The aforementioned defensive lapses had a common theme, with Virginia Tech capitalizing on Peyton McCollum, who was a nice revelation in his first two college games with six 3-pointers and 22 points. But the second-year player (who redshirted last season) ended up with zero points on 0-for-2 shooting with two rebounds, zero assists and three fouls in 17 minutes.
Yet despite that lack of production, McCollum was on the floor from the 13:29 mark of the second half until the 3:52 mark. Ty’Reek Coleman, who scored 20 points in 31 minutes and was a good match for Virginia Tech’s quickness, was curiously on the bench from the 11:23 mark to the 3:52 mark.
Asked specifically about why Coleman was on the bench for 7½ crucial minutes as his son played, McCollum responded, “That's not who (Coleman) would have subbed for. It would have been Kael.”
But Coleman didn’t replace Combs when he returned. He and Sage replaced McCollum and Manyawu.
Ben McCollum certainly has his reasons for playing who he plays, and his general theme of the night was that nobody played good defense. Coleman was too passive at times, too, and the head coach specifically named Sage as struggling to follow the game plan. But the appearance of playing his son over a talented player like Coleman was a bad look after a loss.
We went through these father/son playing-time decisions for seven years in the Fran McCaffery era, too, which is probably why there were plenty of Hawkeye fans on social media who expressed frustration at Peyton McCollum’s extended use in an overtime loss that Iowa certainly could have (and probably should have) won. But no question, McCollum's frustration with free throws (Iowa is at a woeful 60.9% this season) and two layup misses by Manyawu in overtime were bigger factors than who was on the floor and who wasn't.
