Remember the end of December?
Let’s see…
Iowa was on a five-game winning streak and seemed to have turned the corner after the second consecutive season of late November/early December struggles.
Iowa State had won nine consecutive games after an 0-2 start.
Northern Iowa had suffered back-to-back losses to Iowa State and a nationally-ranked Xavier team, but Missouri Valley Conference play was coming up and the Panthers had already survived a grueling nonconference schedule.
So, now it’s the end of January, and it turned out that December seems like a long time ago for all three.
Iowa is going nowhere — one step forward is followed by a step or more back.
Iowa State is sputtering — even Hilton Coliseum can’t give the Cyclones any magic.
UNI seems ticketed for a Thursday night game in the conference tournament as one of the bottom teams in the Valley.
So what happened?
Well, we could break down all of the flaws in each team, but that would take too long.
It’s easier to explain what happened collectively — conference play started.
It’s easy to overlook flaws in teams in nonconference play. Road games aren’t as bitter, everyone dines on more than one cupcake.
Now, in Iowa’s case we knew all along this team would struggle defensively — those issues showed up early and never really disappeared.
The Big Ten was going to be top-heavy — Purdue and Michigan State are top-10 teams — but the battle was going to be for who would be in that 3-4-5 range. Ohio State, Michigan and Nebraska have seemed to step into those roles.
The Hawkeyes, with just about everyone back from last season, seemed at the beginning of the season to be one of those teams that could be in that group. But they really haven’t been connected from the beginning, other than a few brief moments. That has proved disastrous in a conference where other teams seem to have found the right combinations.
League play has also exposed the Cyclones and Panthers.
In Iowa State’s case, the Big 12 is just too good for a program that is transitioning. The Cyclones have had a couple of solid home wins over Baylor and Texas Tech, and played well on the road in a loss to Kansas.
But the Cyclones’ last three losses have been by an average margin of 20.7 points. They were overmatched at TCU and at home against Tennessee, and struggled at Texas.
UNI had won three of its last four before falling 70-47 at conference leader Loyola on Sunday. Four of the Panthers’ first five losses in the Valley were single-digit defeats, but Sunday was the low point.
It’s hard to see either finding the right direction in February.
Iowa has to be better defensively.
Iowa State has to grow up.
UNI has to find an identity, and consistent scorers.
February could be just as cold.
JANUARY HAS BEEN CRUEL TO THE HAWKEYE WOMEN, TOO
Remember, at the end of December, when Iowa’s women’s team was 14-1 and had opened Big Ten play with two wins?
Yeah, that seems like a long time ago as well.
Back on New Year’s Eve, the Hawkeyes had defeated Michigan at home, and you could make the case that they had a good shot at being a host for the first weekend of the NCAA tournament.
Now, the Hawkeyes are 16-6 overall, 4-5 in the Big Ten, after Nebraska crushed them, 92-74, at Carver-Hawkeye Arena on Sunday. Iowa trailed by 30 points at halftime, and was down by as much as 36 in the second half.
The loss came just three days after a 103-89 upset of Ohio State at home.
“I can’t explain our performance in the first half,’’ Iowa coach Lisa Bluder said. “It felt like everything was going Nebraska’s way, every shot, every call, everything. It was like living a bad dream.’’
A season-ending injury to point guard Tania Davis, and the loss of guard Makenzie Meyer to an injury for most of this month hurt the Hawkeyes, who, outside of Thursday’s win over the Buckeyes, haven’t been sharp.
The Hawkeyes haven’t been to the NCAA tournament in the last two seasons, and can’t afford to keep slipping and miss a return this season. There’s still time to turn things around, this is still a talented team, and there’s still Megan Gustafson having an All-American season — she got her 20th double-double of the year in Sunday’s loss.
LEATHERNECKS PUT THE PAST … IN THE PAST
It was the kind of loss that could stagger a team, haunt long enough to carry over into the next week.
Western Illinois’ women’s basketball team lost, 84-48, at South Dakota State last Saturday. It was the lowest offensive output of the Leathernecks this season, and it put them behind the Jackrabbits and South Dakota in the Summit League race.
“The first couple of days after it, until you get to the next practice, you think about it a lot, and think about what went wrong, think about how it got to that point,” junior guard Taylor Higginbotham said.
