When Iowa locks in on the defensive end, they can frustrate any team in college basketball.
Under Ben McCollum, the Hawkeyes have hung their hat on playing solid defense and forcing opponents into bad shots and turnovers.
If they got a shred of offense on most nights, they would be that much more difficult to deal with and could easily have more wins this season.
Iowa welcomed No. 3 Michigan to Carver-Hawkeye for a Senior night showdown with one of the best teams in college basketball, and their defensive effort put them in a solid position to win.
Iowa ultimately lost 71-68, but held Michigan to its lowest scoring output of the season. The Hawkeyes' two biggest issues surfaced once again, as they have now lost three of the last five games.
Iowa's poor offense doomed them once again
No one will say Iowa didn't give everything they had against Michigan, but they didn't have enough offense to pull off the massive upset.
Michigan is one of the top teams in the country in scoring offense (No. 7 overall) and scoring margin (No. 4 overall), but the Hawkeyes held them to a season-low 71 points and were a missed Bennett Stirtz three-pointer away from tying the game in the final moments.
Iowa's offense let them down again as they shot 39 percent from the field and 27 percent from three-point range.
The Hawkeyes missed a whopping 19 three-point shots and couldn't find any rhythm offensively.
Stirtz carried the offensive load once again, notching 21 points, and excluding Cam Manyawu's 14 points, no other Hawkeye scored in double-digits.
Iowa forced 18 turnovers against Michigan and had three chances to tie or take the lead in the final minute, but ultimately came up short against a tough Wolverines squad.