By Hawk Fanatic

In this new age of conference expansion, the bottom three teams in the Big Ten regular-season standings will not make the conference tournament.

The Iowa men’s basketball team is now in serious danger of being one of the three teams left out.

A depleted Northwestern squad, which was playing at home but missing two starters, defeated the Hawkeyes 68-57 in a game between two teams that are desperately trying to make the Big Ten Tournament.

Both teams entered Friday’s game with a 6-11 record in conference play, and Iowa now has Big Ten co-leader Michigan State up next Thursday in the final home game at Carver-Hawkeye Arena.

The Hawkeyes have lost four of their last five games, and even the return of graduate point guard Drew Thelwell from an ankle injury wasn’t enough to get over the hump against Northwestern.

Thelwell led Iowa in scoring with 14 points, followed by Josh Dix with 10 points.

But that was it as far as double-digit scorers for Iowa, which continues to play without sophomore forward Owen Freeman, the team’s leading scorer and rebounder, due to a season-ending finger injury.

Senior forward Payton Sandfort was held to just nine points on 3-of-13 shooting from the field.

Iowa only made 21-0f-58 shots from the field, including 8-of-25 from 3-point range.

Northwestern also struggled from the field, shooting just 42.3 percent on its home court in Evanston, Illinois.

Iowa only made 10-of-29 field-goal attempts in the first half and trailed 30-26 at halftime.

The 57 points scored by Iowa was a season low.

“We had a lot of good looks, some of them didn’t go down,” Thelwell said on the Learfield post-game interview. “I think we have to drive to the basket a bit more and get easier looks for ourselves, and try to hit the roll man on pick-and-rolls.”

The game was a half-court grinder from start to finish, and that benefitted the Wildcats, who have now won three straight games.

Northwestern made 15-of-23 free throw attempts, while Iowa only attempted 10 free throws and made seven.

The fact that Northwestern attempted 13 more free throws than Iowa drew this response from Iowa head coach Fran McCaffery on the Learfield post-game radio interview.

“We didn’t shoot many free throws and they shot a ton,” Fran McCaffery said. “I didn’t think we were that much more physical than them.”

Iowa now Iowa faces Big Ten leader Michigan State on Thursday, and will do so on Senior Day, and with a Big Ten Tournament berth in danger of slipping away.

“It’ll be a great opportunity for us,” Fran McCaffery said. “Our guys will be ready.”

The Big Ten Tournament only takes the top 15 teams in the 18-team conference.

Iowa, USC and Minnesota all had six conference wins heading into Saturday’s game.

However, USC and Minnesota both have the tie-breaker over Iowa from winning the one meeting each team had in the regular season. Iowa lost at USC 99-88 on Jan. 14 and to the Gophers 72-67 on Jan. 21 in Iowa City.

This new tournament format was implemented in response to USC, UCLA, Oregon and Washington all joining the Big Ten Conference at the start of the 2024-25 sports calendar year.

Fran McCaffery said Thursday on a zoom that he doesn’t understand the reasoning for leaving three teams out of the conference tournament.

Big Ten standings as of Feb. 28

Team, Big Ten record, overall record

Michigan State, 14-3, 23-5

Michigan, 14-3, 22-6

Wisconsin, 12-6, 22-6

Purdue, 12-6, 20-9

Maryland, 11-6, 21-7

UCLA, 11-7, 20-9

Illinois, 10-8, 18-11

Oregon, 9-8, 20-8

Indiana, 8-9, 17-11

Ohio State, 8-10, 16-13

Nebraska, 7-10, 17-11

Northwestern, 7-11, 16-13

Rutgers, 7-11, 14-15

USC, 6-11, 14-14

Minnesota, 6-11, 14-14

Iowa, 6-12, 15-14

Penn State, 5-13, 15-14

Washington, 4-13, 13-15