A day after Nebraska announced that Fred Hoiberg would be returning for next season, Iowa helped shut the door on the Huskers' current campaign by beating them 88-78 in Nebraska's home finale. Keegan Mur wait hang on, TONY PERKINS led all scorers with 20 points on 8-for-10 shooting, and Iowa got double-digit scoring from five other players to lead a balanced attack.
First thing to mention: the win pushes Iowa to 20-8 and 10-7 in conference play, marking the fourth consecutive season the Hawkeyes have hit the 20-win mark and the eighth* time under Fran McCaffery. The 10-7 Big Ten mark pushes Iowa into a tie for fifth place with Rutgers(!), and Iowa could well end up with that No. 5 seed come Big Ten Tourney time.
*Dr. Tom still has the most with ten 20-win seasons for the black and gold — just ten ahead of Todd Lickliter.
As for the game itself, well... Iowa did score 88 points. That didn't seem likely after a listless first half, where Iowa trailed by as many as seven points and needed a spinning layup by Filip Rebraca just to get into the break with a one-point lead, but the offense seized control with 52 points after the half to put a pesky Husker team away.
Right place, right time for @FRebraca @IowaHoops goes to the half with the lead pic.twitter.com/iEzvWaqYYn
— FOX College Hoops (@CBBonFOX) February 26, 2022
And fair play to Nebraska: the fans were loud, obnoxious and rarely correct — likely the first time Fred Hoiberg had felt like he was back coaching in Ames in quite some time. Not a complaint; the fan heat livened up the atmosphere and kept Nebraska in contention for most of the game. Jordan Bohannon, per usual, drew the crowd's loudest ire (you see, Fred? It's just like home!) for such inexcusable acts as getting hit in the side of the head by his defender and getting shoved by a Nebraska player after the whistle. Neither of those is an exaggeration or other misrepresentation of fact.
This isn't to coddle JBo — he's a very self-aware provocateur and he's certainly not going to dwell on either of those incidents, so we're not about to either — but to underscore that this was the same hostile environment that Iowa, rather inexplicably, had dropped four straight games in. So when the Hawkeyes started off slow and let Nebraska take lightly contested drives to the rim, sure, it was easy to infer that a familiar pattern was happening again.
But this is a good team that's peaking at the right time of the season, and Fran McCaffery is handing out green lights like full-size candy bars at Halloween. Perkins, Bohannon and Keegan Murray each played at least 17 minutes of the second half, with Perkins scoring 15 of his career-high 20 after intermission.
Tony brought the sauce
— FOX College Hoops (@CBBonFOX) February 26, 2022
Long jumper for @Saucy___T to increase @IowaHoops' lead pic.twitter.com/Ht5OmPLDu1
Perkins' (early) career night was especially promising as he was able to show a smooth, confident jumper from both deep and mid-range. If there's been one weak spot on the Iowa offense for a while now, it's the athletic wing who can move off the dribble and both finish at the rim and use a mid-range jumper effectively enough to put help defenders in impossible decisions. Perkins' outside shot isn't there yet, but a game like this was the step he needed to take on that front.
And while we're on guys who were building reputations as perimeter liabilities: Connor McCaffery is all of a sudden the most automatic shooter on this team. Yeah. He went 3-for-3 from deep tonight, pushing his personal streak to six straight made three-pointerss and 11 for his last 17.
I KNOW.
Wide open @connor_m30 gets an open look for @IowaHoops pic.twitter.com/ClOJZxiFqh
— FOX College Hoops (@CBBonFOX) February 26, 2022
Prior to the spree, Connor was 5-for-25 from deep on the year, a disastrous .200 hit rate that, you would think, would prompt most coaches to consider a shock collar to prevent the player from attempting a three again. Instead, Connor's 3PT% is up to .357 on the season.
By way of comparison, Payton Sandfort's season 3PT% is .355.
I KNOWWWWWWW.
A big part of Iowa's efficiency Friday night — and really, for most of the Big Ten season — was its offensive rebounding. After an absolutely disastrous December on the boards, Fran McCaffery has his team fighting on the glass and restoring balance to the force.
Consider this stat from our friend Jon Miller:
Iowa now 17-0 when they win the rebounding battle, this season.
— Jon D. Miller (@hawkeyepodcast) February 26, 2022
When Iowa was getting doubled-up on the glass in December, be honest: did you think a stat like that was even possible this season?
Keegan Murray was off his usual tempo for most of the evening, which is to say we finally had a game where there wasn't some silly stat like "Keegan Murray is outscoring the opposition all by himself after 6 minutes." Even with a 1-for-6 first half, Keegan ended with 15 points, 11 rebounds, two assists and a block. He was 3-for-7 from the charity stripe, and man, it's a good thing he did that against a school that only plays basketball due to conference obligations.
The key stretch of the game was an 11-0 burst starting at 9:15 in the second half. Iowa strung together six straight stops as Kris Murray scored seven of his 15 game points, and Keegan and Perkins added a pair of their own. The run pushed Iowa's lead to a much more comfortable 69-56, and the Huskers never got it closer than seven the rest of the way.
pic.twitter.com/aJ8dJZ2QRE
— Mark Freund (@MarkFreundTV) February 26, 2022
Another one of Nebraska's Academic All-Americans.
It's a testament to how well-coached this team is on offense that we can characterize a 10-turnover game as "sloppy," but yeah, it was sloppy. Iowa also missed seven shots at the rim and left Nebraska shooters wide open a few too many times. Aside from the aforementioned run, it was a performance that probably wouldn't beat more than a handful of conference opponents.
But fortunately, say it with me here: they're just Nebraska.
Senior Night is next for the fellows — for the ladies, too, and it's a sellout — with jNorthwestern standing in the way of clinching another winning Big Ten season. Still no word on if Connor McCaffery's participating in that ceremony, but Bohannon certainly is, and they might have to delay the game for the ovation on that one. Can't wait.
We digress. It's a 10-point road win, it's one step closer to the Dance, and we'll always take that.
Go Iowa Awesome.
