Busting Brackets
Fansided

Big Ten Basketball Power Rankings: Iowa, Wisconsin joining top-tier

By Austin Walther

ANN ARBOR, MICHIGAN - FEBRUARY 09: Head coach John Beilein of the Michigan Wolverines celebrates with Charles Matthews as he leaves the game while playing the Wisconsin Badgers at Crisler Arena on February 09, 2019 in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Michigan won the game 61-52. (Photo by Gregory Shamus/Getty Images)
ANN ARBOR, MICHIGAN - FEBRUARY 09: Head coach John Beilein of the Michigan Wolverines celebrates with Charles Matthews as he leaves the game while playing the Wisconsin Badgers at Crisler Arena on February 09, 2019 in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Michigan won the game 61-52. (Photo by Gregory Shamus/Getty Images) /
facebooktwitterreddit
Prev
11 of 15
Next
IOWA CITY, IOWA- FEBRUARY 01: Forward Tyler Cook #25 of the Iowa Hawkeyes celebrates with fans after the upset over the Michigan Wolverines on February 1, 2019 at Carver-Hawkeye Arena, in Iowa City, Iowa. (Photo by Matthew Holst/Getty Images)
IOWA CITY, IOWA- FEBRUARY 01: Forward Tyler Cook #25 of the Iowa Hawkeyes celebrates with fans after the upset over the Michigan Wolverines on February 1, 2019 at Carver-Hawkeye Arena, in Iowa City, Iowa. (Photo by Matthew Holst/Getty Images) /

5. Iowa Hawkeyes (19-5)

Previous rank: 7

Iowa goes from five to seven back to five. All thanks to being the latest team who can court storm after beating Michigan. They just fell out of the top-25 that week, were riding a two-game losing streak from Michigan State and Minnesota. The Hawkeyes came home and knocked off the fifth-ranked team in the country, handing the Wolverines just their second loss all season.

Was Fran McCaffrey on the hot seat at the beginning of the season? Probably. He was just coming off one of his worst seasons at Iowa. This is still a pretty young team, but full of talent. Good thing Iowa is knocking on the door of a 20-win season because now both McCaffrey’s will be sticking around for at least one more season.

The win over Michigan did the same thing for Iowa that it did for Wisconsin. It sparked a nice winning-streak. Luckily for Iowa though they don’t have to play the Wolverines again just to have it snapped by them in a rematch. At least not in the regular season.

They went to Assembly Hall to play an Indiana team that was just coming off what they hoped to be a season-changing win over Michigan State. It was a big time toss up on who was going to ride their momentum into the second half of the Big Ten schedule. It proved to be Iowa. And the Hawkeyes are that much closer to securing a bid.

The game against Northwestern was one for the ages. The Wildcats needed a win for morale support. They had an 11-point lead in the final two minutes of the game. That’s until Jordan Bohannon went unconscious from behind-the-arc and led a huge comeback for the win. They avoided a crucial loss at home and competed in another shootout. Iowa can go surprisingly pretty deep. They play about eight-to-nine guys a night.

And obviously I couldn’t wrap up talking about Iowa without mentioning Tyler Cook. He may not look like six-foot-nine, 250 on TV, but in real life, he’s all of that, averaging 16.5 points, over eight boards and 2.5 assists per game. He’s a big reason why Iowa is having a major bounce-back season.

Home/Big Ten