Filip Rebraca had a major bounceback game, scoring only seven against Rutgers on Sunday. Today, the Soaring Serbian had a double double, totaling 20 points and 10 rebounds, as well as two dunks. But the most electric moments came from #20, who put up 20 points himself. Payton Sandfort splashed in five of his seven three point shots, with his most spectacular one leading to a six point play. An and-one dagger, plus a Northwestern technical foul, and Sandfort made all three free throws to secure his six. Kris Murray, Tony Perkins, and Connor McCaffery also had double digit points, making it five Hawkeyes on the night to hit that mark. 

For the Wildcats, guard Boo Buie led the charge with 20. Buie was on fire from mid-range, with his trademark spin-fade accounting for half of his points. Buie also added three assists, and was perfect from the charity stripe shooting 7-7. Guard Chase Audige helped his team out with 14 as well, and led his team in minutes played with 37. Forward Nick Martinelli was third on the team, with nine points, going three for three from the field.

The Cats started strong on defense, but broke down trying to limit Murray, which opened up major opportunities for Sandfort and Rebraca, leading the Hawkeyes to a 16 point victory. There was a time where Northwestern looked to break it open, as Iowa head coach Fran McCaffery got a technical foul and led to two free points. But they were unable to capitalize much further as Iowa took a commanding lead due to a stretch of five consecutive made field goals. Northwestern drops to 15-6 with the loss, and goes to 6-4 in the Big 10. 

This much needed victory for Iowa snaps Northwestern’s three game winning streak, as the Hawkeyes move to 14-8 and break .500 in the Big 10. The Hawks also scored the second most points against the Wildcats since their loss to Pitt on Nov. 28, 87-58. Fran McCaffery and his team will face off next against the Fighting Illini on Saturday, Feb. 4 at 1:30pm.

This game will be Iowa’s third straight home game, featuring a black and gold spirit theme. And on the 30th anniversary of Chris Street’s passing, as his jersey number hangs high in the rafters, it’s clear that #40 was watching this “W” with an everlasting smile on his face.

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Four years later, the Hawkeyes came back into Carver-Hawkeye Arena with a ranking of #4 in the country, looking to snap a four-game losing streak against Matt Painter’s Boilermakers. In fact, the Hawkeyes haven’t come close to beating Purdue in the four meetings since January 2017, with an average margin of defeat of 21 points in that streak.

“My first two years, they’ve embarrassed us. Every time I’ve played them they’ve outhustled us, they’ve destroyed us on the glass,” junior guard Joe Wieskamp said. “This was one we really wanted to send a message against a good Purdue team, and we did a good job.”

Wieskamp continued his high-level of play on Tuesday night, as he poured in 17 points and nine rebounds just three days after dropping 20-9-4 against top-ranked Gonzaga in Iowa’s 99-88 loss to the Bulldogs at the Sanford Pentagon in Sioux Falls.

The Hawkeyes also enjoyed another 20+ point performance from Luka Garza, as the senior post recorded his 17th straight Big Ten game with 20+ points. His streak matches the 17-game streak that former Ohio State star Dennis Hopson went on back in 1987.

Garza buried four threes in the contest, the final giving Iowa a 12-point lead with 2:28 to go in the game and the image of Garza making the shot with gauze up one of his once-bloodied nostrils served to be more than popular on social media.

“I thought tonight, we had open looks because he loaded people up. In and out. He made good decisions when he shot it,” Fran McCaffery said about Garza. “He was really good defensively and on the glass. Sat for a little bit with that third foul, and we got him back in there and he was able to finish.”

Iowa’s win against Purdue was the first time the Hawkeyes had begun the Big Ten slate 1-0 since 2015, when it beat then-#1 Michigan State at Carver to start a meteoric rise that saw that year’s squad rise to a #3 ranking at one point during the conference slate.

The Hawkeyes were ranked #3 when they took on #1 Gonzaga on Saturday in Sioux Falls. But, while Iowa fell to the nations top-ranked team and slid to #4 in Monday’s AP Poll, Fran McCaffery was not worried about his team’s ability, or inability, to avoid an emotional let down against the Boilermakers.

