All those adjectives can be used to describe the character and play of Chris Street, the former Hawkeye great who passed away 25 years ago in a car accident during his junior season. In situations like this, it’s important to seek the help of an experienced lawyer here to navigate the legal process and obtain justice for the victim and their loved ones. On Saturday, when the Iowa Hawkeyes hosted a top-3 ranked Purdue team and honored Street – with his family and dozens of former Hawkeye players and coaches in attendance – none of those adjectives could be used to describe the team’s play.

Iowa fell behind early and never were able to claw back, falling to the Boilermakers, 87–64. The Hawkeyes outscored Purdue in the second half, but a 31-point halftime deficit left Iowa in a hole they could not come out of.

For Purdue (19–2, 8–0 Big Ten), the win marks the end of a four game losing streak at Carver-Hawkeye Arena that dated back six years. The Boilermakers sank 11 three-pointers in the first half and nine in the second half to set a school record for made 3-point field goals in a single game. They shot 61% from deep.

Iowa (10–10, 1–7 Big Ten) took an early 3–0 lead just over two minutes into the game, but would never lead again. Four minutes later, the Boilermakers had hit four threes and held a 17–6 advantage. The Hawkeyes were never able to figure out a defensive plan to stop a staggering offensive attack from Purdue in the first half.

“They shoot it, they can throw it inside, and they can share it,” said Iowa head coach Fran McCaffery. “They have a special team.”

Purdue’s starting lineup, with four seniors and one sophomore, scored 70 of the team’s 87 points. The only time Purdue struggled to score was late in the second half, long after the team’s starters had departed.

Carsen Edwards, Purdue’s crafty young point guard, led the team with 22 points, including connecting on 6 of 9 three-point attempts. The Boilers’ 6-foot-8 power forward Vincent Edwards (of no relation) had 19 points, including 3 made threes. Dakota Mathias and P. J. Thompson also scored in double figures for Purdue.

For Iowa, Luka Garza led the team with 19 points on 8 of 10 shooting from the floor, much of which came during a complete takeover by the freshman big man in the second half.

“I got a couple shots from the outside, got shots from the inside,” said Garza on his second-half performance. “I was feeling it for a little bit there.”

Iowa got unusually unproductive play from Tyler Cook, who was 3 of 8 from the floor and failed to reach double figures in points for just the sixth time this season. Jordan Bohannon also scored just nine, and hit only one three-pointer after hitting five in each of his last three games.

Perhaps the best summation of Iowa’s performance came with just under three minutes left to play in the first half. With the Hawkeyes trailing by 29, a packed Carver-Hawkeye Arena let out sarcastic cheers after a missed three-point shot by Carsen Edwards. Dom Uhl collected the rebound and threw an outlet pass down to Cordell Pemsl, who was all alone for a layup – before it was blocked from behind by a sprinting Vincent Edwards, who turned the block into a layup of his own, extending Purdue’s lead.

Never in the game did Iowa show as much defensive effort as Purdue did on that possession. Even as the Boilermakers continued to sink three-pointers with little effort from the top of the key, Iowa failed to make immediate adjustments to their on-ball defense.

When questioned about Iowa’s defensive game plan, McCaffery pointed to Purdue’s senior big man, 7-foot-2 Isaac Haas, as a reason for why the defense was not guarding the three-point line as hard. Yet Haas only played 18 minutes due to foul trouble and took only one shot – which he made.

Asked if he felt that the messages he was sending to the team, which has now lost five of its past six, were being received, a discouraged McCaffery replied that he has “seen change”. Whatever change he saw did not show up for the Hawkeyes on Saturday morning.

“We’ve just got to keep working,” Bohannon said. “At the end of the day that’s the attitude you have to have during adversity.”

Iowa is back in action on Tuesday when they host Wisconsin.

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This time, the series shifted to Iowa City, and it didn’t look like the game was played between the same two teams.

In an instant classic that could change the direction of the Hawkeyes’ season, the lead changed 20 times and every big shot was followed by an even bigger one.

