DeShawn Sims Manny Harris

The skinny: Michigan is still hinging its NCAA hopes on its performance in the Big Ten tournament. Despite winning several games against great teams, the Wolverines do not have a gaudy record and have been wildly inconsistent. For the Wolverines to succeed, success largely lays on the broad shoulders of All-Big Ten first teamer Manny Harris and the depth the Wolverines possess. Iowa, on the other hand, has been playing good ball as of late–at least competitive ball–and the emergence of Sophomore Jake Kelly has everyone a little nervous. The Hawkeyes haven’t been really that great offensively all year and have for the most part been underachievers. Still, the two team split the series over the season and this game is definitely not a one-sided affair.

Big Tenet’s Prediction: Michigan 74, Iowa 60

Harris and DeShawn Sims will pick apart the Hawkeye defense early, and despite a good game by Cyrus Tate and another great showing by hometown hero Kelly, the Maize and Blue cruise in the second half. Michigan has much more to play for than Iowa and Coach John Beilein will make sure they advance to the next round.

The Iowa Hawkeyes did not have entirely huge aspirations to start the year, as the talent level according to the Big Ten standards is lower

Jake Kelly Iowa Hawkeyes

than normal; and unfortunately, those underachieving thoughts have played out painfully in the Big Ten season. The Hawkeyes are 3-10 and 13-13 overall. They have been horrible in the offensive categories, topping 60 points only 4 times in the Big Ten season, and twice of those games were against last place team Indiana. If it weren’t for Jake Kelly’s last two games (17 and 19), it may be much worse.So what’s left for the Hawkeyes?

Remaining Big Ten Season:

vs. Michigan: Win While the Hawkeyes got pummeled in Ann Arbor, they will be coming off 8 days of rest and the Wolverines don’t particularly play well on the road.

at Michigan State: Loss Michigan State will continue their strong play at home, especially as the Spartans march towards a Big Ten title.

at Northwestern: Loss  Northwestern will be gunning for the Hawkeyes, as Iowa won at home. With the Wildcats better than average defense, Iowa will struggle in Evanston.

vs. Ohio State: Loss Ohio State’s big men will exploit Iowa’s interior defense and with the Hawkeyes playing their 3rd game in six days, this will be hard to really play end to end well.

vs. Penn State: Loss My gut is that Penn State will be playing for magic win #20. They won’t want to wait until the Big Ten tournament to get that win.

Big Ten Tournament and NCAA Tournament Outlook: One and done. Sorry, Hawks fans, but the road ends mercifully here.

It had been quite a while for Indiana fans, but behind Devan Dumes‘ 27 (a near perfect night from the field as well) and Nick Williams‘ 14 points, the Indiana Hoosiers snapped an 11-game losing streak and beat the Iowa Hawkeyes at Assembly Hall in Bloomington 68-60. The atmosphere was one you wouldn’t expect–no bronx cheers or sarcastic cheering, it was full on party time in Bloomington. Many thought that the fans were extremely disappointed with this season, and while they aren’t exactly happy, they can certainly appreciate a victory like this and take it for what it’s worth–progress.

Congrats to Coach Tom Crean on getting his first Big Ten victory.

Kalin Lucas and Durrell Summers are getting used to carrying the Michigan State offensive workload. The problem is, they aren’t really the ones who were thought to be doing it consistently for the Spartans. While big name talent Raymar Morgan and Goran Suton get a lot of the publicity, Lucas and Summers have carried the bulk of the point scoring over the past two victories for the Spartans, this time combining for 45 points in the Spartans road victory over the Iowa Hawkeyes.

Morgan and Suton combined for only 8 points.

This is a great problem to have, but obviously coach Tom Izzo would prefer that his “stars” are doing great work game in and game out, but that’s apparently why you have 5 people on the floor at all times. “That’s a big dynamic for the team,” Summers said. “How our team is, I think on any given night, a guy can really go off on the offensive end.”

The Spartans shot 52% for the game and 55% from the three point arc as the Hawkeyes had no answers for Lucas and Summers.

Is it just me in this thinking, or does it seem to be destined that the Big Ten Conference Trophy is going to end up in the state of Michigan? With the Michigan State Spartans currently sitting at 3-0 and Michigan improving to 3-1 after a ho-hum victory over a decent Iowa team, both of these teams seem to be heads and above others in the conference–for now.

