“Underdog” Iowa men’s basketball team building against actual underdogs

IOWA CITY — Iowa’s first six men’s basketball opponents have Division I players and competitors.

We know that, and we know any D-I team will end up with nervous perspiration if it is unfocused and careless any time out. If Iowa is casual at home against North Carolina Central Tuesday night or Alabama State Thursday evening, it’s a step back. No matter the score.

That said, we also know the Hawkeyes should roll over this week’s foes the same way they did last week against Longwood and Kansas City. Iowa has better players. That’s the truth, Ruth.

It’s no puzzle why the Hawkeyes opened this season with the four aforementioned clubs, and Western Michigan and Portland State next week. Fran McCaffery wants some things other than a 6-0 record established when Iowa faces Virginia, Purdue, Illinois and Iowa State between Nov. 29 and Dec. 9.

It’s been so far, so good for the Hawkeyes as Virginia looms on the horizon.

“When you are playing games this time of year,” McCaffery said Monday, “regardless of who you're playing against, you just want to get better. You want to get better collectively, individually. You want to build confidence, and you want to settle down into what we want to accomplish.”

Practicing it has to morph into doing it at some point. Better to iron out bumps against North Carolina Central in Carver-Hawkeye Arena than Purdue in West Lafayette.

“Are we running motion?” McCaffery said. “Are we running sets? How is our zone defense? What's our press look like? What's the motion offense look like? Are guys reading each other properly?

“You have to continue to get better and you’ve got continue to grow, especially when you have some young guys trying to step up.”

The week before the season started, Iowa junior point guard Joe Toussaint said people were overlooking the Hawkeyes and everybody on his team was ready to make good things happen.

“I just felt we have a lot to prove,” Toussaint said Monday. “We’ve proved it in the first week, but we’re just ready to build on that.”

The most-popular pick for Iowa in preseason Big Ten rankings seemed to be ninth place. The Hawkeyes did go from zero votes in the preseason Associated Press Top 25 to 13 votes (the 34th-most) Monday.

“We all know we’re underdogs,” Toussaint said. “Everybody on this team has been an underdog all their life. I know I definitely have.

“Last year we played with an underdog mentality, but we weren’t really underdogs. We had Luka Garza, Joe Wieskamp, CJ (Fredrick).

“But this year not many people are really talking about us. They’re just talking about Keegan (Murray). Occasionally, they talk about Jordan (Bohannon), occasionally they talk about me, occasionally they talk about Patrick (McCaffery).”

Toussaint has 10 assists, six steals and just two turnovers in 36 minutes of playing time. If he maintains a ratio even somewhat similar to that, the underdogs can have some bite.

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