Hawkeyes Suffer Bad Loss at Penn State

For the second time in the last three games, the Iowa Hawkeyes lost a road conference game.  The last one was to first place now #22 Indiana Hoosiers, who are undefeated at Assembly Hall this season.  Then they hung on at home against the Minnesota Golden Gophers who came in without a conference win.  Then, they came out flat and lost to the Penn State Nittany Lions on Wednesday night.
Iowa started off the first five minutes or so well, leading 6-0 at the first TV timeout and starting on a 8-0 run, but it all went downhill past the under eight TV timeout.  After leading 25-21, Penn State went on a thirteen to 2 run, making it a 34-27 lead, and they never gave that lead back.  After making one three pointer the entire game in the blowout loss at Carver-Hawkeye a few weeks back, and Shep Gardner going three games without making a three, went four for seven.
The biggest reason for the Hawkeyes these past three games in my mind, is that their free throw shooting has been atrocious.  They were 25-35 in this game, 21-30 against Minnesota, and went 13-23(!!) against Indiana, which combined is 67%.  Jarrod Uthoff hasn't played very good, and he and Peter Jok, the leading scorer in this game, have taken too many shots, and senior center Adam Woodbury hasn't gotten the ball enough after a stretch of double-doubles.
It was by far their worst loss of the season.  This was the first one that was against a team outside of a top 35 RPI, and the first loss against a team that will not make the tournament.  This may be a good loss for the Hawks to have, because it could wake them up, but there is never a good loss, so probably not.  But, with the Maryland Terrapin loss to Minnesota with Diamond Stone suspended, the Iowa-Indiana game at Carver on Senior Day on March 1st could be for the regular season championship.
The loss at worse probably moves the Hawkeyes down to the two line, and if they win out, they will almost for sure get a one seed and possibly if they only lose one Big Ten game and run the table in the Big Ten Tournament.  It will be an interesting during the three weeks leading up to the NCAA Tournament.