Defense has been a problem this season for the Iowa Hawkeyes and a lack of it cost them in their Big Ten opener. The Hawks could not get enough stops at crunch time and Purdue escaped Iowa City with a 79-76 win.
Iowa coach Fran McCaffery says, “The concerning thing on the floor was a consistent pattern of behavior that we just don’t guard people. You know we can’t let a team come in here and shoot 50%. We had ample opportunities to take the lead in the second half, we just couldn’t get a stop when we needed one.”
Robbie Hummel led Purdue with 16 points but it was the role players that hurt the Hawkeyes. McCaffery says ever one of their players who are not major scorers shot above 50% and he says “that is unacceptable.”
McCaffery says the Hawkeyes need to find a way to defend the dribble drive. “The only thing we can do is just keep working on it,” McCaffery says. Roy Devyn Marble led Iowa with 17 points and Melsahn Basabe added 14 as the Hawks fall to 8-6 overall.