Iowa Basketball: 3 biggest takeaways from defeat to No. 1 Gonzaga Bulldogs

1. Iowa’s defense still not good enough to win a national title

Clearly, Gonzaga didn’t show any “rust” in this game. But before tip-off, I wasn’t so sure that we would see it even if that was the case. And that’s simply because they were playing an Iowa Hawkeyes defense that wasn’t going to cause many problems anyway. They gave up 99 points, which to some may have been better than expected against the Bulldogs.

From Day 1 of this season, the questions were always going to b whether or not the Hawkeyes defense was going to be good enough to win them a national title. And when you have Luka Garza in his final season on your roster, winning it all is the only acceptable outcome. The problem is that this team lacks the athleticism and ultimately desire to be at least above-average on the defensive end.

As far as the three-pointers go, that may have been a directive by the coaching staff to let Gonzaga shoot them, as they were making just 29% coming into the game. Yet many of the attempts the Bulldogs got were fairly open, compared to the constantly contested looks they had to face against previous opponents, Kansas and West Virginia. Even more problematic was allowing Suggs to get in a rhythm early on, giving him the confidence to carry the Bulldogs the rest of the way.

But while the three-pointers were forgivable, the easy transition buckets allowed and easy passes inside the paint for buckets weren’t. Even when the shots weren’t falling, Gonzaga got just about whatever they wanted in the second half offensive.

The Big Ten may not have the same kind of firepower as the Bulldogs but they have plenty of talented shooters and scorers in their own right. Iowa can’t depend on Garza to go for 30 every night to win every game, so they’ll have to find a way to at least slow down their opponents going forward.