It didn’t take Iowa basketball coach Todd Lickliter long to explain why sophomore Aaron Fuller has put 20 points on the board and grabbed 10 rebounds against the Hawkeyes’ last two opponents.

“I think he finally has two good wheels,” Lickliter said. “He’s been sore. He’s had a bad ankle. If you look at him, you can see how he’s worked in the offseason. He was always a good offensive rebounder, but now he has the strength to add to it. You can’t ask a kid to get double-doubles all the time, but as long as he keeps going to the offensive glass like that, he’s going to be very productive.”

Penn State found that out Saturday.

Fuller collected five of his seven offensive rebounds in the first half and three into points for Iowa, helping the Hawkeyes secure their first Big Ten win of the season.

“All I want to do is stay within myself and let the game come to me. I’m not trying to do more than I’m capable of,” Fuller said following the 67-64 win.

Rebounding is something Fuller is perfectly capable of and now that he has finally healed from the high-ankle sprain he suffered nearly two months ago during a game against Bowling Green, he finds himself beginning to live up to his own expectations.

His has averaged 4.0 offensive rebounds since the start of the Big Ten season, a number that led the league heading into today’s late games.

“He has a great knack for positioning himself in the right spots,” Lickliter said. “There are guys that can rebound the ball. When it comes to them, there are guys who can rebound out of their area. Aaron has a great reach and I think he can rebound out of his area a little bit.

“These guys he is going against are great rebounders, also. It was a great game for Aaron, no question

Among a myriad of topics covered by Iowa basketball coach Todd Lickliter at his weekly news conference on Thursday was the academic status of his players for the spring semester.

With final grades now posted for the fall term, Lickliter sees no mid-season losses such as the one Iowa experienced a year ago when Anthony Tucker was declared academically ineligible for the second semester.

“Our guys had a good semester,” Lickliter said. “Everybody is in good shape and in good standing moving forward. This group takes its academics seriously.”

Tuesday’s crowd at Carver-Hawkeye Arena was the smallest of the season, both in terms of the 8,021 tickets that were sold for Iowa’s game against Tennessee State and in actual numbers.

Around 2,000 fans actually turned out for the 8 p.m. nonconference game that was awkwardly stuck in the middle of the Big Ten schedule for Iowa. The crowd did get a chance to make a little noise in the Hawkeyes’ 67-62 win, a victory that ended a four-game losing streak although most of the volume was directed at the officials as they exited and returned to the court at halftime.

Asked if the small house created an almost neutral atmosphere, coach Todd Lickliter hesitated at first, but then did thank the fans who turned out.

“There were a lot of great Hawkeye fans here and the guys appreciate the support they receive,” Lickliter said. “We appreciate the folks who do come out as we work to get things rolling. Hopefully, they can find a comfortable seat that they can continue to enjoy and stick with us all the way through this process.”

Iowa steps outside of Big Ten play on Tuesday, hosting Tennessee State.

Normally, coaches wrestle with scheduling a nonconference game in the middle of the 18-game Big Ten grind but in this instance coach Todd Lickliter finds it as a welcome and necessary breather.

He said during this morning’s Big Ten teleconference that game experience is something this young Iowa team can benefit from compared to a week to prepare for its next league game.

Iowa guard Matt Gatens believes that as well.

“This will give us a chance to compete again, which we need, and hopefully some good things can happen and we can get our confidence going again,” Gatens said. “It’s been a pretty rough start to the Big Ten season, but we’ve seen some of the best there is.”

Iowa’s 0-4 start following losses to Purdue, Minnesota, Illinois and Michigan State equals the longest losing streak the Hawkeyes have had during Lickliter’s tenure.

The game was scheduled at this point in the schedule for a practical reason as well. It was one of few dates where Carver-Hawkeye Arena was available to the basketball program that meshed with the schedule of Tennessee State. 

“With our situation, it is so hard to fit teams in with the number of games. We already had an exempt tournament scheduled. They set the dates and the competition. We’ve had to find places that we can fill the schedule. We’re a school that schedules five different teams in this facility. Most of the Big Ten school don’t schedule volleyball in their arena and that does impact us. We have to be more creative,” Lickliter said.

