Hawkeyes Top Rutgers for 1st B1G Win

BOX SCORE

His 127th Big Ten win as Iowa’s coach was just like the others, Fran McCaffery said.

The Hawkeyes’ 86-77 victory over Rutgers on Saturday afternoon at Carver-Hawkeye Arena helped McCaffery pass Tom Davis as the program’s all-time winningest coach in conference play. It also puts McCaffery two wins away from being the program’s all-time overall winningest coach.

“You guys know me, I don’t think about wins,” McCaffery said in his post-game press conference. “I always find it interesting, that ‘I have this-many wins.’ I didn’t play anybody. Iowa won those games.”

Still, such milestones make McCaffery reflect on the program’s development since his hiring as head coach in 2010, turning around a program that hadn’t been to an NCAA tournament in the previous four years and didn’t have a winning season in the previous three.

“I do think when something like that happens you do think about the journey a little bit,” McCaffery said.

There is a journey this team is taking, and that was McCaffery’s concern on Saturday. Iowa (9-6 overall, 1-3 Big Ten) hadn’t had a conference win yet this season and an 0-4 start, even if it’s still early January, can feel like a chasm.

Asked if this game was a must-win, senior guard Payton Sandfort said, “You try not to (think about it), but that’s kind of the reality to it. You don’t want to dig yourself too big of a hole and we did that, we struggled, we had a tough start.”

It’s why it was important that Iowa took control early. The Hawkeyes opened the game with a 19-5 run over the first 6 ½ minutes as Rutgers (8-6, 0-3) missed 14 of its first 15 shots.

“I thought we did a good job today of coming out, playing with fire, playing connected,” said forward Ben Krikke.

“They got it going early,” Rutgers coach Steve Pikiell said. “They jumped on us. I thought after that it was a good game, but you can’t spot a good team like that (a big lead) on the road.”

The Hawkeyes couldn’t shake the Scarlet Knights until late in the second half, and a lot of that had to do with how they closed the first half. Iowa was up 41-28 when Rutgers got back-to-back 3-pointers from Mawot Mag sandwiched around a turnover by the Hawkeyes when Tony Perkins was called for traveling..

“He was a little upset with the way we gave up a little bit of a run at the end of the half,” Krikke said. “They hit a couple of threes back to back and we messed up one of our plays down the stretch.”

“I was really disappointed with how we ended the half,” McCaffery said. “You get the ball back with 21 seconds left, you better take the last shot. We turn the ball over and they shoot the three. And that’s not the first time that’s happened this year.”

The Hawkeyes, though, started the second half strong, pushing the lead to 51-38 two minutes into the half and never letting the lead get below eight points the rest of the game.

“To their credit, they responded,” McCaffery said of his team. “I challenged them, and they responded in a big way. Our offense was really good. We were trading (baskets) with them, but I think our defense was really good there midway through the second half.”

Sandfort, who finished with a season-high 24 points, hit four second-half 3-pointers that always seemed to come at the right time.

Krikke had 19 points and 10 rebounds. Owen Freeman and Tony Perkins each had 15 points.

The Hawkeyes were without starting forward Patrick McCaffery, who was out with an illness. Josh Dix started in McCaffery’s place and had seven points and four assists in 26 minutes.

Mag led Rutgers with 24 points and 10 rebounds.

On a day for a milestone, the most important thing, Fran McCaffery said, was getting that first Big Ten win.

Pikiell knew what the larger number meant.

“That’s unbelievable, because of the great coaches they’ve had here, but he’s one of the best coaches in America,” Pikiell said. “Sometimes when you have a guy that's been here for a while you don't appreciate, truly, every year he has a really good team. He’s a terrific coach, and that record is hard to achieve. Make sure you appreciate him, because those guys are hard to come by.”