Good things happen to moderately talented teams when you rebound and go to the FT line. Plus can make 3Ps.
http://www.barttorvik.com/trank.php?&year=2020&t1l=Iowa&t2l=Iowa+St.#
Some general observations --
-- They are slightly more "extreme" than us, with a better offense and a worst defense, but both teams are much better on offense than on defense.
-- Despite the complains about poor shooting on here, our effective FG% is actually higher than Iowa's (and ranked #65 nationally) so far this year.
-- I think the largest source of our success, however limited so far, is that we (1.) avoid turning the ball over and (2.) generate a lot of turnovers ourselves.
-- Those are like special teams plays in football, "hidden" possessions that we manufacture because TH does not turn it over much and we steal the ball.
-- "Not turning the ball over" is not as sexy as a made three-pointer, but a turnover is as bad as missing a shot, so at least we are having those shots to take.
-- They are a pretty good rebounding team. We are not.
-- They are good at generating shots from the line (#64) nationally, but along with generating steals, we do not foul very much... We are the #9 team nationally at keeping teams off the line, so that will be a key interaction.
-- Our 3% is bad, but our 2% is actually very high (#11 nationally). At least we make up for clanking the long ball by being very good at making two-pointers.
-- Iowa is 0.2 wins above the bubble right now; we are -0.4 below it.