“We don’t let it linger. Let’s say make we won the game. Last two days we would’ve been ranked No. 1, everybody would’ve been saying how great we are. And we’ve got to battle Purdue,” McCaffery said. “

“We know what playing Purdue is like. They kicked us twice last year. So I think a team’s ability to understand that is going to be the key to success for the rest of the season.”

Perhaps the biggest key in the Hawkeyes win on Tuesday was their performance defensively. Following facing a Gonzaga offense that ripped Iowa’s defense to shreds, the Hawkeyes held Purdue to 55 points on the night. In the four previous matchups, Purdue averaged 88.5 points in those contests.

“It was by far our best effort on the glass and defensively,” Fran McCaffery said. “I thought we were pretty good — really good actually — against Carolina. We were locked in.”

With the performance, Iowa’s adjusted defensive rating went from 83rd to 62nd in the nation according to Ken Pomeroy. The rating is by far the worst for any team in the AP Top 10, but with the #1 Adjusted Offense in College Basketball, a rating in the mid-60s is all Iowa needs to be an elite basketball team.

Iowa will hit the road in Big Ten play for the first time this season as they take on border-rival Minnesota at Williams Arena in a Christmas Day matchup. The Hawkeyes were 2-0 against the Gophers in 2019-2020.

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Lute Olson grew up in the rural countryside of North Dakota where he became a star high school guard in basketball and eventually would play out his college days at Augsburg University in Minneapolis. Following his playing days, Olson spent over a decade in the high school coaching scene in Minnesota and Southern California.

Olson broke into the college ranks in 1969 when he was named head coach of Long Beach City College. At 35 years old and 5 children with his wife, Bobbi, Olson felt it was the right time to make the jump from high school to college coaching.

His success at the JUCO level prompted neighboring Long Beach State at the Division I level to offer Olson the great Jerry Tarkinian’s former position (who had recently left to become head coach of the Runnin’ Rebels of UNLV). His one season as coach of the Beach brought a 24-2 record, but no postseason due to NCAA violations from the Tarkinian-era.

In the spring of 1974, Olson shocked many in the college basketball world by bucking Long Beach State for an Iowa program that had fallen on hard times just five years after winning a Big Ten championship under Ralph Miller.

“People didn’t go from Long Beach to Iowa, they went from Iowa to Long Beach,” Olson told the Iowa City Press-Citizen in 2015. “I thought, ‘well I’m just going to break that trend.’ I saw an opportunity.”

By his second season at the helm in Iowa City, he gave the Hawkeyes a winning record. Three years later, he brought Iowa a share of the Big Ten Championship with Gene Keady’s Purdue Boilermakers, and Magic Johnson’s eventual national champion Michigan State Spartans.

It was the following season, however, that is still talked about today by the Iowa faithful.

The winter of 1980 saw Iowa have an up-and-down Big Ten season with star point guard Ronnie Lester dealing with a recurring knee injury. By the time the NCAA Tournament rolled around, Lester was fully-healthy and ready to carry the load.

Iowa’s run to the 1980 Final Four saw them knock off Norm Sloan’s NC State Wolfpack, Jim Boeheim’s Syracuse Orange, and John Thompson’s Georgetown Hoyas in the Elite Eight. Everything seemed set up for Iowa to go on and win the 1979-80 NCAA Championship.

But in a horrible twist of luck and fate, Ronnie Lester re-injured his knee in the semifinal game against Denny Crum’s Louisville Cardinals and Iowa would go on to lose that game, as well as the consolation game with the Purdue Boilermakers.

That season is what helped Lute create a “monster” according to his late wife of 47 years, Bobbi, who died of ovarian cancer in 2001.

Expectations for Iowa basketball grew by leaps and bounds by each passing season, eventually wearing thin on Olson himself. His final campaign in 1983 saw the opening of the new Carver-Hawkeye Arena and the Hawkeyes return to the Sweet Sixteen, only to fall short to Rollie Massimino’s Villanova Wildcats by a single point.

Soon thereafter Olson accepted the head coaching job for the Arizona Wildcats, a perennial Pac-10 doormat at the time of his arrival.

