Fran Gets Tossed, Iowa Loses Another Lead

Oh man.

Where do I even start?  I think I speak for all of you Hawkeye fans when I say that this one physically hurt to watch.  Whether you want to key in on the awful free throw shooting, poor shot selection by some players, or Fran completely losing it and possibly costing the Hawkeyes a big road victory, it doesn’t matter.

Lets start with Fran.

His outburst came after a questionable foul call on Gabriel Olaseni.  This wasn’t the first questionable call made by the officials.  So, why did Fran choose that time to completely lose his top?

Who knows.

Well, Fran gets T’d up, but apparently that wasn’t enough.  He gets his second technical in, oh, about 3 seconds and has now been ejected.  Fran is still persistent in yelling at the officials and nearly got a third technical. Oh, he also bumped an official during that.  It’s safe to say Fran could be seeing some type of fine/suspension or both for his actions tonight.  But wait a minute, Fran did go out in style, in case you guys weren’t aware, Fran was sporting some new spectacles for the game.

When all this went down Iowa had a lead, after Fran was gone the lead was too.  It was five points that Iowa basically gave to Wisconsin because of Fran’s whine-fest. Guys, the officials weren’t the greatest, but you what, Bo Ryan managed to keep his top when he easily could’ve lost it.

I’m all for sticking up for your team and protecting your guys, but there is a certain point you can’t cross.  Fran undoubtedly hurt his team tonight.

On to my next issue.

Devyn Marble took 24 shots on the night.  If this team is as deep as everybody, including myself, says it is, why on earth is he taking 24 shots?  I get it he’s your leader, but take a glance at the Iowa State box score.  He took 15 shots and so did Aaron White.  White also had 25 points and 17 rebounds in that game.

So, answer me this.  Why does Aaron White take just 6 shots in this game against Wisconsin?  Especially when he had a smaller defender on him the entire night!  It’s puzzling, not to mention frustrating!

My final issue I will rant on before I get to the game is the pathetic free throw shooting they’ve displayed.  I thought that this was a strength that this team possessed.  Timely misses crushed Iowa’s chances of winning.  Through the year they’ve been about a 75% shooting team at the line, but tonight, just 68%.

Alright on to the actual game.

Iowa played a very good first half.  But, that’s typical I guess.  They were everywhere on defense and were flying out in transition.  They held an 11 point lead going into the half.  Sam Dekker only had 1 point through the first half and Ben Brust had 0.  A perfect recipe to beat Wisconsin.

As the second half wore on and Wisconsin finally took their first lead since 3-1 in the first half, Hawkeye fans got that feeling that they’re all to used to getting.  Iowa was letting another lead slip away late.  Ben Brust had a big second half with 19 total points, Sam Dekker hit a big three late, and even Josh Gasser chipped in even though he was battling foul trouble.

Iowa would come close late, but Wisconsin was too good at the line for Iowa to do anything.

In the second half Iowa shot 10-31 from the field, 2-7 from behind the arc, and 14-20 at the line.  Wisconsin was an entirely different story.  They were 12-23 from the field, 6-9 from behind the arc, and 21-26 from the line in the second half.

The halftime deficit of 11 is the largest halftime deficit a Bo Ryan coached Wisconsin team has ever overcome.  It’s only fitting that it happened against Iowa, right.

Like it’s almost laughable, but at the same time you just feel sick to your stomach. You know what, there is probably more I could cover, but it’s getting hard to keep analyzing this stuff.

Everyone keeps saying this is a tournament team, and yes you may be right, but at this rate, this isn’t a team that goes past the first or second round and that’s just how it is.  They don’t know how to close out good teams and guess what, that’s what wins you games in the tournament.

The next game is Thursday when the Hawkeyes return home to face Northwestern (yay).  Game time is set for 8:00 p.m. CT.