The Iowa men’s basketball team began the season as many fans and media members predicted — winning six of its first seven games. Standing at 6-1, the Hawkeyes traveled to Madison Square Garden to face the Duke Blue Devils.

Then-No. 15 Duke beat Iowa, 74-62, in New York City, but the loss didn’t look like it would hurt the Hawkeyes’ resume much.

However, the game did hurt Iowa star forward Kris Murray.

Murray played nearly the entire contest against Duke, but it was later revealed he suffered a leg injury during the action that would keep him out four the next four games.

Without their best offensive player, the Hawkeyes blew out then-No. 20 Iowa State, 75-66, lost an overtime heartbreaker to Wisconsin at home, and demolished Southeast Missouri State. Then, in Murray’s final game out with the injury — also missing graduate student forward Connor McCaffery — Iowa took one of its worst defeats in program history.

On Dec. 21, 2022, the lowly Eastern Illinois Panthers came to Iowa City with a 3-9 record and losses by over 20 points to both Big Ten teams they had played earlier in the season — an 87-57 defeat by Illinois and a 65-43 drubbing at the hands of Ohio State.

The Panthers scored 56 second-half points and erased an eight-point halftime deficit to beat Iowa, 93-82.

The loss, coming right before Big Ten play was set to kick off in full force, seemed like it could be a turning point in Iowa’s season.

Iowa’s results didn’t improve immediately with Murray back in the lineup to begin conference play. The Hawkeyes dropped back-to-back games to current bottom-half Big Ten teams Nebraska and Penn State.

An early-season three-game losing streak against teams Iowa was projected to beat would’ve been an apt time for the Hawkeyes to fracture and come apart.

Instead, standing at 0-3 in the conference and 8-6 overall, Fran McCaffery’s bunch came together

In its next contest, a home showdown with then-No. 15 Indiana, the Hawkeyes looked like they were going to take their fourth straight L.

After Iowa trailed, 28-7, with 13:32 left in the first half. Iowa clawed back to within 10 at halftime and tied the game at 84 with 2:39 remaining.

Two free throws from Hawkeye sophomore guard Payton Sandfort — who fought through a shooting slump early in the year — clinched the come-from-behind, 91-89, victory for Iowa.

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The Hawkeyes carried over that momentum to three more consecutive wins at Rutgers, at home against Michigan, and against Maryland in Iowa City.

After the Michigan game — one where the Hawkeyes fought back from a seven-point deficit in the final 2:18 of regulation to force overtime and get a win — Murray said Iowa never faltered as a team during its three-game losing streak.

“We’re never going to go out without a fight,” Murray said. “I think we got our swagger back that we didn’t have before … It’s just a team that didn’t stop believing even after we went on a little skid.”

RELATED: Iowa men’s basketball picks up third straight win, outlasts Michigan in overtime

After the Maryland win on Jan. 15, Iowa lost back-to-back road games to Ohio State and Michigan State but then won three straight at home against Rutgers, Northwestern, and Illinois, to finish January and begin February.

Iowa lost its winning streak on Feb. 9, taking an 87-73 loss to then-No. 1 Purdue on the road, but followed that up with two more wins against Minnesota and Ohio State.

Sitting at 17-9 overall, 9-6 in league play, and on a two-game winning streak, the Hawkeyes were hot.

Then they went ice cold, literally.

Against Northwestern and Wisconsin — both on the road — Iowa took losses by 20 and 12-point margins, respectively, and shot a combined 6-for-52 from three-point range.

Falling to 17-11 and 9-8 in the conference, Iowa slid down in multiple NCAA tournament bracket predictions, to places like a No. 8 or No.9 seed. A couple more losses and the season could be in jeopardy of collapse.

But Connor McCaffery said the team remained calm.

“I think we’re fine,” Connor McCaffery said of his team on Feb. 24. “Obviously didn’t shoot the ball well the last couple games, doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure that out. But I think our morale is good. This is kind of the home stretch … The teams that are going to come out of this ahead are the teams that are mentally tough, along with some physical toughness. But more importantly, stay mentally sharp, focused, attention to detail, stay connected.”

And boy, did the Hawkeyes show all of those attributes in Feb. 25’s comeback for the ages against Michigan State at Carver-Hawkeye Arena.

Trailing by 11 points with under a minute left, Iowa clawed its way to overtime in the second-largest comeback with less than a minute remaining in NCAA men’s basketball history.

Iowa grabbed two offensive rebounds, hit five threes, and forced a turnover in the final minute.

Then, Iowa held Michigan State to one field goal in the overtime period and escaped with a 112-106 win.

“We’ve kind of done this all year where we don’t give up,” Murray said. “This was probably the biggest example of it. Just the fight in us showed those last few minutes when a lot of people thought we would give up and they gave up on us.”

RELATED: Turnovers, rebounding, three-point shooting fuel Iowa men’s basketball to historic comeback win against Michigan State

Iowa has had a multitude of setbacks this season but has found a way to right the ship after going through the rough patches. Whether it be after losing streaks, or clawing back from double-digit deficits in the final half — or minute — the Hawkeyes’ fight this season is something that should be remembered.