SALT LAKE CITY -- The Iowa men saw the 2023-24 season come to a close with a 91-82 road loss to Utah on Sunday night in the second round of the NIT.
Here are three takeaways from the loss:
Where Were Iowa's Dudes?
Payton Sandfort and Tony Perkins were Iowa's two leading scorers this season, as Sandfort averaged 16.7 points per game, and Perkins added 14.3 points per contest. Against the Utes, they combined for five points, shooting 2-of-16 from the field.
"We needed those guys to play well [for us to win]," Fran McCaffery said postgame. "I thought they really tried, but they just didn't have it tonight."
The players on the floor could tell it was a hard for their top two scorers to get going.
"When you're marked every single game throughout the whole season -- we played 35 games or whatever it was -- it wears on your body," Brock Harding added. "Now we're in the postseason playing in some tough games. When you're marked and a guy is chasing you 24/7, you can only imagine what that can be like."
The freshman point guard said the whole team had their leaders' backs.
"They left it all out there," he said. "Nobody is really upset with what happened on the court tonight. We know that they gave it their all. We played a really good team and I think our guys are proud of how we competed."
In their absence, Josh Dix, Ben Krikke, Owen Freeman, Patrick McCaffery and Harding handled the scoring duties, combining for 69 of the Hawkeyes' 82 points. McCaffery led the team with 19.
"I'm really proud of those guys," Fran said after the game. "I thought Owen made some great moves. ... Patrick was terrific in both halves. Pryce gave us some incredible minutes, and Brock was 5-5. Ben had that one stretch where we was really cooking and we were going to him."
"That's what you have to do to keep your team in the game. It gave us a chance. I felt bad for Payton and Tony, because they're great people and they could've given us a better chance [to win]. But, it didn't happen tonight for them."
With the season coming to a close, Fran likely coached his son Patrick for the last time at Iowa.
"It's been a great ride," he said. "He's an awesome teammate, he's an awesome player. He played really well tonight, and I'm very proud of him. I told him that and told him I loved him after the game."
"You think about his journey and how his role has changed a few times within the program -- I'm just really proud of how he led this team and what he meant to the program for five years."
Utah Makes it Difficult
The shooting performance of Gabe Madsen didn't help the Hawkeye effort at all, as the Utah guard finished the night with 31 points on 9-of-19 shooting (including 7-of-15 from 3-point range).
"He's a really good player," McCaffery said. "They ran good stuff for him. We lost him a few times. Once he got cooking they went to him, and he hit a couple really deep ones. It hurt when we fouled him twice. That contributed to him staying hot. You've just got to give credit to him."
Guard Deivon Smith put up 19 points and finished with ten rebounds and ten assists for his fourth triple-double of the season, and Branden Carlson added 12 points for the Utes.
"They've got a lot of weapons," McCaffery added. "Smith is really good getting downhill, and Carlson is a lottery pick."
Additionally, the Hawkeyes shot just 12-of-23 on layups, and Utah converted eight Iowa turnovers into 20 points.
Reminiscent of Illinois and Ohio State
As was the case in Iowa's losses to Illinois and Ohio State over the last two weeks, an early deficit left the Hawkeyes with too much to overcome. Though both teams started at a snail's pace offensively, combining to start the game 1-of-13 from the floor, the Utes were able to extend an eight-point lead to 18 points, riding a 13-0 run toward the end of the first half. With a little scoring streak of their own, Iowa cut that lead to 12, 48-36 at the break.
"We just weren't giving up," Harding said. "Our team never does. We're always fighting. No matter what the score is, we always play our game and I thought our team was really proud of how we finished the game out."
In the second half, Iowa cut the lead down to five with 12:44 to go.
"We were right there," McCaffery added. "We had some chances. The zone was good, then they finally hit a couple shots. We knew they weren't going to miss for the rest of the half. We got our running game going a little bit, so we got it back to where we were within striking distance."
Ultimately, it wasn't quite enough.
"Utah made enough plays to win," McCaffery said.
With the season coming to a close, McCaffery reflected a bit on the year, as his young group finished the year 19-15 overall and 10-10 in the Big Ten.
"I'm very, very proud of this group -- that we made it to the postseason," he said. "We had some big time wins. We got off to a slow start in Big Ten play, but we rallied and had some terrific wins. Our young guys continue to improve, we had the Freshman of the Year in the league, multiple all-conference players and there's the improvement of Josh Dix, becoming a premiere player in this league."
"I'm really proud of this group, and how they stayed connected and positive. This was an incredibly enjoyable group to be around -- day in and day out."
