Third Place?

Feb. 22, 2007

IOWA CITY — After smoking a red-hot Purdue Boilermaker team 78-59 Wednesday night in Carver-Hawkeye Arena – a victory that featured five Iowa Hawkeyes scoring in double-digits for the first time in 2006-07 – Coach Steve Alford’s squad has its sights set squarely on what most would have thought as impossible in October: A third place finish in the Big Ten Conference.

“We have a very difficult stretch run, but it is a stretch run that we are excited about,” Alford said after the Hawkeyes secured their 31st victory in their last 33 games at home. The win also guaranteed Iowa nothing worse than an 8-8 record in the league’s 2007 regular season.

“We know that we could wake up Sunday morning and be in third place. There are not a lot of people that thought (back in October) we could be in third place with a week to go. These kids have done a lot of special things.”

Third place? So what has to happen for the Hawkeyes to secure its second straight upper division finish in the Big Ten? There are two answers to that question.

The first is straight-forward: Don’t worry about it. Alford’s squad needs to take care of its own business and win games next Wednesday at Penn State and against Illinois on Mar. 3 in Carver-Hawkeye Arena and let everything fall into their proper place.

The second answer is a little more complicated because it involves a handful of other Big Ten teams and has far too many “if they win this game and this team wins that game…” to be talked about concretely. However, the second answer is probably also the first answer: Don’t worry about it.

The bottom line is simple: Win the two games that remain on the schedule to finish as high in the league standings as possible. Then, roll up your sleeves in preparation for the 2007 Big Ten Conference Men’s Basketball Tournament in Chicago because it will most likely be in the Windy City where Iowa’s post-season plans will likely be determined.

“We are not really talking about any tournament,” Iowa’s freshman standout Tyler Smith said when asked about the Hawkeyes’ place in March Madness. Smith scored a team-high 18 points against Purdue.

“There are a few more games we have to finish up and the Big Ten Tournament before we can begin thinking about that. First things first and that’s Penn State next week.”

“I don’t think it is hard to believe,” senior guard Adam Haluska, Iowa’s floor leader said about the performance of this year’s Hawkeyes.

“Right now we have a chance to get third place and the credit goes to the coaching staff. They got us motivated and they got us to this point. But, we’re not done by any means. There’s a long way to go.”

Iowa doesn’t play a second game this week and the second “bye” of the season comes at a good time, according to Alford.

“We have some guys banged. Adam is worn out a little bit… Tyler is worn out a little bit. They have logged a lot of minutes this year,” Alford said of the two Hawkeyes who have shouldered the offensive burden for the UI thus far in 2006-07.

“We’ll take Thursday completely off. We’ll meet on Friday to watch some tape and get a lift in. The priority, though, will be to maximize rest and get healed.”