GAME 21 IOWA: Everyone has their kryptonite

[bac2therac]

Rutgers owns Indiana we know that. Iowa owns Rutgers. Rutgers has now dropped 7 of last 9 to Iowa. It all started with that Wieskemp 3 back in 2019 that crushed our hearts. RU would get revenget at a ranked Iowa later that year. Since its been 6 losses in 7 with the only RU win a bruising 48-46 defensive slugfest at the RAC last season. Three of the losses came when RU was ranked. Iowa breezed by RU at Carver last year and easily dispatched them without a challenge in the Big 10 tourney. Today was another dominant peformance from Iowa where the Hawkeyes just imposed their will in the first half and did everything they had to do to nail down the win in the 2nd. The vaunted Rutgers defense just cannot figure out Iowa. Rutgers has given up 93, 76, 84 in the last 3 meetings.

Some similarities between this game and the first game at the RAC. In both games Iowa broke open a close game near halftime and in both games it proved to be the decisive stretches that impacted the 2nd half. RU going down 11 at half while giving up 45 was near fatal. Although RU would show no quit it cutting the defecit to just 1, you cannot play catchup all game and think you can shut down a strong offensive team on their home court. To beat Iowa you have to make them uncomfortable. RU failed to take advantage of a cold Iowa early because they were turning it over at rapid pace through the first 10 minutes. 13 turnovers in all in the first half. RU had the game at 32-30 with Mag going to line, he missed and RU blinked. Iowa would go on a devastating 13-2 run to close the half During that run, RU would turn it over 3 times and miss a bunch of bunnies. You absolutely cannot blink vs Iowa in a close game because they will make you pay. From down 2 to down 11. The whole complexion of the game changed. Iowa is incredibly tough to beat when their offense is rolling and not bothered. How do you expect to come back from down 11 on the road with 13 turnovers and Iowa 8-16 from 3...all the worries about perimeter defense were validated in this game. Many of those shots were the results of crisp passing out of the double team and finding open guys. Just like the first game and MDSU. RU overpursued and didnt stay with their man and Iowa made them pay. Why on earth would Rutgers play right into Iowa's hands

Why did Rutgers lose? The defense wasnt elite. Not going to win giving up 93 points. As said before, there were a ton of outside shots given up. Iowa I think was 8-14 at one point. 2nd half seemed like RU did a better job at forcing Iowa to go inside. Unfortunately that resulted in fouling. People can have opinions on the officiating today. RU sent Iowa to the line 34 times and they hit on 29. Perfect gameplan in the 2nd half by Fran. Were the foul calls excessive? Perhaps, RU was obviously a step to slow on defense all day. Many of those fouls were after failures to box out on rebounds, second chance opportunities were the defense stopped the initial shot but then fouled the 2nd attempt. If I were to quibble with the officiating, it would be that similar contact was not called as frequent on the other end. Make no mistake though, RU didnt lose because of officiating. RU lost because its defense was poor in the first half and it forced RU to play from behind. Then when RU had wittled the lead to just 1, they gave up some more open 3s and failed to grab that rebound or got outhustled for a rebound....the biggest of which was Mag losing that ball that was in his hands down I believe 5. Give enormous credit to Rutgers for coming back...in fact it was a beautiful run 9-0 where Hyatt was reenacting his performance vs Penn State. RU got just enough stops and was poised to wrest control. In the end, Iowa just rewon the game yet again and it would do it with another RU run that cut it to 5. RU was relentless but so was Iowa.


Not going to win when you have to play catch up all game. Not going to win when you commit 18 turnovers. Not going to win when Cam isnt giving you much of anything the first 30 minutes of the game. Not going to win when Caleb defense is way off and he is in foul trouble. Not going to win when you pile up fouls. Not going to win when Murray is going off for 24.

Do not get caught up in RU scoring 82 points, the tempo and pace of possessions was ridiculous. RU shot 30-65 fg and still lost. Yet the offense was not good in the first half where the game was ultimately lost. Iowa was incredibly efficient. Rutgers was pissing away and squandering possessions. Give enormous credit to Iowa. Its not like Rutgers lost this game. Iowa won. They deserved it. They own Rutgers. Fran is a great coach. He runs an incredibly efficient and potent offense. His defense on RU in the first half pressuring RU ball handlers disrupting our offense was spot on. He made sure his players made sure Cam did not get any good looks. Its a bad matchup. We should all hope we dont meet again in the Big 10 tourney. Iowa will win again and it will likely go down a similar way to the first two games.

