Hawkeyes look to reverse course on late-season nose dive

Coach Fran McCaffery snapped at the media for asking about plays. Senior leader Jarrod Uthoff refused to offer ideas about how to get the team back on track, dumping that responsibility on the coaches instead.

Moments after Iowa was upset in its first game in the Big Ten tournament — again — the Hawkeyes looked and sounded more like a team whose season had just ended, rather than one that will make its third consecutive appearance in the NCAA tournament Friday when it faces Temple at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, N.Y.

But unless Iowa makes big changes from last Thursday's loss to Illinois, the season's close might not be very far away — an abrupt finish that would be all too familiar.

"It's the NCAA tournament now," junior wing Peter Jok said last week. "It's do or die, so we've just got to come ready to play our game and we've got to win."

Unfortunately for the Hawkeyes, their "game" has been nowhere to be found for about five weeks.

After building a reputation as a bastion of meticulous, patient ballhandling — Iowa led the Big Ten in turnover margin — the Hawkeyes turned over the ball 18 times against Illinois.

On Feb. 7, Iowa led the Big Ten with just a single loss in league play. On Feb. 15, it stayed at No. 4 in the Associated Press poll despite falling at Indiana and only narrowly beating Minnesota. But the struggles were only starting. The Hawkeyes dropped four consecutive games before managing a win in their regular-season finale at Michigan.

Then they got bounced in their conference tournament opener for the third consecutive year.

When guard Mike Gesell was asked about late-game plays afterward, a red-faced McCaffery interrupted the reporter with, "It's none of your business what the play call was" — then repeated himself after he was pressed.

Uthoff, after being asked what his team needed to do to get right, was similarly standoffish, barking more than once: "That's what the coaches are for — ask the coach that question."

Perhaps it shouldn't be a surprise that the Hawkeyes are a little sensitive about this tumble from glory. An eerily similar version of this year-end collapse has happened before. Iowa was a top-10 team two seasons ago before dropping seven of eight and then losing to Tennessee in a First Four game.

Does that not-so-distant memory creep into the minds of this Iowa team, one whose five starters all participated in that slide? Do they fear this season could be a repeat of that nightmare?

"New year, different personnel, different team," Uthoff said. "So, no."

Part one of the real answer, though, will come on Friday.