By Adam Hensley | [email protected]

2013 doesn’t seem like that long ago, but to Hawkeye basketball fans, it seems like quite some time has passed since then; that’s the last time Iowa won in the Big Ten Tournament.

The No. 7-seed Hawkeyes (18-13), who streak into Washington, D.C., riding a four-game winning streak, will clash with No. 10-seed Indiana (17-14), which has lost six of its last eight games.

With the regular season over, everything changes. It’s March; anything can happen.

“[Indiana is] still battling,” Iowa head coach Fran McCaffery said. “There’s still obviously a lot to play for them … [they’re] a team that has our full attention in terms of what they’re capable of doing.”

The Big Ten is one of the most competitive conferences in the nation, and senior Peter Jok knows that just because Iowa has a better seed than Indiana, it can’t take things for granted.

“Anybody can beat anybody,” Jok said. “We have a lot of great teams in the tournament. Seeding doesn’t matter. You just need to come ready to play because it’s do or die now, survive and advance.”

The Hoosiers gave Iowa a run for its money in late February, the only time the squads have played each other this season.

It took an overtime effort, but the Hawkeyes came out on top, 96-90.

It was a vintage Jok performance in crunch time. The senior piled up 35 points in the win, repeatedly attacking and capitalizing at his chances at the free-throw line (22-of-23).

That game was the start of Iowa’s recent winning ways — since then, the Hawkeyes went on the road to topple two ranked opponents (No. 24 Maryland and No. 22 Wisconsin) and took care of business at home on Senior Day, smacking Penn State by 11.

Those last four games were almost as good of a finish to a regular season as they get, but the Hawkeyes can’t lose sight of what’s ahead.

“We just know if we keep winning, it’ll take care of itself,” Tyler Cook said.

Indiana hasn’t had a favorable final stretch of games like Iowa, but it comes in with some momentum of its own; after losing in Iowa City, the Hoosiers defeated Northwestern (which is looking at its first ever NCAA Tournament berth) and Ohio State.

The team is also “really athletic” and “versatile,” McCaffery said.

“You look at their speed and quickness in the backcourt, it’s phenomenal,” he said. “You look at a guy like [Thomas] Bryant, obviously he’s as good as any big man in the country.”

The sophomore averages 12.9 points and 6.9 rebounds a game, not to mention a sneaking shooting touch from the perimeter, knocking down 39 percent of his shots from deep.

He won’t be the only presence felt in red.

James Blackmon Jr. led the team in scoring at 17 points per game, while shooting better than 41 percent from 3-point range.

The Hawkeyes believe they deserve a spot in the Big Dance later this month, but they’ll need to make a decent run to inject themselves into the tournament.

“We thought that [we’re a tournament team] this whole season,” Cordell Pemsl said. “We’ve just been playing inconsistently. We finally got that rhythm and that swagger as a team.”

McCaffery has led Iowa to three-consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances. He has never coached a team to four-straight dances in his 30-year career.

He doesn’t need to remind his team that every game from here on out is crucial.

A Big Ten Tournament title is an automatic bid. Otherwise, Iowa needs a few convincing performances to help its cause.

“Everybody knows what’s at stake,” McCaffery said. “Everybody knows where we sit and what opportunities are out there for this team.”