Hlas: Yet again, Hawkeyes overpower a Big Ten foe

IOWA CITY — It stopped being anything resembling a secret last week. The Iowa men's basketball team, 5-0 in the Big Ten, is strong.

"Iowa's got a real good basketball team," Michigan Coach John Beilein said Sunday after his team's 82-71 loss to the Hawkeyes.

"They were a better team than us tonight, without question."

But coaches say things like that about opponents who have just defeated them by 11 points. How good is Iowa, really? Good enough to flip a switch off and on in Carver-Hawkeye Arena and still drop a good Michigan team, 82-71.

The sample size is now significant. The Hawkeyes have won four of their five Big Ten games by double digits and outscored Purdue 50-26 in the second half in winning the other on the road.

There were the two conquests of Michigan State, including last Thursday's domination in East Lansing. Then came this game against a solid Michigan team that hasn't come unglued with the loss of its best player, senior guard Caris LeVert, to a lower leg injury.

The Wolverines were good enough to down third-ranked Maryland in Ann Arbor last Tuesday. But they were only good enough Sunday to make runs at Iowa before getting pushed back. The Hawkeyes went into sleep mode midway through both halves, but awoke both times and vibrantly reversed the momentum.

Sunday was the essence of a team win for Iowa. Each of the eight players in its rotation distinguished himself during the contest.

The team's most-important stretch was a 6:41 stretch of the second half that saw seniors Jarrod Uthoff and Adam Woodbury watch from the bench as reserves Dom Uhl and freshman Ahmad Wagner sparkled. But Uthoff led the Hawkeyes with 22 points, and Woodbury had a nice 12-point, six-rebound effort.

Beilein pointed to Iowa's starting lineup of four seniors and junior guard Peter Jok, who has begun to rival Uthoff as an offensive leader.

'It's the way basketball used to be,' the coach said of the veteran lineup, 'and they've got it.' But he also gave a nod to the Hawkeyes' bench.

Iowa Coach Fran McCaffery took it further, saying, 'Everybody keeps talking about the experience, and obviously they're our key guys. But we wouldn't be sitting where we are if we weren't getting unbelievable play from Uhl, Wagner, (Brady) Ellingson, Nicholas Baer.

'So, yeah, I mean it's great that we have four seniors and a junior, but I said from the beginning, we would not have success this year unless those young guys came through for us. I don't care what the seniors do.'

Sophomore forward Uhl had 10 points in 20 minutes and continued to play confidently and well. In fact, he's the team's fourth-leading scorer over their five conference games. You don't need a trained basketball eye to watch him and say 'Ballplayer.'

'Our bench is unexpectedly playing well,' Uhl said, before adding, 'unexpected to the outside.'

'Practices are a challenge every day, a battle every day,' he said. 'Our practices are lots harder than these games, actually. We get to the games, and that's the easy part.'

He said that matter-of-factly, with no trace of cockiness. Given the results of those five league games, who's to think he's exaggerating?

These guys are really good. Jok is really good. He helped decimate Michigan State in the first half last Thursday with 19 first-half points, and made four 3-pointers Sunday in notching 16 points to go with playing forceful defense.

'Tim Hardaway the Third,' Beilein called him.

'We believe in ourselves,' Jok said. 'We've felt like that since the beginning of the season.'

Woodbury stripped Michigan's Aubrey Dawkins of the ball in the Wolverines' forecourt late in the first half, then drove and stuffed the ball through the hoop. That's right, non-dunker Woodbury dunked. Everything's clicking for this team right now.

'It's going to be a heck of a year for Iowa fans,' Beilein said.

Their guys are 5-0 in the Big Ten and winning big. This isn't a blip. This is a trend.