When Iowa beat No. 1 Michigan State by 13 points in Iowa City to tip off the Big Ten season, there were caveats. The Hawkeyes shot well, the Spartans shot uncharacteristically poorly, and perhaps most importantly, star player Denzel Valentine — at that time, the national player of the year favorite — was out with a knee injury.
Fast-forward just over two weeks, and Iowa beat Michigan State again. This time, the fourth-ranked Spartans did have Denzel Valentine. And they had home-court advantage at Breslin Center, where Iowa hadn’t won since 1993. None of that mattered, as the Hawkeyes boat-raced MSU, this time winning by even more, 76-59, and making Tom Izzo do this:
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So in a season sweep of a top-five team, Iowa has outscored that team by 30 points.
With those wins, plus a win at Purdue, Iowa has a chance to vault into the top 10 of the AP poll, and the advanced stats like the Hawkeyes even better, ranking them fourth in the country, only behind Villanova, Kansas and Oklahoma. A deep NCAA Tournament run is now very possible, but in the more immediate future, the Hawkeyes are the clear Big Ten favorites.
So how did that happen for a team that wasn’t in anybody’s top 25 to start the season, and was even a bubble team by some calculations? Everyone is better than anticipated, with good players turning into great players and team leader Jarrod Uthoff turning into an All-American candidate.
Every major Hawkeye contributor has seen major improvements on both ends of the floor, and all have seen major improvements in offensive rating, a metric from KenPom.com that measures offensive efficiency.
| Player | 2014-15 | 2015-16 |
| Jarrod Uthoff | 113.8 | 119.2 |
| Peter Jok | 96.9 | 112.2 |
| Mike Gesell | 98.5 | 118.4 |
| Anthony Clemmons | 102.6 | 104.7 |
| Adam Woodbury | 98.7 | 116.8 |
| Dom Uhl | 82.0 | 122.2 |
The Hawkeyes also have the 11th-best defense in the nation, according to KenPom, and that’s shown up in Iowa’s biggest wins. Against MSU the first time around, Anthony Clemmons held prolific scorer Bryn Forbes to just three points. Forbes vowed to do better this time. Then he scored just two points.
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And then there’s Uthoff. Iowa’s do-everything star might be the most unique player in the history of college basketball. He’s phenomenal from three, but he’s also a prolific shot-blocker. As Black Heart Gold Pants found, nobody has ever averaged three blocks and two made threes per game like he does. The only other comparable player is former Duke great Shane Battier, who averaged two and two.
That versatility has made Uthoff the second-best player in college basketball this year, according to KenPom, behind only Oklahoma’s Buddy Hield. He finished with 15 points, 10 rebounds, two blocks and three made threes against MSU, proving to be as unguardable as ever.
After the game, Uthoff was feeling it, and in the most big brother way ever, thanked Sparty for trying.
“We knew we were the better team from the get-go,” Uthoff said. “We wanted to go out and prove it. They fought us as hard as they could. I think they gave us their best fight. Both times, you can’t say they didn’t fight us because they came out and wanted to punch us in the face.”
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That’s not usually how Iowa can talk about Michigan State, but this year, it is. Uthoff is a factor in nearly every game, but he also gets help. Jok, a 6-foot-6 wing who has turned into a very effective three-point shooter. He had 23 against MSU. Gesell had 25 last time out against the Spartans.
There are no weak spots on this team, from highly-recruited players like Uthoff, Gesell and Woodbury, to freshman walk-on Nicholas Baer, who has been a catalyst for this team and put up 11 in Iowa’s first matchup with MSU. If you zone Iowa, the Hawkeyes will shoot lights out. If you play man, they’ll blow past you, thanks to so many players, like Uthoff, Jok, Dom Uhl and even Baer, who have such unique skill sets.
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Before this run, Iowa was a good story that made the round of 32 in the NCAA Tournament last year as coach Fran McCaffery rebuilt the program. Now, the Hawkeyes are favorites to win the Big Ten, with arguably the best wins on any resume in the country.
Somehow stop Uthoff? Well, then you have to stop Gesell, Jok, Woodbury, etc. There’s depth of good players, and then there’s what Iowa has. And the Hawkeyes just might be able to ride that depth and talent deep into the NCAA Tournament.
