The biggest factor in Iowa’s favor as well as the largest deterrent is the young, raw talent of the Hawkeyes. The best player on the team is no doubt a dynamic sophomore, Tyler Cook. At 6-9, the forward out of Saint Louis flashed looks of high potential consistently throughout his freshman year. Tyler Cook’s effect on the game cannot always be shown in his stat lines; however, Cook’s impacts every possession, regardless of his possession of the ball.

Jordan Bohannon, Isaiah Moss, and Brady Ellingson will be dominating the guard spots as sophomores and juniors. Bohannon and Moss can both score off the dribble and distribute to make plays at will, even as mere sophomores. Ellingson, however, will be more of a pure point guard. With the powerhouse Tyler Cook at forward, clear leaders at guard slots, and depth at both forward and guard positions, Iowa Basketball will be successful if McCaffery can find a large player to play in tandem with Cook.

This large X-factor for Iowa will be the freshman center for the Hawks, Luka Garza. The 4-star recruit out of Washington DC will play the role which could put Iowa over the top. The 6-11 has already grabbed 18 boards through two games with 27 points in addition. In recent memory, Iowa loses the rebounding affair on a strikingly consistent basis. In addition to the young Garza and Cook, the returning Big Ten Conference 6th man of the year award winner, Nicholas Bear, will jump start the young Hawkeyes whenever needed. With a deep set of young big men behind Garza, Baer, and Cook, the rebounding deficit will improve moving forward.

Another reason for the jump into March Madness will be the schedule for the young Iowa team. With the only notable non-conference opponents coming on the road against both Virginia Tech and the rivaling Cyclones, wins will be racked up quickly prior to conference play. Iowa also draws one of the weakest schedules in the Big Ten Conference. The Hawkeyes will not travel to ranked opponents in #2 Michigan State, #20 Purdue, and #19 Northwestern.

Iowa will also not travel to rival Wisconsin and will only play Michigan State, Maryland and Indiana once. The Hawkeyes will reach 20 wins before the final stretch of the season. Three of the final five games will

play on the road with the last two facing ranked opponents. With an easier schedule than most, even if the young players do not improve in the expected ways, Iowa will rack up at least 22 wins before the Big Ten Tournament in the Madison Square Garden.

The graduation of Peter Jok will also allow the Hawkeye basketball squad to acquire a bid to the NCAA Basketball Tournament. Jok made up the core of last year’s team, leading the Big Ten in scoring. However, Jok also lead the team in shots taken. Despite leading in points, Jok shot a 7^th team best shooting percentage to return for it, behind the likes of Tyler Cook, Nicholas Baer, Ahmad Wagner, and others.

Contrary to popular belief from mainstream sports analysts, Iowa will benefit from the absence of Peter Jok for multiple reasons. Iowa will not be reliant on a one-man effort with multiple people getting involved. A team is much easier to stop with one man scoring instead of a team. The spacing of the floor will also be nicer for shooters with the best player in Cook playing in the post instead of Jok playing around the 3-point arc. All in all, Peter Jok is an absolutely great player; however, Jok’s presence hurt the team more at times than not.

Due to the young raw talent of the Hawkeyes in addition to lucky breaks in scheduling and an ability to involve more players than in years past, the 2017 Iowa Hawkeye basketball team will not only return to the NCAA Tournament for the fourth time in five years, but will chance running at Sweet Sixteen for the first time since the 1998-99 season. The next game for the 2-0 Hawkeyes will come against Grambling State on Wednesday, November 16^th at 7:05 pm CST at Carver-Hawkeye Arena.

The post Spoilers: Hawkeyes Dance in March appeared first on KRUI Radio.

The team reaches its highest point in the first half of Big Ten Conference play, and they struggle mightily as the regular season comes to a close.

First, it was the 2013-2014 season that saw Iowa start 8-4 in conference play but lose five of their last six games to end the regular season with a 9-9 conference record. That team went on to lose in the first round of the Big Ten Tournament to Northwestern before bowing out in a First Four game against Tennessee.

Then, it was last season. Iowa had momentum going into the Big Ten Tournament winning their last six games of the season, but then the Hawkeyes lost their game to Penn State, the #13 seed in the bracket.

The 2014-2015 team won Iowa’s first NCAA tournament game since 2001 with a blowout of Davidson, but they ran into a buzz saw in Gonzaga in the second round and lost by 19 points.

This season, nobody knows how Iowa will fare. They easily could lose their first tournament game, but they could make a run towards the Sweet 16 or further.