At the end of the day there is nothing wrong with losing this game. Iowa is a NCAA team, game was on the road, RU had built up enough credit that they didnt need to win this one. The most encouraging thing to take from this loss is RU didnt let this game get away. Iowa could have won by 20 and in other seasons they would. RU fought like mad to keep things under 10 after they got behind. Just too much to do to get over the hump. The key as I said after the Iowa and Michigan State losses is how you bounce back. This league is unforgiving. You can have a win streak one week and a losing streak the next. You want to avoid rough patches and stringing losses together and push them off as far in the future as possible. Minnesota is up next. Yes its a MUST win for NCAA purposes and conference placement. I know some have already annointed RU into the tourney but that is not true. There is work to be done. RU needs to take care of business in games they should at home...the Minnesotas, the Nebraskas, the Michigans of the world. After Minnesota is probably the Rutgers gauntlet, a 3 game stretch of MSU at MSG, at Illinois and at Indiana. A game not at the RAC but in a different environment. Two road games vs the hottest schools in the conference.

Some really noticable things in the stat line.....Paul a whopping 13 assists. RU total of 23 assists. Hyatt 6-12 fg, 4-7 from 3, team leading 16 points

The questions that arise out of this game concern some issues that could be arising.

Did the officiating effect the game? It did not change the outcome...RU's D giving up 93 and 18 turnovers says it all. Officiating certainly did not help at times but there were two main reasons why RU lost.

Can RU compete for the Big 10 title? Likely no

How fragile is RU's spot in the Big 10 standings? Yes just one game seperates 3rd from 10th so yes its fragile

Was the interesting lineup in the 2nd half a one off or is the rotation being tweaked? Need to see next game

Is Cam's lack of production an issue? 4 games now, I say we can be concerned a bit.

Is Hyatt ready for an expaned role on this team? Hyatt is stepping up big time and yes he will be trusted and leaned on a bit more.

Will schools try to adopt the Iowa/MSU blueprint to beat RU? Yes..pressure our ball handlers, take away Cam and speed up the tempo

Should we panic? Of course not, our defense is still one of the best in the country? Losses happen and yes Iowa is our kryptonite. 90 minutes removed after the end of this game, I am less angry and more accepting that Iowa owns us.

Is Rutgers still a NCAA team? Likely yes but it has to close the season, 10 games to go and probably 5-5 makes it academic

Is Minnesota in for a beating at the RAC? YES

 

[RUisB1Gtime]

5-5 gets to 19-12 ( plus the Osu apology letter for safe keeping). Should be doable

 

[Greene Rice FIG]

77 possessions. 25% more than a normal RU game

 

[ScarletNut]

Iowa makes 3’s better than we make layups

 

[bac2therac]

77 possessions. 25% more than a normal RU game

this is why I am not worried

 

[hawkit3113]

Don't worry, the tide will turn against us and it might be this year in the BTT.

2 5*s and Pike......you will be fine.

We were desperate both times we played you this year.

We had to win

 

[RW90]

Simple math, if Iowa shoots their 34% season average from 3 instead of 50% it's a different ball game. Yeah, some were open but they made them while we missed our open shots or passed off. Tip your hat and move on.

 

[G- RUnit]

Okay but let’s look at the real reason we lost again. Horrible officiating.

Iowa won the game because they were
29-34 from the line.
Rutgers was 10-14 from the line.
19 point differential at the line impossible to overcome.

 

[fluoxetine]

I don’t really understand this “Iowa owns us” stuff.. we’ve lost a lot of games to Iowa but those were mostly to Iowa teams that were just better than us. The only Iowa loss that was actually a surprise recently was the one at home this year.

All in all just another game plan failure by Pike. If only he had instructed the players to make them miss their threes and not turn the ball over before the game we probably would’ve won. Unfortunately he didn’t think of that, damn.

 

[Westcoast]

Iowa makes 3’s better than we make layups

Yes and that's why we cant give up any uncontested 3s. Yet just like MSU, if the guy was a few feet behind the line we really didn't pressure the shooters. Way too many times guys had time to think and just launch. Terrible D today.

 

[bac2therac]

I don’t really understand this “Iowa owns us” stuff.. we’ve lost a lot of games to Iowa but those were mostly to Iowa teams that were just better than us. The only Iowa loss that was actually a surprise recently was the one at home this year.

