Takeaways: Northwestern Take Down Hawkeyes

Iowa Basketball Falls in Evanston Sunday

Iowa's Kris Murray (14) and Northwestern's Tydus Verhoeven (10) go for a loose ball on Feb. 19, 2023 at Welsh-Ryan Arena in Evanston, Ill. (David Banks-USA TODAY Sports)

Iowa couldn’t make a 3-pointer.

Fran McCaffery couldn’t make it to the end of the game.

Northwestern made seemingly everything.

It was an ugly night for the Hawkeyes in Sunday’s 80-60 Big Ten loss at Northwestern.

Iowa (17-10 overall, 9-7 conference) had a chance to move into a tie for second place in the conference with the Wildcats (20-7, 11-5), and own the tiebreaker over Northwestern in a bid to secure a double bye for the Big Ten Tournament.

Instead the Hawkeyes are in a four-way tie for fourth place with Rutgers, Maryland and Michigan — it could become a five-way tie if Illinois defeats Minnesota on Monday — and left wondering about the chance they squandered.

“You have to give credit to (Northwestern),” McCaffery said. “They played well, they played well from the start. And they played better than us.”

The takeaways from Sunday’s game:

MISSING THREES

Every team can have shooting droughts during the game, but Iowa’s lasted all 40 minutes.

The Hawkeyes were just 3-of-24 in 3-pointers. One was a bank shot at the end of the first half by Ahron Ulis. One came from Payton Sandfort that was signaled a 3-pointer, changed to a two, and then back to a three. Patrick McCaffery had the third.

Everyone struggled. Connor McCaffery was 0-of-3 from behind the arc. Kris Murray was 0-of-6.

In a game in which Northwestern built a double-digit lead in the first half and the rest of the game was about chasing points, the ugly shooting numbers did the Hawkeyes no favors.

“If you shoot 3-for-24 for the game, you’re going to have a hard time winning,” Fran McCaffery said.

PROBLEMS EVERYWHERE

Take out the 3-point shooting, and Iowa was 20-of-30 in 2-pointers.

That sounds like a quality offensive night, but besides the missed 3-pointers, the Hawkeyes committed 15 turnovers. Iowa also had just 11 fast-break points.

“We didn’t get it sync,” McCaffery said. “Our transition, our half-court offense, nothing was flowing correctly. And you can’t blame anybody. You just have to be better.”

PERKINS’ FOUL TROUBLE

Tony Perkins picked up two fouls in the first half and sat the last 11:26 after going scoreless.

He finished with 11 points, and it was clear the Hawkeyes could have used him to cut through Northwestern’s defense in the first half.

Ulis did a good job of running the offense — he had no turnovers in 26 minutes, and he was 3-of-6 from the field.

But Iowa is better with Perkins running things, and it showed when he was on the bench.

MCCAFFERY’S EJECTION

Fran McCaffery was ejected from the game with 7:26 remaining when he picked up two technical fouls arguing what he thought — and what the television replay confirmed — was a missed 10-second violation from Northwestern.

McCaffery’s first technical came for being out of the coaching box, and the second came when he argued with official Courtney Green.

Boo Buie hit four free throws off the technicals, giving the Wildcats a 65-46 lead.

Patrick McCaffery picked up the Hawkeyes’ third technical foul later in the half.

BALANCED WILDCATS

Northwestern, which is on a five-game winning streak, snapped a nine-game losing streak to the Hawkeyes.

Buie led the Wildcats with 23 points, but Northwestern also got 16 points from Ty Berry and 12 from Brooks Barnhizer.

The Wildcats survived the first-half foul trouble of Chase Audige, their second leading scorer.

“You’ve got a lot of guys producing today,” McCaffery said. “When they’re playing like that, they’re different. They’re harder to beat.”