But coach JD Gravina took a different direction. He didn’t completely flush the game — he’ll save the gory details for later — but he knew that his team had to move on.
“There are sometimes when you have to make a big deal out of games, and sometimes when you don’t,” Gravina said. “What we needed to do was forget that game.”
“It was the kind of game we had to put behind us, because we had a quick turnaround,” Higginbotham said. “I think we just kind of decided we would come back to it when we played them again.”
All the Leathernecks did was move on and score 215 points in wins over Denver and North Dakota State.
Five players scored in double figures in Wednesday’s 118-93 win over Denver at Western Hall, led by Emily Clemens’ 39 points. Morgan Blumer had 28 points and Higginbotham added 26.
The Leathernecks made what was then a program-record 18 3-pointers in that game, then they had 19 threes for a new mark in Saturday’s 97-72 triumph over North Dakota State.
That’s more like it for the Western Illinois offense, a pick-your-poison dilemma for opponents.
Clemens went off on Wednesday, then was held to just eight points in Saturday’s win. But Michelle Farrow, who had two points against Denver, had a career-high 25 points, while Blumer had 19 and Higginbotham had 16.
Gravina said the Leathernecks were making more “quality movements rather than quantity movements” on offense.
“Now we’re really looking for more scoring opportunities,” he said.
Western Illinois still isn’t where it needs to be defensively, although the zone defense the Leathernecks have been using forced 21 North Dakota State turnovers that were turned into 25 WIU points.
Western Illinois’ zone is a hybrid — sometimes it’s a 2-3, sometimes it’s a 1-3-1.
“It doesn’t have a name,” Gravina said, laughing. “Overall, defensively, I was satisfied. There are things I want us to get better at.”
“We just want to disrupt their offense,” Farrow said. “Speed them up, get turnovers, get into our transition game.”
But don’t think the loss to South Dakota State, or the earlier home defeat to South Dakota, will disappear. The Leathernecks play at South Dakota on Thursday, and will get the Jackrabbits at home on Feb. 22.
“What we needed to do was forget (the South Dakota State) game. Now, we’ll revisit it before our Dakota trip, and before we play South Dakota State again, kind of come back to it when things have sunk in,” Gravina said.
The senior-dominated Leathernecks seem ready to learn from show.
“It kind of helps us players realize it was just one game,” Higginbotham said.
TAKEAWAYS FROM THE WEEK
• The most interesting statistic from the Western Illinois-Denver game on Wednesday? The first point of the 211 scored in the game belonged to Denver’s Madison Nelson. She didn’t score the rest of the game.
• I don’t really see why Iowa coach Fran McCaffery’s contract extension that was signed in late November wasn’t revealed to the public until an open-records request was filed.
It was, we were told, verbally agreed to by all parties back in the summer, and the delay was because of the health issues that athletics director Gary Barta has been dealing with since then.
But why not release it, as other contract extensions have been?
Instead, it comes out now, when we find out that the buyout if Iowa would decide to get rid of McCaffery without cause (unlikely any time soon — sorry, Fran critics) went up.
It’s amazing that, in athletic departments with nine-figure budgets, there isn’t a position for someone to be the voice of reason. Just release it when it’s signed, and move on.
THE WISE AP BALLOT
Eleven teams on my ballot last week lost — two of the top 10 suffered two losses.
Again, conference carnage.
Stock rising: Texas Tech is back in my top 10. Arizona returns for the first time since the post-Thanksgiving ballot.
Stock falling: Arizona State stays in my ballot for now, but the Sun Devils are slipping.
Say hello: Kentucky gets back in after the win over West Virginia. Kansas State also makes an appearance.
Say goodbye: TCU is out, despite the win over West Virginia. Florida is gone, too.
The ballot:
1. Villanova
2. Virginia
3. Purdue
4. Duke
5. Michigan State
6. Kansas
7. Xavier
8. Cincinnati
9. Arizona
10. Texas Tech
11. Auburn
12. West Virginia
13. Oklahoma
14. Saint Mary's
15. Gonzaga
16. Wichita State
17. Tennessee
18. North Carolina
19. Ohio State
20. Clemson
21. Kentucky
22. Rhode Island
23. Kansas State
24. Nevada
25. Arizona State