Iowa basketball: The Hawks are bound for the NCAA Tournament this Season

Through nine games of the season, the Iowa basketball team is sitting at 7-2. Do we know enough to think this team is tournament bound this season?

With a long “off” week leading up to this Saturday’s instate showdown with UNI, let’s take some time to look back on the past two weeks of the Iowa Basketball season. It was a pivotal stretch for the early season and gave us some insight as to whether this team is capable of making a NCAA tournament run.

Leading up to the games vs Pitt, Wisconsin, Michigan State, and Iowa State I thought, “If Iowa could go 2-2, I would be happy with that”. They did finish 2-2 beating ISU and Pitt but dropping both conference games vs Wisconsin and MSU.

Should we be concerned? I don’t think so.

While the Pittsburgh win might not end up looking as good on the resume at season’s end, it was a tough matchup that last year’s team would definitely not have come out on top. It shows the growth this team has taken. The Iowa basketball team being able to match scoring in a back and forth battle against a team with solid guard play was sight for sore eyes. Poor free throw shooting almost cost them the game, but this is an area that the team will continue to focus on and improve.

Beating Iowa State is a good win because it showed that the Hawkeyes were able to put a bad loss to Michigan State behind them. That team will get some key pieces back and end up being a solid win for the all important tournament resume. Iowa was able to build a lead and repeatedly fend off any run Iowa State put together. Moreover, Connor McCaffery’s aggressive second half play and ability to close out the game at the free throw line was great.

There will definitely be a few more games that the Iowa basketball team will need to rely on him down the stretch.

Losing the Wisconsin game at home to open B1G play was rough, but Iowa was in it till the end and certainly had chances to win. Even when the shots weren’t falling, it was encouraging to see that they could rely on their defense to keep them in it. Again, last year’s team would not have won that game and would not have had any chance to.

The Michigan State game should just be thrown out and chalked up to Iowa’s annual beat down in the Breslin Center. Remember, even Iowa’s B1G tournament champion team in 2006 lost by 30 at MSU that season. Iowa has been historically bad playing at Michigan State.

This team excels by getting to the free throw line, and was not only unable to get the calls but got into foul trouble themselves. The loss was ugly but MSU is a top ten team and it was on the road. Let’s not focus too much on it.

I believe this team can make the NCAA tournament this season. They have already shown a willingness to play better team defense. Over that two-week stretch they gave up an average of 78.5 points a game, while not great, they did play great defense at times when they needed and when shots weren’t falling.

Let’s not forget that 90 of those points came against MSU when that game had already snowballed out of control.

Furthermore, they have a missing piece in Connor McCaffery that they didn’t have last season, Cook has a renewed commitment to pushing this team to succeed, Baer has stepped up a made key shots when needed, Moss has shown glimpses of what he could be capable of if he could develop some consistency in his play, and if Pemsl can play through this season despite earlier opting for season ending surgery his toughness can always provide a spark.

They should, should  being the key word here, win out the non-conference to get to 11-2. Ten league wins I think would get them in. The B1G is shaping up to be the best in the country, but Iowa has already played potentially the two best teams.

The Hawkeyes have shown that they are capable of playing better basketball than they did last winter. If the Iowa basketball team can continue to focus on playing defense, it should be a better March.