The Hawkeyes (12-3, 3-0) have won five straight games and nine of their last 10.
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Thomas Beindit: Iowa has really impressed over the last few weeks and proven the doubters wrong for most of the season. He scored a career-high 32 points against Boise State 10 days later.
Jarrod Uthoff has been a prime Big Ten player of the year candidate, leading the first-place Hawkeyes with 18.6 points per game along with 6.1 rebounds. Gesell’s total of three double-figure assist games is already the most by an Iowa player since Jeff Horner in the 2005-06 season.
Iowa neither draws fouls nor do they foul the opposing team. “Not with the loss, but maybe the way we played”.
Michigan State, which has posted a 36-5 record since 2013, is one of only four schools in the nation to play in a Bowl Championship Series Game (2014 Rose Bowl), a New Year’s Six game (2015 Cotton Bowl) and the College Football Playoff (2015 CFP Semifinal at the Cotton Bowl) in the last three seasons (Alabama, Florida State, Ohio State).
“He’s just a terrific player”, McCaffery said of Gesell.
Michigan State will be eager to return the favor to Iowa, the only team to beat the Spartans this season. “We got outphysicaled, we got outhustled, they got every loose ball.”TV: 7 p.m. ET, ESPNABOUT IOWA (12-3, 3-0 Big Ten): The Hawkeyes have won nine of their last 10 games, losing only a one-point decision to a highly ranked Iowa State squad, in advance of this showdown at the Breslin Center”. Bryn Forbes (20 points on 6-of-8 3-point shooting) paved the way against the Nittany Lions last time out, while star swingman Denzel Valentine returned from a four-game absence (knee) to chip in 10 points off the bench. “So we have to get used to playing with each other”. “I think that’s been a plus”.
Still, Iowa will have plenty of motivation to prove the first result against the Spartans wasn’t merely an accident of timing. “We have to be ready for a fight”, said Iowa guard Anthony Clemmons, a Lansing native who went scoreless for the first time this season in Tuesday’s win over Nebraska. Michigan State leads the country with a 13.6 per-game rebounding edge and are second nationally in assists with 21.1 a game.
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But Iowa shouldn’t wither against Michigan State as it had in the past.
