Well that was fresh. Michigan State gets snowed under by Hawkeyes

IOWA CITY -- That was as fresh as a new-fallen foot of snow.

Hawkeye players celebrating with Hawkeye students after a game. Those students mocking players of a program as proud and distinguished as Michigan State's with "NIT! NIT!" and "Just like football!" chants. And, oh yeah, a really good performance by the Iowa team.

Hawkeyes 72, Spartans 52. A most-uplifting performance from the team at the bottom of the Big Ten standings. As many people as could have reasonably been expected to fight through the weather on a weeknight thoroughly enjoyed themselves, and so did their team.

Now, this is an MSU team in freefall, for sure. "Well, uh ... I think that was the worst performance by a team I've coached since I've been at Michigan State," said Tom Izzo, and this is his 16th season as the Spartans' head coach.

 But an Iowa club that was 1-8 in the Big Ten could have matched the Spartans in stumbling and staggering. Instead, the Hawkeyes seized the moment and 40 minutes. Eric May may have captured the essence of the evening in the second half when he successfully held off MSU guard Keith Appling in a 1-on-1 open-court situation before smashing away Appling's shot attempt.

May had a breakaway dunk later in the half that was the icing on the cake. Or rather, the hat on top of the snowman.

Or maybe the night's defining moment was at the end of the first half when Iowa moved the ball around beautifully until Zach McCabe split the nets for a 3-pointer that beat the buzzer.

Or maybe it was just showing up and blitzing MSU in the game's first several minutes. No let-up would follow. That's growth.

"Focus, concentration, tremendous effort," said Iowa Coach Fran McCaffery. "And when we went to our bench, it was every bit the same."

You want focus and concentration? Backup forward Andrew Brommer vomited at halftime in the Hawkeyes' dressing room. He didn't look good, physically. But he scored six points in 13 minutes before that when Melsahn Basabe had to play limited minutes because of two early fouls.

"You're talking about good kids," McCaffery said. "They try to do what I ask them. As frustrated as I might get, they're still good kids that are giving me effort.

"Effort's one component. It takes effort, concentration and execution. Concentration sometimes wanes. Sometimes it just has to be reintroduced, reinforced. When it is, you have a game like this."

McCaffery devoted Monday's practice to nothing but defense. Whether its pros or pee-wees, try to get a team to work on nothing but defense in a practice when it's 1-8 in its conference. That's when you find out if your team is still with you. Izzo's team, ranked No. 2 in the nation in the preseason, looked like it was mentally back in East Lansing Wednesday. McCaffery's guys were where they needed to be.

"They have never stopped buying in," he said. "Their intensity level at practice and their approach has been professional.

"It's a long season. We've had some moral victories. But these kids needed a win like this tonight to show they could put it all together. It was a way for us to improve and continue to gain confidence."

It was a good night for junior guard Matt Gatens to pass the 1,000-point career mark. You do that, and get recognized for it by the public-address announcer, you don't want it to be meaningless points in a discouraging night. This was 19 points in a 20-point victory over the Big Ten's premier program, a Final Four team the previous two years.

"He played so well in a marquee game," McCaffery said.

Izzo, meanwhile, took questions for 11 1/2 minutes at a press conference without really coming up with any answers for himself. He was as calm as could be expected after a humiliating showing by his team, but his right leg bounced up and down agitatedly the entire 11 1/2 minutes.

"I'm just very disappointed in the leadership in our upperclassmen," said Izzo.

"I'm very disappointed in the leadership of this team.

"I guess  like a lot of things in life. Sometimes you get into territory you haven't been before. And I'm there. I've been close before and worked my way out of it, and one way or another we'll work our way out of it."

For the first time in quite a long time, it seems, a big-time program was brought to its knees by the Hawkeyes.

"This is our most complete game, without question," McCaffery said.