Iowa basketball: Big men lead the way in Hawks win over Green Bay

The Iowa basketball moved to 2-0 after their Sunday afternoon win over the Green Bay Phoenix with the help of big men Tyler Cook and Luka Garza.

After getting off to a slow start against the University of Missouri – Kansas City Kangaroos Thursday night, the men’s Iowa basketball team would eventually pull away for a 77-63 victory in their first game of the 2K Empire Classic.

In their second game of the 2K Empire Classic Sunday afternoon at Carver Hawkeye Arena, the Iowa basketball team faced Green Bay. Similar to the UMKC game, the Hawks got off to a slow start before pulling away in the second half to win 93-82 and move to 2-0 on the season. This time, however, instead of utilizing a deeper bench and relying on freshman Joe Wieskamp to pace the team in scoring, McCaffrey moved to a nine player rotation and the two starting forwards, Luke Garza and Tyler Cook stole the show with reserve players Ryan Kriener and Nicholas Baer getting in the mix.

The four forwards accounted for nearly 60% of the scoring production with Garza and Cook tied for the team lead in points with 17.

Whereas the Iowa basketball team shined on offense utilizing their wealth of talented big men, the size and length was a surprisingly struggle of a mismatch against Green Bay’s smaller, quicker team on the defensive side of the ball, and they weren’t backing down throughout the afternoon’s contest.

It didn’t exactly help that the Hawkeyes struggled from behind the arc for the second consecutive game as they made just 5 of 18 three-point attempts with Jordan Bohannon accounting for three of those triples.

The Iowa basketball team, however, was more than effective when shooting from inside the three-point range and collecting free throw opportunities, which ended up being the difference in this ball game. The Hawks shot 50.9% from two-point range and attempted almost triple the amount of free throws than Green Bay did. Iowa would collect on 34 of those 45 free throw attempts, good for a 75.6% shooting clip.

Throughout the game Fran McCaffrey continued to tinker with lineup variations including a lineup featuring his son, Connor McCaffrey, as the point guard with Bohannon moving to shooting guard. For the most part, the team thrived in this combination as McCaffrey did a good job of distributing the ball leading the team with three assists and only turning the ball over once.

Although defensively, the team struggled, allowing the Green Bay Phoenix to put 82 points on them, there were quite a few positives to take away from this matchup. First, the different lineup combinations and matchup options McCaffrey has with this team makes Iowa a tough opponent to plan for. The Iowa basketball team has a ton of size and quite a few players who can play inside and out including 7’0” Ryan Kriener who scored in a variety of ways Sunday, including a three-pointer, a drive and dunk, and a post-up layup.

Second, the defense had a few shining moments when playing a half-court trap (although it did get them burned a few times) and finally, Iowa is getting to the line at a ridiculous rate, something that can help them as they begin to play tougher competition.

With two easy wins out of the way, the men’s basketball team will now travel to New York to take on #14 Oregon featuring Bol Bol, a five-star freshman who is 7’2” and can shoot the three. It’s a fantastic opportunity for the program to see how their big man can match up with a team of equal strengths.