Why Iowa men’s basketball’s focus remains unchanged for evening matchup against Rutgers

IOWA CITY — There’s only so many times the Hawkeyes can truly see how far they’ve come.

Most of Iowa men’s basketball’s roster didn’t expect to become Big Ten players, although head coach Ben McCollum believes his team all developed to that level at Drake. Still, there are times where it can still feel surreal — even at the halfway point of the season — like how it felt stepping foot in Mackey Arena and Assembly Hall last week.

“I think sometimes when you're sitting down relaxing, you're just like, ‘whoa, I'm playing in the Big Ten,’” Iowa forward Cam Manyawu said.“But I think when you're in the games, you kind of forget about it.”

Iowa’s week-long conference road trip to the Hoosier State ended in a split — dropping a game to No. 5 Purdue and ending a three-game skid at Indiana a few days later.

McCollum said he wasn’t surprised to see his team respond with the win over the Hoosiers on Saturday afternoon, though. McCollum’s programs hadn’t lost four consecutive games in a decade, and this year’s Iowa team knew how to get over the “close” hump.

“I was never really worried just because of how they approach practice,” McCollum said. “You still have to throw a few curve balls at them to make sure that they're fully focused on the next opponent ... and understanding that, because sometimes you get close to Purdue, you get close to Illinois, you can kind of fall in love with close and think that you're getting closer — and there's no real place that you're supposed to arrive.”

The celebration of ending the short skid stopped soon after arriving back in Iowa City over the weekend. Iowa has one final game before its week-long break and faces Rutgers in a mid-week, nighttime affair.

Although the Scarlet Knights have drifted toward the bottom of the Big Ten rankings — currently sitting with a 2-5 conference record having lost three of their last five matchups — McCollum still wants it to be known that Rutgers is a Big Ten program, and Big Ten basketball programs are always competitive.

“I think our guys understand that this is a Big Ten team, very well coached,” McCollum said. “They've got a lot of talent, and we need to make sure that we bring our best effort to be able to give ourselves a chance.”

Rutgers’ team is quick, and has the capability to string together scoring runs both at home and on the road. However, the Scarlet Knights haven’t won a Quad 1 or Quad 2 game this season, and they’re still searching for their first true road win of the year.

So while on paper Tuesday’s matchup looks to favor the black and gold, the Hawkeyes have seen what kinds of chaos can unfold in the Big Ten. They don’t want to become victims of it themselves.

“Every single one of those guys is still a Division I player,” guard Tate Sage said. “You take them as a Big Ten team, and you take them as Division I player. We're gonna go into the game just like every single other game, and prepare for them like that.”

There might not be the biggest ‘made it’ moment the Hawkeyes will encounter on Tuesday night. It’s likely that moment will be more focused on continuing to make the in-game adjustments McCollum is always laser-focused on.

Or simply just picking up another Big Ten win before a week-long break.

“Yesterday we had a meeting, but not resting — we had to get a sweat and get the soreness out,” McCollum said. “And then today is, we’ve got to get after it, try to get better today, and obviously, prepare for Rutgers.”

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