After the first half went back and forth, Purdue took a nine-point lead into halftime after a 6-0 run, but the young Hawkeyes were not fazed. A 5-0 Iowa run started the second half, and the team showed everyone in Carver-Hawkeye Arena that they had matured since the last time they played the Boilermakers.

“When you go through what we went through (at Purdue), you have to learn from it,” said Iowa’s Head Coach Fran McCaffery. “Sometimes you just have to learn what playing on the road in the Big Ten is like, and then you go back to work. You grow, and you figure it out.”

The Hawkeyes did figure it out, and they did it as a team. The team recorded 22 total assists, 11 in each half, and nearly all of them came from their leaders, senior Peter Jok and freshman point guard Jordan Bohannon.

Jok lead this young team once again in scoring with 29 points on 11-of-19 shooting, but he also added six rebounds and a career-high eight assists. Bohannon also had a career-high nine assists compared to just one turnover in a team-high 36 minutes.

“My game plan was to come out and try to get everybody else open shots,” said Jok after the game. “The team did a great job of finishing.”

Jok is known for his shooting ability, but his unselfish play in his senior season has aided in the development of the team’s young core. His ability to be a leader by example has led to some high praise from his head coach.

“I thought he was really special tonight,” said McCaffery of Jok’s performance. “He just gets how everything fits, and he’s making it easier for everybody else, which is what you want your senior captain to do.”

Even though Jok put up a game-high 29 points, the game was not won on the perimeter. Instead, Iowa took the challenge of Purdue’s big men and faced it head on.

Purdue has a post presence unlike any other team in the Big Ten with 6’9 Caleb Swanigan and 7’2 Isaac Haas playing down low, but Iowa’s young big men rose to the occasion last night.

Iowa registered 40 points in the paint compared to Purdue’s 20, something that is not easy to do against a team with Purdue’s size. The Hawkeyes also outrebounded the Boilermakers 35 to 28 after allowing 37 boards in West Lafayette.

Freshman forward Tyler Cook was second on the team in points with 16 on 7-of-10 shooting. He also contributed six rebounds and his defense on Swanigan never allowed the B1G Player of the Year candidate to fully settle in and get comfortable.

Off the bench, Nicholas Baer continued to wow everyone with his aggressiveness and gritty play. He grabbed ten rebounds, nine of them in the second half, and blocked a would-be dunk from the 7’2 Haas that brought the crowd at CHA to their feet.

Twice the Hawkeyes forced jump balls with Haas, and twice two big bodies hit the floor hard. In the first half, it was Cordell Pemsl who took Haas to the floor with a takedown Iowa wrestling coach Tom Brands would have been proud of. In the second half, Haas was taken to the ground again, this time by Ryan Kriener.

Yes, Ryan Kriener.

The freshman from Spirit Lake was only averaging 4.4 minutes per game and had not checked in to a conference game yet this season, but he played eight impactful minutes late in the game.

Kriener checked in midway through the second half and picked up a quick foul on Haas, but the freshman responded by scoring six of the teams next eight points that helped the Hawkeyes tie the game for the first time in the half.

“M-V-P! M-V-P!” Tyler Cook chanted as the two made their way into their post game media session.

For the second straight game, McCaffery used a player off the bench to spark a rally and give the team a boost when they needed it. First, it was Dom Uhl against Rutgers. On Thursday night, it was Ryan Kriener.

“(He’s) been waiting for a chance, and he’s earned that chance,” McCaffery said of Kriener’s performance. “I couldn’t be prouder of him.”

“When you get your shot you just have to go and make the most it,” said Kriener. “I have a lot of confidence in my ability to score … but I couldn’t do that without my teammates getting me open, so credit to them.”

The Hawkeyes have now played four Big Ten games since their opening night debacle at Mackey Arena, and each game has been decided by single digits. In those games, the Hawkeyes are 3-1, with all three wins at Carver-Hawkeye Arena.

