Maize and Few
Iowa’s first-round match-up in the Big Ten tourney with Michigan is an interesting one for a number of reasons.
Both teams have first-year coaches, both have a limited number of scholarship players to work with and the two played a strange set of games against each other that were both decided by eight points.
Iowa shot the ball extremely well in the second half of its 68-60 win at Michigan in January, while the Wolverines returned the favor with a strong shooting effort in the second half of a 60-52 win on the Hawkeyes’ home court in mid-February.
“It’s tough to make a lot of sense out of either of those games,” Wolverines coach John Beilein said. “I’m not sure I’ve ever been a part of something like that where the games were so different and the road team won both.”
Both coaches say they will have to be careful in choosing what areas from the past games to emphasize, both in terms of areas that need improvement and areas of success that potentially can be built upon.
“I think in the end it goes back to seeing if we can do a better job of affecting their shots,” Iowa coach Todd Lickliter said. “Give them credit, in the second game they did a good job of what they do to get themselves open looks. We have to do a better job with that.”
Beilein said it will be a matter of “putting the bad and good together to see what we need to emphasize in this game.”
