Familiar foe
Six games into its Big Ten schedule, the Iowa basketball team faces its second match-up with Michigan State on Wednesday. The game comes 11 days after the Spartans rolled to a 71-53 win at Carver-Hawkeye Arena.
Coach Todd Lickliter sees good and bad in one of the quirks of a quirky conference schedule.
“You are familiar with the opponent, so the scout shouldn’t be quite as new as it is for some games,” Lickliter said. “We will be going on the road and they’re playing extremely well. They were ranked 10th when we played them the first time and they are sixth now so that tells you about how they are playing right now.”
Lickliter and MSU coach Tom Izzo both talk about Wednesday’s game being a barometer for progress their teams have made recently.
“We competed with them in stretches in the first game. We know we will have to stretch those stretches out to give ourselves a chance in this one,” Lickliter said.
Izzo was less-than-thrilled with parts of his team’s performance in Iowa City.
“We’ll see if we have matured a bit since then and we haven’t forgotten that Iowa beat us at their place two years ago,” Izzo said. “They’re a well-coached team and we will have to be ready.”
The Spartans have owned the Hawkeyes in recent years at Breslin Center, where Iowa last won in 1993. Since then, the Hawkeyes have lost 14 straight road games to MSU by an average of 14.2 points.
Lickliter appreciates the environment his team is stepping into Wednesday. MSU’s student Izzone rings the court at the Breslin Center, providing an intimidating surrounding for visiting teams.
“I think it’s a great college environment,” Lickliter said. “I took a team to Duke one year for that reason, too.”
Lickliter wants his team to embrace the experience.
“I expect us to continue to focus on the task at hand and I assure that the competition will get every bit of our attention,” Lickliter said. “I want our guys to see this as an enjoyable challenge.”
