IOWA CITY, Iowa – Style points are meaningless when it comes to winning a Big Ten regular-season title in men’s basketball.

They might help win a gold medal in the Olympics or a college football team get invited to a more prestigious bowl game. But wins and losses are all that matter when crowning a Big Ten regular-season champion in basketball.

The Iowa men’s basketball team wouldn’t have earned any style points on Sunday as it hung on to defeat last-place Minnesota 75-71 before an announced attendance of 15,400 at Carver-Hawkeye Arena.

Some fans probably left the arena disappointed, wondering why No. 4 Iowa failed to dominate an opponent that fell to 0-13 in the Big Ten with Sunday’s loss.

Iowa coach Fran McCaffery was in no mood for any of that discussion, though. He made that obvious when the first question asked to him at his post-game press conference was about whether he was just happy to get a win.

It seemed like a fair and harmless question, but McCaffery apparently resented it, perhaps because he felt it reflected poorly on the Gophers.

“I wouldn’t look at it that way, no,” McCaffery fired back. “We just beat a Big Ten team. They’re athletic. They’re long. They compete. You got to look at the scores of recent games, they’re in every game.”

That was pretty much the theme during the post-game interviews. Reporters kept asking questions about why Iowa struggled to defeat a Big Ten bottom feeder. And the Iowa players responded in the same fashion as their head coach.

“A win is a win, we felt good about it,” said Iowa senior forward Jarrod Uthoff. “We just beat a good Minnesota team. I don’t think their record is reflective of how good they are.”

With Sunday’s victory, Iowa moved back into sole possession of first place in the Big Ten with just five regular-season games remaining. This is the latest Iowa has been in first place since Feb. 23, 2006.

Maryland and Indiana both lost over the weekend, breaking a three-way tie with Iowa for first place.

So instead of worrying about why Sunday’s score was so close, Iowa fans should enjoy the fact that their team is in first place this late in the season. Every victory doesn’t have to be a masterpiece because they all count as just one win.

“I thought we did a lot of good things,” McCaffery said of his team’s performance on Sunday. “It was not a perfect game. It wasn’t a perfect game for them. But, you know, if you study this (Minnesota) team, you’re going to have to fight until the end. You’re going to have to execute, you’re going to have to do things.

“You’re going to have to overcome some adversity throughout the course of the game because they’re going to create that. They’re going to keep coming. They’re going to finish at the rim.”

Some of the adversity on Sunday included Uthoff getting off to a slow start on offense. The 6-foot-9 Cedar Rapids native didn’t score his first points until making a basket with 3 minutes, 3 seconds left in the first half.

That seemed to light a fire, though, as Uthoff scored the last nine points for Iowa in the first half. He stayed hot in the second half, finishing with 24 points, 15 rebounds and six blocks overall.

With his perimeter shot not falling, Uthoff made a conscious effort to drive more to the basket in hopes of getting some easier looks. His strategy eventually paid dividends.

“Seeing the ball go through the basket kind of changes your confidence level and gets you back into the flow offensively,” Uthoff said.

Junior Peter Jok saw the ball through the basket a lot on Sunday. The 6-6 West Des Moines native scored 27 points, including 15 in the second half.

“He’s a tough cover,” Minnesota coach Richard Pitino said of Jok. “Credit to Jok and Uthoff and their coaching staff because those guys got better. (Jok) has size and he can shoot.”

Speaking of giving credit, Iowa senior guard Mike Gesell did a masterful job of running the offense on Sunday. He only scored five points, but he compensated by dishing out 12 assists and committing just two turnovers in 37 minutes of playing time.

Gesell now has 509 assists as a Hawkeye and needs just eight more to tie B.J. Armstrong for fourth on Iowa’s all-time list.

“Jarrod and Pete got hot and I think that’s the reason I had 12 assists, at least part of it,” Gesell said. “I just take what the defense gives me.”

Up next for Iowa is Penn State on Wednesday in State College, Pa. The circumstances will be similar to the Minnesota game in that Iowa will be expected to win by a comfortable margin against the Nittany Lions, who are 3-9 in the Big Ten and 12-13 overall.

McCaffery and his players will be comfortable as long as Iowa prevails, because like Uthoff said, a win is a win.

But if there is a concern in the wake of Sunday’s close call against the Gophers, it might be Iowa’s bench, which continued to sputter as Minnesota had a 27-6 advantage in bench points. Combine that with the Indiana loss from this past Thursday and Iowa’s bench has been outscored 55-6 in the last two games.

And yet, the Hawkeyes are still alone in first place in the Big Ten in mid-February. It doesn’t matter how you win as long as you do win.