Hlas: Again, Hawkeyes find the road to results

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. - Without knowing how the rest of the season had turned out, what if you were Iowa at the start of this basketball season and had been promised road wins against …

North Carolina. Ohio State. Minnesota. Michigan. Indiana.

Take another look at those five names, think about those five venues, consider how hard it's been for the Hawkeyes to beat good programs on the road for a long, long time.

Iowa's 77-63 victory at Indiana in Assembly Hall Tuesday wasn't a bolt out of the blue. It was no outlier. It was Big Ten Road Win No. 6, Iowa's most in 28 years.

It was the Hawkeyes contesting virtually everything the Hoosiers tried on offense. It was seven different Iowa players with assists, and five with at least five rebounds. It was the bravado of Peter Jok and Anthony Clemmons to take 3-pointers in clutch moments when those shots were there to be taken.

It takes a village to win on the road in this league. Iowa's 9-man rotation more than subdued the Hoosiers in their vaunted basketball venue.

Oh, this ended Iowa's 4-game losing streak in games played in March. The Hawkeyes dropped their final four games last season, leaving a hollow feeling about their first NCAA tournament year since 2006.

This isn't last year. This is a reverse image.

'Early in the season, I sensed something different about this team than last year,” Iowa junior forward Jarrod Uthoff said. 'Maybe it was how close we were.

'We're a close-knit team. I think that shows on the floor, especially in road situations. That's why we're so good on the road.”

Indiana never had a bigger run than 4-0, which means the Hawkeyes brought 40 minutes of focus. Their defense didn't have lapses. Their offensive decision-making was very sound.

'We don't have mistake-makers,” said Iowa Coach Fran McCaffery. 'If you have that, you have a chance every time you take the floor.”

Aaron White added to what should be his first-team All-Big Ten resume with 21 points. But as White was quick to say in a postgame interview, 'It was a bunch of different guys.”

Uthoff took just six field goal attempts and still tallied 14 points. Backup center Gabe Olaseni had 13 points and eight rebounds in 20 minutes.

'Is Olaseni this good?” a veteran Indianapolis columnist asked after the player's one-hand jam off a rebound gave Iowa a 48-40 lead midway through the second half.

He sure was on Tuesday.

So was Clemmons. At the end of last season, he looked like a transfer-in-waiting. His went from a member of McCaffery's rotation as a freshman to getting mop-up minutes in last year's final 10 games.

Late last season, Iowa signed juco Trey Dickerson to come in and presumably take Clemmons' job as the No. 2 point guard. Dickerson is gone. Clemmons played 26 strong minutes Tuesday, and that isn't anything new of late.

I saw Clemmons play in a Prime Time Game last summer. He looked like he had devoted himself to getting in better physical and mental shape, to not letting anyone take his place in the program.

'I'm a junior now, so I've got to mature more and make the best of my opportunities,” Clemmons said. 'I knew if I did what I had to do, I would get the opportunities.”

His first made 3-pointer in the last five games was launched without hesitation came with 10:27 left, immediately after Indiana's Nick Zeisloft had hit a three to trim Iowa's lead to five points. Indiana didn't make another run.

'I think a lot of people were more surprised than I was that he came back,” McCaffery said. 'He's a competitor.

'I think as a coach you can't be more proud of a guy that respects competition and puts himself in a position to enjoy the kind of year that he's had.”

Clemmons is running with a pack of road warriors. But Iowa has a home game with Northwestern Saturday to close the regular-season. It probably won't be a good day to be a Wildcat.

Comments: (319) 368-8840; mike.hlas@thegazette.com

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