LOS ANGELES -- Iowa (12-6, 3-4) entered Friday night's game having not won a single true road contest, and holding a record of 0-5 against quad one competition so far this season. With a chance to get both in Pauley Pavilion against UCLA (12-6, 3-4) not only did neither happen, but the Hawkeyes put together one of the worst performances of the 2024-25 season, taking a drubbing from the Bruins, 94-70.
To pour salt in the wound, Iowa's senior leader, Payton Sandfort went down with a shoulder injury in the first half, and never returned to the court. The question is how the Hawkeyes bounce back and continue forward this season after yet another blowout loss.
Here are three takeaways from the road defeat. .
Now It's a Trend
The loss to the Bruins is the third game in the last two weeks that the Hawkeye defense has allowed 94+ points along with the opposing team shooting over 62% from the field, with the others coming to Wisconsin and USC on the road.
Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. Fool me three times? Shame on both of us.
Blow out losses in conference play aren't a fluke anymore. This is a trend.
It was evident from the start that the Hawkeyes weren't going to compete. The Bruins jumped the Hawkeyes starting the game 9-9 from the field and taking a 21-9 lead less than six minutes into the contest. The Iowa deficit never went under double digits again the rest of the game.
"They were really aggressive and shot it well, not only inside but from the perimeter, McCaffery said on a Zoom call with the media following the loss. "I thought we worked really hard in practice last couple of days. I thought we would be better and, give them credit for it. We were better as the game went on. We've got to be better at the start."
McCaffery was willing to share that he let his team have it early on in the contest.
"I jumped 'em pretty good at the start of the game," he said. "I'm not a guy that does that a lot. I thought they needed to hear it in that way."
UCLA not only took a 57-24 lead into the break, their lead stayed at 23+ points for the remainder of the contest, ultimately taking the win by 24 points.
"They got it going early. They shot it well from the perimeter," McCaffery said. "I thought our ball screen defense got better as the game went on. It wasn't good early. I think our shot selection and our execution offensively when they were hitting was not what it needs to be, especially on the road."
Despite the magnitude of the loss, McCaffery never questioned his team's intensity on the court.
"I didn't see a lack of effort. I saw a lack of execution to some of the things that we prepared for. That's disappointing because that leads to falling behind," he said. "Our guys stay locked into the game plan and they compete and they complete, they compete in terms of how they think."
Sandfort Goes Down
It's one thing to get absolutely clobbered on the road. It's another to go out and lose one of your best players in the first half while down by 20+ points.
After playing just eight first-half minutes and scoring two points, Sandfort suffered a shoulder injury that sidelined him for the remainder of the contest. Prior to that, he took a knee to the upper leg that sent him to the bench. Following the shoulder injury, he was seen in a sling with ice wrapped to his shoulder shoulder on the bench after half time.
"He's pretty sore," McCaffery said. "He had that situation the first half when he drove baseline and went down. And then he had his other thing that is kind of been off and on. So, he had two different things."
What makes it all the more difficult for the Hawkeyes, is that Sandfort has provided a much-needed second-half spark in Iowa's last three games. Between 30 points at Nebraska, 21 against Indiana and 15 at USC, Sandfort's scoring has been integral to the Hawkeyes second-half efforts.
Dealing with the pair of injuries, the staff determined it was best to sit him the remainder of the contest.
"That's why we shut him down," McCaffery said, hoping his starting power forward can return soon. "So we'll see how it is, you know, in the next day or two."
To not have Sandfort -- the team's senior leader and captain, who has been there, done that -- in the midst of such a loss, is somehow worse. Though Sandfort could offer support and encouragement from his seat on the bench, it couldn't have been easy for his teammates to see their leader not on the court, let alone due to an injury.
In Sandfort's absence, Josh Dix led the way in scoring, finishing with 19, while Owen Freeman added 11.
How to Move Forward
Such substantive losses show you who teams are. If Iowa is going to compete for a spot in the NCAA Tournament or even a decent seed in the Big Ten Tournament, there's a lot of work to be done going forward.
"We will try to move on from what has not been a good trip and learn from some of the mistakes we made," McCaffery said. "I want them to remain positive with each other and just start preparing for our next opponent and recognize some things that happened tonight that moving forward are unacceptable. ... Nine straight buckets, minus ten on the glass and we had uncharacteristic turnovers."
He pointed to his two primary ball-handlers, Brock Harding and Drew Thelwell, regarding the need for a change.
"We had nine turnovers out of our point guard position," McCaffery added. "Those two guys are usually really, really good with the ball. We've got to be better there."
The remainder of the year could easily go one of two ways -- McCaffery, Harding and Sandfort rally the troops, the Hawkeyes pull off a bunch of wins and shock the conference by finishing the year strong.
Or, they could fall flat on their face, finishing with a losing record in the Big Ten, not even sniff March Madness and end the season as a complete and utter disappointment.
It's all up to them. How Iowa responds in the coming weeks will truly tell us the story as to what they're made of, and what they could accomplish this season with 13 games remaining in conference play.
McCaffery believes in what his squad can accomplish, and doesn't see the loss to the Bruins as indicative of who his team is.
"I thought at one stretch we weren't being tough enough," he said. "I pointed that out because we're usually pretty tough, pretty physical team, whether we go big or whether we go small. I think this is a terrific group of competitors."
Looking forward, he hopes to change what has become a trend on the road for the Hawkeyes, looking to timely, pertinent in-game adjustments he and his staff can make.
"What you have to do is think the game the right way, understand what they're doing to us, what will work against them, what maybe we prepared for that has to be changed," McCaffery added. "Obviously that was a game where whatever game plan we came up with, we were tweaking [it]. ... Sometimes on the road, especially you've got to tweak things. We were a little slow to react to the changes. I think moving forward, I think we'll be a lot better."
NEXT: Iowa will face Minnesota (9-9, 1-6) at 8 pm CT in Carver-Hawkeye Arena on Tuesday, January 21. The game will be broadcast on Big Ten Network.
