Hlas: Hawkeyes are halfway to paradise

IOWA CITY — The best story of the first half of the Big Ten men's basketball season is Iowa, but it's not a cause for celebration inside the Hawkeyes' locker room.

'I'd be happier if we were 9-0,' Iowa's Jarrod Uthoff said, 'but 8-1 is a good start for us, and I look forward to continuing success.'

That 8-1 gives Iowa a share of the league-lead with Indiana. The Hawkeyes have played a total of six games against Maryland, Michigan, Michigan State and Purdue, all of whom range from 8-2 to 6-4 in the conference. Indiana has yet to meet any of those four clubs.

That starts to change Tuesday when Indiana is at 7-2 Michigan. Iowa hosts Penn State Wednesday in a 6 p.m. game, and could be alone at the top while the night is still young.

None of which matters a whit around here. Iowa had a very businesslike 85-71 home victory Northwestern Sunday afternoon, a game that again illustrated why the Hawkeyes have to be taken seriously as a threat to win the conference.

For one thing, two different Hawkeyes had the kinds of halves most players will never experience on a college court.

Uthoff scored 19 of his 23 points in the first half. Peter Jok had 22 of his 26 in the first 9:22 of the second half. He then was removed from the game for good with his team in possession of a 23-point lead that grew as large as 29.

'In the first half,' Jok said, 'I told (Uthoff) to keep shooting. In the second half, he was telling me to keep shooting.'

Both have had 19 or more points in a half at other times this season. Two players on the same team with that kind of firepower is a rare thing in the college game.

'It's easier to lock up one person because you can get five guys defending one guy,' Uthoff said. 'When you talk about two people that can kind of get stuff going and get going in a hurry, it spreads the floor and makes the defense look around.'

A headache is what it is. But it's far from a two-man attack.

'They have great size and length,' Northwestern Coach Chris Collins said. 'With Jok and Uthoff and (Adam) Woodbury and (Dom) Uhl, those are big, long guys and they cover up a lot of ground.'

Collins, in his third year with the Wildcats, no longer sees potential when he watches Iowa. He sees its fulfillment.

'Now what you see are all juniors and seniors that believe they're good,' he said. 'There's like a swagger to them that they're a good team — not in a bad way.

'They've played with each other for the last three years so they know each others' games inside and out. They're well-versed, they're well-disciplined, well-coached. They believe they're real good and they go out and back it up.'

Iowa's lone loss in the conference was last Thursday on the road against Maryland, which has as much talent as any team in the league. Uthoff shot poorly for a change, the Hawkeyes didn't play particularly well, and yet the game wasn't decided until the last minute.

For that to be Iowa's only scratch of the Big Ten season says it has enjoyed a great first-half. But these seasons go by so quickly. The Hawkeyes can't afford the time or inclination to stop and smell the roses unless they want to get knocked to the dirt by whomever is on their horizon.

'We're on a journey that's going to present difficult challenges every day,' Iowa Coach Fran McCaffery said. 'Your ability to professionally handle that is going to determine your success. You don't want to look back, you don't want to look too far ahead.'

A big reason his team is where it is was clear in the second half. Jok was hotter than July, and his teammates responded to it by getting him the ball for good looks at the basket. It sounds simple, but doing it separates winners from also-rans.

'They share the ball and they believe in each other,' McCaffery said.

Last year, the Hawkeyes recorded their first winning Big Ten record in eight years. While the team doesn't have the luxury of savoring the present, its fans would be silly not to do so.

A forward scoring 19 points in the first half and a guard tossing in 22 in the first 10 minutes of the second half? Of the same game? This isn't every-year stuff, folks.