Manny Harris scored 18 and had 8 boards with 5 dimes in the win over the Hawkeyes. DeShawn Sims added 16 and was the only other Wolverine in double figures. Unlike the Spartans, these guys seem to be the ones that MUST play well, so they had better find a third and maybe fourth consistent scoring option if they want to keep this momentum going into the postseason.

Iowa, on the other hand, is trying to get the bleeding to stop. They fell to 1-3 in the conference and committed 18 turnovers. The Hawkeyes are still relatively young, but I would have thought that after the emotional win in Bloomington this week that the Maize and Blue may have been primed for a letdown game. But this game just looked way too easy for them—which is definitely the sign of a very good team.

They had gotten the call they wanted.

After a meelee in the closing seconds of their game with Boston College, the ball had floated around for a few seconds and the skrum had given way to a meeting between the referees at half court. Was there a foul? Was there time on the clock?

Yes to both. So then came Andrew Brommer to the line, down 2 and at the line for a 1 and 1.

Clunk.

Not that it was a huge surprise. Brommer, who obviously purchased the Shaquille O’Neal instructional video on Ebay, was 3-14 on the year from the line, and now he’s 3-15. Yep, that’s 20%. Dude, Shaq’s even feeling sorry for you now…

Just like the Purdue-Duke game, the Hawkeyes got beat decisively on the boards (which is normally an Iowa strength) and from the three point line where BC hit 9 to Iowa’s 2. (Basically, what I will surmise from this is that unless the Big Ten can get it together, we’re going to have a lot of stinkers this year where we can’t hit the broadside of a barn or hold onto rebounds.) There was also a big discrepency at the charity stripe, where Boston College shot 22 free throws as compared to Iowa’s 9, including the one at the end. Coincidence? I think not.

I didn’t give Iowa much of a chance in this game, so to lose by two to a decent BC team on the Golden Eagles’ home court is at least something to take with them on the way to Iowa City. Hopefully they can remember that and not Brommer’s brick that even embarrassed me, and I’m not even an Iowa fan!

Iowa fans may be hoping that coach Todd Lickliter has the tools he needs for his type of game play after finishing 13-19 last year, but they may be a little ahead of themselves. Lickliter prefers the slow down game, and while he is a good coach, his team this year may not be exactly up to snuff as far as wins and losses.

But then again, this is kind of mystery team, so a lot could happen either way. Tony Freeman’s transfer was a killer to the Hawkeyes, as he put up almost 14 points a game. Still, Cyrus Tate came on strong at the end of last year and could very well make up for some of those points lost, and long bomber Jake Kelly will be looked to lead the team–and with the three point line being moved back, he may be one of the premier shooters in the league.

The Hawkeyes are still very young, and 7 new players will don the black and gold this year. Devan Bawinkel, a transfer from West Virginia/JUCO, should provide immediate help to these young players and also should make an immediate impact offensively.

The overall look at the Hawkeyes is that the team has little depth overall, but decent experience in the starting five. Tate, Bawinkel, and Kelly will form a decent scoring duo, and Lickliter’s approach to discipline should bring the younger players up to speed quicker than most, but to ask for an NCAA berth at this point may be pushing it. An NIT bit and an over .500 record is definitely something that is within reach. Just a wait a couple of years, Hawk fans. They’ll get there.

Some people have been saying online that the win the Iowa Hawkeyes was pure luck, that it was basically the Penn State letdown and not the play of Iowa that necessarily won the game. I would challenge anyone who watched the last drive that Penn State had where Darryll Clark was intercepted and the ensuing drive that Iowa had, lead by phenom Ricky Stanzi and Shonn Greene, and ask them again–did Iowa win that game or did Penn State give it away? I’ll take the former every single time.

Watching the game, you got a sense that something special was going to happen. Penn State was solid as usual on the ground, but they really couldn’t get anything going in the air, as the Iowa secondary defended several passes and frustrated Clark all day. While the offense wasn’t spectacular, Greene had a great game and Stanzi was efficient overall. As the fourth quarter started, I just had a feeling about the game, and even basically turned off the Alabama LSU game just to watch the rest of everything with PSU-Iowa.

And it was totally worth it. While I am saddened by the fact that the Big Ten won’t have a team playing in the national championship game, maybe it was more of a blessing than anything, where perhaps the match ups can be a bit more even and hopefully some more teams can get victories and therefore earn a bit more respect back for the conference. I’d rather have that than a 49-17 thumping by (Big 12 or SEC team name here).