Against Wisconsin, Iowa was able to shake off a sluggish start and shaky offense (aside from Luka Garza's one-man show) in the first half thanks to a more balanced offensive attack and some tenacious defense. Today Iowa also got off to a somewhat sluggish start and struggled to keep up with their opponent. Did today's game also have a happy ending? SPOILER ALERT: Illinois ain't Wisconsin.
Illinois has looked like one of the best teams in the country over the last two months, winning 12 of their last 13 entering today and crushing many of those foes, including Michigan just 11 days ago. They toyed with Rutgers last night before dispatching them by 20+ points. So we knew Iowa would need to be at their very best to earn a measure of revenge after losing to Illinois at the end of January (one of the earliest wins in this current hot streak). This game was not Iowa at its very best.
Luka Garza, in particular, was not at his best in this game, especially in the first half, when he had just 8 points on 4/10 shooting, 0/2 from 3-point range. He also had nine rebounds and two assists in the first half. He really struggled with his shot, though, both around the perimeter and near the basket. Kofi Cockburn's size and skill as a defender definitely posed problems for Garza that he struggled to solve today. Cockburn also outplayed him on the other end of the floor, too, particularly in the first half when he had 18 points on 7/10 shooting and was practically a guaranteed bucket for Illinois during the opening 20 minutes. Garza had 13 points in the second half, but more due to volume of shots than anything else: he was just 4/11 from the field and missed his only three-point try after the break, though he did make all five of his free throw attempts. For the game, Garza finished with 21 points and 12 rebounds; those numbers are far from bad, but an 8/21 shooting performance (0/3 from long range) signifies just how hard it was for Garza to have his usual impact today. Cockburn finished with 26 points and 8 rebounds today and he seemed to get the better of the Garza-Cockburn matchup today when both men were on the court. Props to Kofi, who was very good indeed today.
In the first half, Garza got a lot of assistance from Iowa's other two offensive leaders, Joe Wieskamp and Jordan Bohannon. Wieskamp was particularly locked-in, posting 11 points on 4/7 shooting (3/5 from 3-point range). He looked like the Weezy that lit up Wisconsin last Sunday before that untimely rolled ankle ended his day. The good news is that Wieskamp's health seemed to hold up fine today (just as it did last night), despite playing heavy minutes (37 minutes). The bad news is that his shooting stroke did not; Wieskamp was 0/5 from the floor in the second half and missed both of his three-point tries. It's awfully tough for Iowa to win when both Garza and Wieskamp are struggling from the floor (fortunately, that doesn't happen very often).
Bohannon had a team-high 12 points in the first half, shooting 4/7 from the floor and 3/6 from behind the arc, to help keep Iowa in the game. His shooting also dipped in the second half, where he shot just 2/8 from the floor (2/7 from long range) while scoring 8 points. Those shooting numbers are slightly warped by the fact that Bohannon was gunning out of desperation late in the game, but overall he just wasn't as sharp in the second half as he was in the first. Iowa did get eight points off the bench from Tony Perkins and Keegan Murray; they also contributed three rebounds and an assist in the second 20 minutes. Perkins, Murray, and Patrick McCaffery were the only reserves to see action in the second half of the game.
After some early back-and-forth action in which both teams traded the lead, Iowa seemed to struggle to stay in the game after Illinois took control of the game toward the end of the first half. Given how sloppy Iowa was with the ball and how shaky their offense looked in the final minutes before the break, it was a small miracle that Iowa was only down 45-37 at the break. When Illinois pushed that lead out to 14 early in the second half, it seemed like Iowa's goose was cooked, but to their credit, they kept trying to claw their way back into the game.
The deficit stayed around 10 for most of the half, until Iowa used an 8-0 run to claw it down to five with 3:42 to play. That led to one of the most pivotal moments in the game's final minutes; down five, Iowa managed to get a stop on defense and had the ball with a chance to make it a one-possession game for the first time since the midpoint of the first half. Unfortunately, Andre Curbelo stole the ball from Bohannon at mid-court and Ayo Dosunmu finished off an easy layup to cut down Iowa's burgeoning momentum. (Dosunmu was particularly good all day, finishing with 17 points, 9 assists, and 7 rebounds and was incredibly difficult for Iowa to defend. Curbelo was an invaluable sparkplug off the bench, going for 12 points, 7 rebounds, 3 assists, and 3 steals. He was a huge problem for Iowa all game.) A pair of Bohannon free throws moments later again cut the lead down to five at 76-71. Unfortunately, those were also the last points Iowa scored in the game. Iowa couldn't get any more jump shots to fall, while Illinois converted buckets in the paint and made a pair of free throws. Game, set, match.
And so ends Iowa's Big Ten Tournament run. It lasted longer than any BTT run Iowa had put together since winning the whole thing in 2006, but it came to the same title-less ending as Iowa's previous 14 trips to the Big Ten Tournament. Still, there's no shame in splitting a pair of games with Wisconsin and Illinois. Both teams are ranked in the Top 11 overall by KenPom (#11 for Wisconsin, #3 for Illinois) and are among the best teams in the country. Iowa beat the Badgers and was competitive with Illinois for most of the game today. It always stings to lose to the Illini, but there's certainly no shame involved in losing to this particular Illinois squad, which is as good as any they've had since the 2005 national runner-up team.
The good news for Iowa? After two and half months of beating their heads against the best the Big Ten has to offer (plus Nebraska), Iowa finally gets a break from the best conference in the country and the murderer's row of opponents it boasts. It's time to play some non-Big Ten opposition and see how the Hawkeyes stack up against opponents who aren't a) extremely familiar with them and b) among the best teams in the country. That should be a very welcome change of pace for the Hawkeyes. Tomorrow we'll find out what's next for Iowa -- their seed and what their path through the bracket looks like. This loss was a bitter pill, but there's still every reason to be excited about what the next few weeks could hold for Iowa basketball.
Go Hawks. Go Iowa Awesome.
