Iowa Meets Penn State Again

Hawkeyes Match Up with Nittany Lions for 2nd Time in 9 Days

Iowa's Filip Rebraca (0) guards Penn State's John Harrar (21) on Jan. 22, 2022 at Carver-Hawkeye Arena in Iowa City, Iowa. (Rob Howe/HawkeyeNation.com)

Iowa plays at Penn State on Monday night, and it’s not like the Hawkeyes aren’t familiar with the Nittany Lions.

The two teams played at Carver-Hawkeye Arena on January 22, and both have played just one game since then.

So, the preparation isn’t going to be that much different. Playing on the road, though, is the biggest challenge, Iowa coach Fran McCaffery said on Sunday,.

“It's going to be a lot different and a lot tougher, when you're on the road against a team that has clearly proven that they play extremely well at home,” McCaffery said. “They fought us really tough here (in Iowa’s 68-51 win). So obviously, they have our incredible respect.

“I don't really look at it that much differently. You don't have a lot more information to go on. We prepared hard for that game. They played one game since then. We played one game since then. We'll go play them again.”

Iowa (14-6 overall, 4-5 Big Ten) could use a road win. The Hawkeyes are 2-4 on the road this season, and with three of their next four games away from home can’t afford any sort of stumble if they want to stay in the middle jam of the Big Ten standings.

Penn State (8-9, 3-6) is 6-3 at home this season. The Nittany Lions, though, are in a stretch in which they have lost four of their last five games.

The Hawkeyes have won seven of their last 10 games, but are coming off an 83-73 loss to Purdue in which they trailed by as much as 18 points before rallying to get to within four in the second half.

“You don't put it behind you quickly,” McCaffery said. “You try to learn from it. You watch film, you do drills, you work on things that we didn't do well. And you do it with an eye towards your next opponent.

“You're always focused on yourselves more so than any other team,” McCaffery said. “So there were a lot of things we did in that game that were good, a lot of things we did that were not good. And that's pretty much what you do every time out. You try to get better and then you focus on the next opponent.”

McCaffery wasn’t happy with how the Hawkeyes moved the ball against the Boilermakers. Iowa had just 10 assists on 24 field goals.

“Yeah, we have not done a good job moving the ball,” McCaffery said. “We're going a little bit too much one-on-one, the ball sticking a little bit more than it should. And that's not how we play. We need to be better in that area.

McCaffery said the lack of ball movement can be attributed to several factors.

“Maybe you fall behind, or how the team was playing defense,” McCaffery said. “You know, this is a team that typically is a pretty unselfish group. And that's basically been, I think, our calling card — we move and share the ball and then ultimately the ball finds the right people. But then you fall behind, like I said, and you feel like your team needs a basket, sometimes it’s, ‘I'm gonna go get one.’ And you know, for us, it's not like one or two guys. It's a lot of different people trying to do that. We've got to be more conscious with our ball movement, I think.”

It’s a three-game week for the Hawkeyes. They play at Ohio State on Thursday before playing at home against Minnesota on Sunday.

“We practice, we focus, we watch tapes,” McCaffery said. “We try to strengthen some areas that we weren't so good at in the last game. And then, you know, obviously we’re looking at the game against Penn State — what things worked, what things didn't work, what adjustments we need to make, what adjustments do we think they're going to make, and then go play the game. “You know, when you fly home, if you get home at three in the morning as opposed to midnight. OK, then you go to class and get ready to play Ohio State, another road game. So it's not like there's any magic to it.”