Rutgers Next Up for Iowa Basketball

Hawkeyes Moving On from Setback at Michigan State

Thirty-eight minutes on the court the night before. Arriving home at 1 a.m., not falling asleep until about 4 a.m.

Yeah, Iowa forward Filip Rebraca said, he was feeling it on Friday afternoon.

Asked if he had moved on from the 63-61 loss at Michigan State on Thursday night, Rebraca said with a smile, “I’m not so sure when I played 38 minutes. “I mean, mentally, I guess, but physically? No, not really. But we have to battle through it.”

It is January, when the Big Ten standings and the schedule are tightened in a midseason vise, when one game is done and there’s not a lot of time to prepare for the next one.

Which, for the Hawkeyes, is Sunday afternoon against Rutgers at Carver-Hawkeye Arena.

It starts a three-game homestand for Iowa, which plays Northwestern on Tuesday night before facing Illinois next Saturday.

The Hawkeyes (12-8 overall, 4-5 Big Ten) take a narrow approach, though, and yes, coach Fran McCaffery said he knows it is a cliché to just be looking at the next game.

It has to be the reality, though.

“Half the time, I swear, I don't even know who we're playing next after that,” McCaffery said during his Friday press conference. “I don't pay any attention to it. I find out from you guys — hey, we've got three in a row at home or we have a bunch of road games coming up. Whatever. I know we play Rutgers at home on Sunday.”

“You really just have to move on,” said Payton Sandfort, who missed two 3-point attempts in the final seconds that could have won Thursday’s game. “It's next shot, next day. Next practice, next game. So that's the mentality we have to keep.”.

The approach, though, also includes getting over the last game, win or lose. For the Hawkeyes, it’s two losses — last Saturday at Ohio State, followed by the road loss to the Spartans.

It can be a grind, Rebraca said.

“During the game, I feel completely fine,” Rebraca said. “It's right after the game, and then that night because it's like, you're not going to bed until like 4 a.m. What it is like, my body is very tired, but my brain is just, you know, it's wired. So I didn't go to bed until like four I think, or something like that.”

And with games coming right after another, McCaffery knows he has to keep his team as fresh as possible.

“It's pretty routine,” he said. “You can't be nuts. We got home (after the Michigan State game) at 1 a.m., so you're smart with what you do in practice and how hard you go and how long you go and how much you practice versus film review on us and our opponent. You kind of figure it out.”

It’s a traffic jam of teams around the Hawkeyes in the middle of the Big Ten road. Rutgers (14-6, 6-3) is in second place. Iowa is in a four-way tie for eighth place, two games behind the Scarlet Knights.

It’s almost February, a month that seemingly drags, but it can also be a time when a team makes its move. It was about at this time last season when Iowa closed the season by winning eight of its last 10 regular-season games before winning four games in four days to take the Big Ten Tournament title.

“To be truthful, I don't think we really look at that,” McCaffery said. “It's a completely different team. I know it sounds cliché, but we're just locking in on Sunday and trying to be the best version of ourselves on Sunday. We'll worry about February when February comes.”