Four years later, the Hawkeyes came back into Carver-Hawkeye Arena with a ranking of #4 in the country, looking to snap a four-game losing streak against Matt Painter’s Boilermakers. In fact, the Hawkeyes haven’t come close to beating Purdue in the four meetings since January 2017, with an average margin of defeat of 21 points in that streak.

“My first two years, they’ve embarrassed us. Every time I’ve played them they’ve outhustled us, they’ve destroyed us on the glass,” junior guard Joe Wieskamp said. “This was one we really wanted to send a message against a good Purdue team, and we did a good job.”

Wieskamp continued his high-level of play on Tuesday night, as he poured in 17 points and nine rebounds just three days after dropping 20-9-4 against top-ranked Gonzaga in Iowa’s 99-88 loss to the Bulldogs at the Sanford Pentagon in Sioux Falls.

The Hawkeyes also enjoyed another 20+ point performance from Luka Garza, as the senior post recorded his 17th straight Big Ten game with 20+ points. His streak matches the 17-game streak that former Ohio State star Dennis Hopson went on back in 1987.

Garza buried four threes in the contest, the final giving Iowa a 12-point lead with 2:28 to go in the game and the image of Garza making the shot with gauze up one of his once-bloodied nostrils served to be more than popular on social media.

“I thought tonight, we had open looks because he loaded people up. In and out. He made good decisions when he shot it,” Fran McCaffery said about Garza. “He was really good defensively and on the glass. Sat for a little bit with that third foul, and we got him back in there and he was able to finish.”

Iowa’s win against Purdue was the first time the Hawkeyes had begun the Big Ten slate 1-0 since 2015, when it beat then-#1 Michigan State at Carver to start a meteoric rise that saw that year’s squad rise to a #3 ranking at one point during the conference slate.

The Hawkeyes were ranked #3 when they took on #1 Gonzaga on Saturday in Sioux Falls. But, while Iowa fell to the nations top-ranked team and slid to #4 in Monday’s AP Poll, Fran McCaffery was not worried about his team’s ability, or inability, to avoid an emotional let down against the Boilermakers.

“We don’t let it linger. Let’s say make we won the game. Last two days we would’ve been ranked No. 1, everybody would’ve been saying how great we are. And we’ve got to battle Purdue,” McCaffery said. “

“We know what playing Purdue is like. They kicked us twice last year. So I think a team’s ability to understand that is going to be the key to success for the rest of the season.”

Perhaps the biggest key in the Hawkeyes win on Tuesday was their performance defensively. Following facing a Gonzaga offense that ripped Iowa’s defense to shreds, the Hawkeyes held Purdue to 55 points on the night. In the four previous matchups, Purdue averaged 88.5 points in those contests.

“It was by far our best effort on the glass and defensively,” Fran McCaffery said. “I thought we were pretty good — really good actually — against Carolina. We were locked in.”

With the performance, Iowa’s adjusted defensive rating went from 83rd to 62nd in the nation according to Ken Pomeroy. The rating is by far the worst for any team in the AP Top 10, but with the #1 Adjusted Offense in College Basketball, a rating in the mid-60s is all Iowa needs to be an elite basketball team.

Iowa will hit the road in Big Ten play for the first time this season as they take on border-rival Minnesota at Williams Arena in a Christmas Day matchup. The Hawkeyes were 2-0 against the Gophers in 2019-2020.

The post Iowa snaps four-game skid to Purdue, 70-55 appeared first on KRUI Radio.

The Hawkeyes started off lightning quick as they ran out to a 17-4 lead by the Under-16 media timeout. It would only get worse from their. Luka Garza led all scorers with 22 points, going 8-8 from the field and going 5-6 from the free throw line.

“I play as hard as I can, my teammates were finding me in open spots, and my jump shot felt really good,” Garza said of his consistency. “I worked really hard all summer to have a consistent three-point shot, so that felt great as well.”

Right behind Garza in the score column was star freshman Joe Wieskamp, who dropped 20 points on the night, with 18 coming in the first half. “He was really aggressive tonight and that’s what we want him to be,” Fran McCaffery said of Wieskamp. “He puts it on the deck, shoots the three, and is aggressive on the glass. He is versatile.”

