Hawkeyes burst into Big Ten tournament throwing flames and torching Northwestern, 112-76

INDIANAPOLIS — Iowa limited its wear-and-tear Thursday afternoon. The basketball nets at Gainbridge Fieldhouse, however, couldn’t say the same.

The Hawkeyes shattered three single-game Big Ten men’s tournament records in their 112-76 shattering of Northwestern. The point total was 15 more than the previous mark. Their 43 field goals also is a record.

Then there was Iowa making 19 3-pointers, five more than the mark Illinois set in 2016, then tied in 2018 against the Hawkeyes.

It was insane. The Hawkeyes had 11 3s by halftime. Ten different Iowa players made them by game’s end.

“I think the thing that's impressive is we had a lot of different guys making them,” Iowa Coach Fran McCaffery said. “It wasn't one or two guys and that's, obviously, what you want as a coach.”

Iowa walk-on Luc Laketa banked in a 3 from the league’s logo at midcourt with 20 seconds left, a shot his head coach didn’t even want him taking. That was this game.

Iowa made 65.5 percent of its 3s, 61.4 percent of its shots overall.

“I thought we were ready to play,” Northwestern Coach Chris Collins said, “and they just kind of made all their shots.”

“You can’t play much better than tonight,” Iowa Coach Fran McCaffery said.

You’d say save some of those points for Friday afternoon when Iowa steps up in competition against defense-oriented Rutgers in a 1 p.m. (approximate, CT) tourney quarterfinal, but at least the Hawkeyes did plenty of physical conserving.

Iowa starting forward Patrick McCaffery returned after missing two games with injury and illness, got 18 minutes of action, scored 10 points, and got out.

No one played more than 24 minutes. Keegan Murray got 26 points in 21 minutes and was a spectator for the last 14:01.

“It’s obviously a good feeling where we had a 25-minute warmup, we didn’t have a shoot-around,” Murray said. “So it’s kind of crazy to see that for a first game in this building.”

Iowa had a 15-4 lead four minutes into the game, and the rest was their shoot-around. Jordan Bohannon made 5 of 8 3s and had 17 points. Murray swished all three of his 3-pointers. Sophomore guard Tony Perkins was 2-of-2 from deep, and had a career-high six assists.

Lots has gone right for Iowa since the start of February, but Perkins’ emergence may top the list.

“I think he’s made extraordinary strides,” Bohannon said. “What you’re seeing now is a lot more confident Tony. He’s able to do a lot off the dribble, being confident with not only scoring for himself, but he’s doing a really great job of finding other people.

“I think that’s why he’s taking his game to the next level.”

The win was Iowa’s ninth in its last 11 games, and pushed it to 23-9 this season. Northwestern, not a horrible team, couldn’t compete this day. The Hawkeyes, once a woeful rebounding team, had 45 boards to the Wildcats’ 18.

“Collectively, I think they’re the best offensive rebounding team in the conference, with the Murrays, with (Patrick) McCaffery, with (Filip) Rebraca,” Collins said.

“To me, they’re playing as well as anybody in the conference. They’re very confident. They know their roles. They have a player who arguably could be the best player in the country. And they’re well-coached.

“This is going to be a tough out for anybody. … When Bohannon is making 30-footers, those guys are shooting the way they are with Keegan, it’s going to be very hard for anybody to beat them — the way they played today.”

Fifth-seed Iowa is a combined 0-6 against the top four seeds in this tourney, including 0-1 against 4-seed Rutgers. If the Hawkeyes score 112 points against the Scarlet Knights’ defense, we’ll be living in a bizarro universe.

“Tomorrow's game will be a lot different in terms of style of play,” Fran McCaffery said, “so we'll enjoy and appreciate this performance and put it behind us.”

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