Tuesday’s game will not be televised. It will be streamed at bigtennetwork.com for a fee. The game’s late start time was dictated by the Big Ten’s contract with ESPN, which prohibits any other conference game from being televised or webcast at the same time a Big Ten game is airing on the cable network. ESPN has a 6 p.m. Big Ten match-up on its schedule Tuesday, necessitating the late start in Iowa City.

Michigan State coach Tom Izzo was less than thrilled with his team’s performance Saturday at Iowa.

He took responsibility, saying he needs to end his struggle with lineup combinations and work to have his team improve the way it covers ball screens and handles the basketball.

Izzo felt the Spartans’ effort was “flat,” something he said MSU must overcome if it is going to contend for the Big Ten title regardless of an opponent’s record.

“We’re 13-3, we’ve played some good people, we have a good basketball team,” Izzo said. “I’m just not ready to canonize us yet as a great basketball team and this time of year you hope you’re making more progress than we have made.”

Izzo offered some words of encouragement to impatient Iowa fans and Hawkeye coach Todd Lickliter.

“He’s got to get those young guys older quicker and add a few more bodies,” Izzo said. “When guys leave like they did last spring, that decimates you. It’s tough. It’s like when guys leave early. It takes time to recover.”

Izzo said he believes Iowa is making strides.

“I like a couple of their freshmen a lot. (Cully) Payne is going to be a good one in this league. I like (Matt) Gatens and the toughness he brings to the floor. They’re just young,” Izzo said.

“I watched his system work at Butler and his system will work here. In fairness to him, people just need to be patient with him. He’ll win here. It just takes some time.”

Among the problems that Michigan State presents the Iowa basketball team on Saturday is the Spartans’ multiple personalities.

Kalin Lucas orchestrates a high-octane offense that averages 80.5 points per game. However, Michigan State is equally comfortable in the half court. The Spartans demonstrated that in Wednesday’s 54-47 knockdown drag-out win over Wisconsin at the Breslin Center.

“They can win in a multitude of ways and that is something that not a lot of teams are capable of,” Iowa coach Todd Lickliter said Friday. “They’re shown they are more than capable in a half-court game and they continue to be a great full-court team with great speed.”

The Spartans are deep. Nine Michigan State players average at least 8 minutes per game and seven average 20.7 minutes or more through MSU’s first 15 games.

That helps Michigan State play at a pace it is comfortable at no matter who is on the other side of the floor. Tenacity remains a constant no matter what.

“Toughness has always been a trademark of Tom Izzo’s teams,” Lickliter said.

Lickliter isn’t overly concerned with his own team’s lack of depth. He pointed out that three Purdue players played 35 minutes or more when the Boilermakers visited Iowa City on Dec. 29.

“One of things you do have to look at is keeping guys fresh, though,” Lickliter said. “I spoke recently with a veteran coach and he said he found giving guys rest early in games and giving them breaks more often seemed to help. There seems to be some merit to that.”

Lickliter said he expects that the players Iowa relies on the most are capable of averaging 32-36 minutes per game.

“We have enough bodies,” he said. “Could we use a few more in certain areas? Sure, and in the areas where we need depth, help is on the way next fall.”

For Iowa fans who stuck with the Hawkeyes’ Orange Bowl game on Tuesday night, it would be easy to say that they didn’t miss a thing by bypassing Iowa’s 59-42 basketball loss at Illinois.

It would be easy, but it wouldn’t be right.

It would be easy to label this just another slow start for a team that has now started slowly in its last two Big Ten games.

It would be easy, but it wouldn’t be right.

Just as the Hawkeyes have learned lessons in victory, there are lessons to be learned from Tuesday’s lopsided defeated at Champaign’s so-called House of ‘Paign.

Coach Todd Lickliter took time following the game to say that he didn’t believe his team suffers from a lack of toughness. What he sees is a lack of assertiveness.

