Hoosiers wary of Hawkeye visit Sunday
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – Matt Gatens thinks he can predict the motivational approach Indiana men’s basketball coach Tom Crean will take for Sunday’s 5 p.m. game with Iowa at Assembly Hall.
The Hawkeyes have won on their last two trips to town, and own a four-game winning streak overall in the series.
“I’m sure Coach Crean will remind them of that, and they’ll be ready to go get us,” said Gatens, a senior and the Hawkeyes’ leading scorer.
Iowa won a total of eight Big Ten games over the previous two seasons. Half came against Indiana. The Hawkeyes won two league road games over that span. Both were at Assembly Hall — 64-63 last season and 58-43 in 2010.
Indiana’s resurgence this season, fueled by victories over No. 1 Kentucky and No. 2 Ohio State at Assembly Hall, has been a national story. The No. 16 Hoosiers have come back to the Big Ten field of late, losing four of their last five games to stand 16-5, 4-5.
The Hoosiers’ return to college basketball’s front page has been led by 6-foot-11 freshman center Cody Zeller, who is the team’s leading scorer at 14.7 points a game. He’s also the top rebounder at 6.2 a game.
“I like our chemistry, I like our team unity, I like our willingness to improve, and the work ethic is tremendous,” said Crean, in his fourth season. “Certainly Cody has brought a ton to the program, and we anticipated that. There’s no way to quantify or predict what a freshman is going to do in a program. But Cody has done a lot of things, with a lot of room to get better and help make this team get better.”
Iowa, 11-10 and 3-5, hopes incoming 7-footer Adam Woodbury from Sioux City East can do for the Hawkeyes what Zeller did for the Hoosiers.
And Iowa can only hope it can find a way to slow down the Hoosiers after Thursday’s defensive meltdown in a 79-73 home loss to Nebraska. The Cornhuskers’ 79 points were 25 over their Big Ten average.
Iowa’s defense, last in the Big Ten at 71.6 points overall and 73.9 in league games, will be trying to slow down an Indiana offense that is No. 1 in scoring at 78.4 points a game and third in league games at 69.9 points.
Iowa coach Fran McCaffery also expects Indiana to be motivated.
“They are going to come after us, and it’s going to be a enthusiastic crowd,” McCaffery said. “I think they are a substantially better defensive team than they were last year, just because you’ve got Zeller in the middle, and you’ve got long-arm guys that have been around. Now, instead of freshmen and sophomores, you’ve got sophomores and juniors. And then you have the big fella.”
Category: Iowa Hawkeyes men's basketball
