Jan. 19, 2016
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By JAMES ALLAN
hawkeyesports.com
IOWA CITY, Iowa — With a top 10 national ranking, the target on the University of Iowa men’s basketball team’s back is a little bigger.
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The Hawkeyes, ranked ninth by both The Associated Press and in the USA Today Coaches’ Poll, travel to Piscataway, New Jersey, for the first time in school history to face Rutgers on Thursday at 6:01 p.m. (CT) at the Rutgers Athletic Center. It is the lone meeting between the two teams this season.
“(The top 10 ranking) puts a bigger target on our back,” said senior guard Mike Gesell. “Every time you line up against a top 10 team you want to beat them. Going into their place, (Rutgers) is going to be hungry. We have to bring our game.”
The Scarlet Knights (6-13, 0-6) will be looking for a bounce back after suffering the worst loss in program history Monday against Purdue. The Boilermakers out-rebounded Rutgers, 63-23, in a 107-57 victory.
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“My sophomore year we were in the top 10 and we finished the season losing seven in a row. I learned from that. Rankings don’t mean anything. We don’t want to look back and say we were a top 10 team at one point, we want to finish there or higher.”
UI senior Mike Gesell
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“You have to throw that game away,” said senior Adam Woodbury. “That game was an anomaly; that probably won’t happen to them another game this season. We have to stay focused, continue to be hungry, and try to improve on ourselves.”
UI head coach Fran McCaffery says the game’s outcome was the result of a perfect storm.
“Purdue, with their incredible size, was not a good matchup for Rutgers,” McCaffery said during a Tuesday news conference inside Carver-Hawkeye Arena. “Rutgers is much better than they showed last night. You look at the Wake Forest and Indiana games… that’s more indicative of how Rutgers is. We have to know and understand that.”
The two games McCaffery was alluding two were both close Scarlet Knight defeats. Rutgers lost to Wake Forest, 69-68, in the Big Ten/ACC Challenge on Nov. 30 and by seven points versus Indiana on Dec. 30 in its Big Ten opener. Both games were played at the RAC.
Since the 79-72 loss to the Hoosiers, the Scarlet Knights’ Big Ten results have been one-sided. Rutgers has lost its last five league games by an average of 31.4 points; the closest defeat was a 22-point loss at Wisconsin.
Still, Iowa knows it must bring its “A” game regardless of its opponent. The Hawkeyes are drawing from a lesson they learned the hard way when they dropped a 76-74 exhibition game at home to Division II Augustana (South Dakota) on Nov. 6.
“The Augustana loss in the preseason shows every night you have to bring it,” said Gesell. “(Rutgers) is a good team and you can lose to anybody on any given night. Top to bottom, the Big Ten is the best conference in college basketball, so you can’t take a night off, especially on the road.”
The last time Iowa was in the top 10 was Jan. 14, 2014, and it came during Gesell and Woodbury’s sophomore season. The Hawkeyes took time to acknowledge the feat then; it’s almost like it’s a non-thing this time around.
“It means we’re playing well,” said Gesell. “At this point in the season it doesn’t mean a lot, it just means every team is gunning for us to build their resume. It makes every game bigger.
“My sophomore year we were in the top 10 and we finished the season losing seven in a row. I learned from that. Rankings don’t mean anything. We don’t want to look back and say we were a top 10 team at one point, we want to finish there or higher.”
Thursday’s game will be televised on ESPNU with Adam Amin and Craig Robinson on the call.
