The Hawkeye men started the week with a win over the Yellow Jackets.
The ACC/Big Ten Challenge has been going on for the last ten years and the Hawkeyes have won five in a row but it’s kind of sad that this is the last year of the Challenge.
The Hawks hit the boards hard and owned a 44-35 advantage in rebounds with 19 on the offensive boards.
That led to a 27-15 advantage in second chance points.
It didn’t hurt that Kris Murray scored a season high 31 points with 20 rebounds.
Kris was 11-18 from the floor and 4-8 from three with four assists and two blocked shots. When Kris is hitting three’s, he is one of the best players in America. It’s fun watching him develop like Keagan did last year. Every game Kris shows us some new parts of his game.
Filip Rebraca is playing with more confidence scoring 13 with seven rebounds.
Last year Filip averaged 10.3 points and 5.6 rebounds. This year the 6-9 senior is averaging 10.8 points and 8.0 rebounds. In Filip’s five years in college (three at North Dakota) he has shot over 50% from the floor.
I really like the way Tony Perkins has stepped up his game after being put in the starting lineup after starting the final 15 games last season.
Tony had 11 point and three assists against Georgia Tech last week. Tony is averaging 12.8 points and leads the team in assists with 21 and has only nine turnovers. Last year Tony played in all 36 games and averaged 7.4 points and shot 80% from the free throw line. Tony is 6-4, 205 and is built like a linebacker which gives him the ability to drive inside and draw fouls.
Patrick McCaffery continues to improve each year.
As a freshman, Patrick averaged 5.2 points playing in 31 games. Last year, Patrick started 32 games and averaged 10.5 points, third best on the team. This year Patrick is averaging 12.9 points, second best on the team.
Ahron Ulis has also stepped up his game.
The 6-3 guard from Chicago had five assists against the Yellow Jackets and is second on the team with 20 assists and only three turnovers for the season. Ahron had a career high 15 points against TCU shooting 7-8 from the floor.
Payton Stanford has struggled with his outside shooting this year.
Last season, Payton shot 37% from three, this year 25%. Payton leads the team in free throw shooting (88%) and has 18 assists with only four turnovers.
Conner McCaffery is the leader of the team.
The 6th year senior had ten points, ten rebounds, and three assists against Tech. This is the first year Conner isn’t playing baseball and he looks like he is healthy. Conner is shooting lights out from the floor.
Coming into the season, Conner never shot over 34% from three, 36% from the floor. This year Conner is shooting 54% from three, 53% from the floor.
That will really open up the floor for the big guys to be open.
Dasonte Bowen isn’t playing like a true freshman shooting 52% from the floor and 78% from the free throw line as he can get to the basket and finish.
Hawkeye Women
Iowa played two games last week hosting 11th ranked North Carolina State and traveling to Wisconsin.
During media day for the women’s basketball team Lisa Bluder said, “We have a non-conference schedule that is pretty amazing. Also six teams in the Big Ten are ranked in the top ten. It’s easy to say that we are playing in the most difficult women’s basketball conference in America.”
12th ranked NC State had more points in the paint (46-28), more points off turnovers (17-12), more second chance points (10-6), more fast break points (18-15), and more bench points in their 94-81 win at Carver.
If Caitlin Clark didn’t score 45 points it could have been worse.
McKenna Warnock was the only other Hawkeye in double figures with 15. Monica Czinano was held in check for the second straight game finishing with five only shooting four shots.
Against UCONN, Monica shot only seven times and scored eight. Both UCONN and NC State had big and athletic centers that held Monica in check.
I also think both teams could be the best two teams Iowa faces this year along with Iowa State.
Iowa 102 Wisconsin 71
I had a good feeling the Hawkeyes would bounce back after two straight losses.
Five players in double figures including two off the bench.
Caitlin Clark with her 7th triple double, the most ever in the Big Ten.
Caitlin leads the nation in points, points per game, free throws and free throw attempts. That is the 26th time in a row that the Hawks have beaten the Badgers.
Monica Czinano scored 18 on 9-10 shooting and had eight rebounds.
The Hawks were 12-23 (52%) from three.
Iowa Wrestling
Iowa 18 Iowa State 15
That’s 18 straight against the Clones but it wasn’t easy.
Spencer Lee made his first appearance and his 16-5 major decision was really big.
Spencer jumped out to a 12-2 first period lead and then hit the wall and held on for his 39th straight win.
“I had intentions to wrestle this dual because I knew it would be a good one,” said Spencer. “It was exciting to run into that arena again with fans packing it.”
With the dual tied at 15, Tony Cassioppi took care of business with a 9-2 win
Hawkeye Football
Congratulations Jack Campbell and Sam LaPorta.
Jack was named the Big Ten’s Defensive Player of the Year and Sam was named Big Ten Tight End of the Year.
Riley Moss and Cooper DeJean were also first team All-Big Ten picks.
Seth Benson, Lucas Van Ness and Joe Evans were second team picks.
Iowa finished in the top four in all of the Big Ten’s defensive categories.
Hawks Get a Quarterback
With Alex Padilla in the transfer portal and Spencer Petras graduating, Iowa was big time short on having an experienced quarterback on their roster.
Enter Cade McNamara, the former Michigan starter who led the Wolverines to a victory over Ohio State and a playoff berth in 2021.
Keagan Johnson and Arland Bruce are transferring but Cade is trying to persuade some of his friends, who are receivers, to come with him to Iowa.
We’ll see.
Hawks Go Bowling
Iowa will play Kentucky in the Music City Bowl Saturday, December 31 at 11:00 a.m.
Spencer Petras is out with an injury so Joe Labas, a redshirt freshman from Ohio, could be the starter.
It will be an interesting offseason for the Hawkeyes.
When your offence is ranked last in most categories some changes have to be made.
Would Captain Kirk fire his son Brian, the offensive coordinator?
I don’t have any kids so I don’t know if I could fire my son.
How about moving Brian back to offensive line coach and letting George Barnett go?
Brian was offensive line coach from 2012 — 2016 and Iowa had a 39-26 record.
I think Captain Kirk has to make changes.
We’ll wait and see.
