Iowa men's basketball: Hawkeyes have fallen far since days of national relevancy

Iowa men’s basketball: Hawkeyes have fallen far since days of national relevancy

Posted by author February 26, 2025 Basketball

Spread the love

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Four years ago on Tuesday, Iowa men’s basketball faced Michigan in a matchup between AP top-10 teams. A few days later, the Hawkeyes took part in another top-10 clash against Ohio State.

The Hawkeyes lost to the Wolverines and then beat the Buckeyes. But looking back now, the results themselves aren’t the point.

It’s the fact that Iowa basketball was involved in these types of games. High-stakes, bright lights. Regardless of the lack of NCAA Tournament success, existing on college basketball’s national stage was a reality for the program.

Iowa has fallen a long way since then.

Four years to the day after that bout with Michigan, the first of two consecutive AP top-10 matchups, Iowa basketball lost to Illinois by 20 points and is clawing to earn a berth in the Big Ten Tournament.

Iowa’s 81-61 road loss to Illinois on Tuesday was the latest hit in a disappointing season. Fifteen of the top 18 teams in the league make the Big Ten Tournament. With three regular season games remaining, Iowa is still not guaranteed to be above the cut line.

Perhaps more than anything else, that’s the best example to illustrate a program that is not what it used to be.

On Tuesday, Iowa (15-13, 6-11) hung around with Illinois for the first half. After getting off to a slow start, the Hawkeyes sliced their deficit to just two.

But an inability to sustain stretches of quality play held Iowa back yet again. The Hawkeyes’ wild inconsistencies have been one of the themes of the last two seasons. After trailing by seven at halftime, Iowa was outscored by another 13 in the second half.

Surprisingly, Iowa outrebounded an Illinois team that is typically dominant on the glass. But uncharacteristically, turnovers were an issue. Iowa committed 16 of them on Tuesday. The Hawkeyes shot 42% from the field, 33% from deep and scored a season-low 61 points.

“That’s the difference in the game,” Iowa coach Fran McCaffery said of his team’s turnovers. “Give credit to them. They were active, they were physical, turned us over 16 times and turned that into points.”

Sure, Illinois is talented. The Fighting Illini have multiple projected 2025 first-round NBA Draft picks. But Illinois entered Tuesday on a three-game skid and had given up at least 95 points in each of their last two contests.

Iowa didn’t get close to that on Tuesday and failed to lead for a single second.

“I feel like we’re not aggressive enough coming out,” Brock Harding said of Iowa’s slow starts. “Because we know that we don’t want to quick shoot the ball. But at some point, you have to come out and attack guys. Maybe get a foul call early. Gets some free throws early in the game. Just kinda get some momentum on your side.

“We’ve kinda let teams do that to us and attack us, get to the line early. And then they have the momentum early and we’re just clawing back, fighting our way back into the games.”

Video: Brock Harding scores team-high 16 points in loss to Illinois

Brock Harding discusses Iowa basketball’s 81-61 road loss to Illinois on Tuesday.

The AP poll isn’t the be-all and end-all when it comes to indicating a program’s status. But it does provide relevant context.

In four consecutive seasons — from 2018-19 to 2021-22 — Iowa cracked the top 17 at least once. During the 2020-21 campaign, the Hawkeyes were ranked as high as No. 3.

Iowa was, at least during the regular season, a national contender.

In 2022, Iowa won the Big Ten Tournament. But since reaching those heights, it has been a steady decline.

Directly following that conference title run, the 5th-seeded Hawkeyes were upset in their opening game of the NCAA Tournament, continuing a frustrating narrative under McCaffery. The following season, Iowa lost its first game in the NCAA Tournament as an 8-seed.

Last season, Iowa missed the NCAA Tournament altogether, marking the first time that had happened since 2018 (not including the year the event was canceled due to COVID-19).

The Hawkeyes have sunk even lower this season.

Injuries are important to mention. Owen Freeman, who is out for the season, is one of numerous Hawkeyes to miss time. But injuries alone are not an excuse for why Iowa’s season has gone this far off the rails.

Iowa is well on its way to its worst Big Ten record since the 2017-18 season. Six of its eight true road games have resulted in double-digit losses, including a 31-point loss to Wisconsin, a 26-point loss to Maryland and a 24-point loss to UCLA. Tuesday was just another example.

“You’ve got to get off to a better start in each half,” McCaffery said. “Because we played well at times in both halves. But the start of each half, you could argue that that’s where we lost the game. Forget about whatever else happened.”

Barring a miraculous turnaround, the NCAA Tournament is not in the realm of possibility. The Hawkeyes aren’t even on the bubble. A more realistic goal for Iowa is making the Big Ten Tournament.

The Hawkeyes were never on college basketball’s mountaintop under McCaffery. Their NCAA Tournament struggles made sure of that. But Iowa was still perceived as a national force.

That is far from the case now.

Follow Tyler Tachman on X @Tyler_T15, contact via email at ttachman@gannett.com