Slow to go
Saturday’s loss at Michigan State continued a recent trend of slow starts for Iowa.
It took the Hawkeyes 10 minutes, 22 seconds before Seth Gorney hit the team’s first field goal to cut into a Spartans lead which had reached 20-1. Michigan State was less cooperative than Northwestern, which led just 5-1 when Jake Kelly collected Iowa’s first field goal 8:45 into last Tuesday’s win over the Wildcats.
The droughts haven’t gone unnoticed.
“We haven’t got things going the way we need to and that makes it tough because it’s never easy when you’re playing from behind,” Iowa guard Tony Freeman said.
Coach Todd Lickliter said he felt his team was getting fairly decent looks as the Spartans raced out to their early lead.
“We just weren’t hitting them,” he said. “We got good looks but to Michigan State’s credit, we only got one look. The way they rebounded the ball, they didn’t give us any second chances.”
Iowa eventually held its own with the Big Ten’s top rebounding team. The Spartans owned a 33-30 edge on the boards for the game, but collected six more points off of the offensive glass than the Hawkeyes did.
