2. Shooting slumps.

Shooting guards Peter Jok and Josh Oglesby are stuck in massive slumps. Jok is just 4 of 16 in five games, while Oglesby is 7 of 32. With both of their obvious shooting prowess, their slump is befuddling along with the concurrent nature of the issue.

Oglesby, a senior who has experienced his own ups and downs, recognizes his slow start but has no plans to alter his approach.

'It feels good. I'm just in a little slump right now,” he said. 'I've just got to stay positive and keep shooting and get in the gym and keep shooting.

'I just stay confident. I'm positive I'll get out of this. I know I will. It's just kind of rough in the beginning, and I'm going to fight through it and stay positive.”

Oglesby had a dreadful sophomore year, shooting 26.9 percent from 3-point range. He suffered a broken foot before his junior season, but rebounded to hit 40.3 percent of his 3-point shots and finished second on the team in overall 3-pointers (31).

Jok played sparingly last year but scored 10 points of 4-of-5 shooting in the NCAA tournament against Tennessee. But over his last three games, he's hit just 1 of 8 shots and totaled four points.

'They're both killing it in practice,” McCaffery said. 'It's one of those things I think where they're pressing a little bit. They know they're having good looks.

'The only time I'm going to get upset with either of them is if they're taking contested or bad shots, ill advised, wrong time on the shot or game clock. But I run stuff for them, they run out on the break, we throw it to them, they got the green light to shoot the ball. I thought they took good shots.”

3. Shortening the bench.

Iowa played nine players and almost exclusively went with seven players against Pepperdine, which seemed to indicate McCaffery planned to trim the number of minutes on his roster.

Freshman forward Dominique Uhl didn't play, and sophomore point guard Trey Dickerson competed for just four minutes. Even Peter Jok competed for just 11 minutes.

McCaffery, however, suggested otherwise in his postgame interview.

'I feel terrible about that,” McCaffery said. 'Trey played well when I put him in. Dom, I should have got him in there. It was one of those games, it was a struggle offensively, and it was a lot, it was one of those games. We're playing an experienced, physical, very strong athletic team. And I thought it was a tough situation for Dom right now, to put him where every possession is magnified, because of the quality of our opponent. So I feel terrible, he deserves to play, I got to get him in and I will.”

Iowa needs Uhl to make quick strides as the team prepares for Big Ten play. The Hawkeyes used four players in the frontcourt, and posts Adam Woodbury and Gabe Olaseni each finished with four fouls. While Uhl is raw, he will play minutes against high-level competition.

Dickerson provides Iowa with a burst of quickness that nobody else on the team possesses. His defense alone should make him indispensable as the season progresses.

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