Game Awards: Iowa Basketball 84, North Dakota Fighting Hawks 73

A look at who played well and who didn’t in Iowa’s win over North Dakota

Iowa basketball‘s 84-73 win over North Dakota, which moved them to 7-5 on the season and gave them their fourth straight win, became minuscule to Fran McCaffery refusing to shake hands with Brian Jones, North Dakota’s head coach, after the game.

A flop by Quinton Hooker that led to a technical foul on Jordan Bohannon with 37 seconds left seemingly started Fran McCaffery’s displeasure. It escalated when North Dakota ripped the ball out of Nicholas Baer‘s hands as time expired and down 11 to try to get one last layup.

McCaffery didn’t appreciate it and stormed off the court yelling and waving for his team to follow. Everyone, including the broadcasters, were confused, but eventually Iowa followed their coach without shaking hands.

McCaffery didn’t give a long explanation after the game. He simply said that he did not like how the game ended.

Some will say that he blew up and was throwing a tantrum. Others will say he was trying to make sure nothing escalated in the handshake line. There’s no way to really know what he was thinking, but if McCaffery truly felt a scuffle could have broken out then he made the right move.

As far as the game, there were positives and negatives. Dom Uhl started in place of Cordell Pemsl after Pemsl was late to shoot around. That said, Pemsl still played 24 minutes and almost recorded his first double-double with nine points and 11 rebounds.

Iowa’s defense started slow. They were able to get into the lane and find open shooters on offense, but their poor transition defense led to North Dakota only trailing 14-12 almost eight minutes into the game.

With the help of better defense, Iowa went on a 16-0 run to blow the game open and take a 37-18 lead. Although, North Dakota answered with a 10-0 run and pulled within nine.

An Isaiah Moss dunk, which will be on highlight reels at the end of the year, gave Iowa a 41-30 halftime lead, though.

The Hawkeyes allowed North Dakota to hang around in the second half, as they missed a lot of free-throws and their defense started to struggle again. Iowa made just 23-of-34 free-throws against North Dakota, but an 11-2 run to give Iowa a 75-59 lead put North Dakota away for good.

Peter Jok tied for a team-high 18 points and made all 10 free-throws, but he struggled shooting from the field. He shot just 4-of-15 and missed all three of his three-point attempts. Plus, he committed four fouls. He added eight rebounds and four assists, too.

The Hawkeyes’ defense had their good moments, but they also had their bad moments. Their offense continues to prove to be one of the best in the Big Ten this year, but they still need to defend in transition to be successful.

Still, the Hawkeyes showed a lot of toughness by stopping North Dakota’s runs and never letting them back in the game. It further shows that this is not the same team than even a couple of weeks ago.

Here is who played well and who didn’t in Iowa’s win.