Iowa's Matt Gatens provides durability, toughness in reaching 1,000-point plateau

IOWA CITY - Matt Gatens smacked hands with his fellow classmates, then met with Big Ten Network announcers moments after his Iowa Hawkeyes shocked Michigan State 72-52 at Carver-Hawkeye Arena on Wednesday night.

As he walked off the court, his father, Mike, waited to congratulate him. Gatens initially walked past his dad, but turned around and gave him a fist-bump before going to the locker room.

Gatens, an Iowa City native, scored a game-high 19 points to help engineer the upset. Late in the game he sank five straight free throws and became the 40th player in Iowa basketball history to earn 1,000 points in his career. He now has 1,002 career points.

“I thought it was pretty ironic he scored his 1,000th point from the free-throw line,” Mike Gatens said. “He is a pretty good free-throw shooter.”

Gatens leads the Big Ten in free-throw percentage at 91.7 percent. He's on pace to rank second in Big Ten history in single-season free-throw percentage behind former Indiana All-American Steve Alford. Ironically, as Iowa's former coach, Alford offered Gatens a scholarship as a freshman in high school.

Two years ago Gatens set Iowa's single-season record for free-throw percentage (90.4 percent). He's tied for seventh all-time in Big Ten free-throw percentage at 86.4 percent.

But Gatens is more than just near-perfection from the free-throw line, and he proved it against Michigan State. Gatens scored 10 of Iowa's first 18 points and drilled a pair of 3-pointers during the run. In the second half he punctuated his performance with a fast break dunk to put Iowa up by 26.

“I think a thousand points is not easy to do, but for him, I think we all sort of expected it would happen,” Iowa Coach Fran McCaffery said. “He's just been one of those guys that he's just a workmanlike ... he comes (and) you know you're going to get 15. He's going to make his free throws, and he's going to give you a chance.”

Statistically, this is Gatens' best year. He averages a career-best 13.3 points a game and leads the Big Ten in free-throw percentage at 91.7 percent. In conference play he ranks 10th in the Big Ten in scoring at 14.8 points. Those numbers hardly seemed possible two months ago.

Early in preseason training Gatens suffered a torn tendon in his left hand, which required surgery and cost him nearly a month of practice. He missed the first two games of his college career, and he played through December with a protective pad over his left thumb. Gatens struggled to find his shot and didn't hit 50 percent of his field-goal attempts in a game until mid-December.

Gradually his shot returned, as did his confidence. Gatens has scored in double figures in 11 of his last 12 games. Five times in that stretch he scored at least 19 points.

Against Michigan State, he hit 6-of-11 shots and also had four steals, three rebounds and two assists while playing 36 minutes.

“I'm happy that he is enjoying this night, and that he played so well in a marquee game,” McCaffery said. “There's a lot of pressure on him to play this way every night, especially when he's got some young guys that are getting in foul trouble and at times are struggling.”

Gatens has provided Iowa with toughness and durability throughout his career despite going through losing seasons and a coaching change. He suffered a severely sprained ankle in warm-ups before playing Ohio State his sophomore year. Iowa's trainers and coaches recommended he sit out, but he felt responsible to play because UI's students were admitted to the game for free. Gatens played 38 minutes and stood during his breathers because he didn't want his ankle to swell.

After his hand injury this year, Gatens wanted to play through it. McCaffery sat him to prevent future injury.

“Matt's an Iowa guy, and he's doing it for his coach and his teammates and the Hawks,” said Mike Gatens, an Iowa City-area businessman and former Iowa player under Lute Olson. “It's been hard because every team wants to stop Matt. That's hard to be battled like that all time. I don't know that you're going to outbattle Matt. He's as tough as they come.”

Gatens has battled to enter a select fraternity at Iowa as a 1,000-point scorer. He's within 100 points of moving into 30th place and could reach that number by season's end. Gatens enjoyed the moment Wednesday but quickly shifted the conversation back to the team.

“It means you join a long list of great names,” Gatens said. “It's a mark they keep track of it. It feels good to be a part of those names, a bunch of guys I grew up watching and idolizing. Bobby (Hansen) and guys like that. It's a proud moment, but now you move forward and keep this going.

“I wouldn't have probably looked forward to coming in here and talking about it after getting a beatdown. It feels a lot better with everybody happy. Coming against a great team like Michigan State with a great coach (Tom Izzo) ... it means a lot.”