Garza and Cook led the Hawkeyes in scoring with Tyler Cook trailing behind with 15 points and a couple of nice dunks in the half-court set. Isaiah Moss, who had struggled in New York during the Empire 2K Classic, came to life in front of the home fans, scoring 15 points, knocking down three of four, three-pointers, and a beautiful fast-break dunk in the first half.

“Now Moss with the steal – SHOWTIME!”@IowaHoops jumped ahead 12-0 on this slam. pic.twitter.com/qzbYiU9WtH

— Iowa On BTN (@IowaOnBTN) November 22, 2018

It was also a big night for the Iowa walk-ons as all four of them saw playing time: Riley Till, Austin Ash, Nicholas Hobbs and Michael Baer. Austin Ash scored his first career points as a Hawkeye on three-pointer with 4:17 to go in the ball game, and the crowd very nearly took the roof off Carver-Hawkeye Arena is Ash’s follow up three-pointer would have fallen.

Iowa now begins a crucial four-game stretch starting with their matchup against the Pitt Panthers in the Big Ten-ACC Challenge on November 27th. “You’ve got four monsters coming up, but I don’t look at it that way, I look at it as one monster coming up, and we’ll worry about the ones after that,” Fran McCaffery said of the four-game slate against Pitt, Wisconsin, Michigan State and Iowa State.

Iowa’s next match-up is against Pitt in the Big Ten-ACC Challenge on Tuesday, November 27th at 8:00 PM on ESPNU.

The post Garza, Wieskamp lead Iowa past Alabama State appeared first on KRUI Radio.

Thursday night, the Iowa offense was struggling, at halftime the Hawkeyes were only 8-25 from the field, shooting 17 threes in the process. “In the first half, we took 17 threes and eight two-point shots, So I was really disappointed in that aspect, I thought we had an advantage in the post offensively, I know I wanted to try and exploit that but we were jacking threes”, Fran McCaffery said of the first half shooting.

Iowa turned to their defense in their 77-63 win over the UMKC Kangaroos, “It was kind of funny, we kind of joked around about it in the locker room,” junior forward Ryan Kriener said. “This was kind of the first time that offense has been our problem, our offense was a little stagnant and our defense really held us in there”. Kreiner played 16 minutes and was very effective on the defensive end, adding eight rebounds to his six points.

The game also marked the official debut of freshman guard Joe Wieskamp, the former five-star recruit from Muscatine High School was the Hawkeyes leading scorer with 15, including four, three-pointers in the first half.

“Being here since June, going up against the guys every day, I think you just adjust,” Wieskamp said of his adjustment to the college game. Wieskamp also showed his great athleticism with a beautiful putback dunk in the second half that received a rousing cheer from the Carver crowd of 9,317.

Get up then, @JWieskamp21!

The @IowaHoops freshman has showed out tonight: pic.twitter.com/tuuY6MGx1j

— Iowa On BTN (@IowaOnBTN) November 9, 2018

Junior guard Maishe Dailey also played a big role off the bench against the Kangaroos as he scored 11 points. “We just needed to bring intensity, we felt like we got hit in the mouth in the first half so we just wanted to bring that fight and we reciprocated that fight in the second half,” Dailey said of Iowa’s performance.

Dailey also believes he’s transitioned into the role of “Defensive stopper and defensive leader,” and if he in fact has, would be a huge boost to this Iowa team.

Joe Wieskamp led all Iowa scorers with 15 points and also added four rebounds and an assist. Juniors Jordan Bohannon and Tyler Cook followed up with 12 points each, Bohannon added four rebounds and three assists, while Cook accumulated eight rebounds and five assists.

Next in the scoring column was Maishe Dailey, who had 11 points with two assists to boot. Sophomore Luka Garza added eight points and three rebounds and freshman Connor McCaffery contributed seven points and three assists.

Iowa’s next action is Sunday afternoon against Wisconsin-Green Bay, tipoff is at 2 P.M. local time.

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