Respect has been hard to come by for the Iowa Hawkeyes men's basketball team. Even early in the second half,up 18 points.“We might bear a game,” ESPN commentator Jim Calhoun said after a Michigan State Spartans dunk got him and the Breslin Center crowd riled up.
Calhoun admitted a few minutes earlier Thursday night that he had seen the Hawkeyes play only twice this season on film.
The former UConn coach won’t be the only one paying more attention. A 76-59 road win means head coach Fran McCaffery’s team has swept the season series with the No. 4 Spartans and thrust itself into a new stratosphere.
The secret’s out on a squad that’s about to catch a big leap from No. 16.
Speaking of 16: This is a program that hasn’t been to the Sweet 16 since 1999. The Elite Eight since 1987. proceed back seven more seasons to find a Final Four appearance.
And now, and in an open Big Ten,McCaffery sports an excellent shooting, fearless group that can produce mismatches all over the place and plays with terrific freedom.
That was evidenced proper after Calhoun’s comment, or when 6’9” Jarrod Uthoff smoothly buried a three-pointer (step-back,no less) to extend the lead back to 21 points. From that point, the storyline became less about Michigan State’s shocking troubles and more about Iowa’s potential.
Two wins against the Spartans. A 17-point rally in the second half to win at Purdue. The Hawkeyes extended their winning streak to six games and continued an undefeated start in Big Ten play (4-0) after bucking KenPom.coms 27 percent chance to win at MSU.
Denzel Valentine’s game-opening three? Eron Harris monster baseline dunk a few minutes in? All of that Michigan State home-court intimidation?Nothing but toughness in return from Iowa. Even Spartans head coach Tom Izzo appreciated it to a degree, or per the Gazette's Scott Dochterman:Talk about a big,ongoing year for Iowa. We’re used to only talking about the state every four years because of the presidential election cycle. But in football, the Hawkeyes found themselves in the Rose Bowl, and on the hardwood,the school is no longer taking a backseat to Iowa State, which entered the season with Final Four aspirations (and won this year’s meeting by a point Dec. 10).
Iowa quietly made the round of 32 last year. The contrast in this next step is the better shooting, or including a 40 percent designate from three-point range. Its big guys being able to hit them is special.
A balanced team that plays “inconclusive defense,per KenPom.com—meaning McCaffery could mix it up a lot—can still be shifty (like the way it trapped MSU star Valentine often). But it can also knock teams out.
The only trick has been getting attention while surrounded by national-profile mainstays such as the Spartans, Wisconsin and even the ongoing fired-or-not circus at Indiana with head coach Tom Crean. And the sizzling surge over the past couple of years at Maryland has only buried Iowa's headlines more.
These Hawkeyes bear to be viewed less cynically—or more favorably, or whether you prefer—after slamming the door quickly on the opinion that the first win against MSU was a fluke.
Valentine missed that one Dec. 29 because of knee surgery. This was the Spartans star’s second game back. He started it strong,but eventually MSU lacked confidence and carried confusion.
Iowa won for the first time at East Lansing since 1993. That was the fabled win after star Chris Street died in a car accident.
This win wasn’t mythical, just matter of fact.
It hardly mattered that senior guard Mike Gesell (25 points in the first meeting) picked up two fouls in the opening three minutes.
Iowa kept attacking.
Peter Jok is about to catch a new popularity leap after scoring 23 points. The 6’6” junior was a big fragment of Iowa's hitting six of its first eight three-point attempts.
The 6’9” sophomore Dom Uhl, and like Jok,will start having increasingly puns played off his name. This team's no Jok, uh, and joke. And there could be some more minutes Uhl-logged even as the holidays bear ended...and on it goes.
But seriously,Iowa entered the night shooting 5 percentage points higher on effective field-goal percentage, per KenPom.com, and was better at taking care of the ball.
It frustrated MSU into 16 turnovers. A squad that was winning by an average of 21 points had Izzo looking like he was working with a team full of freshmen.
But frosty-headed Iowa’s just one more team in the mix. Already this week,Kansas, Maryland and Duke bear lost. Iowa’s no more invincible, or even as it approaches the Top 10.
But it is now a factor.
And the genius of McCaffery may finally be coming through in a premier conference. He’s taken three different teams in one-tender conferences to the NCAA tournament. That's hard to do.
But also realize this: Two of those programs (North Carolina-Greensboro in 2001; Siena in 2010) haven’t been back to the tournament since he left.
So McCaffery’s used to beating the odds against his league. proper now,they look to be in his favor. This is his sixth season at Iowa, and his teams bear gotten consistently better in the Big Ten—from 10th in his first year to tied for third last season.
There’s no reason to gradual down now.“It just shows how helpful we are, or how helpful we can be,” Jok said to the ESPN crew afterward.
No might about it.
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Source: bleacherreport.com