Sharing is Caring for Iowa Basketball

Hawkeyes Unselfish Play Leads to Success

Iowa's Patrick McCaffery (22) looks for an open teammate while Michigan State's Max Christie (5) defends him during their game on Feb. 22, 2022 at Carver-Hawkeye Arena in Iowa City, Iowa. (Rob Howe/HawkeyeNation.com)

IOWA CITY, Iowa - Playing at a fast pace and scoring a lot of points while rarely turning the ball over seems to defy basketball logic. But Iowa has followed that script while winning 48 games over the last two seasons. And it’s a blueprint the team will follow once again this season.

Coach Fran McCaffery’s 2021-22 team was fifth nationally in scoring at 83.2 points a game. That’s the highest scoring average for a Big Ten team since Indiana (86.1) in 1992-93. But the Hawkeyes were also fourth nationally in fewest turnovers per game at 9.2.

Sharing the ball has been another strength the past two seasons, even on teams that had National Player of the Year Luka Garza and then consensus all-American Keegan Murray on the floor as go-to guys. Iowa has led the nation the last two seasons in assist-to-turnover ratio.

“That’s something we really stress,” McCaffery said. “We play fast, but we don’t play nuts. We’re not driving into packs of people and charging and falling down, or throwing it out-of-bounds or throwing a bad alley-oop pass and blaming the other guy. We’re drawing the defense and kicking it and shooting the open 3. So we’re playing fast but sometimes we’ll score early, and sometimes we’ll score late in the possession. But we’re not playing fast to take bad shots.”

Iowa’s 2022-23 team made its first public appearance Monday night with a 118-72 exhibition victory against Truman State. The Hawkeyes played at a fast pace. They also shared the ball. Iowa had 24 assists to eight turnovers.

One play stood out. Connor McCaffery was a perfect four-for-four from 3 in the first half, and had an open look from the top of the key for a fifth. But he passed the ball to Tony Perkins on the right wing. Perkins nailed the triple, then pointed to McCaffery to acknowledge the unselfishness.

“That’s just how we play,” said junior forward Kris Murray, who led the Hawkeyes with 24 points in 24 minutes. “We have a lot of guys who can score and have big games. I think that’s when we’re most deadly, when we share the ball a lot and get it moving.”

McCaffery brought a reputation as an up-tempo coach with him when he arrived before the 2010-11 season. But sharing the ball has been another of his bedrock philosophies.

“I think that has to be the strength of any winning team,” he said. “You’ve got to know when to move it, when to share it. And that’s whether you have a Luka Garza or not, or a Keegan Murray or not. We’re going to move the basketball.”

Iowa made 14 of 25 3-pointers against Truman State, and showed a lot of potential from distance. Six players - McCaffery, Perkins, Murray, Payton Sandfort, Josh Dix and Carter Kingsbury - all made at least two triples. That list didn’t include Patrick McCaffery, expected to be one of the team’s top perimeter threats this season.

“If you’re running transition and running motion, and moving the ball and nobody can shoot, everybody on defense is going to be back in the paint,” Coach McCaffery said.

But Iowa can’t be guarded that way.

“So they have to be up on us,” McCaffery said. “So we can drive or kick, or set a flare screen or curl and back cut. As long as we’re unselfish, which we are, then you’re going to get open 3s.”

Unselfishness and good decision making will go a long way in making this a successful season for the Hawkeyes.

“Your ability to win or lose is based on the decisions you make,” McCaffery said. “And what makes basketball so different from baseball or football is that you’re making a lot of decisions in a matter of seconds. And your ability to do that successfully as a group is going to determine whether or not you’re going to lose.”

Iowa has finished fifth nationally in scoring the last two seasons, and has led the Big Ten in scoring in each of the last four seasons. But just as important is the fact that they’ve been first first and seventh nationally in assist-to-turnover ratio the past three years.

“Cut, move and space the floor,” Murray said. “That’s how we play.”