By Pat Harty

IOWA CITY, Iowa – As far as weeks go, this past week was about as good as it gets for Hawkeye fans.

It started with the 8-4 Iowa football team getting picked over the 9-3 Nebraska Cornhuskers for the Outback Bowl and ended with the Iowa wrestling team whipping Iowa State 26-9 on Saturday at Carver-Hawkeye Arena.

In between were double-digit victories over Iowa State by both the Iowa men’s and women’s basketball teams.

The Iowa offensive line also won the Joe Moore Award, which goes to the nation’s top collegiate offensive line and is named after Kirk Ferentz’s former high school football coach and close friend.

Weeks like the one that just ended don’t happen very often.

Home-court advantage certainly played a significant role in the victories by both the Iowa men's and women’s basketball teams. In wrestling, though, it wouldn’t have mattered where the meet was held because Iowa is vastly superior to Iowa State.

Hawkeye fans probably would have it no other way, but college wrestling needs Iowa State to be better.

Doesn’t it?

I’m hardly an expert on wrestling, but it can’t be beneficial to the sport of college wrestling for the Iowa-Iowa State match to be a foregone conclusion.

It’d be one thing if Iowa was performing at a level that was beyond the reach of anyone else, which used to be the case, but it isn’t now.

Iowa still is elite in wrestling, but isn't the unstoppable force that it used to be, whereas Iowa State is far from being elite.

We also saw that Iowa State is far from being elite in men’s basketball.

Iowa exposed the Cyclones on both ends of the court, cruising to a 78-64 victory this past Thursday at Carver-Hawkeye Arena.

Iowa State point guard Monte Morris did a lot of talking before and after the game, but little playmaking during the game despite having a huge advantage in experience.

One game certainly doesn’t make or break a season, but the victory over Iowa State changed the mood, the momentum and maybe even the outlook for the Iowa men’s basketball team.

It was a giant shot of adrenaline and a boost in confidence for a team that’s been rocked by injuries and challenged by inexperience.

Freshman forward Tyler Cook is arguably Iowa’s second best player, and yet he didn’t even play against Iowa State because of an injury.

Cook’s return in about two weeks should only make Iowa better.

It’s easy to see the 6-foot-9, 253-pound Cook playing alongside fellow freshman Cordell Pemsl, who checks in at 6-8 and 249 pounds.

They both can play near or away from the basket and can withstand the pounding that occurs in games at this level.

The emergence of Pemsl, freshman point guard Jordan Bohannon and redshirt freshman shooting guard Isaiah Moss are arguably the three most important developments so far this season.

We all knew that Peter Jok was going to be a scoring machine, but we didn’t know about any of the freshmen, even Cook to some extent.

The 6-foot Bohannon is a gifted shooter who believes that every shot he takes is going in the basket. There are times when he takes some ill-advised shots, but that goes with the territory.

You live with the bad shots because you know that Bohannon will deliver with his share of good shots over time.

He is similar to former Iowa guard Brody Boyd, who also shot with extreme confidence and from just about anywhere on the court. Boyd made lots of big shots for Iowa in big games. The bigger the moment, the more likely Boyd would respond.

Bohannon did the same thing against Iowa State by making a 3-point basket after the Cyclones had sliced the lead to seven points in the second half. You almost could see the life being sucked out of the Iowa State players when Bohannon’s shot went in from about 25 feet.

“He’s as tough a guy as I’ve seen,” Iowa coach Fran McCaffery said of the former Linn-Mar star after the Iowa State game. “He’s not going to be afraid. He’s not going to back down. He knows what he can do and what he can’t do. He’s just going to keep getting better.”

Pemsl has been a model of efficiency, converting on an incredible 42-of-56 field-goal attempts this season. It’s hard to remember the Dubuque native taking a bad shot or trying to force a shot.

And he’s just a freshman.

The 6-5 Moss is a redshirt freshman and maybe the most pleasant surprise on the team so far this season.

The Chicago native played with poise and with explosiveness against Iowa State, scoring 14 points, including eight down the stretch. Moss showed no fear with the game on the line as he repeatedly attacked the basket in the second half.

Oh, yeah, and what more can you say about Nicholas Baer?

The Bettendorf native just keeps getting better and is a coach’s dream in how he handles any role that comes his way.

Baer probably deserves to start from a productivity standpoint, but the team seems to benefit from the 6-7 forward coming off the bench. Baer provides energy and versatility off the bench.

“There’s just no substitute for all the things that he gets done for you on the floor in a positive way,” McCaffery said of Baer.

There also is no substitute for winning, which brings us back to the Iowa football team.

The Hawkeyes won so convincingly against Nebraska on Nov. 25 at Kinnick Stadium that the Outback Bowl decision makers felt they had to capitalize on Iowa’s momentum.

“Because of that finish that our student-athletes took on against Nebraska, I think that really helped solidify it,” Iowa Athletics Director Gary Barta said of the Outback Bowl invitation. “That and the fact that we’re a team on the rise and the Outback Bowl knows our fans.”

Now it’s time to move on to next week, which won’t be nearly as action packed as this past week with the University of Iowa taking semester exams.

The Iowa men’s basketball team will return to action on Saturday against Northern Iowa in the Big 4 Classic at Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines.

It has the makings of a great matchup, both from a team standpoint and from an individual standpoint between Jok and 6-7 Northern Iowa senior Jeremy Morgan, who scored 38 points in the second half of his last game on Saturday.

Jok and Morgan are two of the best players at their position in the country, two former Iowa high school stars who have made it big in college.

It should be a fun way to end a quiet week.