Harty: Iowa men enter what could be historic 4-game stretch
IOWA CITY, Iowa – In the next week-and-a-half, the Iowa men’s basketball team will play four of the most meaningful games in program history.
Win all four games, beginning with Wednesday’s clash against Wisconsin at Carver-Hawkeye Arena, and the Hawkeyes would win the Big Ten regular-season title outright for the first time since Ralph Miller’s legendary six pick did it in 1970.
Win three of the last four regular-season games and there is good chance that Iowa would win a share of the conference title for the first time since 1979.
Split the last four games and then you’d be asking for trouble because Indiana also would have to lose two games for Iowa to have a share of the title.
Lose three of the last four games, or lose all four games, and the Hawkeyes would become a national story heading into Big Ten Tournament, but for all the wrong reasons. A collapse of that magnitude would bring back memories of two seasons ago when Iowa crawled to the finish line, losing its final seven games.
Iowa controls its own destiny, but has little margin for error.
Iowa coach Fran McCaffery rarely looks at the big picture, but he even acknowledged on Monday that it’s only natural to pay attention to the other contenders this late in the season.
“Yeah, I think everybody does that,” McCaffery said. “I don’t know that that changes. I mean, you’re locked into your next opponent as it relates to the game plan and preparation. But everybody will look at who else is doing what in the league and checking scores and stuff like that. I think that’s fairly typical.”
The fact that it’s been nearly 40 years since Iowa last won a Big Ten regular-season title in men’s basketball isn’t lost on the players.
“Obviously, it’s in the back of our minds,” said senior center Adam Woodbury said. “We’re playing for something that the school hasn’t won in 35, 38 years, whatever the hell it is. So we’re definitely cognizant of it.
“But we’re not letting it kind of drain our mental approach to these games. We’re taking it one game at a time and continue to try and get better and work on ourselves daily.”
The upperclassmen for Iowa have been through the meltdown from two seasons ago, but also were part of the resurgence from last season when Iowa won its final six Big Ten games.
"We’re hoping not to finish like my sophomore year and finish more like my junior year," Woodbury said. "Continue to get stronger as the season progresses and make our way to March.
Iowa will have had six days to get stronger when it faces the vastly improved Badgers, who have won eight of their last nine games under interim head coach Greg Gard. Wisconsin’s only loss during that stretch was at Michigan State.
The Badgers also have won the last five games against Iowa and 18 of the last 23 games in the series, which dates back to 1909.
“They haven’t changed that much,” McCaffery said of the Badgers. “They’re still doing what they’ve always done, you know, and it’s kind of a winning formula.”
For more than two decades, Gard was an assistant under Bo Ryan, beginning at Wisconsin-Platteville. Gard followed Ryan to Wisconsin-Milwaukee and then to Wisconsin where they helped lead the Badgers to unprecedented success. Wisconsin made the NCAA Tournament in each of Ryan’s first 14 seasons as head coach.
Ryan’s 15th season ended abruptly when he retired in December. Gard was named interim head coach, but to say the transition was rocky at first would be an understatement. Wisconsin lost four of its first five Big Ten games and it seemed that Gard’s days in Madison, Wis., were numbered.
Wisconsin athletic director Barry Alvarez ultimately will make the final decision on Gard’s coaching status, much of it probably depending on what happens down the stretch.
So many different things could happen between now and the end of the regular season. Iowa could have one of the greatest regular seasons in school history, or it could have one of the worst collapses in school history.
All four of the opponents left on Iowa’s schedule – Wisconsin, Ohio State, Indiana and Michigan – have winning records and are poised to make the NCAA Tournament.
So the hope is that the Iowa players are energized after having the past weekend off.
“The next four games are really all against very good teams,” McCaffery said. “So, hopefully, we’ll play well, play a little better than we have recently.
“We’re close, but I think our defense has to get better, especially with the weapons that we’re going to face on Wednesday night.”
The Badgers always seem to shoot well from the perimeter with this season being no exception. They spread the floor well. They play unselfishly. And they play fundamentally sound defense.
Gard was at Ryan’s side for 23 years. Each has his own personality and approach, but their coaching tactics are very similar.
Iowa senior forward Jarrod Uthoff knows first-hand how the Badgers like to play after being redshirted as a true freshman at Wisconsin during the 2011-12 season. The current Wisconsin team is dramatically different than last season’s team that finished as the NCAA runner-up and was led by the star duo of center Frank Kaminsky and forward Sam Dekker.
But some things about Wisconsin never seem to change regardless of the personnel.
“They stretch the floor really well and they shoot threes really well,” Uthoff said.
Iowa also shoots threes well, but has struggled recently to make free throws and with rebounding. Iowa’s zone defense also hasn’t been as effective as earlier in the season.
Those things could be a sign of trouble or just part of the Big Ten grind that ultimately can be corrected.
What happens against Wisconsin should tell us a lot about Iowa’s condition.