IOWA 74, MICHIGAN 59: CARVED UP

The Iowa men’s basketball team scored the second-most points on Michigan all season, uprooting the No. 5 Wolverines, 74-59 in Iowa City.

The Hawkeyes overcame a hot start from Michigan’s freshman phenom Ignas Brazdeikis. He had nine straight points to kick it off, giving the Wolverines an early 9-7 lead.

Luckily, Iowa has a freshman phenom of its own. He goes by Joe, and he doesn’t pull bullshit like delaying the game when under the rim.

Nope, instead Joe Wieskamp just led a 13-0 run for Iowa in the first half. A 13-0 run that turned into a 21-2 run. Which eventually turned into a 42-29 halftime lead for Iowa. The 42 points remain the most Michigan—the No. 1 defense in the nation per KenPom—has given up in the first half this season.

Wieskamp made six straight buckets for Iowa to start that early run. He, along with Nicolas Baer and Ryan Kriener, poured it on from there to ensure the Michigan locker room would carry a deflated demeanor at half. Wieskamp led all scorers with 12 in the first half, while Kriener had 11 of his own off the bench.

And more about that first half. The defense was there. Iowa’s 2-3 zone seemed to have an answer for everything that Michigan threw at it—just three Wolverines managed to score in the first half at all.

Wieskamp ended the game with 16 points, 7 boards and 5 steals. His second half was quiet compared to the standard he set in the first frame, but that’s only because Luka Garza stepped up to the plate when Iowa needed him most.

Midway through the second half, Michigan assembled a 14-4 run to make it 54-49. This felt like it was going to be a replay of the movie we’ve seen over and over and over again.

After a Jon Teske tip-in (Beilein totally mismanaged him btw) Luka Garza responded by weaving under the basket to put a plug on Michigan’s scoring. After a defensive stop, Luka Garza got the ball just south of the key, cocked and launched a three.

Butter.

Iowa’s lead was back to double-digits. Garza, Wieskamp and Kriener combined to score the game’s next 8 points to make it 67-51 and effectively shut the door on a Michigan comeback. The Wolverines heaved up a three at the buzzer. Fittingly, the ball got stuck as Iowa fans stormed court (properly).

This was about as exciting an Iowa game as we’re going to get. Three Iowa players ended up scoring in the double-digits (Garza led all scorers with 19 points while Kriener had 15 points and 10 boards for Iowa’s lone double-double) while Michigan couldn’t find consistent scoring options outside Brazdeikis and Jordan Poole. Isaiah Moss, Iowa’s hottest shooter over the past four games, failed to score a bucket and Iowa still managed to do this. This Hawkeye offense can click.

After a shellacking at home to Michigan State, and dumpster fire of a game at Minnesota, it looked as though Iowa was going to crumple in February the same way we’ve seen them do so before. Instead the Hawkeyes responded, and showed what they’re capable of. It’s tough to think of an excuse why this team can’t cruise through their schedule the rest of the way.

Way to go Hawks!

Other notes:

• Though it doesn’t show up in the box score, I think Tyler Cook had a pretty nice game. He had 7 points in the first half and was everywhere in the opening minutes of the game, creating headaches for Michigan. He ended with 8 points and 8 boards. He did shoot just 3-6 from the line and 2-9 from the floor, however.
• Iowa is kind of making the most out of limited point guard play. Jordan Bohannon and Connor McCaffery combined for just 12 points and 2 assists. Coupled with Moss’ shooting woes, Iowa’s bigs were their primary scoring option. And it was a lot of fun to watch.
• Iowa shot a decent 45 percent from the floor, but the real story was keeping Michigan at a cool 32 percent. The Hawkeyes also shot a nice 6-14 from, keeping the three a real nice weapon in the backpocket.