The Hawkeyes again limped across the finish line losing five of their last regular season games.

Unlike previous years, Fran McCaffrey and company are clearly in the Field of 68 but the seed and destination has yet to be determined.

Iowa will likely be somewhere in the five to eight seed range. The professionals who make brackets a living have Iowa playing anywhere from Denver, Spokane, St. Louis, and everywhere in between.

Compared to their last two predecessors, this year’s team has a considerable amount of upside when things are clicking.

The upside was not on display in Indianapolis Thursday night as Peter Jok and Jarrod Uthoff were the only two players that showed up as the Hawkeyes fell to Illinois 68-66.

The two combined to score 50 of Iowa’s 66 points, while the rest of the roster made only 6 of their 30 shots attempted.

If Iowa does that in their first NCAA tournament game, it will be a quick trip wherever they go.

The bracket will be unveiled tomorrow at 4:30 central time on CBS.

The post Iowa Preparing for NCAA Tournament appeared first on KRUI Radio.

Despite some bright spots, the struggles continued for Fran McCaffrey and company as they welcomed one of the hottest teams in the Big Ten into Carver-Hawkeye Arena.When all was said and done, the Badgers (18-10, 10-5) escaped Iowa City with a 67-59 win over the Hawkeyes (20-7, 11-4)

This is Wisconsin’s third win against a top ten team this season. The other two came against fourth ranked Michigan State at home back on January 17^th and at second ranked Maryland back on February 14^th.

It is the first time since 1955 that the Badgers have two road wins against a top ten team. Wisconsin now has won nine of their last ten games, and they have another impressive win to add to their resume come Selection Sunday.

For Iowa, the issues that plagued them during their swoon has been the productivity of the bench and their team perimeter defense.

The bench only contributed four points compared to the starters 55. Dom Uhl and Nicholas Baer were the two players for Iowa who played more than five minutes off the bench.

For how good the bench played earlier in the season and extended leads instead of holding on for dear life until the starters got back, this has become a major concern for Fran McCaffery and the Iowa coaching staff.

Three of Iowa’s five starters played over 33 minutes, including 34 minutes from both Adam Woodbury and Anthony Clemmons. Woodbury set a new career-high with 18 rebounds, 10 of them on the offensive end, to go along with six points.

Peter Jok paced Iowa with 21 points with 17 of those coming in the first half. The starters combined to shoot 16-47 from the field, which is just a shade over 34%. Iowa missed a lot of open layups and had a lot of second and third opportunities on numerous possessions due to an 18-7 advantage on the offensive glass.

Anthony Clemmons and Jarrod Uthoff were the other two Hawkeyes in double figures with 13 and 11 respectively.

“We got good shot attempts,” Iowa coach Fran McCaffery said.

“We just got a little hesitant at times. Woody did a nice job of going back and getting us some extra opportunities, and Pete just got tired.”

Iowa had 14 turnovers as a team, which McCaffery said was way too much for his team.

Outside of the first couple minutes, the game was played at Wisconsin’s pace. They like to slow the pace of games down and not let teams get out in transition.

At the end of the day, teams that make timely shots and gets solid, all-around production usually wins their fair share of games. That is the difference between Iowa and Wisconsin right now.

The Hawkeyes now have a few days to prepare for their next game on Sunday afternoon at Ohio State. The Buckeyes, who are coming off an 81-62 loss at home to Michigan State, are 10-6 in the conference and a game and a half behind Iowa in the standings.

“We’ve got a great season going. It’s not time to cave in and throw the towel in. We’ve got more season to play,” Adam Woodbury said.

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As the 2014-2015 college basketball regular season begins to wind down with the Iowa Hawkeyes (17-10, 8-6) finding themselves once again amidst a year full of similar expectations for Fran and company, it begs the question, are the Hawkeyes poised to make a deep postseason run or will they experience déjà vu from a year ago?

Throughout the arc of the regular season a postseason run looked in store for the Hawks, snatching up quality wins against powerhouse teams like North Carolina, Ohio State (twice), and Maryland.

Then, there are times where the thought of just sneaking in the backdoor of the NCAA tournament is deserved for a team that has had numerous second half collapses. Most recently, a loss to Big Ten bottom feeder, Northwestern, that only leaves fans scratching their heads in confusion.

There are three major factors moving forward that are key if this veteran squad is to find success come March. First, it is crucial for Iowa to start fast in the first half of games. Fast starts have paved the way for impressive blowout wins at Michigan and home against Maryland.

