For a day, sun breaks through the fog in Carver-Hawkeye

IOWA CITY - Matt Gatens plays for a losing team. You can do that and still be a winner.

In the 29th game of his second-straight season on a squad that won't get a whiff of postseason play, it would be easy for the Iowa sophomore guard to flip his mind to autopilot and hope this Hawkeyes basketball season hurries to a merciful end.

Au contraire. In Iowa's home finale Sunday, Gatens epitomized winning with a career-high 25-point effort that included plenty of hustle. He tweaked an ankle late in the game with his team comfortably ahead, but returned when Indiana cut a 21-point deficit to 14.

Iowa won, 73-57. It wasn't a game-changer in the perception of Hawkeye basketball circa 2009. It was accomplished against a squad chock full o' underclassmen that isn't among the top 100 teams in Indiana University basketball history.

For so many years and decades, Indiana-Iowa games were events, things to be anticipated and enjoyed. Sunday's game, a “battle” for ninth-place in the Big Ten, was a vivid reminder the world keeps changing and the mighty of this world can become the downtrodden when the wrong series of events occur.

But the Hawkeyes will always have Sunday. They came, they hustled, they won their home-finale. The winning isn't very likely to happen again this season, not at Wisconsin, not at Minnesota, and not in the Big Ten tournament.

So remember the way they bid their home fans farewell for the next eight months. Remember Gatens' play this day, give him a pat on the back, thank him for playing through the fog that has enveloped Iowa basketball.

“We're playing a game we love,” Gatens said after the game, seeking no praise for playing with desire. It's what you do.

“We wanted to go out with our ‘A' game,” he said.

He has never said it and he never will. The next time Gatens ever complains publicly will be the first time. But this surely isn't what Gatens signed on for when he verbally committed to play at Iowa when he was a ninth-grader at Iowa City High.

The son of former Hawkeye player Mike Gatens and an Iowa fan all his life, his college choice was a layup. But all he'd ever known then was the Hawkeyes being good, being a special entity in his hometown and state.

Instead, Gatens has experienced a lot of losing in two seasons, through no fault of his own. He is his team's top scorer this season, and is among its top two players in assists and steals. He averages almost 37 minutes per game, which is being a workhorse and then some.

An indicator of Gatens' makeup is that he makes 83 percent of his free throws and has taken 74 more than any teammate. Any college player who shoots a lot of foul shots and makes 80 percent of them is a serious player.

Now, Gatens is no Evan Turner or Kalin Lucas and has never pretended to be. But he is someone who could play for any team in the Big Ten, someone who would have fit in nicely with the better Iowa lineups of his lifetime.

Sunday, Gatens had 25 points. His team won. It was a good day.

When do you suppose the next one will come?