Wow!

March 11, 2005

• From the Big Ten: Iowa-Michigan State Quotes
• From the Big Ten: Iowa-Michigan State Notes
• From the Big Ten: Press conference video
• 2005 Big Ten Tournament information
• Listen to Iowa’s games online!
• Watch Steve’s weekly visit with the media live!
• Listen to the Hawkeyes on XM Radio

The Iowa Hawkeyes played like a team that belonged in the NCAA Tournament Friday night at the United Center.

Conventional wisdom would say that a team whose most recent victory was its 21st of the season, was against the No. 2 seed in its league’s post-season tournament, and was against the 10th-ranked team in the land will, indeed, find itself among the field of 64 when the sun sets on Selection Sunday this weekend.

Such is the case for Coach Steve Alford’s 2004-05 Hawkeyes.

In a game that was highlighted by a pair of teams who couldn’t make a free throw – and made one when they were trying to miss – Iowa came out a 71-69 winner over Michigan State in a quarterfinal game of the 2005 Big Ten Conference Men’s Basketball Tournament.

The Hawkeyes outscored the Spartans 8-5 in the game’s final 2:10 to secure their second straight win in Chicago and their fifth straight overall. Iowa’s success was due in great measure to the Spartans’ inability at the charity stripe.

Michigan State missed five of their last six free throw attempts and shot just 50 percent from the line for the game – remarkably poor for a team that sank 80 percent of their free throws during the regular season.

The toppers to the March Madness this night in the Windy City were the last two misses by the Spartans and the, err, made free throw by Iowa’s Jack Brownlee.

First, the misses.

Alan Anderson had a chance to give MSU a one-point lead if he was successful on his two attempts with six seconds remaining to play and Iowa clinging to a 70-69 lead. Anderson entered the game with the ninth-best free throw percentage in the country, 89 percent.

They were sure things and, yep, he missed ’em both.

Now, the made free throw.

Brownlee, a sharp-shooting senior guard who had taken just one free throw all year and, yes, you guessed it — he missed that one — was fouled with 1.2 left to play. Sure enough, he missed his first attempt. Then, after getting instructions from the bench to deliberately miss his second, Brownlee tossed up a brick that rattled around before falling in and providing one final 11th hour attempt at victory for the Spartans, which failed.

The victory pushed Iowa’s overall record to 21-10 and the Hawkeyes’ record in their last 10 games to 6-4. Iowa will look to continue its run through the United Center in the second of two semifinal games to be played Saturday afternoon. The Hawkeyes will play the Wisconsin, a team it lost to in a game played in Madison in late February.

Four Hawkeyes scored in double-figures, a quartet that was paced by Greg Brunner and Mike Henderson, who each scored 17 points. Henderson was particularly spectacular – the sophomore played 37 minutes, was 6-of-10 from the field, 5-of-6 from the line, grabbed six rebounds, and had two assists, two steals and only one turnover.

Horner added 16 and Haluska 10 – all in the second half. Doug Thomas came off the bench to chip in seven points and game-high 10 rebounds, seven on the defensive end of the floor where the Spartans used a slight edge on the offensive glass to get seven more shots at the hoop than the Hawkeyes.

“Anytime you play Michigan State you have to defend the backboard, and we won that by one. You have to defend the transition game and they had only four transition points,” Alford said after the victory.

“Any time you can hold them to only four transition points it will have a dramatic impact on the game. I also think paint scores, or easy scores, are key, and we were able to win that as well,” he added. “These were the three areas we focused on, and I really did not know if we could do all three.”

The Hawkeyes opened a nine-point lead at 46-37 when Brunner took a pretty feed from Horner for an easy bucket with just over 15 minutes left to play. It was then that Michigan State cranked up its full-court pressure and scored 10 unanswered points after causing three Iowa turnovers.

The game see-sawed for the next 12 minutes with MSU getting up by as many as three on three different occasions. Henderson gave Iowa a 63-62 lead with a pretty lay-up at the 3:40 mark.

The final three minutes was a blur of turnovers, fouls, missed foul shots, and, generally, missed opportunities for all except the Hawkeyes, who should fall to sleep tonight with visions of their first NCAA Tournament appearance since they won four games in four days in the United Center to capture the 2001 Big Ten Tournament title.

The Hawkeyes won the game because they out shot the Spartans from the field and the stripe, outrebounded Michigan State, and because they were playing for the NCAA Tournament lives unlike their opponent — the Spartans flew to Chicago knwoing they were already on the invite list for the NCAA’s post-season party.

The Hawkeyes also overcame 18 turnovers and 26 fouls.

The latter drew the ire of Alford, who coached jacket-less for the last 9:24 – the same time on the clock that Iowa was whistled for its sixth offensive foul of the game.

“Both teams went to the line 30-plus times, and our goal is 24 for 30. We were 20 out of 31. We did beat them by five points at the free throw line, and, if you had told me that was going to be the case with 10 minutes left in the game, I would have told you that you were crazy,” Alford said.

Iowa outscored the Spartans 29-18 in the final 12 minutes of the first half, a run that was sparked by a technical foul called on Iowa’s bench at 12:14 and just seconds after Alan Anderson slammed home a dunk to give Michigan State a 12-5 advantage.

The Hawkeyes’ offensive explosion was led by Horner. He was everywhere doing everything. Iowa’s floor leader sank three three-pointers – two that were launched from Lake Michigan – and had four total in seven tries from behind the arc. Horner also collected two rebounds, a steal, an assist and was a disruptive force on the defensive end of the floor.

Henderson also chipped in 12 first half points while Brunner added nine points and five rebounds.

Iowa erased a seven-point Spartan lead to tie the game at 20-all when Alex Thompson sank the second of two free throws at the seven-minute mark. The Hawkeyes claimed their first lead of the game seconds later when Horner knocked down a three after a turnover by MSU’s Paul Davis.

The Hawkeyes took their first four-point lead of the half, 30-26, when Henderson sank a pair of free throws. Horner’s hustle set up Brunner for a lay-in that put Iowa back up by four at 32-28.

Henderson drove the lane with 10 seconds left in the half to give Iowa’s is 34-30 lead at intermission.

Iowa was stymied by its own sloppy play in the game’s opening minutes. The Hawkeyes were charged with six turnovers in the first eight minutes of play. Iowa settled down a committed only two miscues in the next 12 minutes of action.

“I just thought we really came out and fought. We came in to this game confident that we could get a win and we have been for the whole season,” said Haluska.

“We’re taking one game at a time. The last five wins that we’ve had, we have gone after each opponent. I thought we really came out here and battled.”