All in all just another game plan failure by Pike. If only he had instructed the players to make them miss their threes and not turn the ball over before the game we probably would’ve won. Unfortunately he didn’t think of that, damn.

Rutgers was ranked 3x they beat us and they were ranked too and Ru was the 4 seed to Iowa 5 seed in big 10 tourney last year

so not understanding, do you think that the ru iowa game is a good matchup for us and isnt an outlier to our usual matchups and defense

 

[Knightmoves]

What surprises me is that we have RU posters that think the team will win every game. It doesn’t work that way.

Did anyone watch the Nova-Providence game today? Nova lost at home and is now 10-11 this season without Jay Wright.

RU fans should be happy with where we are this season imo.

 

[rufeelinit]

We need to find a way to win the next two. Can't lose to Minnesota at home and we have to beat MSU at MSG. That two game road trip that follows to Illinois and Indiana is going to be very difficult given how both of those teams are currently playing. Will feel much better going into those two 8-4 rather than something less than that.

 

[RUJMM78]

I am most worried by the unforced turnovers ,allowing so many wide open 3 point shots and Spencer getting so few shots at the beginning of games.The slow start was a killer because Iowa was playing as poorly as Rutgers.Right now 11-9 might be a likely B1G Ten record based on the number of road games plus the game at MSG.I project a 8-9 NCAA seed based on 11-9 league record.There will be a cluster of teams with similar records.The tie breakers will matter and Iowa has the edge over Rutgers by winning both games.

 

[bac2therac]

We need to find a way to win the next two. Can't lose to Minnesota at home and we have to beat MSU at MSG. That two game road trip that follows to Illinois and Indiana is going to be very difficult given how both of those teams are currently playing. Will feel much better going into those two 8-4 rather than something less than that.

I think 2-2 is important. Minny is a must and yes while beating Sparty would be nice because it takes the pressure off of winning on the road, I think on our A game yes we can win either road game.

if RU goes 1-3 then all of a sudden RU is 7-7 and anywhere from 5-10 in the standings and we need to re evaluate goals

 

[bac2therac]

I am most worried by the unforced turnovers ,allowing so many wide open 3 point shots and Spencer getting so few shots at the beginning of games.The slow start was a killer because Iowa was playing as poorly as Rutgers.Right now 11-9 might be a likely B1G Ten record based on the number of road games plus the game at MSG.I project a 8-9 NCAA seed based on 11-9 league record.There will be a cluster of teams with similar records.The tie breakers will matter and Iowa has the edge over Rutgers by winning both games.

I have some of the same worries but because this was Iowa Im less worried than I normally would be. Cliff had 4 and its the usual cannot pass out of a double team. Fran is a very good coach so is Izzo and both teams have done a superb job of exploiting RUs weaknesses. Are their others schools that can replicate this...not so sure.

yes worried about Cam because he is not comfortable and is slumping badly and was not out there during the 2nd half run and saw him pass up a shot he would normally take. Pike has to get him high percentage shots vs Minnesota.

 

[G- RUnit]

We need to find a way to win the next two. Can't lose to Minnesota at home and we have to beat MSU at MSG. That two game road trip that follows to Illinois and Indiana is going to be very difficult given how both of those teams are currently playing. Will feel much better going into those two 8-4 rather than something less than that.

More and more reason why MSG at the Garden was a huge mistake.

 

[fluoxetine]

Rutgers was ranked 3x they beat us and they were ranked too and Ru was the 4 seed to Iowa 5 seed in big 10 tourney last year

The two games we were ranked they were ranked higher and we were on the road. And who cares about tournament seeding lol Iowa was way better than us last year.

so not understanding, do you think that the ru iowa game is a good matchup for us and isnt an outlier to our usual matchups and defense

I don’t think it’s a great matchup for us because I think their very quick pace gives us some issues on defense that other teams don’t. But I also think they’ve just played well against us and usually are better. It’s not like we are incapable of defending them, see the game at the RAC last year.

 

[bac2therac]

The two games we were ranked they were ranked higher and we were on the road. And who cares about tournament seeding lol Iowa was way better than us last year.

