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Here’s the reality: At 4-6 at the halfway point of the Big Ten regular-season, the Iowa men’s basketball team has some winning to proceed to the league’s tournament in Indianapolis March 12-16.
With the addition of four new members, an 18-team tourney apparently was too unwieldy for the conference. Not that a 15-team event isn’t, but that’s the number the league chose. It’s like relegation in European soccer leagues, except the bottom three teams won’t be replaced at the end of the season.
After its 82-65 loss at Ohio State on Monday, Iowa was in 12th-place in the Big Ten at 4-6. That’s not very far from 16th.
Minnesota, Northwestern and Rutgers are 3-6. The bottom three entering Tuesday night’s play are 3-7 Penn State, 2-7 Nebraska and 1-8 Washington.
Iowa is 4-1 at home in the Big Ten, 0-5 on the road. It won two of its home games by one point and another in overtime. On the road, it has lost by an average of 16.8 points per game, and lost its last four by 20.5 points.
Five of the Hawkeyes’ remaining 10 games are against the conference’s five ranked teams. Purdue, Wisconsin, Oregon and Michigan State all come to Carver-Hawkeye Arena.
The Hawkeyes can put some distance between themselves and Rutgers, Northwestern and Nebraska with wins at those schools. The other two road games are against rising Maryland and No. 18 Illinois.
Two glaring statistics suggest Iowa will need improvement just to go 4-6 in the second half of the Big Ten schedule.
In conference games, the Hawkeyes are last in field goal percentage defense (52.0 percent). By contrast, Michigan State has held league foes to 38.8 percent shooting. Wisconsin is at 41.8 percent, Purdue and Illinois at 42.9.
Iowa also is last in rebounding margin at minus-8.5 per game. That’s 3.5 per game worse than anyone else.
The stats aren’t all bad. The Hawkeyes are second in the league behind Purdue in an important department, turnover margin. They’re fifth in field goal shooting (47.8 percent).
By the way, finishing 15th is no bargain. Nor is ending 10th through 14th. The 10th through 15th teams will play on Wednesday at the league tourney, and would have to win five games in five days to capture the championship. The 5-9 seeds begin play Thursday, and the top four seeds start on Friday.
Iowa’s next game is at home next Tuesday against Purdue.
Comments: (319) 398-8440; mike.hlas@thegazette.com