It was one of the wildest Hawkeye road wins ever.
I wanted to put this in last week but didn’t have enough room.
The Hawkeyes had to come from behind twice to beat the Nittany Lions, who were not in the Big Ten yet, 42-34. The two teams combined for 1,089 yards, a stadium record.
Chuck Long was 16-30 for 345 yards and broke Pete Gales record of 321 yards passing.
Chuck passed for two touchdowns and ran for one as Iowa started the season 2-0.
Owen Gill ran for 131 yards but the play of the day was with Iowa leading 35-28.
Iowa had a first and ten on their own 23 with 8:30 left in the game. Chuck threw a jump ball to Ronnie Harmon down the left sideline on the Penn State 30. Ronnie out jumped the Penn State defender and ran the last 30 yards for the score.
The Hawks finished 9-3 that year ending with a 14-6 loss in the Gator Bowl to Florida.
Hawkeye Men
Iowa played three tough teams last week with Duke, Iowa State, and Wisconsin on the schedule.
The Hawks traveled to New York City to take on the Blue Devils in Madison Square Garden for the Jimmy V classic. Duke has the No. 1 recruiting class in America and four of the freshman started.
Talk about talent and size.
They have five players over 6-10, four over 7-0 and two of them start. One of their seven footers even made a three. Duke out rebounded 45-35 and the Hawks shot only 18.8% (3-16) from three.
“It’s hard when you shoot 3-16 from three,” said coach McCaffery. “I don’t remember a really bad three. Give them credit, they made seven (7-20) threes.”
Patrick McCaffery and Filip Rebraca scored 12 and 10 respectively, but Kris Murray was held to eight going 0-3 from three. Dasonte Bowen came off the bench and scored a season high 12 on 5-7 shooting from the floor and 2-2 from the free throw line.
Iowa 75 Iowa State 56
I have been following sports since I was about eight.
The greatest part of sports is that you never know who’s going to win. It’s hard to predict how your team is going to play in their next game. I would have never bet the Hawks would jump out to a 20-2 lead and then cruise to a 75-56 win over 20th ranked Iowa State.
The morning after is a nice feeling, especially with a win over the Cyclones.
The Clones were playing good defense, shooting well with size and depth.
Iowa, meanwhile, was having trouble shooting threes.
That all changed last week at Carver.
All five starters made at least two 3-pointers including Filip Rebraca, who made his first 3-pointer of the season finishing 2-2 from deep and scoring a season high 22 points with 11 boards, four assists and three blocked shots. Last year Filip was 1-6 from three. When Filip played at North Dakota, he shot 36% (10-28) from three as a freshman and 37% (15-41) as a junior.
Playing without their best player, Kris Murray, who was injured, everyone had to step up and they did.
Conner McCaffery replaced Kris in the starting lineup scoring 14 points on 8-8 free throws with four assists and two steals.
How nice is it for coach Fran McCaffery to have a 6th year senior to turn to?
Tony Perkins is the spark that runs this team leading the defense that held the Clones to 20 points below their average and shooting 13.6% from three.
Congratulations to coach McCaffery for getting his 500th win.
It has to be great to have Conner and Patrick on the court to help get the milestone.
Wisconsin 78 Iowa 75 OT
What a difference a game makes.
Three days before Iowa lost to Wisconsin in overtime, the Hawkeyes shot 50% from the floor and 52% from three in their 75-56 win over Iowa State. Against the Badgers, on the same floor, with the same players, Iowa shot 42% from the floor and 26% from three.
It didn’t help that Aaron Ulis sat beside Kris Murray with an injury. Kris is averaging 19.4 ppg, Aaron 6.4.
The Hawks had four players make 3-pointers including Carter Kingsbury, whose dad Chris played for Iowa in the early 90’s. The Hawks got crushed on points in the paint 52-36 and were outscored 22-5 on bench points.
Patrick and Conner McCaffery combined for 41 points and 17 rebounds. Conner also had five assists but the Hawks lost their Big Ten opener.
Hawkeye Women
The Iowa women played two games last week hosting Iowa State and Minnesota.
Another morning with a nice feeling the day after, especially when the Hawks beat a good Iowa State team that was ranked 10th in the nation.
It wasn’t easy.
Iowa played their worst first half in two years scoring 23 points, shooting 17% (10-35) from the floor and 20% (2-10) from three trailing 28-23. The third quarter was one of the best ones Lisa Bluder has seen. The Hawks shot 59% (10-17) from the floor, 74% (5-7) from three and 2-2 from the free throw line.
Caitlin Clark scored nine of her game high 20 points in the third quarter. She only had six in the first half. The Hawks outscored the Clones 27-8 in the third period and went from trailing by five at half (28-23) to leading 50-36. Monica Czinano, going up against a 6-6 center, scored 18 with 10 boards. Kate Martin made five 3-pointers and scored 13. For the season, Kate is shooting 52% (14-27) from three. McKenna Warnock is shooting 40% (20-50) from three.
Both Kate and McKenna did a good job of holding All-American Ashley Jones to 15, five below her average. When Gabbie Marshall started the season she was a 36% 3-point shooter.
This year, she is only shooting 20% but is second on the team with 17 steals.
Iowa has five players shooting over 40% from three. This also means the Hawks beat the Clones three times in five days!
Iowa 87 Minnesota 64
The Hawks beat a young but talented Gopher team last Saturday night at Carver.
Lisa Bluder became the all-time winningest coach in the Big Ten with her 243rd win.
You start with defense as the Hawkeyes held the Gophers to 30% on the floor and 22.7% from three. Minnesota had 17 turnovers, which Iowa turned into 26 points.
Iowa also dominated the paint (50-22) and fast break points (26-5).
Three starters were in double figures with Caitlin Clark scoring 32 with 10 rebounds and nine assists. Monica had 22 and McKenna Warnock scored 12 with 10 boards.
A nice win to end the semester.
Wrap Up
Congratulations to Tory Taylor and Jack Campbell for being named first team All-American.
Jack also became the first Hawkeye ever to win the Dick Butkus award as the nation’s top linebacker.
The wrestlers won 27-12 with Tony Cassioppi getting a pin at heavyweight.
A tough loss for the men against the Badgers.
The Hawkeyes travel to Madison February 22nd.
Hopefully, Kris and Aaron will be healthy.

Gallery • 2 Photos

Brian Ray/hawkeyesports.com • Contributed Photo

Head coach Fran McCaffery celebrates his 500th win with Connor McCaffery following their game against the Iowa State Cyclones Thursday, Dec. 8 in the Iowa Corn Cy-Hawk series in Carver-Hawkeye Arena.