The Iowa Hawkeyes finished their season today with a 55-47 loss to Michigan at the Big Ten Tournament in Indianapolis. Iowa went 17 minutes in the second half without a field goal and shot just 32-percent from the floor in the game.
Coach Todd Lickliter says the slow start in the second half hurt them. He says Michigan got a shot blocked, had some great looks and couldn’t make a shot, and then Michigan extended out the lead and his team played even for most of the rest of the half. But Lickliter says the initial run kept them at bay. Lickliter is in his first year at Iowa after leaving a successful program at Butler. He says it was tough at times to get his system in place.
Lickliter says the team has to believe that what he’s telling them is the right thing, other than trying to come up with their own way of doing things. Lickliter says they’ll bring in some new guys next season that have poise and pace to their game.
Iowa ends the season at 13-19. "It was a very trying season…I just came off the best season of my career last year, to the Sweet Sixteen, and then jumped in here," Lickliter says. He does say the teammembers always showed up on time and were fun to be around, so there were some positives. Cyrus Tate led Iowa with 16 points, Jake Kelly had 11.