Pressing is more than just making it difficult to cross half court to get into their offense. Rushing a team into bad decisions is also a desired result. Iowa hasn't been prone to turnovers for most of the season, maybe averaging 10 a game. Turning it over 20 times in a half court offense is very unusual, for a team like Iowa.
Ok, I've re-watched the Iowa-tOSU game, and I can now confidently say that pressing turnovers were definitely
not the primary issue, or worse, the press may have been the reason tOSU lost. In the 1st quarter, tOSU pressed after every made basket and did get a few steals, but the overall turnover difference wasn't all that great. It was a 1 point game at the end of the quarter. And there was a downside as well: in the 2nd quarter tOSU looked tired, and no longer pressed after makes. As a result, Iowa outscored them 20-10.
tOSU made a furious comeback in the 3rd quarter outscoring Iowa 20-13 and closing the gap to 2. Czinano picked up her 3rd and 4th fouls and ended up sitting quite a bit. After they traded runs in the first 5 mins tOSU was able to press again and Iowa didn't score at all. They shot <30% in this quarter, and Clark had to score most of their points. It was Iowa's turn to look tired.
In the 4th quarter, tOSU looked tired again, retreated into a pretty passive zone in the half court defense, and committed several fatigue fouls and Iowa shot the lights out, outscoring them 27-18. The few times they tried to press, Clark beat it and Iowa got easy scores.
The press was effective for as long as tOSU was able to sustain it. But the cost to them was high, exhausting them each time. I like the concept of their team -- the scrappy pressing D and uptempo transition offense. But I don't think they have the athletes to run it against top-tier talent, which is also what the loss to IU shows pretty clearly. If it exhausts them, do they have a half court offense they can fall back on? Mikulasikova and McMahon have been that earlier in the season. But against Iowa or IU -- and other top ten teams, I expect, they will not be enough.
Mikulasikova played well in the first half, getting all 8 of her points and her only rebound. In the second half, she had nothing left and got no points no rebounds. By contrast, Czinano ended up with 22 pts 4 rebounds playing roughly the same minutes. Czinano's number are not a fluke, but Mikulasikova's were -- and it's difficult not to attribute this to the stiffer competition than what she usually faces.
Also, consider this comparison: Mikesell 12 points 2 Reb 1 assists vs Clark with 28, 15, 10. Is it unfair to compare Mikesell to Clark? in a sense, yes. But that's the point -- the Iowa guards are just better, even playing without Warnock, and there's no one else besides Mikesell to compare to Clark.
The bright spot for tOSU is McMahon, who is a substantial talent, though she may not be ready to carry a team yet. She still makes freshman mistakes at key moments. The future looks bright for her, but I don't think she can save this team this year.