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Iowa Basketball Fell Short in the 2nd Round of the B1G Tourney

By Devin Keller

IOWA CITY, IOWA- JANUARY 20: Head coach Fran McCaffery, right, and assistant Kirk Speraw of the Iowa Hawkeyes during the first half against the Purdue Boilermakers on January 20, 2018 at Carver-Hawkeye Arena, in Iowa City, Iowa. (Photo by Matthew Holst/Getty Images)
IOWA CITY, IOWA- JANUARY 20: Head coach Fran McCaffery, right, and assistant Kirk Speraw of the Iowa Hawkeyes during the first half against the Purdue Boilermakers on January 20, 2018 at Carver-Hawkeye Arena, in Iowa City, Iowa. (Photo by Matthew Holst/Getty Images) /
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The Hawkeyes won their first Big Ten Tournament game in years on February 28th against Illinois. Today, Iowa couldn’t get it done against a great Michigan team in the second-round.

The 12th-seeded Iowa Hoops team came into this tournament looking better than they have been all season long. Their win against Illinois on February 28th gave them their first Big Ten Tournament win since 2013. Their win didn’t necessarily come very easily, although it did prove that this team still had tons of heart, especially in this match-up against the Wolverines.

Iowa came into this game with huge momentum after, again, their first win in the tournament in 5 years. Michigan beat Iowa in a season-sweep during the regular season by a combined 22 points. Coming into this game, Iowa had approximately a 22.3% chance of advancing to the quarter-final of the Big Ten Tournament, which meant beating 5th-seeded Michigan. However, the game wasn’t how you would’ve expected it, like most people had. Iowa went into halftime leading 40-35 with a fantastic first half performance. Michigan went into halftime shooting 0-7 from 3-point range (ended the game shooting 15.8% total from three) compared to Iowa’s 30.4%. Michigan did however shoot 45.2% which was better than Iowa’s 41.5%.

Michigan shot a total of 32 free-throws this game which isn’t crazy high considering Iowa shot 41 the day before against the Fighting Illini. Leading scorers for the Hawkeyes were Tyler Cook and Luka Garza with 13 a piece.  Bohannon had 11, including an ice-in-his-veins type of 3-pt shot that sent the game to overtime tied at 67. For Michigan, Charles Matthews was the leading scorer with 16 points and 8 rebounds, which was the most by any player on the court this afternoon.

The season ends in heartbreak fashion.

The Hawkeyes only had 4 points in overtime against the Wolverines including bad shots and poor clock management that ultimately gave the Wolverines a heart-wrenching win. This game was fought very hard by Iowa but didn’t finish the way we would’ve loved it to have. All in all, this type of performance is what we all love to see. Iowa basically didn’t have much to play for, and they knew they weren’t gonna win the whole thing (hypothetically). But to see this team come out and play like the national championship was truly something special. This team has a bright future and it sets up a magnificent plot for the start of the 2018-19 season of College Hoops.