Back in early February, Iowa’s basketball team soared.
The Hawkeyes were ranked as high as No. 3 in the country, held first place in the Big Ten and had reeled off nine straight wins, including victories over both Michigan State and Purdue.
Then it all fell apart.
Iowa has lost six of eight since, limping into the NCAA Tournament after suffering an early exit from the Big Ten Tournament with a 68-66 loss to Illinois. The late-season woes didn’t go unnoticed by the NCAA selection committee, which tabbed the Hawkeyes as a No. 7 seed, meeting No. 10-seeded Temple in a South Region matchup at 3:10 p.m. Friday at Barclays Center.
“I think the Big Ten season started to wear on us,” Iowa’s Jarrod Uthoff said. “Day in and day out we’re playing good teams. … I think losing to those teams is a good learning experience for us, and we’ll bounce back from it in this tournament.”
But the NCAA Tournament has been a struggle for the Hawkeyes, who have qualified the last three seasons.
Iowa won its first Tournament game since 2001 last year with a first-round, 31-point win over Davidson, the largest margin of victory in the program’s tournament history, but has not reached the Sweet 16 since 1999.
The senior-laden Hawkeyes say they have learned from their two most recent Tournament appearances and appear ready to take the next step.
“We’ve all experienced losing our last game of the year,” Uthoff said.
Added senior forward Adam Woodbury: “It’s a do-or-die situation. We all want to go out on top in our careers and leave a lasting legacy at the University of Iowa. This is our last chance to do so.”
It also might be their best chance.
Late-season struggles aside, Iowa completed regular-season sweeps of Michigan and Michigan State for the first time since 1954 and captured five Top 25 wins, which tied for the second-most by the Hawkeyes over the last 20 seasons.
They are led by Uthoff, the only player from a major conference to total at least 575 points, 190 rebounds and 80 blocks this season. Iowa junior guard Peter Jok is a dead-eye 3-point shooter (41.2 percent). They combined for 35.1 points per game — the third-highest scoring duo in the program’s last 40 years.
All of which makes the six losses in eight games no cause for concern.
“It’s not panic city by any means,” Iowa coach Fran McCaffrey said. “What our job is as a coach is to figure out how to make three or four adjustments that will help us win a close game rather than lose it.”
Added Uthoff: “A season is a series of peaks and valleys. You peak at times, and at times, you go through rough patches and you learn from each experience.”
The Hawkeyes hope those experiences carry them to a deep tournament run.