Iowa played toughest first-half B1G sked, and it isn’t close

IOWA CITY - Iowa withstood the toughest barrage of basketball scheduling and still stands with a winning record halfway through Big Ten play.

The Hawkeyes' first-half Big Ten opponents have a league winning percentage of 62.5 percent entering Saturday's games. Of Iowa's first nine Big Ten games, seven were against 2014 NCAA tournament teams. The other two games were on the road. That's by far the most difficult front-loaded Big Ten schedule.

Northwestern (1-8 Big Ten) posted the league's second-most-difficult schedule (57.8 league winning percentage). Big Ten leader Wisconsin (43.8 percent) and Michigan (42.9 percent) faced the easiest first-half schedules.

'We've played great teams,” Iowa senior Aaron White said. 'We don't really have a bad loss, per se. I think Ohio State and Wisconsin are two of the top three teams in the league or top three or four. We've got them four times out of the nine.

'I'm not going to sit here and say I'm thrilled with 5-4, but I'm way happier than I would be if we were 4-5. I take it game-by-game.”

The Hawkeyes (14-8, 5-4 Big Ten) played only one Big Ten opponent with a losing league record (Minnesota) in its first nine games, and that was on the road. Iowa's four losses came to teams with a combined record of 32-8 in Big Ten play. The Hawkeyes own three road victories (Ohio State, Michigan, Minnesota), and Coach Fran McCaffery called their 5-4 league record 'huge.”

'Every team you play has great players and has the ability to beat you,” McCaffery said. 'You go on the road and get a couple of wins, that's tremendous. But now we have to protect our home court, and that's not easy because of who is coming in.”

Sunday's opponent, Maryland (19-4, 7-3 Big Ten). had the league's 10th-toughest first-half schedule at 47.1 percent. The Terrapins boast an impressive sweep of Michigan State (6-3) but has felt the grind of a Big Ten newcomer in its last four games. Maryland was crushed in its last two road trips to Indiana (19 points) and Ohio State (24 points), needed a last-second shot to beat Northwestern (1-8) at home and outlasted Penn State (2-8) by six points on Wednesday.

'It's tough, there's no doubt about it, just getting used to all the new players and what they do well and what they don't do well,” Maryland Coach Mark Turgeon said.

'I know we'll be much further along scouting-wise and understanding-wise in year three year than we are right now - there's no doubt about it. I'll look back and I'll be like, ‘I can't believe I did that in that game.‘ But it's maybe a lack of knowledge right now on some of the decisions. Right now we think we think we're making all the right decisions.”

Iowa does get a competitive break in its final nine Big Ten games, five of which are at home. Those nine teams were a combined 32-57 (36.8 percent) in league play entering Saturday. When you remove Maryland and Indiana (6-4), Iowa's other six opponents have a combined league record of 19-50.

'Every game's big,” Iowa forward Jarrod Uthoff said. 'We're competing for a Big Ten championship.”

TOUGHEST FIRST HALVES

Opponents' first-half league winning percentages through nine games (before Saturday)

1. Iowa 62.5

2. Northwestern 57.8

3. Indiana 51.1

4. Ohio State 50.0

5. Minnesota 49.5

5. Penn State 49.5

7. Nebraska 49.4

8. Purdue 48.8

9. Illinois 47.8

10. Maryland 47.1

11. Michigan State 45.5

12. Rutgers 45.4

13. Wisconsin 43.8

14. Michigan 42.9

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