Set aside recent woes. Tuesday belongs to Hawkeye seniors.

For several weeks, you looked at the Iowa men's basketball home finale and you saw something very special.

When it was the top five-ranked, first-place Hawkeyes, you saw that March 1 game on the horizon with Indiana and couldn't help thinking about the night possibly being a coronation for the home team.

Now, the Hoosiers come in to Carver-Hawkeye Arena already owning a share of the Big Ten regular-season championship, and needing just one more win in their final two games to win the thing outright.

Meanwhile, Iowa is in danger of tumbling down the Big Ten standings back to its old, familiar role of also-ran. The only way the Hawkeyes maintain a sliver of a hope of tying for first place is to first defeat Indiana Tuesday on their Carver court.

That certainly could happen. But oh, how the feeling has changed about this team. What we've seen the last five games is so different from what we saw in the first 11 of this Big Ten season. We've seen a team that shot so beautifully and attacked so forcefully morph into a stagnant and unconfident club, a vivid reminder of the Hawkeyes who wheezed down the stretch two years ago.

The offense isn't coming from enough places. The offense simply doesn't look good, and that starts with the simple act of shooting. A team that had been among the national leaders in 3-point shooting for so long has lost its touch. That can make a potent team look impotent in a hurry.

Something I always hate to do is single out a college player if he or she has done nothing to bring off-court shame to the team and school. Sports are hard, being college-aged isn't always easy. On top of that, the opponents want to win as much as you do and are also very talented.

As marvelously as Jarrod Uthoff has played for the majority of this season, he hasn't been the same player the last few games. Why? I don't know. When Iowa Coach Fran McCaffery barked at him to attack early in the second half, he did just that and with great success. For a while. He does have teammates who are involved, too, you know.

But Uthoff isn't currently the killer he was in leading Iowa to a 10-1 conference record that is now 11-5. He spoke with such confidence and even bravado during the great run. Now he is a player without much to say. He's not playing as well as he had been, his team has come undone, and it hurts him. Plus, making excuses doesn't seem to be part of his makeup.

I can't say I know him, but I can say I've come to really enjoy being around him in interview sessions. I wouldn't have said that the previous two years. He spoke haltingly, often in clichés, and I didn't feel I learned anything from him. This year, he's taken command of interview situations the same way he has taken command on the court, and I get why he's been so successful in the classroom. He is an extremely intelligent person.

Uthoff has done things this season we'd never seen a Hawkeye do. In fact, college basketball has seldom seen anyone who rivaled him as being so prolific as both a 3-point shooter and shot-blocker, who also has rebounded well and scored plenty of points in the paint. The numerous times he completely took over games may have spoiled people.

Without Uthoff, this team isn't headed to the NCAA tournament. Without him, this is a totally forgettable season for Iowa.

He deserves a warm Seniors Night Tuesday, as do Anthony Clemmons, Mike Gesell and Adam Woodbury. All have had more many a moment this season when they came up big, and all may have several more.

Alas, the timing of this slump couldn't be much worse. Instead of getting to revel in battling here for four seasons (or three, in Uthoff's case), the seniors come in to their night with the weight of the world on their shoulders.

On top of that, they're pitted against an Indiana team that has earned its championship, one that plays an eye-pleasing style of basketball that's difficult to defend with savvy ball-movement and deadly shooting. The Hoosiers are good, and are highly unlikely to roll over just because they have their piece of the Big Ten's big prize.

Iowa-Indiana breakdown

If you stumble around for the first two-thirds of a conference season and then start firing on all cylinders in the last one-third, you're remembered well. The last impressions are the lingering impressions in sports. That was Iowa last year. The wolves howled when the Hawkeyes were 6-6 in the Big Ten, but the silence of the wolves was loud and clear as Iowa took a 12-6 conference mark into the postseason.

But when you go 10-1 and zoom up the national rankings and get a Sports Illustrated cover, then you look like you have feet of clay, it's a hard thing to accept. The so-elusive Big Ten title, the apparent certainty of playing NCAA tournament games in Des Moines, being set up in the seedings to have a shot at an NCAA run that would last more than one week for the first time since 1999 — those were all realistic expectations.

However, the season isn't over. These are the same players that beat Michigan State and Purdue twice. Maybe Iowa smacks down Indiana Tuesday night. Maybe the Hawkeyes have a nice run in the Big Ten tournament instead of their usual early flameout. Maybe they go into the NCAAs and play like the veteran, talented team we knew them as for so many games this winter, and torment some teams unfamiliar with them.

But right now, the only thing on the horizon is Seniors Night against an opponent that is a champion. This had shaped up to be a potentially unforgettable night in Carver. Now, it's about just trying to feel good again.

This is sports at its essence. You find out who you are in the good times, but you really find out who you are when things are choppy. And by 'you,' I mean coaches, players and fans.

Four senior players who have given their all and who seem like fine people who will do well throughout life say farewell here Tuesday night. Anyone in the arena (Hoosiers excluded) who can't set aside recent disappointment to greet them with respect and appreciation may be a very dim bulb.