Iowa basketball coach Todd Lickliter says he has liked the way his team has responded to the loss of freshman forward Jarryd Cole even though they don’t have a win to show for it. Cole is out for the season with a knee injury suffered in the Hawkeyes final nonconference game and Iowa has lost to Indiana and Wisconsin to start the league race.
Lickliter says they play to win and he thinks they are competitive and says you can’t dwell on the loses, or injuries, you have to move forward. He says the Hawkeyes need to find a way to start limiting their mistakes. He says they have to respond to the setbacks and figure it out and play high percentage basketball.
Lickliter says if they continue to do “low percentage” things, they won’t win, while he says they’ve played good teams, they need to make better choices to go in another direction.
Senior guard Justin Johnson is off to a hot start in Big Ten and has made 11 of 18 from three point range. Lickliter says Johnson’s value extends beyond the scoring column. Lickliter says Johnson is focusing on defending and is the best screener, which he says is huge as the other team isn’t going to leave him.
Lickliter says when you concentrate on the basics, you do better in shooting, and he says Johnson has become the go-to shooter, but isn’t one dimensional. Iowa returns to action Wednesday night at Ohio State.
