3 Takeaways: Uthoff’s game, last-second scenario, B1G rivalries

MINNEAPOLIS - Iowa forward Jarrod Uthoff quickly has turned into one of the Big Ten's greatest mismatches, and the Hawkeyes often exploited that advantage against Minnesota on Tuesday.

Uthoff scored Iowa's final seven points, including the game-winning 17-foot jumper with 3.5 seconds left, to lift the Hawkeyes past the Gophers 77-75 at Williams Arena. Uthoff, who stands 6-foot-9, often was defended by 5-9 point guard DeAndre Mathieu or 6-2 Andre Hollins, and that was a winning offensive scenario for the Hawkeyes.

'I kept telling (Iowa point guard) Mike (Gesell) to get me the ball because I was feeling it,” Uthoff said. 'A lot of times they were switching off, either Mathieu or Hollins, somebody who was probably a foot shorter than me. So it definitely helped.”

With Iowa trailing 73-72, Gesell penetrated the paint and pulled in Mathieu, who was defending Uthoff. Once Minnesota's defenders converged on Gesell, he passed the ball to Uthoff on the wing. Mathieu and Minnesota center Elliott Eliason were late rotating to Uthoff, who drilled a wide-open 3-pointer to give the Hawkeyes a 75-73 lead.

Then with the game tied 77-77 inside of 10 seconds, Uthoff moved from the right wing to the top of the key. Iowa guard Anthony Clemmons found Uthoff, who beat Hollins to the spot. Uthoff buried the jumper over Hollins to give the Hawkeyes the winning margin.

Uthoff finished with a career-high 22 points. He also recorded five rebounds, four assists and four blocks. According to Stats Inc., he's the first Big Ten player with that statistical line in a game since 2000. In Big Ten-only games, Uthoff averages 16.8 points a game to rank sixth.

Uthoff twice was called for charging, including on Iowa's second-to-last possession. Instead of losing confidence, the calls fueled him.

'He made multiple plays,” said Iowa forward Aaron White, who scored 13 points. 'He had a couple of plays, were they blocks or were they charges? He didn't let that get him off kilter. So I was proud of him for that. He hit a big 3, obviously he hit the game-winner, which is huge. I'm proud of him.”

Perhaps the most important statistic for Uthoff was his free-throw percentage. He entered the game shooting just 57.1 percent from the line, a shocking number for one of the team's best free-throw shooters.

'It was just a matter of time before that percentage comes up, because I go into the practice gym and I'll shoot no less than 94 out of 100,” he said. 'I don't know what that was before but that's over, my free-throw struggles.”

As much as Uthoff provided an offensive advantage, Iowa struggled to defend Hollins, Mathieu and combo guard Carlos Morris because of a quickness mismatch. That was a risk McCaffery was willing to take.

'We kept going to him,” McCaffery said. 'We're giving up something at the other end because we're big and they're small and quick. The only thing is we've got to make them pay at the other end. We were going to him to get his shot off on pretty much any one of those guys who was guarding him.”

Uthoff's jumper was Iowa's first game-winning basket under five seconds since center Cyrus Tate scored at the buzzer against Kansas State in 2008 at Las Vegas. It allowed Iowa (12-5, 3-1 Big Ten) to keep pace atop the Big Ten standings with four other teams.

'I think anytime you hit a shot like that, it's got to make Jarrod feel good. It's got to make the guys feel good,” McCaffery said. 'They executed the play to perfection.”

2. Late-game scenario.

With the score tied at 75-75, the Hawkeyes held the ball for a last-shot opportunity. One of the game's three officials, Kelly Pfeifer, had a game clock on his hip. With around 11 seconds left in the game, Pfeifer inadvertently stopped the clock and then it restarted. Iowa forward Jarrod Uthoff drilled a 17-foot jumper to give Iowa the lead with 6.1 seconds left.

But that wasn't the official time. During a Minnesota timeout, officials went to the replay monitor and corrected the time. It was cut to 3.5 seconds left, and Minnesota had to take the ball from under the basket.

'I knew that wasn't right,” Iowa Coach Fran McCaffery said. 'I didn't know what the number was, but I'm a graduate of the Wharton School of Business and I can add.”

