Nearly one-third of the men’s basketball season is in the books and the results for Iowa have been somewhat unexpected. My expectation was for a lights-out offense paired with a questionable defense. That wasn't really the case for the first six games. Instead, the offense failed to score 1.0 point per possession against both Washington State and Utah State, resulting in a split against those two opponents despite effective defense in both games.
Injuries to Josh Dix and Payton Sandfort have played a key role in the struggles of the offense. The good news is that those guys seem to be getting healthier -- or at least better at playing through their injuries. Sandfort has gone 14-of-33 from three-point range over the last four games while Dix has gone 10-of-24.
Iowa has scored over 1.11 points per possession in each of its last five games, which is a very good result considering that Northwestern, Michigan and Iowa State are all good defensive teams. In short, the offense is starting to gel into the explosive force that I was expecting it to be.
That leaves the defense.
The Play of the Iowa Defense So Far This Year
The defense has been … odd. Iowa currently ranks 89th in adjusted defensive efficiency; that's not exactly great, but it's still a massive improvement from the last two seasons when the team finished 171st and 152nd in that metric.
However, the team has arrived at 89th in a rather bizarre way. They have been great at keeping opponents off the free throw line (8th nationally) and very good at forcing turnovers (35th) and defending the three point line (19th). But they have also been getting bludgeoned on the defensive glass (300th) and in defending two-point shots (282nd). If they can just get anywhere close to average in those two categories, then this could be a very exciting Big Ten season.
