IOWA TOTALLY UPSETS TEXAS (...If Second Half Were 60 Seconds Long)

by Oops Pow Surprise on Nov 24, 2009 1:05 AM CST in Basketball Comment 14 comments

Iowa's Jarryd Cole (50) beats Texas' Damion James (5) to a rebound during the first half of an NCAA college basketball game Monday, Nov. 23, 2009, in Kansas City, Mo. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)

2 months ago: Iowa's Jarryd Cole (50) beats Texas' Damion James (5) to a rebound during the first half of an NCAA college basketball game Monday, Nov. 23, 2009, in Kansas City, Mo. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)

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Okay, did we see this coming? Yes. And no. And yes. And no.

We did, for example, foresee the fact that Texas would throttle the Hawkeyes; that 15.5 point line seemed comically low at the time, and it's only for the pervasive power of pessimism (when it comes to our own decision) that we didn't bet December's rent on the 'Horns.

And hey, for about 21 minutes, that restraint looked brilliant. After Texas jumped out to a 29-13 lead, they stopped playing defense--possibly on account of the horse tranquilizers someone slipped into their Gatorade--and Iowa fought back to within 3 points late in the half.

Then this happened:

(Please let this video survive the night.)

Score tied at 38, and then Iowa hit a three to open up the second half scoring at 41-38.

That would be the last we heard from the Hawkeyes.

From then on, Texas scored 17 points straight, all white absolutely erasing any Iowa attempts to score. Didn't matter if it was inside, outside, whatever; Rick Barnes' crew slapped on that trademark Longhorn defense, and Iowa was just useless, hoisted contested shots or throwing frazzled passes to nobody in particular. Essentially, Iowa had no answer for defensive aggression; they knew well enough to draw a defender with a shot fake and dribble past him, but once inside the three-point line, they seemed lost. No mid-range jumper game, and that's precisely where it's most deadly--far more than a hurried pass back out to the perimeter. At least a mid-range game slows the defender down.

The rest of the half was little better for Iowa; the Horns parlayed the 17-point spurt into a 47-16 rally before Anthony Tucker--who was just brutal tonight--added a three-pointer on the last shot of the game. So, really, it was a 47-22 half, and that was bookended by two three-pointers by Iowa. That, folks, is an utter ass-pounding. 85-60 was your final. We don't know what the record is for biggest victory in a game that was tied at the half, but tonight's game was probably within 10 points of that mark--and if it isn't, we really feel bad for whoever's on the losing end of that record.

Oh, well. Texas is the third-ranked team in the nation, and uh, Iowa isn't. So it goes. Up next are the Wichita State Shockers. WSU cheerleaders, anything to say about that?

Hmm. Okay, then. See you tomorrow, cheerleader lady--and we'll bring the pinky condom just in case. No sense in getting pink eye.

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I had to quit watching the game at about the 10 minute mark of the second half, because I had to run errands. At that point we were down by about 10. It looks like we totally ran out of gas after that. During the 30 minutes that I did watch, I was actually pretty impressed with our team. There were stretches where our ball movement on offense was really good, not the completely nonproductive dribbling that we have often seen during the last two years. I don’t know whether Texas was just lackadaisical on defense or what, but we played good offense for large stretches of that game. These stretches of good offense were interrupted by periods of time where our offense was complete shit (lazy passes, poor efforts to catch the ball, bad shots, there was one completely unnecessary 10 second call), during those periods of time Texas would very quickly put up 10 unanswered points. We would then get back into a rhythm and slowly close the gap until another lapse buried us even further. Obviously, for a team with our athleticism to hang with Texas there can’t be any offensive lapses at all. We didn’t shoot well from 3, on the season I think we will hit 35% of our 3s or more, and that will keep us in a lot of games. Gatens, Tucker and Payne are not effective at scoring around the hoop. I think we may set some sort of record for shots that get blocked this year.

We were never able to stop them consistently – they really have a good offense and our defense has me very concerned. Teams with strong low post offense are gonna kill us this year. Also, the threat of dribble penetration caused us to really pack our defense in. If that continues, we will be very vulnerable to 3 point shooting.

Still, there were definitely some positives here. For the 30 minutes of game time that I watched, we played hard and we played unselfishly. Obviously, this year will be rough. However, if we can avoid massive player defections this offseason, I think we could be decent next season if our current players improve a bit and the newcomers are able to contribute. Right now our lack of depth kills us against teams like Texas. I also suspect that since we have so few quality players, that the decent players we do have don’t really get to practice against good competition. Hopefully that will change by next season.

Awesome pic of that cheerleader!

by houksyndrome on Nov 24, 2009 2:44 AM CST reply actions 0 recs

I was about to comment on how full Carver was...

When I realized that was not Carver.

As for the WSU cheerleader….

One of the sororities here uses that gesture as their secret hand symbol (I don’t know what else to call it; but I’m friends with a member and they do it in all the pictures she posts, so I know it’s secret symbology to them).

I would suggest aforementioned cheerleader is a member of said sorority, except she does not look like she is of African descent, so I think she is probably not a member.

The more you find out about the world, the more opportunities there are to laugh at it. Bill Nye (yeah, the science guy)

by tiggerhawk on Nov 24, 2009 7:06 AM CST reply actions 0 recs