It wouldn’t take long for Olson to find success in the desert. By year two, he had the Wildcats in the NCAA Tournament. The following year, they were Pac-10 Champions. Olson would also mold dozens of future NBA stars, such as Steve Kerr, Damon Stoudamire, Mike Bibby, Jason Terry, Sean Elliot, Gilbert Arenas, Richard Jefferson, Andre Iguodala, and Channing Frye.

After winning 15 combined Pac-10 regular season and conference titles, as well as the 1997 national championship, Olson retired as head coach at Arizona on October 23, 2008 due to health issues.

In his retirement, Olson made numerous trips back to Iowa City in support of Fran McCaffery and the Iowa men’s basketball program. Many times his trips were in support of former player Kenny Arnold, a member of the 1980 Final Four team who had been fighting brain cancer since 1985 until his death in 2019.

From someone who never saw a minute of Iowa basketball under Olson, I believe he was the man who brought Iowa into the modern age of college basketball.

His 1980 Final Four team still has an impact on the program and the state to this day. 40 years later, those who watched Ronnie Lester, Kenny Arnold, Bobby Hansen, Steve Waite, Steve Krafcisin and the others, still talk about them like they are superheroes.

If it weren’t for Lute Olson, the state might not have these superheroes to talk about, and Iowa basketball wouldn’t look nearly the same without his legacy.

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That all changed on Thursday night in front of a capacity Hilton crowd.

Iowa took a 5-2 lead with 18:48 to go in the first half, and led the final 38:48 for a dominating 84-68 win over the Cyclones, snapping an 8-game losing streak in Ames.

“It was probably the one game on my schedule I had as a must-win for us,” said sophomore guard Joe Wieskamp. “Obviously it was a big win and we were very happy about it.”

Wieskamp was one of five Hawkeyes to finish the game with double-digits in scoring, as center Luka Garza again lead the way in scoring with 21 points. Garza was also one of six Hawkeyes to hit a three-pointer as well.

“We came out really hot, we started out four-for-five and then we were four-for-12 or something like that,” Garza said. “We started missing, but we continued to get stops and play defense and that’s what kept growing our lead.”

For the second game in a row, Iowa’s defense did step up to the challenge, as Iowa State only shot 6-26 from the three-point line. While the Cyclone star guard Tyrese Halliburton finished with 22 points, Solomon Young was the only other Cyclone to finish in double-figures.

Iowa led 39-24 going into the halftime break, but it appeared that old ghosts were ready to cut the Hawkeyes in half. Iowa State opened the second half with a 13-5 run that sent the Hilton crowd into a frenzy.

The Hawkeyes promptly responded with a Connor McCaffery three and a Joe Wieskamp and-one to extend the lead back to 12. It was a sequence not many Iowa teams have put together before.

“I think it’s showing we’re maturing, we have a lot of veteran guys and we gave them some uncharacteristic and-ones,” said Connor McCaffery. “But I hit a three, Jordan [Bohannon] hit a three, Wieskamp had an and-one, Luka got a bucket. We just kept scoring.”

Father Fran McCaffery shared a sentiment similar to his son.

“We stayed the course, they’re [Iowa State] quick, they were up into us defensively and they were competing,” Fran McCaffery said. “The important thing for us to do at that point was move the ball side-to-side, find somebody who’s open, and some people make shots.”

Iowa and Iowa State played this game relatively free of any noticeable incidents, unlike last years game in Iowa City. However, it wouldn’t have been a normal Cy-Hawk game without some trash talk.

Jordan Bohannon provided most of the talking by blowing a kiss to the Iowa State student section, an homage to former Iowa State forward Georges Niang blowing a kiss to Iowa’s student section in 2014.

“That’s what make rivalry’s fun, Georges Niang blowing kisses to the crowd at Iowa, you can go on and on,” Bohannon said. “It was all in good fun.”

Bohannon also made another statement, by signing his shoes and setting them down on the court after the final buzzer had sounded. Ryan Kreiner gave the back story.

“Our freshman year, Monte Morris was talking a lot about how he was gonna leave his shoes at half court and he had special shoes for it,” Kreiner said. “I guess Jordan thought it would be pretty funny to return the favor.”

The win was Iowa’s 46th all-time win against Iowa State and their third win in the last four years over the Cyclones.

Iowa gets nine days of rest before traveling to Chicago take face Cincinnati in the Chicago Legends Classic at the United Center.

