Instant takeaways from Iowa basketball's loss to Northwestern: Hawkeyes continue to plunge

Instant takeaways from Iowa basketball’s loss to Northwestern: Hawkeyes continue to plunge

Posted by author March 1, 2025 Basketball

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EVANSTON, Ill. — Iowa men’s basketball‘s chances of making the Big Ten Tournament took a major hit on Friday.

The Hawkeyes fell in what appeared to be their most winnable game, at least on paper, for the remainder of the regular season as they fight for postseason position.

Iowa entered Friday’s contest in a four-way tie with Minnesota, Northwestern and USC for 13th place in the Big Ten standings. That made the matchup with Northwestern an important one for the Big Ten Tournament picture. Fifteen of the 18 teams in the league make the field.

Northwestern and Iowa came into the game with identical 15-13 overall records, including 6-11 in the Big Ten.

But that changed after the conclusion of Friday’s contest.

Northwestern’s 68-57 victory was another blow to an Iowa season that has plunged below expectations.

The Hawkeyes have now lost 10 of their last 13 games. With two regular-season contests remaining, Iowa is in serious danger of missing the conference tournament.

Not enough scoring from Payton Sandfort, Josh Dix

Iowa’s duo of Sandfort and Dix struggled in Tuesday’s loss to Illinois.

Dix, who had 11 points, was good but not great. Sandfort was worse, finishing the game with seven points on 2-of-10 from the field. They combined for just 18 points.

It was strikingly similar on Friday. Sandfort was 3-of-13 from the field and scored nine points. Dix scored 10 points on 3-of-12 from the field.

Simply put, Iowa is in trouble if it can’t get high-volume scoring from Sandfort and Dix. Iowa’s offense doesn’t have as much firepower without Owen Freeman (hand injury; out for season), meaning it needs that tandem to deliver or be in an unfavorable spot.

It’s not exactly ideal circumstances all around. Because Sandfort and Dix are Iowa’s main scoring threats, opponents can key on stopping them. That’s just the unfortunate situation that Iowa faces as it lacks a serious interior scoring threat.

Another offensive dud by Iowa

After putting up a then-season-low 61 points against Illinois on Tuesday, Iowa outdid itself against Northwestern.

The Hawkeyes scored just 57 on Friday.

Turnovers were a major issue against the Fighting Illini as the Hawkeyes committed 16. But that wasn’t the problem on Friday when Iowa gave away the ball just seven times. But the Hawkeyes just shot abysmally, despite getting some good looks.

Iowa’s offense has been horrific in its last two outings.

At Illinois: 42% from the field, 33% from deep, 16 turnovers
At Northwestern: 36% from field, 32% from deep

That was the Wildcats’ style of game. Northwestern has one of the better defenses in the Big Ten while Iowa thrives in a fast-paced style.

Another slow start

Against Illinois on Tuesday, Iowa quickly fell into a 13-point hole less than 10 minutes into the first half. The Hawkeyes never led and played from behind almost the whole time in a 20-point loss.

Iowa coach Fran McCaffery said after the game: “You’ve got to get off to a better start in each half. Because we played well at times in both halves. But the start of each half, you could argue that that’s where we lost the game. Forget about whatever else happened.”

And yet, Iowa fell into a similar fate on Friday.

Northwestern led by 10 points less than eight minutes into the first half. For the second consecutive game, Iowa never led.

Starting slow is not an ideal formula in any game, much less on the road, where Iowa has struggled mightily this season.

K.J. Windham was big for Wildcats

Northwestern has needed another scoring punch with Brooks Barnhizer and Jalen Leach both out for the remainder of the season. That is a lot of points to replace.

The Wildcats have found that in the form of emerging freshman K.J. Windham. The guard had at least 15 points in two of Northwestern’s previous four games (though he was held scoreless once during that stretch).

On Friday, Iowa had difficulty stopping Windham. He finished the game with 20 points

To Iowa’s credit, it did a good job of slowing down Nick Martinelli, who entered the day as the leading scorer in the Big Ten at 20.1 per game. On Friday, Martinelli scored 16 points on 5-of-14 from the field.

But Windham was able to pick up some of that slack.

Drew Thelwell’s return (again)

Video: Drew Thelwell was one of few bright spots in loss to Northwestern

Drew Thelwell discusses Iowa basketball’s 68-57 loss to Northwestern on Friday.

Thelwell has been in and out of the lineup over the last few games due to an ankle injury. But he was in the starting five on Friday.

Thelwell scored his first points since Iowa’s loss to Wisconsin on Feb. 8, the game in which he injured his ankle. He played against Oregon and Washington but was held scoreless in those games.

Thelwell looked much closer to himself on Friday, when he was Iowa’s best player. He finished the game with a team-high 14 points, including nailing all four of his 3-point attempts.

Brock Harding moved back to the bench. Harding had started three of Iowa’s previous five games in Thelwell’s absence. As a reserve on Friday, Harding had four points, four rebounds and seven assists.

Follow Tyler Tachman on X @Tyler_T15, contact via email at ttachman@gannett.com