Amid the beginnings of Big Ten play, No. 19 Iowa men’s basketball continues adjusting to new style

MINNEAPOLIS — There’s a wrinkle to Big Ten basketball games Iowa hoops head coach Ben McCollum is still trying to figure out.

Well, two wrinkles.

The Hawkeyes haven’t won a true road game this season, but have been flawless in just about every other way. Neutral sites? 3-0. At Carver-Hawkeye Arena? 9-0. The carry over into a road game hasn’t been successful, even though Iowa’s last two road games have been significantly closer than its first against Michigan State last month.

One issue that McCollum sees? Getting to the free-throw line consistently, especially in conference games.

“We’ve got to find a way to get to the free-throw line,” McCollum said after the 70-67 loss at Minnesota on Tuesday night. “I don’t know why we don’t get there. But we put their people there a lot.”

He’s not wrong. In Big Ten games this season, Iowa’s opponents have 103 free-throw attempts. Meanwhile, the Hawkeyes have had just 68.

McCollum said it could be a coaching situation — simply doing a better job of teaching his players how to get to the foul line. In other cases, sometimes it’s the environment. Being on the road, it can be harder to get the whistles Iowa might desire against its conferences foes.

Whatever it may be, it’s something the Hawkeyes have noticed.

“It’s kind of game-to-game,” McCollum said. “There’s players in our league that do a great job of selling the fouls — whether they’re fouls or not — they do a great job of getting into your body.”

It can be frustrating, too, not finding ways to get to the free-throw line — which is another element to road games Iowa’s trying to evolve with. Guard Bennett Stirtz said this Hawkeye team is still learning how to manage emotions on the road.

Sometimes, it’s great and the Hawkeyes are having fun. Other times, it can be difficult to get over the emotional hump.

“I think we just get so negative around each other when we're down, especially on road environments,” Stirtz said. “We’ve got to learn to stay positive.”

McCollum said following the Minnesota loss that he felt like his team didn’t really feel like themselves until the final minutes of regulation — when the Hawkeyes closed a once-14-point gap and tried to force overtime with three different kick-out triples that rimmed out.

Whatever the case may be, Iowa’s second conference loss of the year puts the Hawkeyes in a push-the-reset-button mindset ahead of hosting No. 16 Illinois on Sunday night. One positive trend? McCollum-led teams have done well in bouncing back post-losses.

“We’ve got a tough three-game stretch here,” Stirtz said. “Next game Sunday against Illinois, so we just got to stick together. And we know it's a long season. We’ve got to stay positive through it all and just get ready to go one game at a time.”

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