The Current State of Iowa Basketball

by Brandon Hurley

For those of you that weren't able to witness the basketball game that took place at Carver-Hawkeye Arena Sunday evening, you missed out on one of the more gritty performances of the season. The Hawkeyes pulled out an overtime victory against the Michigan Wolverines, 70-60. The clear cut player of the game was sophomore Jake Kelly, who had a breakout type performance with 23 points, eight rebounds and nine assists and only two turnovers in 45 minutes of play, gaining Big Ten player of the Week honors.

He nearly had a triple-double and completely took over the extra period, accounting for nine of the 15 points. Kelly has really seized the opportunity to play point guard while fellow sophomore Jeff Peterson sits out with a sore hamstring. Over the last two games he is averaging a cool 21 points during that span. This team has made a lot of noticeable improvements the last four or five games. Without a true point guard leading the team, Iowa was able to beat a Wolverine squad that has beaten Duke and UCLA. The team played solid defense throughout, with Kelly shutting down super sophomore Manny Harris, refusing to let himself to get crossed over.

This was a bit of a turning point game for the program, especially for Kelly. Even though they blew an early 12 point lead, the Hawks were able to stay within striking distance the entire game, and even came back from a four point deficit with a minute left. I was impressed with how the team dealt with blowing a lead and the Wolverines hitting a few clutch three pointers. When Michigan hit a three with a little over a minute left to go up by four, I personally had doubts that the Hawks could pull this one out. But to the surprise to most of the fans at CHA, they tied it up with four clutch Matt Gatens free throws and pushed the game to OT. Once it got to that point, the Hawkeyes never looked back.

The state of the program after this victory looks bright, even though many fans refuse to believe so. This team has been plagued by suspensions and the injury bug all year. They lost freshen sharpshooter Anthony Tucker to academic suspension and senior big man Cyrus Tate has been hobbled by an ankle sprain just as he was hitting his stride. And Peterson was really developing his jump shot before he tweaked his hamstring at Wisconsin. Heck, Jarryd Cole has just now reached 100 percent health after sustaining an ACL injury last season. He is good for eight points and six rebounds every game from here on out.

If you are able to take a glance at the roster for next season, you will notice that we only lose one key component to the team in Tate. Other then that we have everyone returning and we gain high school commits Eric May and Brennan Cougill to fill that void. By this time next year I think you will be hearing people throwing around Kelly's name as one of the best players in the Big Ten. With another year under their belts, the group of Gatens, Tucker, Peterson, Cole, Aaron Fuller, Devan Bawinkel and Jermain Davis, will be pleasantly surprising everyone. We will have three top notch shooters in Gatens, Tucker and Bawinkel and Kelly and Peterson will be forces taking the ball to the rack along with Cole and Cougill picking up the scraps from missed shots. Give this team a break, and watch the Hawks finish strong and be looking forward to next season. Head coach Todd Lickliter is doing all he can with the little pieces he has and I think everyone needs to cut this team some slack. Things may look dark now, but by this time next year, you will have forgotten we were dueling in the bottom cellar of the Big Ten.