It’s back to 0-0 when Iowa Hawkeyes face Penn State for second time in 9 days

A challenging and potentially telling week for the Iowa men’s basketball team begins Monday night.

The Hawkeyes, coming off an 83-73 home loss to Purdue last Thursday, flew to Penn State Sunday for a game there Monday evening. They will fly home after the game, then turn around Wednesday and fly to Columbus for a game at Ohio State Thursday night.

“I came from a league where we would bus 10 hours and not think anything of it,” Iowa Coach Fran McCaffery said.

Until McCaffery’s team is headed to the State College airport for the Monday night flight home, Ohio State isn’t part of the equation.

“The next game on our schedule is Penn State,” he said. “It wouldn’t be any different if it was Michigan or Michigan State. We practice, we focus, we watch tapes. We try to strengthen some areas that we weren’t so good at in the last game.

“Then obviously look at the last game against Penn State, what things worked, what things didn’t work, what adjustments do we make, what adjustments do we think they’re going to make.”

Iowa beat the Nittany Lions 68-51 in Iowa City on Jan. 22, but it’s back to 0-0 when Monday’s game starts. Only the uninformed would say the Hawkeyes automatically will beat them again.

For one thing, Iowa led the Lions by just 44-41 with 11 minutes left. For another, Penn State’s last home game was a 66-49 win over Rutgers, a team that defeated the Hawkeyes.

For yet another, it isn’t as if Iowa is coming in playing its best ball of the season.

“We have not done a good job moving the ball,” McCaffery said. “We’re going a little too much one-on-one. The ball’s sticking a little bit more than it should. And that’s not how we play.

“We need to be better in that area. … Typically, our team is a pretty unselfish group. I think our calling card is we move and share the ball and then ultimately, the ball finds the right people.

“We’ve got to be more ball-movement conscious.”

A daunting week? Sure. Overwhelming? It better not be, or Iowa could spin from 4-5 in the Big Ten to 4-7 and hear the word “bubble” every time someone connects it with the NCAA tournament picture.

All that matters at the moment, though, is trying to secure a second victory over Penn State in a nine-day span.

Health-wise, Iowa should be fine entering the game. McCaffery said starting forward Filip Rebraca will be good to go. Rebraca had an ankle issue in the second half of the Purdue game and played a season-low 11 minutes.

Notes: Iowa was 23rd in the NCAA’s NET rankings as of Sunday morning. The Hawkeyes went from zero Quad 1 victories to two after Indiana entered the Top 25 and Utah State moved into the top 50. A home win over a Top 25 and a neutral court win over a Top 50 are considered Quad 1 wins.

This is the Hawkeyes’ first game at Penn State in three years. They played the Nittany Lions in Philadelphia in 2020, and didn’t play at Penn State in any form last season.

Jordan Bohannon (1,846 points) is 13 points from tying Aaron White (1,859) for third place on Iowa’s all-time scoring chart. ... Only five of Iowa’s 20 games have been decided by seven points or less.

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