Five thoughts on Iowa’s win over Paris All Stars

The Iowa basketball team got off to a solid start in their three game tour of France and Spain on Tuesday when they flew past the Paris All Stars, 123-77. The Hawkeyes were led by graduate transfer Ben Krikke, who had 22 points and 10 rebounds. Also scoring at a high rate was Payton Sandfort, who also scored 22 points.

While the game wasn’t streamed on-line and there are some takeaways from the game based on the box score.

First, Iowa went in with a plan to play seven guys in games, but with Patrick McCaffery at the Nike Skills Academy, Riley Mulvey back home for his brother’s wedding, and Ladji Dembele in limbo due to visa travel issues, the entire roster who traveled played in the first game.

Patrick McCaffery plans on joining the team once the Nike event concludes on the 12th. They also hope that Dembele will have his visa issues cleared up so he is able to travel to Spain for the final two games of the trip. Iowa’s next game is on the 11th against the Valencia All Stars.

Second, Tony Perkins was stuffing the stat sheet in this one. He had 19 points, 5 assists, 4 steals, and 3 turnovers in the win. Iowa is going to need Perkins to continue to put up numbers on all fronts this season if they are going to be successful.

Third, the Hawkeyes shot the ball well from deep. Iowa made 16 of 40 from three point range and that’s 40%. Anytime you can hit that number of terms of makes and that percentage, you are going to give yourself a good chance to win. Pryce and Payton Sandfort combined to make 7 of 16 from distance and Iowa had six players make at least two triples in the contest.

Fourth, Iowa did the little things and got better. In the comments shared by Iowa athletics from Fran McCaffery, he noted that they 13 turnovers and 12 assists in the first half. In the second half, the Hawkeyes took better care of the basketball and the result was a blowout win. Iowa had 15 assists and just 8 turnovers after the break. More on those assists numbers in the minute.

Also, Iowa got on the glass. They had 25 offensive rebounds and pulled down a total of 58 in the game. Putting up those type of numbers on the glass is really impressive.

Finally, the freshmen really shined. I mentioned more on the assists, well Brock Harding dished out six assists and had zero turnovers. Then there’s the performance by fellow frosh Owen Freeman, who had 10 points and 15 rebounds. Freeman had nine, yes, nine offensive rebounds in the game. We already mentioned that Pryce Sandfort shot it pretty well, scoring 13 points in the game.

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