Once more, Iowa eyes its first road win

IOWA CITY — "Now we have to do it on the road."

Iowa men's basketball coach Fran McCaffery has said those words, in some form or another, several times this season. Every time the Hawkeyes have seemed to figure it out and play in unison for victories — think wins against Iowa State, UNI, Michigan, Purdue and most recently Ohio State — McCaffery has added the aforementioned phrase to whatever answer he's given about what they did right.

On Saturday against the Buckeyes, it was solid ball movement, confidence in each other and better help defense. Similar things could be said with the other big wins mentioned.

Each time, though, the next road game has been a loss — all in Big Ten play — and in every case but at Nebraska, Iowa has seemed to regress from what they had just accomplished at home. Now, headed to Piscataway, N.J., to play Rutgers at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, why should it be expected that this road game will be different?

McCaffery answered that with another familiar sentiment he's offered several times this season: 'Sometimes you have to go through it.'

'I just think we certainly played better in (our) last game. I think we have had some experiences on the road that we can learn from. I just expect it to be better,' McCaffery said. 'You've got to have some successes, but you've got to have some failures. You have to play through those failures and learn from them and recognize the value of every possession and how it impacts the rest of the game. I think we're realizing that as we go through it.'

This Iowa team is unique for McCaffery in a few ways. The youth is obvious and well-covered, but another aspect to that is how unpredictable this Hawkeye team has become.

Night to night, what shows up on the court has been hard to gauge — both from a viewer's perspective and a coach's perspective.

McCaffery and his players have stepped to the mic more than once and talked about how they thought preparation was good or that they had bought into the game plan, yet the result on gameday wasn't there. Situational adjustments from the players — or sometimes lack thereof — have been a big reason for that.

In his seventh year at Iowa and 21st as a head coach, McCaffery hasn't seen a team of his take shape quite like this one in that way. It's been hard to predict but ultimately satisfying for him to watch them grow so far.

'I don't know that I've ever had one like it in (that way),' McCaffery said. 'I've had young teams, but it was just kind of different — those teams were kind of different from this team. The thing that excites me about this group is all these kids want to be great. They want to please. They want to be respected by their teammates, their coaches; the people who watch them play. And if they're making mistakes and struggling, they'll work that much harder to get better. It's hard at this level to be inexperienced, especially on the road.'

No, it's not been boring at all for Iowa this season, and heading to Rutgers with Peter Jok's back injury still up in the air is just one more reason why that likely won't change anytime soon.

Jok didn't practice Sunday and when McCaffery had his teleconference Monday morning, he wasn't sure if Jok would practice Monday night. That ultimately left him to say 'I honestly don't know,' if Jok would play against the Scarlet Knights on Tuesday night.

There's no decision for McCaffery to make, either. He reiterated in the teleconference he did not decide to hold Jok out of the Ohio State game, and didn't even tell Jok himself.

'I didn't tell him. I was not a part of that decision at all,' McCaffery said. 'I was not there. That decision was made by our medical personnel with him and then I was informed.'

McCaffery said last week if Jok was healthy and the medical staff cleared him, Jok would play. It'll have to wait until shortly before game time to know for sure if Jok plays at Rutgers.

Last time the two teams played, the Scarlet Knights led the majority of the game, and it took a second-half comeback for Iowa to get a 68-62 win. Rutgers also just took No. 9 Wisconsin to overtime at Madison Square Garden before losing, 61-54.

Corey Sanders, DeShawn Freeman and Nigel Johnson all had big games for Rutgers last time out, and McCaffery lauded their defense for its toughness. If Iowa is going to finally take whatever it found Saturday on the road, it won't be a cakewalk.

'Whenever (the Scarlet Knights) get beat, somebody has to beat them. They're not beating themselves with mistakes or selfishness or lack of defensive intensity,' McCaffery said. 'We moved the ball, we shared the ball (against Ohio State). A lot of people contributed. I just think when that happens, it's a good feeling all around. All those guys are giving the ball to each other, supporting each other; happy for each other. That's kind of what you want every game.'

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