Despite some bright spots, the struggles continued for Fran McCaffrey and company as they welcomed one of the hottest teams in the Big Ten into Carver-Hawkeye Arena.When all was said and done, the Badgers (18-10, 10-5) escaped Iowa City with a 67-59 win over the Hawkeyes (20-7, 11-4)

This is Wisconsin’s third win against a top ten team this season. The other two came against fourth ranked Michigan State at home back on January 17^th and at second ranked Maryland back on February 14^th.

It is the first time since 1955 that the Badgers have two road wins against a top ten team. Wisconsin now has won nine of their last ten games, and they have another impressive win to add to their resume come Selection Sunday.

For Iowa, the issues that plagued them during their swoon has been the productivity of the bench and their team perimeter defense.

The bench only contributed four points compared to the starters 55. Dom Uhl and Nicholas Baer were the two players for Iowa who played more than five minutes off the bench.

For how good the bench played earlier in the season and extended leads instead of holding on for dear life until the starters got back, this has become a major concern for Fran McCaffery and the Iowa coaching staff.

Three of Iowa’s five starters played over 33 minutes, including 34 minutes from both Adam Woodbury and Anthony Clemmons. Woodbury set a new career-high with 18 rebounds, 10 of them on the offensive end, to go along with six points.

Peter Jok paced Iowa with 21 points with 17 of those coming in the first half. The starters combined to shoot 16-47 from the field, which is just a shade over 34%. Iowa missed a lot of open layups and had a lot of second and third opportunities on numerous possessions due to an 18-7 advantage on the offensive glass.

Anthony Clemmons and Jarrod Uthoff were the other two Hawkeyes in double figures with 13 and 11 respectively.

“We got good shot attempts,” Iowa coach Fran McCaffery said.

“We just got a little hesitant at times. Woody did a nice job of going back and getting us some extra opportunities, and Pete just got tired.”

Iowa had 14 turnovers as a team, which McCaffery said was way too much for his team.

Outside of the first couple minutes, the game was played at Wisconsin’s pace. They like to slow the pace of games down and not let teams get out in transition.

At the end of the day, teams that make timely shots and gets solid, all-around production usually wins their fair share of games. That is the difference between Iowa and Wisconsin right now.

The Hawkeyes now have a few days to prepare for their next game on Sunday afternoon at Ohio State. The Buckeyes, who are coming off an 81-62 loss at home to Michigan State, are 10-6 in the conference and a game and a half behind Iowa in the standings.

“We’ve got a great season going. It’s not time to cave in and throw the towel in. We’ve got more season to play,” Adam Woodbury said.

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The first half was rather uneventful for the Hawks, Jok had a nice breakaway layup and the Hawks were up four at one point but they had an 8-minute stretch without a basket. Aaron White put an end to that with a 2-handed jam with one minute left in the half that gave Iowa a little momentum heading into halftime.

The Gophers went into halftime with a 23-19 lead.

The halftime show was one of the best ones this season. The AcroDunks are a bunch of high flying dunk artists which brought life back into the Hawkeye crowd.

The second half was better than the first half by a far margin. The Hawks regained the lead with 13-minutes left at 31-30. The teams traded baskets until Andre Hollins drained a 3 to put the Gophers up 39-37.

The Gophers had a 10 point lead with two minutes left and Uthoff nailed a 3 to cut the deficit to 7. Then the Hawks applied the all-out full-court press swapping Jok and Clemons for offense/defense.  Pulling within 5 with a minute left.

Jarrod Uthoff had a great leaping steal off an in-bounds play near mid-court and dished it to White for the dunk to make the score 59-56 with 56 seconds left. After fouling Minnesota and Hollins making both free throws to put them up 61-56 with 27 seconds left.

Iowa came back down the floor with a screen for Uthoff to pop a 3. Minnesota committed the cardinal sin of basketball fouling on a three-point shot. Uthoff drained all 3 free-throws to make it 61-59 with 20 seconds left.

Minnesota was fouled immediately and made one of two free-throws keeping it a one possession game at 62-59.

Mike Gesell drove to the hoop with 11 seconds left and ran right into Chris Walker with no foul called, Walker gained possession and iced it for Minnesota 64-59.

At times the Hawks looked gassed and that lead to some costly turnovers (16 total). Another issue was being gun shy shooting the ball. They became focused on execution and movement, Fran said “We were not a master of shooting when open tonight.”

Neither team shot well from beyond the arc tonight, which may have played a factor in Iowa being gun-shy from downtown.

Stat notes

Minnesota

Andre Hollins led all scorers with 20 and Nate Mason added 12 from the bench.

Iowa

Woodbury had 4 points, 3 rebounds along with 2 assists before fouling out.

Off the bench Gabe Olaseni contributed 2 points, 4 rebounds and 3 blocked shots. Dominque Uhl chipped in with 2 points and 3 rebounds. Anthony Clemons added 5 points, he was also poked in the eye but after review it was unintentional.

Iowa falls to (15-9) overall and (6-5) in the Big Ten. Iowa’s next game is Sunday Feb. 15th, at 2 P.M. @ Northwestern on Big Ten Network It is the first match-up this season between them.