“That comes with experience and being comfortable,” Lickliter said. “There is a degree of physicalness required and guys have to embrace that. Our guys continue to work through that.”

He painted a word picture, saying that when a player is in a position to make an effective pass, he has a responsibility to make it.

“It has to be made with a nobody-is-going-to-stop-me assertiveness,” Lickliter said. “Now, we’re going up against guys who will try to impose their will on you, but without that there would be no athletics, no competition.

“We talk to our guys about that about the importance of having the desire to compete. There are times when we have to do a better job with that approach and mindset.”

That’s where the learning comes in.

Illinois coach Bruce Weber spent a lot of time before Tuesday’s game talking about the importance of having juniors and seniors accepting the role of leading when games are on the line.

Truth be told, Iowa’s only senior and the only junior on the floor are only beginning their second tour of the Big Ten. That lack of upperclassmen, players who have gained an appreciation for the assertiveness it takes based on their previous experiences, has been painfully obvious in the Hawkeyes’ 0-3 Big Ten start.

But on the courts of the Big Ten the only way to gain that experience is to share a jersey with a Purdue defender, get trapped by a pair of Minnesota defenders and experience the ‘Paign of playing on the road in front of a sea of orange.

Through those experiences, it is Lickliter’s hope that the assertiveness will develop as players work through the frustration of initial setbacks.

Or in other words, no ‘Paign, no gain.

Tuesday’s game at Illinois is a homecoming of sorts for two players on the Hawkeye roster, guards Devan Bawinkel and Cully Payne.

Payne, who prepped at Schaumburg, Ill., is looking forward to his first game at Illinois’ Assembly Hall and a match-up against two top Illini freshmen who have also been lineup regulars, Brandon Paul and D.J. Richardson.

“It will be good to see those guys again,” Payne said. “It will be good to get back to the home state, too.”

While Payne has been a starter in each of Iowa’s 14 games, Bawinkel has started just once. The lone senior on the Hawkeye roster is from Winnebago, Ill., and players from his high school were among fans in attendance at Saturday’s game against Minnesota.

One of Iowa’s co-captains, Bawinkel has averaged just 3.6 points and 17.9 minutes this season.

Hawkeye coach Todd Lickliter said during Monday’s Big Ten teleconference that he would like to see a little more from Bawinkel.

“We need for him to lead a little more. We’d love for him to be a bit more vocal,” Lickliter said. “He’s trying to defend. I don’t have any complaints with Devan. I wish we could find him some more shots. I wish we could help him with someone who could breakdown the defense (to play beside and create open looks for Bawinkel), but that’s not Devan’s fault.”

It took Todd Lickliter less than four minutes to burn a pair of timeouts Saturday in his Iowa basketball team’s 86-74 loss to Minnesota.

The Golden Gophers were already feasting on Hawkeye turnovers and stopping the onslaught was anything but easy.

“You plead, you beg, you do what you can to do what they can, but it’s a bad thing because nobody is trying to turn the ball over,” Lickliter said. “I always think my guys are better than that.”

Lickliter said the Hawkeyes prepare for pressure on a regular basis, believing that 2-for-1 traps should leave an avenue open for attack elsewhere down the floor.

“You can work on all kinds of things in practice, but it’s very hard to simulate the kind of speed and length you saw from (Minnesota),” Lickliter said. “We changed our alignment in the second half, putting our post on the middle of the floor and that seemed to be more effective.”

Iowa finished with a season-high 25 turnovers in the loss, but Lickliter believes that isn’t a hint of things to come.

“We haven’t been that type of team and I don’t think we are that type of team,” he said.

Lickliter said he considers the best defense to be good ballhandling.

“If we throw it to somebody, how are we going to get in front of them and contest a shot? It’s better to get a 10-second call or a jump ball. At least then you get a chance to set things up,” Lickliter said. “… We turned it over 16 times against Purdue and they played really good defense. I thought we did a good job against that.

“I think what we saw today was one team that executed its plan really well and one that really struggled. We have to be better than that if we’re going to give ourselves a chance.”