Iowa's offense was good enough to win this basketball game, but poor defense resulted in a loss to Wisconsin.
MADISON, WI - Iowa basketball hasn't won at the Kohl Center since 2021 (with fans since 2017), and it will now have to wait at least another year to break the drought.
The Badgers and Hawkeyes played a see-saw affair for the first 35 minutes, but Wisconsin pulled away for an 84-71 triumph on Sunday - its fifth consecutive win over Iowa in Madison.
Here are three observations from the Hawkeyes' loss:
Defense Disappoints
After holding a good Nebraska offense to just 52 points on Tuesday, there was optimism Iowa could carry that over to the Badger State.
But that was not the case.
The Hawkeyes didn't get many stops on this day, and that was because of two things - Nick Boyd and poor defensive rotations. Stopping Boyd, who averages over 20 points per game, is no easy task, but Ben McCollum's game plan did not come to fruition.
Whatever Boyd wanted in this contest, he got. The redshirt senior finished with a game-high 27 points on 9/16 shooting. Boyd made just one triple (1/3), but did his damage inside. He was just a step quicker than Iowa's guards, which resulted in nine free throw attempts (he made eight).
"[We] let Boyd get downhill to his left. Every single possession was not the game plan," McCollum said. "...We didn't tag the correct way, we didn't communicate the correct way. Just didn't do what we were supposed to do."
When Boyd wasn't scoring, he was dishing the rock to his teammates. The Hawkeyes did crash the defense in when Boyd had the ball, but Iowa couldn't find a way to run Wisconsin off the three-point line.
The Badgers recorded a modest 41% clip (10/24) from deep, but made six of those tries in the first half. Most of those triples came when Iowa was on the verge of building a lead, and Wisconsin caught fire again in the final minutes of the second to pull away for the win.
Improved Offense
Two lengthy field goal droughts hampered Iowa's chances of leaving Madison with a win, but McCollum and Co. did produce one of their best offensive outputs since the Pacific Northwest roadtrip.
The Hawkeyes shot just 33% in the victory over Nebraska, but bounced back to produce a solid 47.5% clip on Sunday. Desperation in the second half lowered the figure, but Iowa looked like a different basketball team offensively against Wisconsin.
This could've been due to the Badger's subpar defense, but the Hawkeyes looked confident in their game plan from the start, as Tavion Banks hammered a backdoor jam on the opening possession.
They didn't need to rely on Bennett Stirtz as much, either. The senior did finish with a team-high 23, but he didn't record his first bucket until the 15:00 mark of the first.
Three Hawkeyes (two starters) outside of Stirtz reached double figures - Banks, Alvaro Folguieras, and Tate Sage. Additionally, every Iowa player that touched the floor on Sunday scored, which is the type of balanced scoring the Hawkeyes need night in and night out.
Iowa scored 1.164 points per possession - a vast improvement from the putrid .983 points per trip it produced on Tuesday.
Sage Breaks Through The Wall
Most freshman playing high-major college basketball experience the ups-and-downs of the sport, and Tate Sage is a primary example of that.
The Weatherford, Oklahoma native has shown flashes in big moments this year, but didn't register more than five points in a game since his career-high outing against Rutgers on Jan. 20.
That changed on Sunday.
Sage totaled 23 minutes of action against Wisconsin and made the most of his minutes, recording 11 points on 3/7 shooting - with his biggest highlight being a thunderous transition block on Boyd.
The numbers don't necessarily pop off the stat sheet, but if there's one thing that stands out about Sage, it's his confidence. No matter how big the moment is, the freshman never backs down.
That level of play is something Iowa desperately needs down the stretch as it makes a push for an NCAA tournament bid.
"There's some nights where I need to step up and play a little bit. It's just a learning experience. I'm young, and I really just want to do whatever it takes to learn," Sage said.
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