Iowa's Season Has A Foundation Of Toughness
College basketball seasons are built in November and December.
Sometimes the seasons can be flimsy, and can be blown over when the winds of conference play blow in January and February.
Sometimes the seasons can be sturdy, a solid foundation built with the tests of nonconference play.
If you want to know where Iowa's sturdiness comes from, go back to December.
Think back to the Dec. 12 game at Iowa State.
The Hawkeyes led by as much as 21 points in the first half and were up 39-24 at halftime.
Iowa State started the second half with a 13-5 run in the first 3 1/2 minutes.
Hilton Coliseum was exactly what it always is during this rivalry, and when a double-digit lead becomes single digits and most of the second half remains, Hilton is going to be especially noisy and feisty.
The Hawkeyes, almost a month after taking hard hits in a home loss to DePaul, could have easily faded, as other teams have done against the Cyclones.
But, on back-to-back possessions, Iowa's Connor McCaffery hit a 3-pointer, followed by Joe Wieskamp's layup and subsequent free throw.
A little while later, Iowa's lead was 54-43, and the Hawkeyes' next three possessions were two 3-pointers by CJ Fredrick and one by Wieskamp.
Iowa won, 84-68.
Fast forward to nine days later on the neutral court of the United Center in Chicago, when the Hawkeyes let a 15-point halftime lead get away against Cincinnati.
What was a 50-35 margin turned into a 64-62 deficit with 4:45 to play. But Wieskamp hit a 3-pointer, Bakari Evelyn added his own three, and Iowa went on to a 77-70 win.
Those games were signs that this Iowa team wasn't one that was going to shrink away.
Sure, there have been a couple of difficult losses since then — the sweaty 89-86 defeat to Penn State at the Palestra in Philadelphia, followed by all of those missed shots in a 76-70 defeat at Nebraska.
But the Hawkeyes have won four consecutive games, three over nationally-ranked teams.
They trailed by seven points to Michigan with 9:42 to play, and won 90-83.
And, on Wednesday night against Rutgers, the Hawkeyes gave up seven points in 22 seconds to lose the lead, only to rally for an 85-80 win.
"We kept fighting," Iowa coach Fran McCaffery said. "We executed on offense, to perfection, and then got the key stops."
Which is what they did against Iowa State and Cincinnati.
A college basketball season is long, and full of education. The ones who survive the crucible of conference play are the ones who learn those lessons.
"Very receptive to coaching, but I think true students of the game," McCaffery said in describing his team. "When they're watching film, it's not like, 'OK, coach we'll be done in 15 minutes.' It's, 'OK, I got it. OK. And then I'll ask questions.' It's not like I'm talking and they're sitting there half asleep.
"'All right, what would you do here? What would you do here? OK, what are they doing? What will work against that?' So you got to get them thinking a little bit differently. So they're not being preached at, you know. They're a participant in the discussion. That's what coaching is. Get them to understand what's required. And then if everything breaks down, somebody has to go make a play, especially when the shot clock is running down."
It's why McCaffery said he is appreciating his team.
"Probably as enjoyable as any I've had, and I've had some that were really fun to coach," McCaffery said. "I will say this — since I've got in the business, you know, I can't think of a team that didn't have character and didn't try to do everything I asked them to do. I had a few clunkers in there.
"But this team kind of deals with whatever comes their way. No excuses. More importantly, we talk about accepting coaching, that's important, but I think they really support one another. So if somebody does make a mistake, nobody is yelling at them. It's like, 'Hey, we're going to do this now. Get to the next play.' All right? Next play. Got to get there. Forget what just happened. Still time on the clock. We're up one, we're down one, whatever. All right? We're going to run the play, we're going to execute the play. That's what they did."
That's what they've been doing all season.
Lesson learned.
