Iowa basketball: 'Two for the Road'

What. A. Two-Game Stretch.

First, Iowa ended a 9-game losing streak at Wisconsin last Saturday. Wednesday night, the Hawkeyes snapped a 6-game losing streak to Minnesota with a 64-62 win.

That's right. Iowa is 2-1 in the Big Ten. Iowa has consecutive road wins, and in two Big Ten snakepits.

"There's no explanation for when you get a group of guys who fought the way we did," Iowa Coach Fran McCaffery said after the Minnesota game on the Hawkeyes' radio broadcast.

It's three games into an 18-game conference schedule, so don't start looking for NCAA tournament sites just yet. But after going 19-53 in the Big Ten over the previous four seasons, that 2-1 looks huger than huge. Especially the way those two wins were attained.

Some other statistics show the monkeys this Hawkeyes team is peeling off its back. Like:

Before last Saturday, Iowa had won two of its previous 30 Big Ten road games.

Which, obviously, indicates the Hawkeyes hadn't won two Big Ten road games in a season since the 2007-08 season (and haven't won three since 2005-06).

It's the first time Iowa has won its first two league road games since the 2000-01 season.

It's the first time Iowa has back-to-back road wins in five years.

Over the previous four seasons, the Hawkeyes got their second Big Ten victory in games No. 6, 6, 7, and 10.

Now, Iowa hosts Ohio State Saturday at 2 p.m. The Buckeyes have two straight Big Ten titles. They are ranked seventh in the nation. I'll go way, way, way out on a limb here and suggest it will be the best basketball atmosphere in Carver-Hawkeye Arena in several years.

OK, not that far out on a limb.