The next 6 days will say a lot about this Iowa Hawkeyes basketball team. Before I get to the upcoming games, a quick review of Sunday’s win over Penn State. Two things happened that are super important for Iowa in their win over Penn State on Sunday.

#1 – They won. It wouldn’t shock anyone if a team with #3 Michigan and #4 Ohio State looming overlooked Penn State. It happens. And it happened in the 1st half. Iowa looked out of sorts at times and Joe Wieskamp was TERRIBLE. Garza looked like he had something else on his mind (more on that in a second). In the 2nd half,  Wieskamp turned it on & the Hawkeyes pulled away. Things started clicking when…

#2 – Luka Garza made HISTORY:

Congrats to the all-time scoring leader in University of Iowa history. Hearing Garza talk after the game about nerves impressed me. Luka WAS NERVOUS to break the record. He was pressing. And why wouldn’t he? The scoring record was set 9 years before he was born. Roy Marble is one of the all time great players not just in Iowa history but in the history of the Big Ten. He was human and it showed and that’s cool. He says he’s never air balled a free throw before. Well, cross that off the list. He’s at 2,126 & counting…

Which brings us to this week. If you look at the Hawkeyes schedule, they’ve officially beaten ONE TEAM currently in the top 25: #23 Wisconsin. (UNC, Northwestern & Rutgers are not CURRENTLY ranked). Of the ranked team’s they’ve played, they’ve lost to Ohio State, Illinois, Gonzaga. But over a span of four days, they’ll play the #3 & #4 teams in the country. No one in the Big Ten is facing a week like this. I haven’t studied every schedule but nobody’s got this tough of a two game stretch, with a potential 2 seed (or better?) on the line this late in the season. Michigan is great. They have 5 guys on the floor at all times who can score,  a tenacious defense and they play under such control. Juwan Howard should be the Big Ten Coach of the Year. Ohio State couldn’t hold off the Wolverines at home but osu is still really really good. They’ve already beaten Iowa this year (in Iowa City) and if they want to stay in contention for a #1 seed in the NCAA Tournament, they have to beat Iowa. REMINDER: Step out on OSU’s 3’s. That’s how they beat you last time.

If the Hawkeyes:

Win both: I’m convinced they’ve learned how to win a big game an i’ll write em into my elite 8.

Split: That’s still very respectable. Getting a  win in Ann Arbor OR C-bus is huge (even without fans). I’d feel really good about Fran getting to his 1st Sweet 16 and then ya never know..

Lose both: And I’m back to where I’ve been for most of this year on Iowa: UNCONVINCED. Lose to both & they’re 1-5 vs the big boys. Are they in the top tier of the Big Ten? Top of the middle tier? Could they lose the 1st weekend of the Big Dance? Yep. They sure could.

The Big Ten is LOADED and these two massive tests for Iowa come at an interesting time as the Big Ten Tournament is 2 weeks away. Iowa can’t afford a bad 1st half vs Michigan or OSU like they did against PSU. I’m really glad for Luka that he broke the record already. Iowa didn’t need that in the back of his mind this week.  Buckle up, Hawkeye fan. It’s gonna be fun.

Prediction: Iowa loses both. 

~ Wickett

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