Iowa men bury the bad memories with road victories

MINNEAPOLIS - Iowa's men's basketball program had lost nine straight games at Wisconsin before last Saturday.

The Hawkeyes (10-6, 2-1 Big Ten) had dropped six straight to Minnesota before beating the Gophers on Wednesday. Purdue stopped Iowa a series-record eight straight times before the Hawkeyes knocked off the Boilermakers last March. That game also ended a 25-game losing skid to ranked opponents.

Iowa is trying to bury a ton of other inconvenient streaks nearly every time it takes the court. This Saturday, Iowa plays host to Ohio State (2 p.m. BTN), a team that has beaten Iowa a series-record six consecutive times. Iowa then travels to Michigan State, which has blasted Iowa 16 straight times at East Lansing. Later in the season there's a trip to Champaign, Ill., which has owned Iowa every year but one since 1987.

But Iowa Coach Fran McCaffery doesn't analyze the past or translate it into present tense. He carries a more simple message for his players as they prepare for each game.

"I just look at, are we getting better?" said McCaffery, who is in his second year at Iowa. "We had a big road win on Saturday. Can we come in (Minneapolis) and play with enough composure to win the game? We did that. That's a big step for us. Now, we've got to regroup. We've got one of the three best teams coming in on Saturday. Can we play against those guys?

"Minnesota presented different problems from Wisconsin, and Ohio State presents different problems from Minnesota. It's all part of the growth process of this team."

Iowa won back-to-back road Big Ten games for the first time since Steve Alford's final season at Iowa in 2007. That's the last season Iowa last had a winning Big Ten record at any point in the season. It's also the last time Iowa had won three straight league games, something these Hawkeyes have yet to do.

But like McCaffery, Iowa's players ignore the program's recent history against its Big Ten competition.

"We have confidence in one another, and we stick together," Iowa point guard Devyn Marble said. "It was road game, but honestly we couldn't really hear the crowd. I don't think  it bothered us much. When you become a good team, you've got to start to believe in each other and that you can win. I think when you're on the road it's really just a change of the gym. I don't think the crowd really bothers you too much. I think that's just us maturing."

Iowa has faced Big Ten teams with a combined 36-11 record after Wednesday, yet beat two of them and nearly a third in a 79-76 loss to Purdue. The competition grows even stronger in Iowa's next four games against No. 6 Ohio State (14-2), at No. 10 Michigan State, against No. 16 Michigan (12-2) and at Purdue (12-3). But after posting their first road win against a ranked opponent (Wisconsin) since 2006, don't expect the Hawkeyes to change their attitude against any of those Big Ten powerhouses. After all, one more win equals last year's victory total.

"We're going to come with the same focus and intensity that we've been coming with," Marble said. "Just because the name on the jersey changes doesn't mean we're going to change. We're going to come out with the same intensity we came out with the past five or six games, and we're going to try to get another W."