Over last 4 weeks, Hawkeyes rank below no one

Iowa is ranked third in the Associated Press men's basketball top 25 that came out today, and fourth in the coaches' poll.

The last time the Hawkeyes were ranked as high as No. 3 by AP was the week of Dec. 8, 1987,

OK, not to be a prophet of doom in these parts, but Iowa does have a decent chance of losing at No. 7 Maryland in men's basketball Thursday night.

I say that not to be a Negative Nate, but to urge Hawkeye fans to savor today and Tuesday and Wednesday. This is your team's highest ranking in 28 seasons. These are good times, even if Iowa does get beaten on the road by an extremely talented Maryland club.

And should the Hawkeyes find a way to get a win again Thursday? That would be the capper on an eight-game stretch of victories that would have few parallels in Big Ten annals.

But allow me not to focus on the meaning of a win at Maryland. Rather, I am making this easy-to-make case. Which is this:

If you judge strictly by the results since conference play started, Iowa is the No. 1 team in the nation and it's not even close.

Four teams from Power 5 conferences are unbeaten in league competition. They are Iowa, Indiana, North Carolina and Texas A&M. The differences in the league schedules-to-date between the Hawkeyes' and those of the other three teams is striking.

Iowa has played four teams that were ranked, Michigan State (1st and 5th at the times) and Purdue (14th and 22nd). Two of those, obviously, were on the road. Those wins were by 13, 7, 17 and 12 points.

Also, the Hawkeyes have 11-point wins against Nebraska (4-3 against the rest of the conference) and Michigan (5-1 against the rest of the league). The only team they have played that has a losing record is Rutgers, where Iowa won by 14.

Indiana also is 7-0 in the Big Ten, and you shouldn't sneeze at that no matter the Hoosiers haven't played a ranked team in that time. We'll see if they win at unranked Wisconsin Tuesday night. As it stands today, Indiana's first game against a ranked conference opponent will almost surely be in Bloomington on Feb. 11 when it hosts Iowa in its 12th conference game.

That's just the way the league schedule breaks when you play 18 games against a total of 13 teams. The schedule is no one's fault, and Indiana has a tougher back half of the slate than Iowa. But for now, Indiana can't begin to stack up great wins alongside Iowa.

The Hoosiers won at Rutgers by seven points, won at Nebraska by 10, beat Wisconsin at home by one, beat Ohio State at home by 25, won at Minnesota by seven, crushed Illinois at home by 34, and mauled Northwestern at home by 32. They're playing great ball and are worthy of applause. But they haven't beaten a Michigan State, a Purdue, or a Michigan.

North Carolina is 7-0 in the ACC. But almost incredibly, the No. 1 (in the coaches' poll) Tar Heels haven't played a ranked league opponent, and five other ACC teams are ranked.

Carolina's wins are by 11 points over Clemson and eight over Georgia Tech in Chapel Hill, by 16 at Florida State and 11 at Syracuse, by 12 over North Carolina State and 15 over Wake Forest at home, and by five at Virginia Tech.

It's an excellent team with no control over its schedule, and it has six regular-season games ahead with teams that are currently ranked. But so far, the Tar Heels haven't met the rest of their league's elite.

Texas A&M is 7-0 in the SEC. None of those seven teams were ranked.

The wins were by 23 points over Arkansas at home, by one at Mississippi State and four at Tennessee, by three at home against Florida, by 34 at Georgia, by 14 over LSU and 13 over Missouri in College Station.

The Aggies are at Arkansas Wednesday, then play 16th-ranked Iowa State Saturday at home. That's right, Iowa State. It's part of the Big 12/SEC Challenge, and the Cyclones drew the highest-ranked SEC opponent of the moment.

Iowa State is 16th in the coaches' poll. The Cyclones' next three games are at home tonight against No. 3 Kansas, at No. 5 A&M Saturday, and at home next Tuesday against No. 9 West Virginia. Three wins are not out of the question, folks.

But back to how everyone has played since their conference seasons began. Every Big 12 team has at least two league losses. Washington leads the Pac-12 with a 5-1 mark.

Eighteen other Division I teams are unbeaten in conference play. Iowa has already beaten one, Wichita State, and would be a solid favorite to down all of the other 17. Although, I'm keeping an eye on the Grand Canyon club that is 5-0 in the Western Athletic Conference.

The Antelopes haven't lost since they were on the wrong side of a 108-104 overtime score against Omaha on Dec. 13. Grand Canyon blew a 14-point lead, but apparently learned from that game.

Grand Canyon has played one ranked team this season. It went to Louisville on Dec. 5 and lost, 111-63.

As for Omaha, it is alone atop the Summit League at 6-1. Wouldn't an Omaha-Iowa first-round NCAA tournament game in Des Moines be kooky? The two schools are about the same distance from Des Moines, but I have a suspicion the Hawkeyes would have more fans.