By Blake Dowson
We tried to bury the Todd Lickliter era and never speak of it again. In fact, I feel bad for even bringing it up right now.
But, as the current Fran McCaffery-led Hawkeyes stand at 3-5, we are in territory that we haven’t seen since Iowa fans were sleeping through 50-45 losses when Lickliter was patrolling (is that word too exciting?) the sideline.
McCaffery has lifted Iowa out of the hole the former head basketball coach left it in, but he is in danger of slipping up this season.
Iowa fans are all-too fair-weather, and four-consecutive nonconference losses won’t have people rushing to the gates of Carver-Hawkeye Arena.
Iowa is in a very dangerous situation right now.
It gets Stetson tonight, a game in which the Hawkeyes are favored. But they showed against Omaha how important a betting line is when you don’t play any defense.
My point is this — Iowa already has five losses this season, two at home. It didn’t suffer its fifth loss until Feb. 11 last year and lost only two home games all season.
With a game against a ranked Iowa State squad on Thursday and a very good Northern Iowa team after that, the Hawkeyes are in danger of entering the Big Ten slate with seven or eight losses.
With all the program has gained in these past three seasons (three-consecutive NCAA berths, a top-five ranking, getting a top-40 recruit), it can’t afford to take a step back with a 20-loss campaign.
I know, we’re only eight games in and the Hawkeyes have lost to potentially four NCAA Tournament teams, but there are alarms going off all over the place.
The defense is broken. It had been leaking all season, really, but since it absolutely burst two weeks ago, McCaffery hasn’t been able to fix it.
Iowa has given up fewer than 70 points just once this season, to Texas-Rio Grande Valley.
On the season, the Hawkeyes are giving up 85 points per game, which ranks No. 333 in Division 1. There are 347 teams. Total. Their strength-of-schedule stands at No. 186 right now, according to CBS Sports.
See the problem?
Getting Tyler Cook healthy will help the situation. His athleticism on defense is sorely missed, but he seems prone to foul trouble.
The fact of the matter is that as comfortable as McCaffery is having a bunch of like-bodied guys on the offensive side of the court, it means the Hawkeyes are forced to play a defense that he hasn’t coached at Iowa in a while.
For the previous four seasons, he had 7-1 center Adam Woodbury posted in the paint on defense. Now, he doesn’t have a player taller than 6-9 on the roster.
The roster is talented and extremely athletic, so it’s just a matter of them figuring it out. It can be fixed.
But that needs to happen sooner rather than later. Losses to Iowa State and UNI would beat down a fan base that was already soured by the Hawkeye’s performance last March.
When Iowa State comes to town on Thursday, it will mean much more than a few points in the Cy-Hawk Series.