“I’m really proud of our guys and how we were able to compete tonight, said Baer following the upset of Purdue. “It’s something we’re going to have to do moving forward. Every night’s going to be a battle.”

Inexperience is no longer an excuse for this Iowa team, and they never wanted to use it as one in the first place. They’ve been through a lot already in the early going of the Big Ten season, and a signature win like this over a good Boilermakers team might just give them the confidence they need going forward. The “rebuilding year” for the Iowa program may not have to take a whole year if the team keeps playing at this level.

Iowa (11-7 overall, 3-2 Big Ten) travels to Evanston, IL on Sunday January 15^th to take on the Northwestern Wildcats (14-4 overall, 3-2 Big Ten) at 6:30 pm CST on BTN.

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After going through a four-game losing streak and having a complete makeover in the starting lineup, winning five in a row before facing a top-15 team in Purdue seems pretty good for the young, but talented, Hawkeyes.

“Considering where we were, yeah,” said head coach Fran McCaffery when asked if he liked where the team stands at the end of non-conference play.

Since McCaffery changed the starting lineup at Notre Dame, which included starting three true freshmen in Jordan Bohannon, Cordell Pemsl, and Isaiah Moss, the Hawkeyes are 5-2 and they have found some balance in their game. Before the change, defensive communication had been a problem and senior Peter Jok was the only player scoring consistently. That has not been the case during the current five-game winning streak.

“They’ve definitely shown signs of improvement,” McCaffery said. “We played so poorly in that stretch of games defensively, and they knew we had to be better. Then they had to figure out how to do it together.”

During the four-game skid, opponents were scoring 91 points per game against the Hawkeyes. Since, that number has gone down to 61.6.

Since becoming starters, Pemsl and Bohannon have averaged 13.6 and 11.7 PPG, which has given the team a much-needed boost offensively since freshman Tyler Cook was sidelined with a broken finger.

Before the injury, Cook was averaging 13.7 PPG and 5.3 rebounds per game.

Cook is expected to return to the lineup for the first time in three weeks against Purdue next Wednesday, although it is unclear whether or not he will be in the starting lineup. McCaffery says he will evaluate how he plays in practice over the next few days before making a decision.

“We’ll see how he does when he comes back,” McCaffery said of Cook. “Ahmad (Wagner) and Cordell have really played well together, so I’ll think it through.”

As is often the case with good players who miss time with injuries, it could take a while for Cook to get re-acclimated to playing with his teammates again, and for the team to get re-acclimated to Cook being on the floor. The team thinks the next week of practice will help them get accustomed to the change, and they don’t expect Cook to struggle at all when he returns to the lineup.

“I don’t see it changing at all,” said Wagner of the team chemistry when Cook returns. “We’re going to be just as effective as we were before, and I don’t think he’s going to miss a beat.”

Having Cook’s 6’9” frame back in the lineup will be helpful, as Purdue is one of the bigger teams Iowa will face all season. The Boilermakers have a potential first-round NBA Draft pick in 7’2” center Isaac Haas, as well as a B1G player of the year candidate in 6’9” forward Caleb Swanigan. Both players are averaging more than 14 PPG so far this season.

The Hawkeyes will have to be at their best from this point on. Only a couple of players on this young team have been through B1G play before, and they will be relied on more in the coming weeks as the freshmen get accustomed to the conference schedule.

“Our team’s been clicking lately, and we’re only going to get better from here,” Wagner said. “People say we’re young and inexperienced, but I think our team’s good and I think we can surprise a lot of people.”

It will be an interesting conference season for the Hawkeyes who are still trying to find their groove. Fans will need to keep their expectations in check as they watch this young team grow and learn on the fly, and we have to understand that the team will have to make mistakes and hit some bumps in the road if they want to keep improving.

Big Ten Conference play starts on Wednesday, December 28^th as Iowa (8-5) travels to West Lafayette, Indiana to take on the #15 Purdue Boilermakers (11-2) at Mackey Arena. Game time is set for 7:30 PM central time and can be seen on Big Ten Network.

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