No. 14 Iowa lost leading scorer Luke Recker to a broken kneecap. Then the team lost by a point to underdog Ohio State at home.
The prevailing sentiment in Iowa City was that the Hawkeyes could sink no lower – losing to Northwestern would make them the laughingstocks of the conference.
But with a mixture of inconsistent play, underwhelming shooting and overconfidence, Iowa managed to do just that.
The Hawkeyes (17-6, 6-4 Big Ten) shot just 37 percent from the floor and 5-for-22 from beyond the arc in their 69-61 loss Saturday to NU (9-15, 1-10), leaving both fans and players frustrated.
“I’m sure there are plenty of people laughing at us right now,” said guard Dean Oliver, who led the Hawkeyes with 20 points but made only two of 10 three-pointers. “If I were a fan, I’d be laughing at us.”
Iowa coach Steve Alford said his team struggled to find its rhythm on offense – committing 14 turnovers to complement its shooting woes – and Oliver called the game the low point of the Hawkeyes’ season.
Without Recker, Iowa couldn’t find anyone to knock down open jump shots. Needing a three-pointer to stay in the game with 1:30 to play, the Hawkeyes missed five shots on one possession – four from three-point land – before the Wildcats finally collected a rebound.
Hawkeyes guard Ryan Hogan said the team had come to rely on Recker’s 18.1 points per game.
“We don’t have the chemistry that we had with Luke, but we should,” Oliver said. “We’ve been practicing without him for a lot of days, and there’s no excuse.
“There were a lot of bad things we did in this game, and you have to give that credit to Northwestern – they made us do a lot of bad things.”
Alford began his postgame news conference Saturday by crediting NU for its dogged and determined play. He said his team’s flat performance should not overshadow the Cats’ efforts.
“They were tough-minded,” Alford said, “and, as normally happens, tough-minded teams win.”
But Iowa’s disappointment was evident on the faces of its players.
Oliver said the Hawkeyes may have gone into Evanston overconfident. But by game’s end, Oliver, his teammates and a large contingent of Iowa fans left Welsh-Ryan Arena humbled.
“I don’t know how much more frustrating it can get. ? That team hasn’t won a Big Ten game in 30-something games,” Oliver said.
Hogan said the Hawkeyes will have to work to regain respect from the rest of the conference. Forward Reggie Evans, the team’s leading rebounder – and its leading active scorer – echoed Hogan’s call to regroup.
“I don’t know what went wrong. We just played bad. It’s the Big Ten – you can’t underestimate anybody,” Evans said. “It’s embarrassing to lose, period. It doesn’t matter who we played.”
