Memo to NCAA tournament pool players: Don’t forget about those Iowa Hawkeyes when you’re filling out pick sheets.
Of course, it won’t matter if the tournament selection gods forget them first. But if Wednesday night’s heart-pounding 79-78 victory over ninth-ranked Michigan State counts for anything, Iowa (19-10, 9-8) ought to be part of the 64-team field.
Michigan State has been a tournament lock since about Christmas, but the Spartans may have botched the chance to give coach Jud Heathcote the ultimate going-away present-his fourth Big 10 title. The Spartans (21-5, 13-4) dropped a half-game behind Purdue, which plays at Minnesota Thursday night. If the Boilermakers sweep that game and their home finale against Michigan Sunday, they will be crowned solo Big 10 titlists and the Spartans will be left wondering what happened.
“We had our destiny in our hands and it slipped away,” said Heathcote, who coaches his last home game Saturday afternoon against Wisconsin.
Iowa probably wonders too. No Big 10 team with 10 conference wins has ever been excluded from the tournament since it expanded to 64 teams. But if the Hawkeyes lose at Indiana Sunday, they will finish only 9-9.
“We’re more confident with nine wins, but we’re not overly confident,” coach Tom Davis said.
“It is probably going to come down to Sunday afternoon.”
That shouldn’t faze the Hawkeyes one bit. They’ve spent all season nibbling their nails.
If the selection committee gives credit for “quality losses,” as they are called, Iowa might be in good shape. Four of the Hawkeyes’ conferences losses have come by a point and another came in overtime. Iowa lost at Michigan State on Eric Snow’s last-gasp jumper in East Lansing Jan. 7.
Iowa didn’t look tourney-worthy when it fell into a 9-0 hole in the first 1:51. It didn’t score until guard Chris Kingsbury flung an off-balance three-pointer off the glass with nearly 4 minutes gone.
Kingsbury fired home two more treys, and Jess Settles added another pair, and soon the Hawkeyes had turned that nine-point deficit into a nine-point lead, 25-16.
For the game, Iowa knocked down 14 of 31 treys, or 45.2 percent. That sort of three-point shooting could make Iowa a dangerous tournament team.
Remember what little Santa Clara, an unheralded 15th seed, did to Arizona in 1993? The three-point shot is the great equalizer for teams such as Iowa, whose largest starter goes only 6 feet 7 inches. All it takes is a couple of hot nights and you’re through to the Sweet 16.
On Wednesday night, though, Michigan State star Shawn Respert matched every Hawkeye rainmaker. He hit 7 of 15 threes on his way to a game-high 36 points.
In the end, though, the Hawkeyes won it on a good old-fashioned two-point bucket. After Jamie Feick jammed a nifty Snow dish to put State up 78-77 with 9.3 seconds left, Iowa’s Andre Woolridge took an inbounds pass near midcourt and roared downcourt and popped in a 12-footer from the baseline with 2.3 seconds left.
After Snow’s last fling fell harmlessly away, hundreds of students rushed the court.
“Will the fans please clear the court?” thundered the public address announcer.
But they didn’t hear a word. They were too busy dancing-on their way, they hoped, to the biggest dance of them all.