I don’t think it’s a great matchup for us because I think their very quick pace gives us some issues on defense that other teams don’t. But I also think they’ve just played well against us and usually are better. It’s not like we are incapable of defending them, see the game at the RAC last year.

we beat them at the rac and then threw our hands up in their in the big 10 tourney..thats my whole point, Pike save for one game that was played at a ridiculous odd level by both teams has not been able to solve the problem. Today was more of the same that seemed to play to Iowa hands

 

[NewJerseyHawk]

In the B1G picture, it is imperative for as many B1G teams to stay afloat for a NCAA bid, and the foul discrepancy reflects that today. Iowa could not sustain another loss, especially at home and especially with Northwestern coming in Tuesday and then Illinois after that.

The Iowa owns RU is nonsense....it's not about coaching or anything other than the roster makeup for Iowa, is built and tailor made to take advantage of pressure/trapping defense. It is an Ivy League based offense, designed to take lesser athletes and allow them to play, cut, drive and spot up shoot.

As Michigan State showed Iowa on Thursday night, you have to have players, 1 through 5, who can individually, guard their man, without help, without sagging or trapping. Michigan State has a lineup that is better built to guard Iowa, which is not coaching.

I posted in the other thread, if you don't have individual footspeed to guard 1 on 1 on defense AND you don't have the footspeed to take players off the dribble on offense and get to the FT line, you will not beat an Iowa, Creighton, Xavier, Marquette, Notre Dame type of roster.

In time, RUs roster will turn over to better individually talented players who will mold into the team system Pike has built. It will be able to guard 1 on 1 and take defenders 1 on 1.

The larger glossed over item in the bac game summary is eye opening on a 4 game free pass provided to Cam Spencer. I saw negative after negative comments for 3 and 4 years about how supposedly inconsistent Geo Baker and RHJ were. They didn't have a good/strong game, and usually RU would be lucky to win.

Now, we are 20+ games into a B1G season.....and Cam Spencer has won THREE games for RU....Purdue, Northwestern and Ohio State.....on the flip side, Spencer is very talented and also very passive/soft and perhaps hitting a wall.

That has to change and change ASAP, starting with Minnesota and home cooking.

 

[Roy_Faulker]

Like this write up and agree the matchup isn’t good for RU.

They play tremendous team basketball and always make that extra pass to an open man on the perimeter. High IQ players and that is why they take advantage of our overpursuit on D.

It’s interesting to me that PM had so many assists. Still think needs to be more aggressive on offense - he throws on the brakes too many times for my liking…but I’m not in their huddle to know what they want to do…

 

[fluoxetine]

we beat them at the rac and then threw our hands up in their in the big 10 tourney..thats my whole point, Pike save for one game that was played at a ridiculous odd level by both teams has not been able to solve the problem. Today was more of the same that seemed to play to Iowa hands

If the problem is “beat teams that are better than you” yeah he doesn’t solve it most of the time. That’s sort of the definition of “teams that are better than you”.

 

[bac2therac]

In the B1G picture, it is imperative for as many B1G teams to stay afloat for a NCAA bid, and the foul discrepancy reflects that today. Iowa could not sustain another loss, especially at home and especially with Northwestern coming in Tuesday and then Illinois after that.

The Iowa owns RU is nonsense....it's not about coaching or anything other than the roster makeup for Iowa, is built and tailor made to take advantage of pressure/trapping defense. It is an Ivy League based offense, designed to take lesser athletes and allow them to play, cut, drive and spot up shoot.

As Michigan State showed Iowa on Thursday night, you have to have players, 1 through 5, who can individually, guard their man, without help, without sagging or trapping. Michigan State has a lineup that is better built to guard Iowa, which is not coaching.

I posted in the other thread, if you don't have individual footspeed to guard 1 on 1 on defense AND you don't have the footspeed to take players off the dribble on offense and get to the FT line, you will not beat an Iowa, Creighton, Xavier, Marquette, Notre Dame type of roster.

In time, RUs roster will turn over to better individually talented players who will mold into the team system Pike has built. It will be able to guard 1 on 1 and take defenders 1 on 1.

The larger glossed over item in the bac game summary is eye opening on a 4 game free pass provided to Cam Spencer. I saw negative after negative comments for 3 and 4 years about how supposedly inconsistent Geo Baker and RHJ were. They didn't have a good/strong game, and usually RU would be lucky to win.

Now, we are 20+ games into a B1G season.....and Cam Spencer has won THREE games for RU....Purdue, Northwestern and Ohio State.....on the flip side, Spencer is very talented and also very passive/soft and perhaps hitting a wall.

