Iowa's Isaia Howard (23) grabs for a ball from Bucknell's Ruot Bijiek Lily Smith/The Register / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Iowa's Defense Dominates in Blowout Win

Originally posted on Iowa Hawkeyes on SI | By Lane Mills | Last updated Dec 21, 2025 9:00 AM ET

The Iowa Hawkeyes, with their expected win over the Bucknell Bison, improved to 10-2 on the year. That's a sentence that any and every Hawkeyes fan expected to read after this matchup.

But what sets Iowa's win apart to an almost unbelievable degree is the eventual final score.

Iowa came out on top with a final score of 94-39. Not only is the former metric the most the Hawkeyes have scored in a game since Nov. 18 (99), but the latter is, by far and away, the least any Iowa opponent has managed to put up this season.

Head coach Ben McCollum's Hawkeys, in the defense-first effort, tallied a downright silly 19 steals. The program is coming on under their new captain, and coming on strong.

Defining the Team

From top to bottom, the consensus across the board for Iowa seemed to be that defensive performances like these can, and should, define the Hawkeyes moving forward.

On Iowa's video-game-like steal statistics in the victory, McCollum jokingly explained, “Coaching. What else is there?" He continued after a laugh, "No, I thought our hand activity was fantastic. That was the key to the game, was making sure that we got deflections.”

Ben McCollum on Isaia Howard's 7 steals tonight: “That’s who he is. He has that energy and effort and that ‘Impose your will’ mentality. He is what our program is, in my mind. He brings an edge to him. Brings a fight. He doesn't have bad days in practice. And he's only a…
— Chad Leistikow (@ChadLeistikow) December 21, 2025

Of Isaia Howard coming up with seven of the team's total steal count alone, McCollum remarked, "That's who he is. He has that energy and effort and that 'impose your will' mentality. He is what our program is, in my mind."

Winning Teams Grow

Hawkeyes forward Alvaro Folgueiras, who had 17 points and two steals of his own, also chimed in on the bunch's ball-stopping efforts, saying, "This is the improvement we’ve got to see as the year goes on. Winning teams grow. We know what we’ve got to do on defense.”

Lily Smith/The Register / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

"Grow" is the keyword there. Despite having lost both their battles with ranked opponents this year thus far, the Hawkeyes have consistently found ways to impress in spite of those shortcomings. Between inspiring individual stories - like that of guard Tate Sage's rapid development - and team-wide showings like this one, the black and gold have more than made up for their faults in the brighter national spotlight.

Even as the team remains without a "signature" win, McCollum and the crew's consistent success elsewhere make it seem like only a matter of time before Iowa catches the right "big name" team on the wrong day.

This article first appeared on Iowa Hawkeyes on SI and was syndicated with permission.

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