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The Hawkeyes started off lightning quick as they ran out to a 17-4 lead by the Under-16 media timeout. It would only get worse from their. Luka Garza led all scorers with 22 points, going 8-8 from the field and going 5-6 from the free throw line.

“I play as hard as I can, my teammates were finding me in open spots, and my jump shot felt really good,” Garza said of his consistency. “I worked really hard all summer to have a consistent three-point shot, so that felt great as well.”

Right behind Garza in the score column was star freshman Joe Wieskamp, who dropped 20 points on the night, with 18 coming in the first half. “He was really aggressive tonight and that’s what we want him to be,” Fran McCaffery said of Wieskamp. “He puts it on the deck, shoots the three, and is aggressive on the glass. He is versatile.”

Garza and Cook led the Hawkeyes in scoring with Tyler Cook trailing behind with 15 points and a couple of nice dunks in the half-court set. Isaiah Moss, who had struggled in New York during the Empire 2K Classic, came to life in front of the home fans, scoring 15 points, knocking down three of four, three-pointers, and a beautiful fast-break dunk in the first half.

“Now Moss with the steal – SHOWTIME!”@IowaHoops jumped ahead 12-0 on this slam. pic.twitter.com/qzbYiU9WtH

— Iowa On BTN (@IowaOnBTN) November 22, 2018

It was also a big night for the Iowa walk-ons as all four of them saw playing time: Riley Till, Austin Ash, Nicholas Hobbs and Michael Baer. Austin Ash scored his first career points as a Hawkeye on three-pointer with 4:17 to go in the ball game, and the crowd very nearly took the roof off Carver-Hawkeye Arena is Ash’s follow up three-pointer would have fallen.

Iowa now begins a crucial four-game stretch starting with their matchup against the Pitt Panthers in the Big Ten-ACC Challenge on November 27th. “You’ve got four monsters coming up, but I don’t look at it that way, I look at it as one monster coming up, and we’ll worry about the ones after that,” Fran McCaffery said of the four-game slate against Pitt, Wisconsin, Michigan State and Iowa State.

Iowa’s next match-up is against Pitt in the Big Ten-ACC Challenge on Tuesday, November 27th at 8:00 PM on ESPNU.

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Thursday night, the Iowa offense was struggling, at halftime the Hawkeyes were only 8-25 from the field, shooting 17 threes in the process. “In the first half, we took 17 threes and eight two-point shots, So I was really disappointed in that aspect, I thought we had an advantage in the post offensively, I know I wanted to try and exploit that but we were jacking threes”, Fran McCaffery said of the first half shooting.

Iowa turned to their defense in their 77-63 win over the UMKC Kangaroos, “It was kind of funny, we kind of joked around about it in the locker room,” junior forward Ryan Kriener said. “This was kind of the first time that offense has been our problem, our offense was a little stagnant and our defense really held us in there”. Kreiner played 16 minutes and was very effective on the defensive end, adding eight rebounds to his six points.

The game also marked the official debut of freshman guard Joe Wieskamp, the former five-star recruit from Muscatine High School was the Hawkeyes leading scorer with 15, including four, three-pointers in the first half.

“Being here since June, going up against the guys every day, I think you just adjust,” Wieskamp said of his adjustment to the college game. Wieskamp also showed his great athleticism with a beautiful putback dunk in the second half that received a rousing cheer from the Carver crowd of 9,317.

Get up then, @JWieskamp21!

The @IowaHoops freshman has showed out tonight: pic.twitter.com/tuuY6MGx1j

— Iowa On BTN (@IowaOnBTN) November 9, 2018

Junior guard Maishe Dailey also played a big role off the bench against the Kangaroos as he scored 11 points. “We just needed to bring intensity, we felt like we got hit in the mouth in the first half so we just wanted to bring that fight and we reciprocated that fight in the second half,” Dailey said of Iowa’s performance.

Dailey also believes he’s transitioned into the role of “Defensive stopper and defensive leader,” and if he in fact has, would be a huge boost to this Iowa team.

Joe Wieskamp led all Iowa scorers with 15 points and also added four rebounds and an assist. Juniors Jordan Bohannon and Tyler Cook followed up with 12 points each, Bohannon added four rebounds and three assists, while Cook accumulated eight rebounds and five assists.