That has to change and change ASAP, starting with Minnesota and home cooking.

The board is constantly pushing the narrative that Indiana is owned by RU, only fair to say that about Iowa and Rutgers and Pike does not have the answers in trying to defend them


oh Im not disagreeing with you on Cam...I posed that question. In the aftermath its interesting to note that Cam sat alot in crunch time. I think its a fair discussion for this board. Everyone wanted to annoint Cam savior after they said he couldnt play in the Big 10. The truth looks somewhere in between. He was playing above his head for a stretch and now is probably playing below his level. The constant is he cannot create his own shot. I posed the question of lineup shakeup for minutes and Hyatt may be trusted for more. In some ways it was encouraging that RU chipped away largely on other players (I realize Cam did hit a couple of shots in the last 4-5 minutes)

 

[bac2therac]

If the problem is “beat teams that are better than you” yeah he doesn’t solve it most of the time. That’s sort of the definition of “teams that are better than you”.

we got dominated at the rac this year, a similar game today in some ways....similar games last 2 last year.

well gee we should never aspire to beat teams in our vicinity and yes Iowa has been in our vicinity last two years. We have lost 4 of 5 and our vaunted defense gets beat the same way every time.

actually i have the stats wrong....RU has lost 6 of 7 and 7 of 9 so edited my op

 

[FIJI'83]

In the B1G picture, it is imperative for as many B1G teams to stay afloat for a NCAA bid, and the foul discrepancy reflects that today. Iowa could not sustain another loss, especially at home and especially with Northwestern coming in Tuesday and then Illinois after that.

The Iowa owns RU is nonsense....it's not about coaching or anything other than the roster makeup for Iowa, is built and tailor made to take advantage of pressure/trapping defense. It is an Ivy League based offense, designed to take lesser athletes and allow them to play, cut, drive and spot up shoot.

As Michigan State showed Iowa on Thursday night, you have to have players, 1 through 5, who can individually, guard their man, without help, without sagging or trapping. Michigan State has a lineup that is better built to guard Iowa, which is not coaching.

I posted in the other thread, if you don't have individual footspeed to guard 1 on 1 on defense AND you don't have the footspeed to take players off the dribble on offense and get to the FT line, you will not beat an Iowa, Creighton, Xavier, Marquette, Notre Dame type of roster.

In time, RUs roster will turn over to better individually talented players who will mold into the team system Pike has built. It will be able to guard 1 on 1 and take defenders 1 on 1.

The larger glossed over item in the bac game summary is eye opening on a 4 game free pass provided to Cam Spencer. I saw negative after negative comments for 3 and 4 years about how supposedly inconsistent Geo Baker and RHJ were. They didn't have a good/strong game, and usually RU would be lucky to win.

Now, we are 20+ games into a B1G season.....and Cam Spencer has won THREE games for RU....Purdue, Northwestern and Ohio State.....on the flip side, Spencer is very talented and also very passive/soft and perhaps hitting a wall.

That has to change and change ASAP, starting with Minnesota and home cooking.

Strongly disagree with the characterization that Cam is passive or soft. Rather, Cam’s downside is that he is slow of foot and has little elevation on his jump shot which is a major problem when closely guarded. He will not get the screen help he needs to get shots off. So, he will struggle. It’s not because of lack of effort, instead it’s because of lack of speed and elite athleticism.

 

[RU848789]

I am most worried by the unforced turnovers ,allowing so many wide open 3 point shots and Spencer getting so few shots at the beginning of games.The slow start was a killer because Iowa was playing as poorly as Rutgers.Right now 11-9 might be a likely B1G Ten record based on the number of road games plus the game at MSG.I project a 8-9 NCAA seed based on 11-9 league record.There will be a cluster of teams with similar records.The tie breakers will matter and Iowa has the edge over Rutgers by winning both games.

The unforced TOs were probably my biggest comment in the game thread. We simply gave the ball away by committing so many horrible unforced TOs. They especially hurt early in the game when Iowa was struggling on offense and we only went up 8-2, because we had about 5 TOs - what if we had 2 TOs and made 3 more baskets to be up 14-2? Maybe they still win, but the complexion of the game would've been different.

 

[fluoxetine]

we got dominated at the rac this year, a similar game today in some ways....similar games last 2 last year.

