Fran McCaffery has had a long first year as the head coach of Iowa, but today he got a great feather to put in his cap as the formerly last place Hawkeyes stunned #6 Purdue in Iowa. In his final home game as a Hawkeye, Jarryd Cole scored 16 points on 7-12 shooting and pulled down 10 rebounds for his fourth double-double of the season. Along with Cole, three other Hawkeye starters scored at least 11 points. Bryce Cartwright, who was fantastic running the point for Iowa, finished the day with 13 points, 7 assists, and 6 rebounds.
Purdue (25-6, 14-4 Big Ten) was dealt a huge blow in terms of seeding and pride. Before today's loss, the Boilermakers had visions of a share of the Big Ten title and a possible 1-seed in the NCAA tournament dancing in their heads; unfortunately, the Boilers got caught looking too far into the future, and were subsequently out-hustled and generally out-played by an inferior Hawkeye squad.
Purdue now heads into the Big Ten Tournament as the likely 2-seed (which will be wrapped up if Ohio State beats Wisconsin), and will have to bounce back in their next game lest they get in danger of possibly falling all the way to a 3-seed in the Big Dance.
Stat Breakdown
|
|
Purdue |
Iowa |
|
Points Per Minute |
1.63 |
1.68 |
|
Points Per Shot |
0.94 |
1.12 |
|
2 PT FG% |
45.5% |
46% |
|
3 PT FG% |
20% |
30% |
|
FT% |
58.8% |
63.2% |
|
True Shooting % |
42.5% |
49% |
|
|
|
|
|
Assists |
13 |
15 |
|
Steals |
9 |
2 |
|
Turnovers |
7 |
13 |
|
BCI (Assists + Steals/ TOVS) |
3.14 |
1.31 |
|
|
|
|
|
Total Rebounds |
32 |
47(!) |
|
Offensive Rebounds |
13 |
12 |
- Statistically, this was kind of a strange game. Iowa managed to gain the upper hand in three of the Four Factors of Winning (hey, they won! Who woulda thunk it?), but a combination of turnovers and poor free throw shooting by the Hawkeyes kept Purdue in the game to the final seconds. Purdue managed to own Iowa in BCI (thanks to 9 steals and only 7 turnovers), but it wasn't enough to pull out the win.
- The ultimate killer for the Boilermakers came on the offensive end; they managed to keep Iowa to a relatively low 43 FG%, but the Boilers themselves would finish the day at only 36 FG%. They managed to get off 9 more shots than the Hawkeyes, but only made 25 field goals to Iowa's 26.
- Purdue was 5-25 shooting the 3-pointer, and it was an equally huge factor in today's loss. Iowa only shot 3-10 from 3-point land, but that was actually an improvement for them. The Hawkeyes had been on a three game, 0-22 stretch from behind the arc before Bryce Cartwright hit a three in the first half.
- For the first 3/4's of the game, JaJuan Johnson was 9-16 from the field with 20 points and 10 rebounds. After making a shot with 12:11 left in the game, he proceeded to score only 2 points while missing all seven of his final shots.
- Johnson, Moore, and Jackson: 46 points on 19-46 shooting (1-7 3-PT). Rest of team: 16 points on 6-23 shooting (4-18 3-PT). Purdue isn't in the danger zone at the moment, but if the role players can't handle the teams' offensive needs when (or if) their go-to guys are cold from the floor, things could get dicey fast. Ultimately, this puts more pressure on Johnson and Moore to not only score points, but to also do so efficiently.
- My Senior Night Magic prediction on Justin Safford was 100% wrong, but Jarryd Cole managed to play great in his final game at Carver-Hawkeye Arena. Cole went for 16 points on 12 shots and pulled down 10 rebounds for his 4th double-double of the season. He also got help from Iowa's stud frosh, Melsahn Basabe. After missing an easy slam dunk, Basabe played a smart all-around game and capitalized on some defensive lapses by Purdue. He finished with 10 points and 8 rebounds.
- As I said in my preivew, it would take more than just a good frontcourt performance for Iowa to pull this off, and they got great efforts from Matt Gattens and Bryce Cartwright. Cartwright had 13-6-7 and played in the final minutes of the game after suffering a (presumably) minor leg injury in the second half. Gattens also scored 13 and managed to eat a lot of clock in the final seconds before Purdue fouled him with 6 seconds left in the game.
- Iowa's bench wasn't great, but they managed to both keep Purdue from building a big lead and keeping the Boilers at bay whenever they made a mini-run in the 2nd half. Both benches ended the game with 10 points.
- Devon Archie air-balled a free throw. Not even yours truly has ever done that.
Final Verdict
All in all, this was a great win for Fran McCaffery and the rebuilding Hawkeyes, and a crushing loss for Purdue. Ohio State now has the Big Ten regular season title locked up, and the Boilers can likely kiss their chances at a one-seed goodbye. The Boilers have nobody to blame but themselves, but I give credit to Iowa for doing enough to get the W at the end of the day. They never let Purdue build a lead, hit some timely shots, got a few friendly rolls, and ended the day with their first win over a top-ten team since they topped #6 Michigan State in 2008, even with a 14 turnovers, a missed dunk, and an airball free throw. Next up for these teams is the conference tournament, and while Iowa has nothing to lose and everything to gain, Purdue will now have to focus on avoiding a first round upset if they want to remain a lock for one of the 2-seeds in the Big Dance. To take a quote from the Jesse Eisenberg hit Zombieland, it's time to nut up or shut up.