Next up for Iowa: Michigan State

INDIANAPOLIS - Iowa overcame a mental hurdle Thursday by snapping a five-game losing streak in the Big Ten Tournament.

The Hawkeyes (17-15) also took out border rival Illinois, a team that had beaten the Hawkeyes seven straight times. But now comes the physical challenge.

The eighth-seeded Hawkeyes face top seed Michigan State (24-7) in the Big Ten Tournament quarterfinals at 11 a.m. Friday. The Spartans destroyed Iowa 95-61 on Jan. 10 in East Lansing. The divide that night between the programs was much wider than the final score. Iowa scored the last eight points and at one point the Spartans powered to a 29-5 run.

Iowa Coach Fran McCaffery infamously slammed a chair following a technical foul that game. He thought his players weren't tough enough against the Spartans, something they echoed after beating Illinois on Thursday.

"We didn't play tough up there," Iowa sophomore Devyn Marble said. "We got outrebounded, we got outplayed. I think we're a much better team from when that happened to now. That was a long time ago. We're going to prepare properly. We're going to come out and fight."

"We've got to be the aggressor,"Iowa senior Matt Gatens said. "We can't let them come in and punk us like I thought we did up there. Toughness, it's making the smart plays, getting the guy off the boards. A number of things. We've got to be able to bring it."

Michigan State, ranked 8th by the Associated Press, shot 61.7 percent from the floor that night. Iowa's players struggled to defend the post - Michigan State scored 50 points there - or the 3-point line. The Spartans drilled Iowa for 10 3-pointers.

"They shot the lights out, but the other thing they did was they beat us up," McCaffery said. "They really took us out of what we wanted to do. So it was a combination of both. It was an incredibly concentrated effort at both ends of the floor. That's why it was a 30-point game."

The Spartans tied for the Big Ten title this year with a 13-5 league mark. Big Ten player of the year Draymond Green averaged 16.2 points, 10.3 rebounds and 3.5 assists a game for the Spartans. He's flanked by point guard Keith Appling, a third-team all-Big Ten pick with 11.5 points and 3.8 assists per game.

Although the task appears daunting, Iowa's players are undeterred. They don't want to leave Indianapolis just yet.

"We packed for four days,"  Iowa junior Eric May said. "We didn't come down here ready to go back tonight.

"I'm loving it. I don't want this year to end."