Playing with the lead is crucial too. Ever since the second half debacle against Michigan State early in the conference schedule, the leader after the first 20 minutes has gone on to win each and every game.

Secondly, Iowa’s best offense has been fueled by their havoc-causing defense. Iowa’s length and scrappy guards makes for a dangerous combination, and puts the team 3^rd in the Big Ten with 6.5 steals per game. These steals lead to easy transition points that jumpstarting the offense, huge for a team that has failed to consistently knock down perimeter shots.

Iowa has shown the ability to be one of the better defensive teams in the Big Ten, but now it is just a matter of showing the same intensity game in and game out.

Finally, the continuing emergence of Jarrod Uthoff is huge for the Hawkeyes. We know that Aaron White, the team leader,  will consistently put up his 14 points, 7 rebound game. Still, where Iowa finds its most success is when the offense runs through Uthoff.

The 6’8 Cedar Rapids native leads the team in three point percentage with 41% and total 3-pointers with 46. Uthoff is shooting over 50 percent from the field the last three games, a number that has been on the climb ever since Fran McCaffery publicly stated that Uthoff needed to assert himself offensively following the home loss to Minnesota.

It is safe to say that Fran echoed the hopes of the Hawkeye faithful that night, and everyone has since seen the product in motion.

All of the pieces seem to be in place for a significant run in the postseason for the Iowa Hawkeyes. Then again, they were last year too. The difference this year to propel the program over the hump? It just might be consistency.

The post Are the Hawks poised for a deep postseason run? appeared first on KRUI Radio.

They were not about to drop a third straight tonight.

The Hawkeyes did not trail at any point of the contest and won, by a whopping 34 points, 81-47. The Hawkeyes go two dunks from center Adam Woodbury, an alley  oop dunk from Aaron White, and a pair of three pointers from Peter Jok and Jarrod Uthoff all before the first media timeout. These high energy plays set the tone for the rest of the game.

Jarrod Uthoff led the way for the Hawkeyes with 14 points in only 25 minutes. He also added a team high four steals while knocking down two three pointers and throwing down a thunderous dunk driving the baseline.

When asked if winning this game was especially important after Iowa’s two game losing streak, Uthoff had this to say “Yeah it is, it gets us back on the right track, hopefully we can win the next six in a row.”

One of the biggest positive storylines for the Hawkeyes tonight was Aaron White’s bounce back performance. After a 1-12 shooting night last Sunday in the loss against Northwestern, he had thirteen points in 28 minutes and led the team with 8 rebounds in the win. What stood out about White’s performance wasn’t the amount that he scored as much as it was about how he scored them. He was aggressive in the paint earning three trips to the foul line where he made five of six of his free throw attempts.

He also was on the receiving end of two alley oops, one from Peter Jok in the opening minutes and another from Josh Oglesby on the Hawkeyes last first half possession. His most impressive play however was in the second half with the Hawkeyes making a run that would put away the game for good, when he grabbed a defensive rebound and took it coast to coast and finished it off with a dunk.

Other noteworthy contributions from the Hawkeyes came from senior Gabe Olaseni who scored 12 points and grabbed 6 rebounds and had 1 block off the Bench. Peter Jok continued his strong play with 11 points, knocking down 3 of his 5 three pointers. Freshman Dom Uhl also showed some confidence on the court by scoring 9 points and grabbing 6 rebounds in only 16 minutes.

The Hawkeyes next game is Sunday on the road against Nebraska.

Casinos, Gambling, and Basketball: The Connection

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Overall, it’s clear that there is a connection between basketball, gambling, and the casino industry. Whether it’s through sports betting, events and games, or sponsorships, these three worlds often intersect and influence each other in various ways.

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The first half was rather uneventful for the Hawks, Jok had a nice breakaway layup and the Hawks were up four at one point but they had an 8-minute stretch without a basket. Aaron White put an end to that with a 2-handed jam with one minute left in the half that gave Iowa a little momentum heading into halftime.

The Gophers went into halftime with a 23-19 lead.

The halftime show was one of the best ones this season. The AcroDunks are a bunch of high flying dunk artists which brought life back into the Hawkeye crowd.

The second half was better than the first half by a far margin. The Hawks regained the lead with 13-minutes left at 31-30. The teams traded baskets until Andre Hollins drained a 3 to put the Gophers up 39-37.

