Hot Hawkeyes seek payback against last team that beat them, Michigan

Two men’s basketball teams with heads of steam collide Thursday night.

Michigan emitted a big blast Tuesday night when it rocked Michigan State in Ann Arbor, 87-70. The Wolverines shot 58.2 percent from the field against their state rival to improve to 10-8 in the Big Ten.

Iowa has been leaving a trail of smoke for a more-extended time. The Hawkeyes have four straight double-digit wins, the latest an 83-62 home romp over Northwestern Monday.

The Hawkeyes are in a place that didn’t look realistic for them not that long ago: Contention for a top-four finish in the Big Ten’s standings and the double-bye that goes with it in next week’s league tournament.

At 11-7, No. 24 Iowa is tied with Ohio State for fourth, and in ownership of the tiebreaker with the Buckeyes. But the Hawkeyes would slide out of the top four with a loss at Michigan Thursday at the Wolverines’ Crisler Center in Ann Arbor.

Iowa’s regular-season finale is Sunday night at No. 20 Illinois.

The question entering this game for the Hawkeyes is if starting forward Patrick McCaffery will be back after missing the Northwestern game. Iowa Coach Fran McCaffery said his son’s hip issue is “still day-to-day,” and that Patrick would try to have “a mini workout” at Wednesday’s practice, then they’ll see how he feels Thursday.

“We don’t want to have to have this thing linger for the rest of the way,” McCaffery said, suggesting a cautious approach for this week.

Michigan, meanwhile, had quite the turbulence after its 84-79 win at Iowa on Feb. 17, which was the Hawkeyes’ most-recent defeat. In its following game, Wolverines head coach Juwan Howard was involved in a postgame skirmish in which he appeared to strike a Wisconsin assistant coach in the head.

The Big Ten suspended Howard for the final five games of the regular season and fined him $40,000. Fortunately for the Wolverines, Howard hired a top-flight top assistant in 2019. St. Joseph’s fired Phil Martelli in March 2019 after he had been head coach there for 24 seasons and 444 wins.

Martelli was the consensus National Coach of the Year in 2003-04 when St. Joe’s went 30-2. He has been in the first chair for three games at Michigan in Howard’s absence, with two wins. Wolverines center Hunter Dickinson played inspired ball against Michigan State Tuesday with a career-high 33 points.

McCaffery and Martelli are old friends. Both are from Philadelphia. The first game in which Martelli was a high school assistant coach in Philly, McCaffery played for the opposing team.

“I actually tried to hire him when I was at (UNC) Greensboro,” McCaffery said. “I have tremendous respect for him. He did a phenomenal job at St. Joe’s.”

The Hawkeyes also respect Michigan’s talent, which was on display at Carver-Hawkeye Arena two weeks ago. Dickinson is a 7-foot-1 force. Freshman forward Moussa Diabate scored a career-high 28 points at Iowa. Freshman guard Caleb Houstan has averaged 19 points over his last three games.

Comments: (319) 398-8440; mike.hlas@thegazette.com