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Adam Woodbury and Anthony Clemmons both played near-flawless games in the Hawkeyes’ 74-60 win over Nebraska on Saturday afternoon in Carver-Hawkeye Arena.

After a bit of streakiness recently from the young duo, Woodbury and Clemmons took charge and stepped up for the Hawkeyes (20-11, 9-9 Big Ten) en route to their first 20-win campaign since the 2005-06 season. Woodbury was 6-for-6 overall from the field while Clemmons was 5-for-7.

“A lot of teams’ goal is to win 20, and not very many teams can do it,” Woodbury said. “To be a part of this, it’s pretty special to me. We’re not done yet. We hope to keep winning.”

Nebraska (14-17, 5-13) decreased the deficit to just one point early on in the second half, helped by solid shooting from Ray Gallegos, who had 22 points.

But then the Hawkeyes pulled away.

Iowa went on a 15-0 run and never looked back. With the victory, the Black and Gold have secured the No. 6 seed in the Big Ten tournament next week.

“In the first few minutes of the second half, we didn’t really have the defensive intensity we needed,” said sophomore Aaron White, who posted 19 points and 6 rebounds. “We knew they weren’t going to go away. We responded well on defense on went on some runs.”

Woodbury and Clemmons aided a lot of those runs.

Aggressive, aggressive, aggressive. That was the theme for the Hawkeyes’ freshmen.

“I went through a slump, but now I’m back,” Clemmons said. “If you see an opening, you have to attack the basket. There is nothing better than making a play in transition.”

Saturday’s win propels Iowa’s postseason résumé even further. The NCAA tournament is a possibility, but head coach Fran McCaffery’s squad will have to win at least one game in the conference tourney, probably two-plus.

Heading into the contest with the Huskers, Iowa boasted a No. 31 ranking nationally by Ken Pomeroy and were 76^th in RPI.

McCaffery noted Iowa’s .500 conference record, close losses to Indiana, Michigan State, and Wisconsin, and a full body of work that has resulted in 20 victories, to vague for the Big Dance.

“I think we deserve tremendous consideration,” he said. “I definitely feel like we’re one of the best 68 teams. To have gone through this league — clearly the best league in the country — and finish 9-9 … we’ve accomplished a great deal.”

Is it enough?

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Though many casual college basketball fans–and certainly those at Assembly Hall Tuesday night–may have been stunned by Wisconsin’s win, it’s not surprising to those who have been observing Wisconsin head coach Bo Ryan impart his skills on his team the past 12 years.  Wisconsin’s consistently dependable defense and thoughtful shooting have been Ryan’s recipe since he first arrived in Madison.

Consider that Ryan’s Badger teams have made the NCAA Tournament all 12 years he’s been head coach.  He has made the Sweet 16 four times, the Elite 8 once, and won the Big Ten regular season and conference tournament championship multiple times (he won both during the 2007-2008 season).  He has won almost 72% of his games in the Big Ten.  That winning has left not one of his 12 teams below fourth place in the Big Ten.  Ryan also won four national championships at the Division III level with Wisconsin-Platteville.

Iowa’s relationship with Ryan and his teams has been downright miserable until last year.  Iowa hadn’t swept Wisconsin since 1995 and lost nine straight games in Madison before a shocking 72-65 win over the #11 Badgers on New Year’s Eve of 2011.  Iowa completed the unexpected sweep in late February of last year, 67-66, behind another 30-point frenzy by Matt Gatens.  Admission was free that day for students.  They turned out in force and gave Carver a real advantage.  Imagine that?

Outside of last season, though, most of the Hawkeyes’ games against Wisconsin–under Steve Alford and Todd Lickliter–had been wretched blowouts.  Perhaps things are changing under Fran McCaffery, but no team ever has the upper hand over Ryan for very long.  And some have had no hand at all in the series as of late.  Indiana, for instance, has now lost 11 straight to Ryan to give him a 17-3 career record against the Hoosiers.

This game will be just as tough for Iowa as the Indiana and Michigan State games were, if not tougher.  Iowa lost both of those contests at home by four points or less, but Wisconsin has a special way of punishing its opponents off turnovers because Ryan’s players do not return the favor: Wisconsin commits the fewest turnovers per game than any team in 345 Division 1 teams (8.9 per game).  The young Hawks seem to turn the ball over more when things aren’t going well, but also display frustrating habits like turning the ball over in transition.  Guards Anthony Clemmons and Mike Gesell have, on multiple occasions, heaved the ball out of bounds when attempting the fast-break lob down the court.

If Iowa wants to win, it must slow down its game and play Wisconsin’s style.  It seems unlikely that an Iowa squad averaging about 65 points per game in Big Ten play is going to suddenly unleash 80 on one of the country’s most disciplined teams.  Iowa must also knock down more than a handful of three-point baskets if it hopes to come out on top. That means Josh Oglesby has to be in rhythm.  Devyn Marble and Zach McCabe are also equipped to hit threes, but a hot Oglesby increases Iowa’s chances to win dramatically.  That was the case at Northwestern (he was the only one who made a three-pointer, going 4-of-9).  Iowa’s players and fans don’t realistically believe that a Big Ten regular-season championship is in store this year–especially after an 0-3 start–but a win over Wisconsin is a big step toward the team’s first NCAA Tournament birth since 2006.

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