By Pat Harty

IOWA CITY, Iowa – Teammates aren’t always best friends, or even friends, but it sure helps if they are when trying to build chemistry.

And we’re seeing a shining example of that with the surging Iowa men’s basketball team, which pounded Illinois 95-71 on Sunday to extend its winning streak to five games.

Nobody on the Iowa team seems to care who scores the most points as long as somebody does score, and nobody seems to care who plays the most minutes as long as Iowa wins.

That’s not to suggest that star junior forward Tyler Cook or freshman sensation Joe Wieskamp would be happy if their minutes got chopped in half because that would be unfair to them and would be unfair to the team from a competitive standpoint.

But part of what makes a good team is having players who understand their roles and who are willing to defer to teammates.

Fourth-year junior guard Isaiah Moss could have resented Wieskamp or felt threatened by Wieskamp’s presence because they play similar positions and have similar roles.

But instead, they have become close friends, according to Wieskamp.

In fact, Wieskamp told reporters after Sunday’s game that Moss is one of his best friends on the team. The two had just combined to shred Illinois for a combined 45 points on 11-of-12 shooting from 3-point range.

It was hard to tell afterwards if Wieskamp was more excited about his 24-point performance on 8-of-8 shooting from the field, or the fact that Moss scored 21 points and made all but one of his six shots from 3-point range.

“Isaiah is one of my best friends on the team, so it's a lot of fun to see him have success," Wieskamp said. "When I hit my first three, I told him, now it's your turn, let's get going. And clearly he was able to do that, too."

Junior point guard Jordan Bohannon is widely regarded as Iowa’s best 3-point shooter, and he made both of his attempts from 3-point range on Sunday.

But Bohannon also was glad to defer to his two teammates who were hot throughout the game because Bohannon has no problem with putting the team’s goals before his own.

None of the Iowa players seem to have a problem with that, and that’s how it should always be.

“When we’re shooting the ball like that, it’s hard for teams to keep up with us,” Bohannon said. “We’ve got a lot of shooters on this team this year, and a lot of room to operate. So it’s fun when everybody is clicking on all cylinders.”

Iowa shot an incredible 68 percent from the field on Sunday and made 15-of-21 shots from 3-point range.

The Hawkeyes also assisted on 29 of their 34 field-goal attempts, which is another sign of having strong chemistry.

Wieskamp shows little emotion on and off the court, and the soft-spoken Moss isn’t much different, although, Bohannon said Moss has become more outgoing after a little encouragement from his teammates.

“Isaiah has opened up quite a bit,” Bohannon said. “I think the class when we came in, that was kind of our goal to try to loosen up everybody. And he was probably one of the main focuses.

“But he’s kind of like Joe in that regard. It’s nice to see Joe crack a smile.”

It also helps to have a head coach like Fran McCaffery who gives his players a lot of freedom to shoot because he trusts them.

McCaffery was asked to comment on his team’s shooting performance from 3-point range on Sunday and he brought up that point.

“The only way to explain it is to empower your guys to shoot without hesitation,” McCaffery said. “That’s one of things I pride myself in.”

The respect and admiration that the Iowa players have for each other seems genuine and sincere.

Some teammates say they’re close, but then go their own way when not practicing or playing in a game.

But that hardly seems to be the case with the current Iowa team.

Most of the players have been through a lot together, including a disastrous season a year ago when Iowa suffered a stunning decline, finishing 4-14 in the Big Ten and 14-19 overall.

Adversity appears to have brought the players together.

It already has been confirmed that last season’s collapse caused the players and coaches to look inward and to rededicate themselves to playing better on defense.

Iowa is clearly better on defense this season, and there were signs of that on Sunday as Illinois only scored 24 points in the first half.

“It was spectacular,” Fran McCaffery said of Iowa’s defense in the first half. “We were locked in and grinding hard.”

Defense, just like offense, relies on teamwork, communication and trust. And it's easier to have all those things when your players like and respect each other, and when you have veterans players, as is the case with Iowa.

"They're veterans and they're old," Illinoic coach Brad Underwood said when asked what makes Iowa so good. "They are physically very strong and you're pressed to find a better athlete in the Big Ten than Tyler Cook."

Underwood was referring to Iowa's leading scorer and rebounder, who returned on Sunday after missing one game due to an ankle injury and scored seven points and grabbed seven rebounds.

The seven points is well below Cook's 17.1 per-game average, but that didn't matter to him after Sunday's game because he was just pleased to get the win and that his teammates had performed well. 

"Everybody was kind of clicking today, " Cook said. "It was fun to watch."

.Iowa will face a much tougher challenge on Thursday when Big Ten leader Michigan State comes to Carver-Hawkeye Arena for what is now a key game in the Big Ten race.

The Spartans embarrassed Iowa in their first meeting this season, winning 90-68 on Dec. 3^rd in East Lansing, Mich.

“I think we’re all looking forward to the Michigan State matchup,” Cook said. “It’s going to be a great game and another opportunity to compete.”