The Iowa Hawkeyes faced a significant challenge on Saturday, hosting the No. 20 Wisconsin in a late-season contest. With only six games remaining in the regular season, every game turns into a must-win if the Hawkeyes want to make the NCAA Tournament.
With a 14-11 record, the inconsistent Hawkeyes stood at 10th in the Big Ten standings heading into this contest. However, it is a tight race in the middle of the conference pack, as it usually is in the Big Ten, so these last couple of games are crucial for final standing heading into the conference tournament.
While you wouldn’t expect Iowa to compete with Wisconsin on paper, the Badgers a ranked opponent, and the Hawkeyes, well, not, Fran McCaffery’s boys gave Wisconsin a heck of a fight at Carver-Hawkeye Arena. That’s despite a cold start where it looked as though Iowa was going to be played off the court by halftime, pretty much killing their season before March even arrived. Pulling it together at the end of the first half, Iowa rode a wave of momentum to bring them right back into the game.
The two teams went blow-for-blow with each other, unable to decide this one in two halves. It took overtime, but Iowa would come out victorious on Saturday, defeating Wisconsin 88-86. A huge victory, here are the takeaways.