Challenge facing No. 4 Iowa men on Thursday: Survive or melt
For Iowa senior forward Jarrod Uthoff, playing on the road has a certain appeal to it.
Facing a ranked opponent on the road is even better.
It’s the ultimate test of courage, competitiveness and concentration, something Uthoff relishes heading into Thursday’s showdown at No. 22 Indiana.
“I like it,” Uthoff said of playing on the road. “We’re the underdogs. We have our backs against the wall. They have a live crowd.”
Playing on the road presents a number of unique challenges, but also creates an us-against-the-world mentality, which makes it easier to focus, according to Uthoff.
“Absolutely. It’s a lot easier,” he said. “Because your backs are against the wall. There are two ways out of it. You either melt or you survive. That’s how you’ve got to look at it. And I try not to melt.”
With records of 19-4 overall and 10-1 in the Big Ten, fourth-ranked Iowa rarely has melted this season. Its four losses have come by a combined 18 points. Even on the road the Hawkeyes have been tough with a 5-2 record.
Both road losses came by single digits and were against Iowa State and Maryland, both of whom were ranked in the top-10 at the time.
This is the latest into a season that Iowa has been in first place in the Big Ten since Feb. 23, 2006.
Indiana (19-5, 9-2) had been keeping pace with the Hawkeyes until losing at conference cellar-dweller Penn State 68-63 this past Saturday in what is probably the biggest upset in conference play so far this season.
The Hoosiers committed 15 turnovers against Penn State and only made 9-of-27 shots from 3-point range.
The loss to Penn State was either a sign of Indiana’s vulnerability or just a temporary lapse of execution, which can happen during the 18-game Big Ten grind.
The Iowa players and coaches certainly believe the latter. They fully understand that Indiana is dangerous under any circumstance, but especially at home where it has a 13-0 record. The Hoosiers are ranked second in the country in field-goal percentage (51.1) and fifth in 3-point accuracy (42.2).
"They shoot a lot of threes and they’re a bunch of good three-point shooters," Uthoff said of Indiana. "It’s definitely going to be a key."
The Hoosiers have a nice mix of experience and youth with players such as all-Big Ten senior point guard Yogi Ferrell and freshman center Thomas Bryant.
“They move the ball. They run. They attack. They get lay-ups. If you’re shooting those kinds of numbers, you’re getting lay-ups,” said Iowa coach Fran McCaffery. “But they’re also a good three-point shooting team for the most part.
“So they’ve got your defense stretched out. Bryant is a handful. He’s shooting way up there. You’ve got to worry about him. But there’s a lot of weapons that they have, so they’re a hard team to guard.”
And with all that good shooting comes lots of points. Indiana began the week ranked 12th nationally in scoring offense at 84.1 points per game.
Iowa isn’t far behind at 80.7 points per game.
“It’s going to be very uptempo,” Iowa senior guard Mike Gesell said of the pace for Thursday’s game. “It’s going to be a track meet. That’s how we want to play. And that’s how they want to play, too.
“So it’s going to be very uptempo. It should be a fun game to watch.”
Thursday’s game also could provide a milestone moment for Gesell, who is just two points short of 1,000 for his career. He is about to become the fourth Hawkeye to total more than 1,000 points, 500 assists and 150 steals during a career. The others are B.J. Armstrong, Dean Oliver and Jeff Horner.
Iowa senior center Adam Woodbury has grabbed at least 10 rebounds in five of the last six games. He also has recorded six of his eight career double-doubles this season, including four in the last seven games.
"I’m just staying aggressive and staying after the ball and just doing whatever I can to get on the offensive glass," said the 7-foot-1 Woodbury. "I’ve had some ones come to me. I’ve been fortunate in some situations and just tried to pursue some others."
Iowa and Indiana have split the last six games played at Assembly Hall in Bloomington, Ind. Iowa ended a three-game losing skid at Assembly Hall last March with a 77-63 victory.
McCaffery was asked Tuesday at a press conference if winning at Indiana last March would benefit his current team on Thursday.
“I think it’ll help,” he said. “I think you always kind of tend to do that. You do it, we do it, okay, what happened last year.
“But this is a completely different team that they have in a lot of different ways. And we have a different team. So it was great to have the experience to go down there in that environment and be successful like we were last year. I think that’s a good thing. But this game will be a lot different.”