Iowa Basketball: We Must Roundtable In Anticipation of Penn State
By Ryan Milroy
The Iowa Basketball team (20-5) return to the court Wednesday Night as they head to Happy Valley to face the Penn State Nittany Lions (12-13). We here at Dear Old Gold had a little pre-game roundtable and came up with a few things to watch for Wednesday night.
Dylan: For me, it’s going to be Iowa bringing their own energy. Playing in the Bryce Jordan Center can be difficult for an extremely odd reason. It has the feel of a 4A high school gym in terms of the energy the fans bring. Iowa isn’t going to be able to feed off energy from the crowd. They’re going to have to bring their own.
We’ve seen teams like Wisconsin last year, and Indiana this year, lose to these lower tier teams largely because they don’t have anything to lose. Most of all, they want to beat you. For the most part, you could give a rip less if you beat them, because you know, on paper, that you’re better. But, games aren’t played on paper. Penn State got throttled in Iowa City and they’ll be out for revenge on Wednesday night. Iowa will need to get off to a hot start and bury the Nittany Lions early. Don’t give them any sign of being in the game from the get go, that’s how you lose to inferior teams.
Derek: The Nittany Lions are dead-last in the Big 10 in scoring largely because they are also dead-last in field goal percentage, 3-point percentage and assists per game. Penn State sophomore guard, Shep Garner, is second on the team in field goal attempts and leads the team in 3-point attempts, but is only shooting 35 percent from the field.
While he is shooting a respectable 32 percent from downtown and actually leads the team in assists (77 assists so far this season, next-most is senior forward Brandon Taylor with 39), something to watch will be in how many Nittany Lion possessions Garner ends up taking the shot after trying to set a teammate up in futility, and missing the basket with his shot attempt.
Ryan: Realistically, Iowa is going to win this game. Penn State is not a very good team, Iowa trounced them a couple of weeks ago in Carver. For me, this is about whether or not Iowa can sort out their issues coming off the bench.
In a perfect world, Uthoff, Jok, and Gessell run the Nittany Lions out of the gym in the first half (just like the first match-up) and the bench gets to play extended minutes in the second half. The Hawkeyes’ second unit has averaged just 4.67 points per game over the last three games, including a big fat zero in the loss to Indiana. Freshman Brady Ellingson has all but fallen out of the rotation, receiving just four minutes per game over that stretch.
Nicholas Bear and Dom Uhl have also cooled following hot starts to Big Ten play. These are guys Iowa will need to play well if they want to make a run in March. The problem is that Fran will not play them if he does not feel like they are helping out, especially in close games. It’s a catch-22 where if they continue to struggle they will not see the court to straighten things out.
My hope for this game is that the starters can build a big enough lead so that some of these bench guys can get some extra playing time and maybe bust out of this slump. Then again, that was the hope against Rutgers and Sunday against Minnesota as well. Either way, Go Hawks.
The Hawkeyes and Nittany Lions will tip off a little early this evening. The Big Ten Network has the coverage starting at 5:30 p.m. CT.
Be sure to check back in with Dear Old Gold after the game Wednesday night for immediate post-game reaction!