Iowa's Matt Gatens earns co-Big Ten Player of the Week honor

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - Iowa senior Matt Gatens captured co-Big Ten Player of the Week honors Monday after posting a career-high scoring effort and extending perhaps the most impressive 3-point shooting display in Iowa basketball history.

Gatens, a 6-foot-5 senior from Iowa City, scored a career-best 33 points in a 67-66 win against No. 16 Wisconsin on Thursday. That performance followed a then-career mark 30 points in a victory No. 18 Indiana on Feb. 19.

He's the first Iowa player to earn the honor since Jake Kelly on March 9, 2009. Purdue senior Robbie Hummel shared the award with Gatens.

"He is the epitome of character and class, not only in terms what he's done on the floor but in how he carries himself," Iowa Coach Fran McCaffery said Monday. "I hope this is just the beginning of what will become a number of different accolades for him."

Gatens sank 12 consecutive 3-pointers, beginning with the second half against Indiana and following through against Wisconsin. Through late in the second half against Illinois on Sunday, Gatens had hit 17-of-20 3-point attempts. He's 24-of-33 from 3-point range in Iowa's last four games and was the first Big Ten player since 1997 to score 30-plus points against ranked league teams in consecutive games.

Gatens scored 22 points on Sunday in a 65-54 loss at Illinois. Gatens scored 15 points by halftime, including a 4-for-4 performance from 3-point range in the first half.

"I think he's a pro, that's what I think of Gatens," Iowa McCaffery said Sunday. "The way they defended him, to get 22 and shoot the ball with those percentages, the way he was being guarded, he's a pro. That's what I think of Gatens."

Gatens scored only seven points in the second half against the Fighting Illini and was guarded closely on every Iowa offensive possession.

"They weren't leaving me at all. No matter what I did or where I was," Gatens said. "I was over near their bench and Coach (Bruce) Weber was really making an emphasis of it after I hit a couple in the first half."

"I think we were more in tune with him," Illinois guard Brandon Paul said. "He's obviously a great player; hat's off to him. He plays hard. He makes shots. He stays in the gym a lot so I think defensively whenever me or D.J. (Richardson) needed help, the team helped us.

"We just kept switching back to make sure someone was fresh because he was making shots. I think as a team we stopped him, no one individual shut him down."

Gatens now averages 15.7 points a game, the highest season scoring average by a Hawkeye since Adam Haluska averaged 20.5 points in 2006-07. Gatens ranks ninth all-time on Iowa's scoring list with 1,558 points. He's three points shy of tying Dean Oliver for eighth and 20 points shy of tying Haluska.

Gatens' 33 points was the most given up by the Badgers since Davidson's Stephen Curry also scored 33 in the 2008 NCAA regional semifinals. That output was the second-most by a Big Ten player this season, trailing only Paul's 43 points against Ohio State on Jan. 10.

"He's playing as well as anybody certainly in our league but as well as anybody in the country right now," McCaffery said.