Iowa men’s basketball team return to state of Indiana as it seeks to end 3-game losing skid

CEDAR RAPIDS - Fort Hays State twice and Washburn.

Ben McCollum isn’t used to losing streaks. You have to go well back to the 2012-13 season to find a time when the Iowa men’s basketball coach had a team that dropped three games in a row.

That was when he was at Northwest Missouri State. The losses were to ... Fort Hays State, Washburn and Fort Hays State again, in that order.

Iowa (12-5, 2-4) has lost three straight as it goes into its Big Ten Conference game Saturday afternoon against the Indiana Hoosiers at Assembly Hall in Bloomington.

“I think the amount in a row is probably irrelevant, you know?” McCollum said Friday morning, while adding he didn’t remember that 2012-13 streak. “Meaning I don't think that it's ... I think that's more of like an outside perspective, if you will. I think it's just ”OK, are we continuing to improve? Are we continuing to grow and get better?’

“Ultimately, you still want to win the game. Any competitor does. But whether it's three in a row or three throughout a season, it's all kind of the same.”

A little perspective would help here.

Two of the three losses for the Hawkeyes have been on the road (Purdue and Minnesota) Two of the three have been against ranked teams (Purdue and Illinois).

And Iowa had a chance to win all three. It played very well Tuesday night at No. 5 Purdue, leading by as many as nine points in the second half.

The Hawkeyes did a lot of good, including shooting 52.9 percent from the field and making 12 3-pointers. Guard Kael Combs had a career-high 16 points, Tavion Banks had 16 points, seven rebounds, five assists and two steals.

Purdue just made plays offensively and defensively in the final four minutes. That’ll happen, especially against opponents that have a realistic chance to win a national championship.

“The message is just to continue to get better, continue to stay process focused,” McCollum said. “Here are some of the things that we didn't do, and had we done them, we could have won, probably any of the three, to be perfectly honest. I mean, they were all right there, but we just weren't ready to be able to do those as a team.

“We weren't ready to make those plays down the stretch. And you know, we continue to show them those clips. We did improve at quite a few of them, from Illinois to Michigan State. I just didn't think we improved enough at making some of those winning plays to be able to win that game.”

Saturday’s game is a matchup of the previous two head coaches at Drake. McCollum took over for Indiana’s Darian DeVries last season, when DeVries left Des Moines for the head coaching job at West Virginia.

DeVries took the Indiana job this season. The Aplington native and University of Northern Iowa graduate appeared to be a candidate for the Iowa job when Fran McCaffery was let go after last season but wound up in Bloomington.

Iowa hired McCollum shortly thereafter.

“I mean, I know him. Yeah, for sure,” McCollum said of DeVries. “I've talked to him throughout, and you know he did an unreal job there (at Drake) and is obviously doing a really good job at Indiana. Did a great job at West Virginia. He's a really good coach, and I've known him for quite a few years. He's done a great job everywhere.”

Indiana comes in 12-5 overall like Iowa and 3-3 in the Big Ten. It has lost two in a row, both to ranked teams: Nebraska and Michigan State.

Tucker DeVries, Darian’s son, moved with his dad from Drake to West Virginia and now to Indiana, where he is averaging just short of 15 points per game.

“Obviously a really good basketball team, a tough place to play. Going to be a tough opponent,” McCollum said. “Tucker's a great kid. Good player, obviously really good player. You know, one of the best to play in the Missouri Valley (Conference) in quite some time, and obviously excellent at this level as well

“And then, you know, all their guys. They’ve got good talent, good players. Will be a tough game.”

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