Hawkeyes erase last year’s misery with defense

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. - Following Iowa's dominating 77-63 win at Indiana, discussion swirled at Assembly Hall about the trajectory of both basketball programs.

Many comments and questions Tuesday night referenced the downfall of last year's highly ranked Hawkeyes, which started Big Ten play 8-4 then lost seven of its final eight. It was a stunning collapse, one many Indiana observers compared to the current Hoosiers, who have lost three of their last four and now sit 9-8 in Big Ten play.

But with the same personnel, this year's group of Hawkeyes have rebounded. This squad was considered a fringe top-25 team and was inconsistent for much of the year. But Iowa now is in a position for a possible double-bye in next week's Big Ten Tournament. It has its first five-game Big Ten winning streak since the 1996-97 season and could win 12 Big Ten games for the first time since that year.

The year-to-year lessons are obvious for this group as is its chemistry. The players have a cohesive bond that wasn't apparent during their downfall. At times there was distrust among players, which led the team to fracture in critical moments.

'Last year, I feel like when things got tough, we started to separate,” Iowa junior Jarrod Uthoff said. 'We'd lose a couple in a row and all the sudden we started coming apart. Right now we lose a couple and it's let's get right back at it. Let's go to work. Let's get the next one.”

'We went through that, and I think we understand what you have to do to guard against it,” Iowa Coach Fran McCaffery said. 'There's nobody panicking. There's nobody feeling pressure. They are just playing basketball to the best of their ability. If they make a mistake, it doesn't turn into multiple mistakes. I think that is the biggest thing. One missed shot doesn't turn into five missed shots. One turnover doesn't turn into five turnovers. That is the important thing.”

Iowa (20-10, 11-6 Big Ten) already has matched last year's victory total with one regular-season game remaining on Saturday against Northwestern. Although the team fell out of the rankings weeks ago, Iowa has surged to its most league wins since 2005-06.

Defensive play is a primary factor in Iowa's reversal of fortune. In its final six regular-season games last year, Iowa gave up an average of 82.5 points and opponents shot nearly 52.4 percent. During Iowa's five game winning streak, opponents have averaged 58.6 points and shot less than 35.2 percent.

Indiana did not earn a postseason bid last year, but scored 93 points on Iowa with 51.7 percent shooting. Not only did Iowa hold the Hoosiers to 30 fewer points this year, but the Hoosiers shot 38.1 percent. Indiana hit just two field goals over the final 10 minutes of the first half and twice was forced into shot-clock violations.

'The key was team defense and stopping their transition game. I think we did a good job of doing that the whole night,” Iowa senior Aaron White said.

'Defense fuels our offense, gets our transition game going. I think we've got multiple guys stepping up at multiple times of the game. We've got a bunch of guys dedicated to win right now, so I think that's what we're doing well right now.”

Part of Iowa's defensive execution was fueled by its offense. The Hawkeyes scored 17 points on second-chance opportunities. Iowa shot 46.3 percent but also attempted 28 free throws with 23 makes. The free-throw attempts allowed Iowa to set up its defense and prevent the much quicker Hoosiers from getting in transition and beating Iowa's players down the floor.

'We shot a pretty good percentage - we're just under 46 - that isn't bad,” McCaffery said. 'We moved the ball, so it's harder to run on makes, although they do a really good job of it. But we made a concerted effort to sprint back, get the ball under control, locate shooters, and they still made 10 (3-pointers).”

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