The Gophers had a 10 point lead with two minutes left and Uthoff nailed a 3 to cut the deficit to 7. Then the Hawks applied the all-out full-court press swapping Jok and Clemons for offense/defense.  Pulling within 5 with a minute left.

Jarrod Uthoff had a great leaping steal off an in-bounds play near mid-court and dished it to White for the dunk to make the score 59-56 with 56 seconds left. After fouling Minnesota and Hollins making both free throws to put them up 61-56 with 27 seconds left.

Iowa came back down the floor with a screen for Uthoff to pop a 3. Minnesota committed the cardinal sin of basketball fouling on a three-point shot. Uthoff drained all 3 free-throws to make it 61-59 with 20 seconds left.

Minnesota was fouled immediately and made one of two free-throws keeping it a one possession game at 62-59.

Mike Gesell drove to the hoop with 11 seconds left and ran right into Chris Walker with no foul called, Walker gained possession and iced it for Minnesota 64-59.

At times the Hawks looked gassed and that lead to some costly turnovers (16 total). Another issue was being gun shy shooting the ball. They became focused on execution and movement, Fran said “We were not a master of shooting when open tonight.”

Neither team shot well from beyond the arc tonight, which may have played a factor in Iowa being gun-shy from downtown.

Stat notes

Minnesota

Andre Hollins led all scorers with 20 and Nate Mason added 12 from the bench.

Iowa

Woodbury had 4 points, 3 rebounds along with 2 assists before fouling out.

Off the bench Gabe Olaseni contributed 2 points, 4 rebounds and 3 blocked shots. Dominque Uhl chipped in with 2 points and 3 rebounds. Anthony Clemons added 5 points, he was also poked in the eye but after review it was unintentional.

Iowa falls to (15-9) overall and (6-5) in the Big Ten. Iowa’s next game is Sunday Feb. 15th, at 2 P.M. @ Northwestern on Big Ten Network It is the first match-up this season between them.

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By Mark Freie

IOWA CITY, Iowa – Michigan State Spartans senior guard Travis Trice poured in 25 points as the Spartans defeated the Iowa Hawkeyes 75-61 on Thursday night in Iowa City.

The night for Iowa Hawkeyes (11-5, 9-2) as the Hawkeyes went into halftime with a 39-28 lead. Iowa senior Gabe Olaseni provided a spark off the bench as he scored 15 first-half points going 7-7 from the free throw line. The Hawkeyes went 12-14 from the free throw line in the first half. However, the Hawkeyes were unable to match their strong first half performance as they were limited to 22 second half points and shot just 3-10 from the line. Hawkeye junior Jarrod Uthoff recorded a double-double with 12 points and 10 rebounds.

“[Michigan State] got some energy from the fact that they were playing good defense,” Hawkeyes coach Fran McCaffery said. “The disappointing thing is whenever you play a team, you hope you can do a better job on their good players. They have three elite guys and that’s who hurts us. That’s disappointing.”

However, Michigan State (11-5, 2-1) had a strong second half response as they erased an 11-point deficit, silencing the crowd inside Carver-Hawkeye Arena.

The Spartans displayed a three point barrage shooting 8-9 from behind the arc in the second half.

21 of Trice’s 25 points came off three point shots. Trice shot 3-4 in the first half and 4-4 in the second half from behind the arc. Adding into the mix was junior guard Denzel Valentine with 18 points and Branden Dawson who recorded a double-double with 14 points and 15 rebounds.

“Give Iowa credit they took it to us after the first six or seven minutes of the game,” Spartans head coach Tom Izzo said. “We feel very fortunate to beat this team on the road under the circumstances.”

The Iowa Hawkeyes will four days to prepare for the Minnesota Golden Gophers on Tuesday, January 13 in Minneapolis. The Gophers will travel to Ann Arbor to face the Michigan Wolverines on Saturday, January 10 before hosting the Hawkeyes.

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By Mark Freie

IOWA CITY, Iowa – After splitting a pair of games against the Ohio State Buckeyes in the 2013-2014 season, the Iowa Hawkeyes (9-4) will begin Big Ten play against the Buckeyes (11-2) in their final game of the 2014 year on Tuesday.

Iowa travels to Columbus, Ohio with the memories of a non-conference schedule that tested 5^th year head coach Fran McCaffery and his players.

“We pride ourselves into really competing. We amped up our non-conference schedule,” McCaffery said following an 80-70 win over North Florida. “When you schedule Pepperdine, [there is] a very good chance they’re going to win their league. When you schedule North Florida, [there is] a very good chance they’re going to win the Atlantic Sun. Their RPIs are all up. Hopefully that’s going to help us and pay dividends down the road.”

