The last time Hawkeye men and women both won the Big Ten Tournament the same year was 2001.
That was Lisa Bluder’s first year coaching the Iowa women. Led by Lindsey Meder, Cara Consegrua and Jenni Lillis, the Hawks finished second in the league and beat Purdue for the tournament championship.
Steve Alford was in his second year coaching Iowa. The Hawks won four games in four days, like this year’s team did. Luke Recker hit a buzzer-beater against Indiana in the championship game to give Iowa a 63-61 win.
That was also the first year I covered Hawkeye football, basketball and wrestling.
Big Ten Tournament Final: Iowa 75, Purdue 66
There were two teams going into the tournament that I thought would be tough matchups for the Hawks. Both teams have great size and great athletes. First was Illinois, but Indiana knocked them out March 11.
Purdue was the other team that I thought was a tough draw. They controlled the glass in the first two games and Iowa lost both. The Boilermakers had a 48-30 advantage in rebounds, but the Hawks had more bench points 29-20 and a 14-5 lead on points off turnovers.
The Hawkeyes had 13 steals, four by Joe Toussaint. Ten players scored, led by Keegan Murray with 19, who set the record for most points in the tournament with 103 and was voted the Most Outstanding Player, a no-brainer.
Iowa had 12 players play and needed all of them, as the bigs got into foul trouble early. Josh Ogundele played 10 minutes, scored four points on 2-of-3 shooting. Payton Sandfort scored 10 on 4-of-4 from the floor including 2-of-2 from three.
“This team is really special” said coach Fran McCaffery. “There’s no better feeling.”
NCAA Tournament
Iowa men play Richmond Thursday, March 17, at 2:30 p.m.
Iowa women play Illinois State Friday, March 18, at Carver.
Iowa 112, Northwestern 76
Talk about raining threes. The Hawkeyes set a Big Ten tournament record with 19 3-pointers and were 19-of-29 (65.5%) from deep. Iowa has seven players who can make threes and all seven made at least one against the Wildcats.
You start with Jordan Bohannon, the Big Ten’s all-time best in 3-pointers made, who was 5-of-8 against the Cats, shooting 39% for the season.
Kris Murray made 1-of-1 from three, shooting 41% for the year. Keegan Murray was 3-of-3, shooting 39% for the season; Conner McCaffery 1-of-2, 38% for the year; Patrick McCaffery hit 1-of-4 against the Cats, shooting 31% for the season; Tony Perkins was 2-of-2, 33% for the season; Payton Sandfort was 3-of-5, 38% for the season; and Austin Ash was 2-for-3, 31% for the season.
If you can have three or four of those seven getting hot you have a good chance to win. If all seven are scoring you have a blowout.
How about a 45-18 advantage on rebounds against Northwestern, plus 25-5 edge on fast-break points?
“I’ve been in a lot of games,” said McCaffery, who just coached in his 400th game at Iowa. “But never anything like this.”
The Hawks shot better from three (19-of-29, 65.5%) than they did from the free throw line (7-of-12, 58%).
Five Hawkeyes had double figures, led by Keegan with 26, Bohannon 17, Sandfort 13, Patrick and Filip Rebraca 10.
Keegan’s 11 field goals tied Dean Oliver for most field goals in a Big Ten tournament. No one has ever scored more points in a Big Ten tournament game.
No one has ever made more field goals (43) than the Hawkeyes and no one has ever won by 36 points.
Iowa 84, Rutgers 74
You knew the Hawkeyes probably wouldn’t shoot 65% from three again against Rutgers. They were 7-of-22 (31.8%) against the Scarlett Knights last Friday, which isn’t bad, but they made up for it in rebounds and free throws.
Iowa had a 34-28 advantage on the boards is 20-0 when they won the rebound battle.
“That was a hard team to outrebound and we did that,” said coach McCaffery. “That says a lot about our guys.”
How about 22 straight free throws? The Hawks finished 25-of-27 from the line, 92.6%, a new Big Ten tournament record.
Iowa loves to run. They had 20 fast break points to Rutgers’ four and Iowa’s bench outscored Rutgers 18-0.
There were plenty of stars, including Keegan Murray, with 26 points, eight rebounds, two assists and no turnovers. He continues to shine with great drives and great finishes and broke Luka Garza’s one-year record for most points in a season, scoring 750. (Garza hit 747.)
Bohannon was 3-of-6 from three, 7-of-8 from the free throw line, finishing with 16.
Tony Perkins has stepped up since starting 12 games ago and was 6-of-9 from the floor putting up 16 points. When he hits a three, it’s icing on the cake. Iowa is 10-2 since he started and Bohannon moved to point.
Kris Murray had nine off the bench and all nine players scored for the Hawkeyes.
“I am proud of our guys tonight,” said coach McCaffery. “We beat a good team, one of the best-coached teams in the country.”
Twenty-one of Iowa’s 24 victories have come by double digits.
Iowa 80, Indiana 77
I looked up the phrase “March Madness.” In 1939, Henry Porter, the executive secretary for the Illinois High School Association, wrote in an essay for an Illinois high school publication that “a little March madness may contribute to sanity and help keep society on an even keel.”
In the early 80s Brent Musberger, sportscaster for CBS, started using the term for the NCAA Tournament, and it stuck.
When you bank in a 30-foot shot with 1.2 seconds on the clock, that fits March Madness like a glove. I was at the Iowa City American Legion playing cards when Bohannon hit the winning shot and the place erupted.
That is one of the reasons Bohannon came back; to give himself a chance to hit a game-winner.
Indiana tried to keep Keegan Murray from the ball, and I don’t blame them, so Bohannon stepped up.
Keegan scored 32 points including 8-of-11 from three and had nine rebounds, but scored 26 against Rutgers, 0-of-4 from deep.
Patrick McCaffery had 16 while Bohannon made four threes for 12.
Indiana led for 34 minutes, but Iowa took a 74-71 lead with 1:51 left and didn’t look back.
“I remember with about four minutes to go and we’re down by five,” said coach McCaffery. “I just felt like in the huddle that these guys kept believing and that’s what they had to do. Couldn’t be more proud of our team.”
Think about this… Bohannon and the Murray twins were not recruited out of high school.
The twins had to go to a prep school in Florida their first year out of high school.
