The Men's basketball team got one in the win column Saturday night after defeating Drake 82-68 in Carver. The Hawkeyes were led by a strong defensive performance from Matt Gatens who held Drake's leading scorer Ben Simons to five points.
Coach McCaffery said afterwards that he thought this was Iowa's most balanced effort to date. McCaffery said, "It was a focused effort. It wasn't perfect, but it was hard fought at both ends."
Devyn Marble got the start at point guard and continued his solid play. Marble dropped in ten points and five assists and only turned the ball over twice. His assist to turnover ratio is now 3.7:1 and Marble is second on the team with an average of 9.5 points per game. Over the Summer, Scott Dochterman and others, mentioned that Marble looked to be the most improved player on the team. Kudos to them, they were right.
Speaking of Summer predictions, some (myself included), believed that Iowa had a solid chance at a post-season tournament berth. Perhaps the NIT. According to babaoreally, at btpowerhouse.com, "An NIT bid is a pipe dream at this point for Iowa." Baba notes that Iowa would need to finish the Big Ten season with eight wins in the conference which seems highly unlikely. Baba misses when he notes that Marble has "improved this season, but not by leaps and bounds." Like last year, I think this team improves as the season progresses but eight Big Ten wins is not happening.
Up next, a 7:05 tip off tonight in Carver-Hawkeye against Central Arkansas. The Bears are coached by former Arkansas legend Corliss Wiliamson. Central Arkansas is 5-4 on the season and have won five of their last six. According to kenpom.com the Bears are #311 in the latest rankings.
Friday afternoon was Norm Parker's day. Head coach Kirk Ferentz introduced Parker to the media and the press conference was all Norm's. Hawkeye Sports lists several great players Norm has coached during his time at Iowa. Two of those greats, Pat Angerer and Chad Greenway, are currently 3rd and 4th on the NFL leading tackler list.
Parker told the media, "As much as anything, as much as anything, I think you got to be fair to the team, you got to be fair to the program." He added, "So, I think in all fairness to the team, the players, the other coaches, myself, it's time to get out. It's time to go bounce some grandkids around on your knee."
The Hawkeyes announced their post-season awards Saturday. Seniors Marvin McNutt and Broderick Binns were named co-MVPs for the year. Thomas Nardo won the Brett Greenwood Award which is given to a walk-on. Eric Guthrie, Mike Daniels and Tyler Nielsen also won awards.
Other links of interest:
- Latest football practice pics
- Iowa is waiting to rule on wrestler Montell Marion
- Iowa may be getting a JUCO defensive tackle commit soon
- Bruce Kittle, from Iowa to Oklahoma
- How to improve Carver's atmosphere
- Iowa got a visit from Sean Draper, a Cleveland corner back
- Karl Klug: From Caledonia to Iowa to Tennessee
- Have you seen the inside of the new Iowa basketball practice facility?
- Aaron Fuller leads USC in rebounding, with a 6.3-per-game average, and is second in points
- Sooner football, final grades
- The winds of change at Oklahoma
- Remember former Hawkeye Justin Johnson?
- A statistical look at the QB prospects that visited Iowa recently
- Hawk Stock: The wide receivers