Next in the scoring column was Maishe Dailey, who had 11 points with two assists to boot. Sophomore Luka Garza added eight points and three rebounds and freshman Connor McCaffery contributed seven points and three assists.

Iowa’s next action is Sunday afternoon against Wisconsin-Green Bay, tipoff is at 2 P.M. local time.

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Once it was announced that Jok would be absent for Saturday’s game, the question became who would step up to fill Jok’s 21 points per game. Many thought it would be Isaiah Moss or Jok’s replacement Nicholas Bear, both of whom have had solid seasons so far. But the scoring role was instead filled by redshirt Sophomore Brady Ellingson who finished with 17 points on 6-9 shooting from the floor, including an impressive 5-7 from deep. He was the Hawkeyes’ leading scorer in Iowa’s 85-72 victory over the Buckeyes Saturday night.

Coach Fran McCaffrey had a lot of praise for his sophomore shooting guard saying, “(Brady) really made a concerted effort tonight (to be more aggressive) tonight.” McCaffrey added, “I would like to see him be like that on a regular basis.”

Ellingson’s 17 was his second highest on the season and highest point total in conference play. Ellingson also added 4 rebounds and 1 assist without turning the ball over.

Ellingson credited Jok as being a big motivator for this game, saying Jok, “Texted us all last night saying he’d be there no matter what.” Ellingson also said, “Peter told me to be more aggressive with my shots.”

That aggressiveness clearly showed, as he attempted and made more threes than he had all season. If the Hawkeyes are going to continue to have to play without Jok, they need Ellingson’s aggressiveness to continue.

While Ellingson was the highlight off the bench, the other bench players were able to contribute some serious scoring as well. The Hawkeyes had 44 total bench points accounting for more half of the Hawkeyes’ points. It was the kind of performance they needed in the absence of their star.

With the win, the Hawkeyes move to half a game out of 5th place in the Big Ten, while the Buckeyes fall into a tie for 11th place. The Hawkeyes’ next game will be in Piscataway, New Jersey to take on the Rutgers Scarlet Knights (12-10, 1-8) at 6pm this upcoming Tuesday. The game will be broadcasted on BTN.

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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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By Mark Freie

IOWA CITY, Iowa – Michigan State Spartans senior guard Travis Trice poured in 25 points as the Spartans defeated the Iowa Hawkeyes 75-61 on Thursday night in Iowa City.

The night for Iowa Hawkeyes (11-5, 9-2) as the Hawkeyes went into halftime with a 39-28 lead. Iowa senior Gabe Olaseni provided a spark off the bench as he scored 15 first-half points going 7-7 from the free throw line. The Hawkeyes went 12-14 from the free throw line in the first half. However, the Hawkeyes were unable to match their strong first half performance as they were limited to 22 second half points and shot just 3-10 from the line. Hawkeye junior Jarrod Uthoff recorded a double-double with 12 points and 10 rebounds.

“[Michigan State] got some energy from the fact that they were playing good defense,” Hawkeyes coach Fran McCaffery said. “The disappointing thing is whenever you play a team, you hope you can do a better job on their good players. They have three elite guys and that’s who hurts us. That’s disappointing.”

However, Michigan State (11-5, 2-1) had a strong second half response as they erased an 11-point deficit, silencing the crowd inside Carver-Hawkeye Arena.

The Spartans displayed a three point barrage shooting 8-9 from behind the arc in the second half.

21 of Trice’s 25 points came off three point shots. Trice shot 3-4 in the first half and 4-4 in the second half from behind the arc. Adding into the mix was junior guard Denzel Valentine with 18 points and Branden Dawson who recorded a double-double with 14 points and 15 rebounds.

“Give Iowa credit they took it to us after the first six or seven minutes of the game,” Spartans head coach Tom Izzo said. “We feel very fortunate to beat this team on the road under the circumstances.”

The Iowa Hawkeyes will four days to prepare for the Minnesota Golden Gophers on Tuesday, January 13 in Minneapolis. The Gophers will travel to Ann Arbor to face the Michigan Wolverines on Saturday, January 10 before hosting the Hawkeyes.

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