The Gophers nearly pulled out the finish of the year. Point guard DeAndre Mathieu took the ball on the right side and raced past Iowa's Anthony Clemmons and Gabe Olaseni along both benches. As Mathieu approached the basket, Iowa point guard Mike Gesell forced him to adjust slightly in the air, but Mathieu pushed the ball off the glass and into the net as time expired.

'The kid made a heck of a play,” McCaffery said. 'You've got to give him credit. We tried to put two guys on him. That's how difficult he is get under control. Clemmons came up on him and he wanted to jam him, but the last thing you want to do with a two-point lead is foul a guy 70 feet from the basket, especially a good foul shooter like Mathieu. So then he got out of his way. Now it's like, ‘OK, hopefully somebody will block it.'”

Iowa's players ignored the officials heading to the monitor and instead discussed overtime.

'What we were trying to do in the huddle, we were just trying to get our minds right for overtime,” Iowa forward Aaron White said. 'We can't control it. We didn't guard the play like we wanted to, so we had to get our minds right for overtime.”

Replays showed Mathieu had the ball in his hand as the lights blazed around the backboard. The shot was called off, and Iowa accepted the victory.

'Obviously we're happy that he must have just missed it,” White said. 'It must have been in his hand for an extra point-whatever second.”

Minnesota Coach Richard Pitino said Mathieu had time to make the basket but agreed the shot was late.

'I don't think he had it,” Pitino said. 'I saw it, and I didn't think it was good. I'm not sure how close it was.”

3. Big Ten scheduling.

From opening introductions through the Gophers' incredible second-half run, Minnesota's student section belted that familiar chant with fervor near the Iowa's bench.

'Who Hates Iowa? We Hate Iowa!”

The chant grew louder as the Gophers rallied from 17 down to take a four-point lead. The Hawkeyes rallied for a 77-75 win, but the environment left a lasting impression on Iowa senior Aaron White.

'It's never easy on the road, and this is a great rivalry,” White said. 'I know the crowd had that chant for us. I know they're not fans of us.

'It's funny to me (the chant). It doesn't affect me. It's fun to go on the road and have people yelling and screaming at you. It's also really fun to play through silence. That place for 34 minutes of game action was dead quiet. That was a big testament to how we were playing. But when they got going, they got loud. That place gets loud and the noise echoes. It's a fun place to play. I'm disappointed I'll never play here again.”

The Big Ten's recent expansion to 14 universities will leave the Hawkeyes playing Minnesota and other traditional league rivals home-and-home only once every three years. When the Big Ten was 11 teams through the 2010-11 season, teams played eight opponents twice and two opponents once, totaling 18 games. That rotated every two years. Then when Nebraska joined for the 2011-2012 season, schools played seven schools twice and four schools once.

With the additions of Maryland and Rutgers, teams now play five opponents twice and eight foes once each year. That eliminates the value of a true regular-season champion because of who you play only once and where did you play the game. It also hurts traditional rivalries (take your pick), which are built on playing at both arenas. Good teams usually hold serve at home.

So what's the answer? The Big Ten has no plans for contraction. If the league considers expanding to a 20-game schedule, every school will dump two high-level opponents and that's not necessarily palatable.

Other than keeping the status quo, I think there are two options. One, assign every school an annual protected rival to play twice. Making the most sense are: Indiana-Purdue, Michigan-Michigan State, Illinois-Northwestern, Minnesota-Wisconsin, Iowa-Nebraska, Rutgers-Penn State and Maryland-Ohio State. The other scenario would be a pod system of say: Nebraska-Iowa-Wisconsin-Nebraska; Illinois-Northwestern-Purdue-Indiana; Ohio State-Michigan-Michigan State; Penn State-Rutgers-Maryland. You'd play everybody in your pod twice, then rotate through the rest of the league.

But that would prevent other rivalries like Indiana-Ohio State, Michigan State-Wisconsin or Iowa-Illinois from being played twice annually except once every five years.

The league has endorsed basketball since 1905 and every series is embedded into Big Ten culture. It's hard to eliminate that. But probably the best situation is for every school to establish one permanent rival. This year the league has everyone playing its key rivals twice. That will change drastically with next year's rotation.

That means Minnesota might have to save its hate chant for 2017.

l Comments: (319) 339-3169; scott.dochterman@thegazette.com