Shooting woes have not been a secret for the Hawkeyes who are 13 games into the season. Long, scoreless stretches have impacted the team in losses most notably against Texas, Iowa State and UNI.

“I think in particular with guys that know they’re really good shooters that aren’t making shots, they tend to [hang their head low],” McCaffery said. “All I ask them to do is keep battling defensively, don’t turn it over, and make sure you take good shots. I tell them to keep shooting.”

Aaron White, a senior out of Strongsville, Ohio, has led the way for the Hawkeyes this season. White, who eclipsed the 1,500 career point mark against North Florida, is averaging 15.8 points per game. Although White has only attempted 20 three-point shots of the team’s 253 attempts, he is still finding his way to the basket and is 81-92 (88%) from the free throw line. White only needs 12 made free throws to surpass Roy Marble on list for all-time free throws made at Iowa.

Iowa senior Gabe Olaseni and junior Jarrod Uthoff have also made their presence known. Uthoff has started all 13 games and is averaging 10.6 PPG and has been the three-point shooter for the Hawkeyes. Olaseni has appeared in all 13 games and is without a doubt, the sixth-man for Iowa. Coming off the bench, he averages 8.5 PPG, shooting 58% from the field, 5.6 rebounds per game, and has blocked 32 shots this season.

With the non-conference schedule behind them, the Hawkeyes embark on a Big Ten Conference schedule that has not been friendly to them in recent years. Although Iowa has finished with a 9-9 record the past two seasons, they have not enjoyed a winning Big Ten record since the 2006-2007 season.

Iowa will open Big Ten play on the road for the first time since the 2008-09 season. The Hawkeyes face a tough hurdle out of the gate in No. 20 Ohio State. The Buckeyes are led by freshman guard D’Angelo Russel averaging 17.7 points per game. While the Buckeyes have two losses on their record, one to Louisville and another to North Carolina, they boast one of the nation’s top offenses scoring around 85 points per game.

The Hawkeye shooting woes must be corrected in order to start Big Ten play on a high note. Buckeye opponents have averaged just below 60 points per game this season.

Tip-off for Iowa v. Ohio State is slated for 12:00 PM CT. The Hawkeyes will return to Carver-Hawkeye Arena in 2015 as they face Nebraska and Michigan State on Jan. 5 and 8.

For more Hawkeye Basketball coverage, be sure to follow @KRUISports on Twitter.

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The Hawkeyes had four guys in double figures tonight, which includes junior Jarrod Uthoff. He scored 13 tonight, on 6-11 from the field and 1-3 from the three-point line. “He (Uthoff) was aggressive, and that’s what I want him to be. He had some pull-up jumpers early, and then he hit the big three and then added a terrific move at the end of the half,” McCaffery said.

At this point, we all know the situation Gabe Olaseni is in, and he continues to play inspired basketball. The senior forward had another double-double tonight with 12 points, and 10 rebounds. Early on Olaseni wasn’t hitting his shots offensively but he found ways to stay involved, and impact the game. “The thing you’ve got to love about him (Gabe), again the shot’s weren’t falling, so he gets six offensive rebounds. He recognizes we need him to go back and get it for us,” McCaffery said.

Perhaps the most surprising star for the Hawkeyes this season showed up again tonight. I’m talking about the 6-8 freshmen out of Frankfurt, Germany, Dom Uhl. He had a career high 11 point and added 6 rebounds to the stat sheet. “I thought he was terrific. I think it starts with him, with his energy level, and he was really active,” McCaffery said. “He was attacking the basket off the dribble, making plays for other people.”

There were a lot of good things that happened tonight for the Hawks. Normally things do when a team wins by 23. But if there was something that didn’t go so well for the Hawkeyes, it was the three-point shooting. Iowa shot a dreadful 16-percent from beyond the arc that came on 3-19 shooting. All McCaffery can tell his guys is, keep shooting. “They were wide open” he said. “I only get upset if they start hunting them and start shooting uncontested trees or ill-advised.”

Iowa moves on to the 13^th ranked Iowa State Cyclones on Friday inside Carver-Hawkeye Arena, trying to get revenge from last year’s loss, a loss that could have easily turned into a win. “I think the (Iowa State) loss last year stuck with us longer because we had them,” White said. “We’re happy for the opportunity on Friday. We have them at home, it should be fun.”

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