Iowa’s Jordan Bohannon (3) and Patrick McCaffery double team Michigan’s Hunter Dickinson on Feb. 17, 2022 during a game at Carver-Hawkeye Arena in Iowa City, Iowa. (Rob Howe/HawkeyeNation.com)
Preview: Hawkeyes Head to Ann Arbor
Iowa’s near-perfect February has set up the perfect scenario for March.
The Hawkeyes, who went 7-1 in February, are currently tied for fourth place in the Big Ten men’s basketball standings, and if the conference tournament started now they would have the No. 4 seed, which means a double-bye in the five-day tournament.
Iowa heads into the final two-game stretch of the season — at Michigan on Thursday and at Illinois on Sunday — with plenty of confidence, and it can be seen on the offensive end.
The Hawkeyes averaged 86.1 points per game in February, more than two points above their season average.
The points have come from different contributors, which have made the Hawkeyes a difficult team to defend.
“I think when you look at this league — it's physical, it drains you,” Iowa coach Fran McCaffery said on Wednesday. “You better have some depth. It's one thing to have depth, but it's one thing to have depth of a multitude of confident, aggressive scorers. That's what we have.
“It’s game to game — different players are stepping up You know and it's game to game you know different players are stepping up and hurting the other team. The beautiful thing is whoever those guys are, everybody else is happy for, and that’s what you want as a coach and that's the kind of team we have. I think it has been really good for us so far this year and hopefully it'll continue.”
Iowa got that kind of balance in Monday’s 82-61 home win over Northwestern. Keegan Murray, the Hawkeyes’ leading scorer, had 26 points, but the Hawkeyes also got 18 points from Jordan Bohannon and 17 from Connor McCaffery, who is playing his best offensive basketball of the season.
McCaffery has scored just 74 points this season, but 24 have come in the last two games. He’s 8-of-12 in 3-point shooting, which has primarily been his game this season — he is 21-of-56 shooting overall, but 20-of-51 in 3-pointers.
McCaffery said on Monday night he’s always had a pass-first mentality, an assessment his father agreed with on Wednesday.
“When the ball swings to him and he's wide open, just let it rip,” Fran McCaffery said. “Don't hesitate, because we're all expecting you to shoot that shot. You kill it in practice, for the better part of your career you’re well above 35 percent. So you should be shooting it with confidence, it's essential.”
The Hawkeyes (21-8 overall, 11-7 Big Ten) take plenty of confidence into Thursday’s game against the Wolverines (16-12, 10-8). Michigan, which is without head coach Juwan Howard for the rest of the regular season, has won two of its three games since Howard was suspended, including an 87-70 win over Michigan State on Tuesday.
Iowa’s only loss in February was an 84-79 home defeat to the Wolverines.
Hunter Dickinson is Michigan’s leading scorer at 18.3 points per game, but it was Moussa Diabate who hurt the Hawkeyes in the last game, scoring 28 points, one of five Wolverines in double figures.
Iowa could be without forward Patrick McCaffery for a second consecutive game. McCaffery, who injured his hip in last Friday’s win over Nebraska, did not play Monday night. He had 13 points against Michigan in the earlier matchup.
“He's going to try to do some stuff today in practice,” Fran McCaffery said. “We didn't do a lot yesterday. He did a little bit, so let's see how he responds to that. You know that kind of a mini workout and then we'll see what he does today. We don't want him to have this thing linger the rest of the way.”
