The Quick and Very Dirty: Iowa 89, Marquette 61

OK then.

Brutalized from inside and out and saddled with a broken offense that appears allergic to working the ball into the paint, YOUR Marquette Golden Eagles got worked over and then some by Iowa tonight at the Bradley Center. The proceedings were largely academic from the 10-minute mark of the first half on, as Marquette was absolutely demolished to the tune of 89-61.

Things got off to an ignominious start when Luke Fischer "tapped" the opening tip all the way past the Iowa baseline, and they didn't get much better in the first five minutes of the game. Marquette still looked completely out of sorts defensively, giving up wide-open looks to Jarrod Uthoff and Peter Jok (who, by the way, sounds like he should be a villain on "Arrow"), and a couple of turnovers from Haanif Cheatham staked the Hawkeyes to an early 18-6 lead. For reasons known only to themselves and the Lord, MU continued to bomb away from 3-point territory with unimpressive results, with the most egregious example coming on a Traci Carter brick that came 8 seconds into the shot clock, with nary a pass being thrown beforehand. MU started 0-11 from beyond the arc, and in what's becoming a troubling trend, had as many turnovers (6) as points at the under-12 media timeout.

Matters didn't exactly improve from there; after a couple more turnovers and another 3 from Jok, Iowa's lead had exploded to 20. And then 25. And then 27. Matt Heldt was pressed into action after Fischer picked up three early fouls, and Sandy Cohen had to sit after picking up his third foul with 4:00 left in the half. At the half, the Hawkeyes commanded a 48-21 advantage, and somehow even that margin doesn't really show how poorly Marquette played.

You probably will not be surprised to learn that the second half did not feature the biggest comeback in Marquette history. An early 8-0 run from MU cut the lead to 19 and threw a momentary scare into Iowa, but a layup from Mike Gesell and a personal 5-0 run from Uthoff restored the margin to 27, and that was all she wrote. The margin ballooned to 30 on Anthony Clemmons' bunny with 12:00 to go, and the closest Marquette would get the rest of the way was 25. When the final buzzer mercifully sounded, it was Iowa 89, Marquette 61.

Marquette had no idea what to do with Peter Jok (yes, I'm still using his full name, because it's awesome) all night; he ended the evening with 20 points on 7-12 shooting to pace Iowa. To be fair, Marquette really had no answer for anyone in gold and black tonight, as five other Hawkeyes finished in double figures, too: Uthoff (15), Gesell (11), Clemmons (11), Adam Woodbury (10), and Dom Uhl (10).

Cheatham led Marquette with 12 points, and Duane Wilson and Jajuan Johnson each had 11, though Wilson needed 11 shots to get there (and nine of those were 3-point attempts). Henry Ellenson had his worst showing of the young season, finishing with just 3 points on 1-8 shooting.

Marquette drops to 1-2 on the year, suffering its worst defeat since getting decleated by Villanova in the Big East Tournament in March ... which was all of three games ago.

LSU and superfrosh Ben Simmons await MU next. Please not in the face again.