We didn’t get dominated in either game. We lost by 11 twice in games where they shot a combined 47% from three. Shit happens, we lost. We aren’t good enough to beat good teams that are firing on all cylinders, I don’t know what to tell you.

well gee we should never aspire to beat teams in our vicinity and yes Iowa has been in our vicinity last two years. We have lost 4 of 5 and our vaunted defense gets beat the same way every time.

actually i have the stats wrong....RU has lost 6 of 7 and 7 of 9 so edited my op

Iowa wasn’t anywhere near our vicinity last year. This year, yes, I still believe we are the better team on average but they’ve played and shot great both times they played us. It just two games, it’s not exactly a big sample.

 

[bac2therac]

We didn’t get dominated in either game. We lost by 11 twice in games where they shot a combined 47% from three. Shit happens, we lost. We aren’t good enough to beat good teams that are firing on all cylinders, I don’t know what to tell you.

Iowa wasn’t anywhere near our vicinity last year. This year, yes, I still believe we are the better team on average but they’ve played and shot great both times they played us. It just two games, it’s not exactly a big sample.

huh....ru finished 4th in the league, Iowa 5th..same record in league, we split, they got hot late, our hot streak we were unbeatable too. This same Iowa went out meekly in the ncaa tourney

objectively Iowa dominated both these games...controlled the tempo and totally negated our vaunted defense. Imagine saying we played our normal defensive game. If only they missed 10 more shots

 

[Joey Bags]

Iowa ALWAYS looks like the best team in the conference when we play them.

They are built like an SEC or Big 12 team, i’m surprised they haven’t made a deep NCAA run into the final four recently. This is why the Big 10 does poorly in the NCAAs, shooting and speed trump length nowadays outside of our conference.

 

[fluoxetine]

huh....ru finished 4th in the league, Iowa 5th..same record in league, we split, they got hot late, our hot streak we were unbeatable too. This same Iowa went out meekly in the ncaa tourney

Blah blah. This is where your attempt to beat computers with your mind fails.

objectively Iowa dominated both these games...controlled the tempo and totally negated our vaunted defense. Imagine saying we played our normal defensive game. If only they missed 10 more shots

Yes, imagine the ability to be non results oriented for one single second. Imagine the worlds of analysis it would open up.

 

[G- RUnit]

huh....ru finished 4th in the league, Iowa 5th..same record in league, we split, they got hot late, our hot streak we were unbeatable too. This same Iowa went out meekly in the ncaa tourney

objectively Iowa dominated both these games...controlled the tempo and totally negated our vaunted defense. Imagine saying we played our normal defensive game. If only they missed 10 more shots

Firmly believe Iowa was spent last year after four wins in four days for B1G tourney.

 

[bac2therac]

Blah blah. This is where your attempt to beat computers with your mind fails.

Yes, imagine the ability to be non results oriented for one single second. Imagine the worlds of analysis it would open up.

yes head to head never matters...two times both by 11 where the ru defense is shredded...nah...its luck

LET THE COMPUTER PLAY THE GAME

 

[AreYouNUTS]

Iowa makes 3’s better than we make layups

Ugh...unfortunately it might be true lol!

 

[JudgeSmails56]

Iowa is our daddy.

 

[AreYouNUTS]

Iowa ALWAYS looks like the best team in the conference when we play them.

They are built like an SEC or Big 12 team, i’m surprised they haven’t made a deep NCAA run into the final four recently. This is why the Big 10 does poorly in the NCAAs, shooting and speed trump length nowadays outside of our conference.

Was talking about the following yesterday with @Scarlet Shack , @SirScarlet and @PatrickRU92 after watching a lot of those B12/SEC challenge games: we are THE "toughest" conference in the nation, and we get use to the officials (95% of the time) calling games that way then, when we play in the NCAA's, with officials from conferences that play "soft" D - like the B12 and SEC - our teams tend to get into foul trouble early and we have to play the opponents games WHILE getting a lot of fouls called we're not use to worrying about all season long.

 

[winfield102]

We turned it over in five of our first six possessions in the first half. We turned it over in the first two possessions in the second half. 18 turnovers against the worst team in the Big ten is just not acceptable.

We consistently give up a lot of quality looks from three. That doesn't work against the team like Iowa.

We cannot feed the ball to cliff when he's 10+ ft away from the basket. The results are not pretty.

Pike has to tell Caleb he gets four shots of game moving forward.

Hyatt & Mag seem to be playing under control on a more consistent basis as the season has gone on.

