Hawkeyes Hoping to Build on Recent Success

Fran McCaffery and his Iowa basketball staff have plenty to sell on the recruiting trail this summer, thanks to an abundance of riches over the past three seasons.

A consensus National Player of the Year in Luka Garza. A pair of consensus all-Americans in Garza and Keegan Murray. A first-round NBA draft pick in Murray. A two-time Big Ten Player of the Year in Garza.

And a 2022 Big Ten post-season championship that millions of viewers watched on CBS. It was the kind of free advertising, and recruiting moments, that money can’t buy.

“It always helps being on TV, and having people talk about your players,” McCaffery said. “This year we played the last game right up to Selection Sunday. Four million people watched that (title) game against Purdue. Jim Nantz and Bill Raftery and Grant Hill were talking about Keegan Murray and the Hawkeyes. Yea, it’s important.”

There are a few thorns mixed in with the fruits of success. Thorns that competing recruiters bring up when visiting with prospects. Namely, no trip to the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament since 1999. History might have been different had the Hawkeyes pulled out that overtime loss to Tennessee in the second round in 2019.

And it’s been 1978-79 since Iowa shared a piece of the Big Ten regular-season championship. And that included a little luck.

It looked like fourth-ranked Michigan State had the title in its back pocket. But the Spartans lost at Wisconsin, 83-81, when Wes Matthews made a 50-footer at the buzzer. That ended Michigan State’s 10-game winning streak. And it gave Iowa and Purdue a seat at the title table with the Spartans.

“I plan to send (Wisconsin coach) Bill Cofield an “I’ blanket and I’ll give an autographed basketball to Wesley Matthews,” Iowa Coach Lute Olson said after his team has earned a share of the title by crushing Northwestern, 95-64.

Since the 2018-19 season, when the Big Ten went to 20 conference games, Iowa is 22-21 against Top 25 competition. The Hawkeyes are 47-33 in Big Ten regular-season games, and 26-14 over the past two seasons. Iowa tied for fifth in the league race in 2019-20, was third in 2020-21 and tied for fourth last season.

Every team has a handful of what-if moments that could have changed the regular-season Big Ten standings. Moments that easily could have gone the other way. Iowa was no exception. Three games stand out in particular.

There was that Jan. 19 loss at Rutgers, 48-46, when Joe Toussaint’s basket at the end of the first half looked good but was wiped out. And then Keegan Murray was called for a touch foul against Ron Harper, Jr. with :02 to play. Harper made both free throws.

There was a 90-86 double overtime loss at Penn State on Jan. 31. Iowa had a 78-75 lead late in the first overtime. Penn State’s Myles Dread appeared to take an extra step before launching a 3-pointer from the top of the key with :09 left that forced a second overtime.

And there was the 74-72 loss at Illinois on March 6, when Iowa missed six of nine free throws in the final 2:26, and a game-winning 3 from Kris Murray rattled in-and-out at the buzzer.

The Hawkeyes’ troubles in the Big Ten Tournament had been another frustrating experience. Heading into the 2021-22 season, Iowa hadn’t won twice in the same Big Ten tournament since taking the title in 2006.

But the Hawkeyes broke through to win the third title in men’s program history.

“You win four games in four days, that’s really hard to do,” McCaffery said. "Two of the teams we beat, Indiana (in the semifinals) and Purdue, those were like road games. Our fans showed up, but not to the point that those guys did. They bought up all the tickets.”

The fact that Iowa beat Purdue, its nemesis of late, in the title game played in Indianapolis, Ind., made it that much sweeter. The Boilermakers had won six of the previous seven games in the series. That included a 77-70 Iowa loss without Keegan Murray at No. 2 Purdue on Dec. 3 and a 83-73 loss to the sixth-ranked Boilermakers at home on Jan. 27.

“We’d played them tough twice,” McCaffery said. “That first game there was one of the most intense atmospheres I’ve ever been involved with. Our kids really fought. At home we played them pretty well. And then Isaiah Thompson had an out-of-body experience.”

Thompson, who has transferred to Florida Gulf Coast after averaging 4.2 points a game last season, had 18 including five 3-pointers in the victory at Carver-Hawkeye Arena.

But Iowa’s 75-66 victory in the Big Ten title game erased one recent hurdle that had been challenging for Hawkeye teams in the past.

The long list of national awards and accomplishments put together by recent players should benefit Iowa in recruiting. But it doesn’t always work as planned.

When 6-9 Jaxon Kohler picked Michigan State over Iowa, he said he went with the Spartans because he wanted to be his own man and not the next Luka Garza.

But with power forward Owen Freeman and point guard Brock Harding, both from Moline, Ill., already pledged in the Class of 2023, as well as legacy recruit Cooper Koch from Notre Dame High School in Peoria, Ill., in the Class of 2024, Iowa’s recent run of success has paid off.

Freeman also had offers from Big Ten rivals Indiana, Michigan State, Wisconsin, Ohio State and Illinois. Koch’s growing list of offers included Illinois, Indiana, Purdue and Wisconsin.

Winning Big Ten battles like those might even lead to a Big Ten regular-season title, or a Sweet 16, down the road.