Game Day Essentials: Game #24 vs Iowa

Iowa Info

Head Coach: Fran McCaffery
Location: Iowa City, IA
Conference: B1G
Nickname: Hawks

Coach's Nickname: White Magic

Mascot: Herky the Hawk
Last time out: Beat Wisconsin

Typical Rotation Depth: 8+
Line: Nebraska by 4

Shirt not to wear: Black, Yellow (unless it's an Avery Strong shirt), anything with the sleeves cut off

Tempo: Fast offense/slow defense

Offense: Pass Pass Shoot

Defense: Various poorly executed schemes 

Style: High assist % / Lower 3pa%

Fun Fact: Fran McCaffery just signed a big extension on the down low 

Giveaway: Bowties will be given away to the first 1,000 fans | 2,000 Koozies courtest of the Nebrasak Soybean Board
 

All games

Conference only

Offensively Iowa is shooting and getting to the FT at average in conference. They lead the league in offensive rebounding but also league the lead in offensive turnovers....essentially this leads to an average offensive team.  They pair that up with a defense that only doesn't foul well as it gives up a lot of easy looks and rebounds as they break down the court.

HHC Member Scouting

"F Iowa"

Most Frequent Lineups over the last 5 games

Nebraska

Iowa

Iowa's lineup as stabilized over the last 5 games as Fran has gone all in on freshman center Luka Garza. The "LINE UP OF DEATH" continues to get more minutes together. 

Players to watch:  Isaiah Moss

Iowa is quite high on the sophomore SG from Simeon in Chicago though he's struggled at times as the Peter Jok replacement for this team.  Much like Jok, or any of the other current Iowa guards, his game doesn't involve driving to the rim.

Miles Presser

James Palmer Presser

The Skinny

Computers loved Iowa coming into this season as they brought back a lot of their talented underclassesmen from last year. Early season tourney loses were the canary in the coal mine: this is a pretty good offenses coupled with one of the worst defenses Fran McCaffery has rolled out on the court at Iowa.  Thus for the first time since Nebraska has joined the conference you can say this Nebraska team is definitively better.

This looks a lot like any other McCaffery team where they don't foul much, run a high assist offense, and essentially try to force you to run as much shot clock as possible on your end.  Offensively it starts with Jordan Bohannon who takes the lionshare of their 3pt attempts and distributing inside. Tyler Cook is a beast down load and along with Luka Garza and  Cordell Pemsl will cause problems in the Nebraska interior. Expect to see a lot of bodies being shifted in and out for the Huskers, especially if/when guys start picking up fouls.  There is a lot of concern about Nebraska giving up offensive rebounds but they've been pretty good on defense despite the fact.  They made up for it the same way Iowa has mitigated the advantage: turnovers.  Nebraska should get some easy buckets today for Hawkeye errors.

As much as you'd like to conserve energy, this will be about punishing Iowa for being so aggressive on their end as beating back Iowa down the court defeats what they're trying to do.  When Nebraska does have to run their half court, Iowa tends to turn you into a dribble drive team.  While Nebraska has embraced the concept of passing to other members of the team, they still have guys capable of running downhill against this team of plodders that Iowa rolls out.

Did that Iowa team put it together at home finally vs Wisconsin?  Maybe.  However when you look at the pattern of Iowa vs elite/not elite defenses in  non-conference play they haven't beaten a team with a top end defense.  Nebraska has good defense like they have good corn.

Prediction: Nebraska 81 - Iowa 70