 

[fluoxetine]

yes head to head never matters...two times both by 11 where the ru defense is shredded...nah...its luck

Who says luck? They played great.

LET THE COMPUTER PLAY THE GAME

This is nonsense

 

[RU-ROCS]

Was talking about the following yesterday with @Scarlet Shack , @SirScarlet and @PatrickRU92 after watching a lot of those B12/SEC challenge games: we are THE "toughest" conference in the nation, and we get use to the officials (95% of the time) calling games that way then, when we play in the NCAA's, with officials from conferences that play "soft" D - like the B12 and SEC - our teams tend to get into foul trouble early and we have to play the opponents games WHILE getting a lot of fouls called we're not use to worrying about all season long.

That narrative has some appeal, but I’d like to see the stats to back it up. No conference was more physical the the Big East in the 1980’s and they still dominated the NCAA tournament.

 

[Geo_Baker_1]

Ru shot 50 percent from the floor, 40 percent from 3. Those are GREAT numbers. Cam shot 40 percent from the floor. Caleb only played 25 mins due to foul trouble. Considering it was our worst team defensive output, saying he needs less minutes after this game doesn’t really make sense. If anything it shows how crucial it is that he stays on the floor.

18 turnovers (big ten szn high)
And awful transition defense/communication are the only two things that really mattered in this one. Iowa scored 93 points. Ru was allowing 58 coming in. Just need to regroup and remember their identity. Any game into the mid 70’s doesn’t bode well for RU

 

[RU-ROCS]

Rutgers owns Indiana we know that. Iowa owns Rutgers. Rutgers has now dropped 7 of last 9 to Iowa. It all started with that Wieskemp 3 back in 2019 that crushed our hearts. RU would get revenget at a ranked Iowa later that year. Since its been 6 losses in 7 with the only RU win a bruising 48-46 defensive slugfest at the RAC last season. Three of the losses came when RU was ranked. Iowa breezed by RU at Carver last year and easily dispatched them without a challenge in the Big 10 tourney. Today was another dominant peformance from Iowa where the Hawkeyes just imposed their will in the first half and did everything they had to do to nail down the win in the 2nd. The vaunted Rutgers defense just cannot figure out Iowa. Rutgers has given up 93, 76, 84 in the last 3 meetings.

Some similarities between this game and the first game at the RAC. In both games Iowa broke open a close game near halftime and in both games it proved to be the decisive stretches that impacted the 2nd half. RU going down 11 at half while giving up 45 was near fatal. Although RU would show no quit it cutting the defecit to just 1, you cannot play catchup all game and think you can shut down a strong offensive team on their home court. To beat Iowa you have to make them uncomfortable. RU failed to take advantage of a cold Iowa early because they were turning it over at rapid pace through the first 10 minutes. 13 turnovers in all in the first half. RU had the game at 32-30 with Mag going to line, he missed and RU blinked. Iowa would go on a devastating 13-2 run to close the half During that run, RU would turn it over 3 times and miss a bunch of bunnies. You absolutely cannot blink vs Iowa in a close game because they will make you pay. From down 2 to down 11. The whole complexion of the game changed. Iowa is incredibly tough to beat when their offense is rolling and not bothered. How do you expect to come back from down 11 on the road with 13 turnovers and Iowa 8-16 from 3...all the worries about perimeter defense were validated in this game. Many of those shots were the results of crisp passing out of the double team and finding open guys. Just like the first game and MDSU. RU overpursued and didnt stay with their man and Iowa made them pay. Why on earth would Rutgers play right into Iowa's hands

Why did Rutgers lose? The defense wasnt elite. Not going to win giving up 93 points. As said before, there were a ton of outside shots given up. Iowa I think was 8-14 at one point. 2nd half seemed like RU did a better job at forcing Iowa to go inside. Unfortunately that resulted in fouling. People can have opinions on the officiating today. RU sent Iowa to the line 34 times and they hit on 29. Perfect gameplan in the 2nd half by Fran. Were the foul calls excessive? Perhaps, RU was obviously a step to slow on defense all day. Many of those fouls were after failures to box out on rebounds, second chance opportunities were the defense stopped the initial shot but then fouled the 2nd attempt. If I were to quibble with the officiating, it would be that similar contact was not called as frequent on the other end. Make no mistake though, RU didnt lose because of officiating. RU lost because its defense was poor in the first half and it forced RU to play from behind. Then when RU had wittled the lead to just 1, they gave up some more open 3s and failed to grab that rebound or got outhustled for a rebound....the biggest of which was Mag losing that ball that was in his hands down I believe 5. Give enormous credit to Rutgers for coming back...in fact it was a beautiful run 9-0 where Hyatt was reenacting his performance vs Penn State. RU got just enough stops and was poised to wrest control. In the end, Iowa just rewon the game yet again and it would do it with another RU run that cut it to 5. RU was relentless but so was Iowa.


