Iowa men’s basketball’s upset win over No. 9 Nebraska came at a critical time in the season, coming off two bad-looking losses top unranked Maryland and then-No. 13 Purdue. Now with a ranked win, the Hawkeyes went from NCAA Tournament bubble territory to a great shot to secure a spot within the next two weeks.
However, with a signature win in the books, it’s important for Ben McCollum and Co. to focused on the stretch ahead.
“I don’t think that is that big of an issue because we talk about it constantly, making sure that we’re pretty process focused,” McCollum said. “It was nice for them to be able to see that, to be able to see what they can build eventually. But just like for me, beating Nebraska is very similar to beating anybody else.”
Iowa shot 17-of-51 from the field against Nebraska, with Bennett Stirtz owning eight of those makes. And for a team that thrives off systematic offense, its five assists were the lowest in a game this season, let alone the only game under double-digit assists. Call it the Bennett Stirtz dilemma.
The last few games showed opposing teams reluctant to play help-defense on the star point guard, leading to less opportunities for open looks or off-ball movement for his teammates.
“We do want the ball to move. We’re better when it moves. We’re better when it flows,” McCollum said. “But certain games are a little bit trickier because they may not help off certain guys, or they may help off this guy, or they their help comes from variety of areas.”
While the Hawkeyes hope to fix its offensive woes in its Sunday matchup with No. 24 Wisconsin on Sunday, it will have their hands full defensively with the Badger duo of Nick Boyd and John Blackwell. The two guards’s 39.1 combined scoring average makes them the highest scoring duo in the Big Ten, and the team’s 83.1 average ranks third behind Michigan and Illinois.
The Badgers’ scoring prowess is predicated off high volume shooting, leading the conference with 62 attempts a game on 45 percent shooting including 11 made threes a game. However, it gives up 76 points a game to opponents on 44 percent shooting, proving its love for a fast-paced, run-and-gun play style.
“They pose a lot of problems,” McCollum said. “Their whole offense does just, there’s really good offensively. They can beat you in so many different ways. So our objective is to make sure we play our defense and hope that’s good enough.”
Wisconsin proved it is capable of stepping up to the challenge with wins over then-No. 8 Illinois and then-No. 10 Michigan. Sandwiched in between those victories is a pair of losses to unranked Indiana and unranked Ohio State – both critical losses as those three teams, along with Iowa and UCLA, all within a two-game spread in the Big Ten standings.
Iowa and Wisconsin specifically are one game apart, so a Hawkeye win on Sunday would put the two foes neck-and-neck at a 10-6 Big Ten record with two weeks left in the regular season.
The Iowa-Wisconsin game tips off at 3 p.m. CT Sunday at the Kohl Center in Madison, Wisconsin, and can be streamed on FS1.