Not going to win when you have to play catch up all game. Not going to win when you commit 18 turnovers. Not going to win when Cam isnt giving you much of anything the first 30 minutes of the game. Not going to win when Caleb defense is way off and he is in foul trouble. Not going to win when you pile up fouls. Not going to win when Murray is going off for 24.

Do not get caught up in RU scoring 82 points, the tempo and pace of possessions was ridiculous. RU shot 30-65 fg and still lost. Yet the offense was not good in the first half where the game was ultimately lost. Iowa was incredibly efficient. Rutgers was pissing away and squandering possessions. Give enormous credit to Iowa. Its not like Rutgers lost this game. Iowa won. They deserved it. They own Rutgers. Fran is a great coach. He runs an incredibly efficient and potent offense. His defense on RU in the first half pressuring RU ball handlers disrupting our offense was spot on. He made sure his players made sure Cam did not get any good looks. Its a bad matchup. We should all hope we dont meet again in the Big 10 tourney. Iowa will win again and it will likely go down a similar way to the first two games.

At the end of the day there is nothing wrong with losing this game. Iowa is a NCAA team, game was on the road, RU had built up enough credit that they didnt need to win this one. The most encouraging thing to take from this loss is RU didnt let this game get away. Iowa could have won by 20 and in other seasons they would. RU fought like mad to keep things under 10 after they got behind. Just too much to do to get over the hump. The key as I said after the Iowa and Michigan State losses is how you bounce back. This league is unforgiving. You can have a win streak one week and a losing streak the next. You want to avoid rough patches and stringing losses together and push them off as far in the future as possible. Minnesota is up next. Yes its a MUST win for NCAA purposes and conference placement. I know some have already annointed RU into the tourney but that is not true. There is work to be done. RU needs to take care of business in games they should at home...the Minnesotas, the Nebraskas, the Michigans of the world. After Minnesota is probably the Rutgers gauntlet, a 3 game stretch of MSU at MSG, at Illinois and at Indiana. A game not at the RAC but in a different environment. Two road games vs the hottest schools in the conference.

Some really noticable things in the stat line.....Paul a whopping 13 assists. RU total of 23 assists. Hyatt 6-12 fg, 4-7 from 3, team leading 16 points

The questions that arise out of this game concern some issues that could be arising.

Did the officiating effect the game? It did not change the outcome...RU's D giving up 93 and 18 turnovers says it all. Officiating certainly did not help at times but there were two main reasons why RU lost.

Can RU compete for the Big 10 title? Likely no

How fragile is RU's spot in the Big 10 standings? Yes just one game seperates 3rd from 10th so yes its fragile

Was the interesting lineup in the 2nd half a one off or is the rotation being tweaked? Need to see next game

Is Cam's lack of production an issue? 4 games now, I say we can be concerned a bit.

Is Hyatt ready for an expaned role on this team? Hyatt is stepping up big time and yes he will be trusted and leaned on a bit more.

Will schools try to adopt the Iowa/MSU blueprint to beat RU? Yes..pressure our ball handlers, take away Cam and speed up the tempo

Should we panic? Of course not, our defense is still one of the best in the country? Losses happen and yes Iowa is our kryptonite. 90 minutes removed after the end of this game, I am less angry and more accepting that Iowa owns us.

Is Rutgers still a NCAA team? Likely yes but it has to close the season, 10 games to go and probably 5-5 makes it academic

Is Minnesota in for a beating at the RAC? YES

Another great recap. Defense and TOs are why we lost. But, RU is probably not winning anyway with a 34-14 disparity from the line. Refs are not why we lost, but they were not good. Basically only blew the whistle on one side of the floor. Offensively, RU was very good (51% from the floor 40% from 3), probably because Iowa plays little D too. Mag and Hyatt were very good on offense. Mulcahy‘s 13 assists is an insane number. What a shame to waste such a good offensive effort.