There were a multitude of reasons for why the Iowa basketball team returned to the win column on Wednesday night.

Shooting 50 percent from both 2- and 3-point range didn’t hurt.

Neither did equaling a season low in turnovers.

As much as anything, the Hawkeyes helped themselves on the other end of the floor. Iowa never let the Wildcats’ big men get anything going. In reality, they were never given much of a chance.

The Hawkeyes’ perimeter defense forced Northwestern to put the ball on the floor, clogging interior passing lanes and denying the Wildcats an important part of their game.

“It seemed like we made them play from the perimeter more than they were used to in the past,” Iowa coach Todd Lickliter said. “It seemed like they made it inside more in when we were scouting, so I want to praise my guys for working hard and trying to take that way. It’s not easy. I think in their last game with Indiana, they had 25 field goals on 21 assists. They had 12 tonight. I thought our guys were very in tune.”

That struck a sour note with Wildcats coach Bill Carmody, who watched starting center Luke Mirkovic finish with two points in 17 minutes. Back-ups Kyle Rowley and Ivan Peljusic finished with two and three points, respectively.

“When our center doesn’t score, when we don’t get any production out of the middle, it’s trouble for us because then it’s just ring around the rosy,” Carmody said. “Last time on the road at Minnesota, it was the same thing. We got nothing out of our centers and it’s hard to win games, especially on the road, that way.”

Iowa complemented its outside game with a solid inside attack, a common theme of the Hawkeyes when they have been at their best recently.

Jarryd Cole and Aaron Fuller combined for 26 points and 18 rebounds, including seven on the offensive end.

“When we can get things going inside and out, we can give teams some problems,” Fuller said.

Iowa basketball coach Todd Lickliter was among the spectators last Friday at an Illinois high school boys basketball game.

The Hawkeye coach watched as future Hawkeye Ben Brust scored 20 of his 28 points in the second half for Mundelein in a 93-81 win over Libertyville. Brust was among four players to sign with Iowa during the November signing period and Lickliter expects to see each play in person before the end of February.

“It’s good to get out and see those guys play. They’re all four guys who have a good feel for basketball and all are composed on the court. They’re doing a great job for their high schools this season,” Lickliter said. “We’ve heard from all of them that they like what they are seeing of our team, that they like what our team is about and how they work.”

Brust’s point total on Friday mirrors his season scoring average.

An anticipated match-up of two future Iowa basketball players failed to materialize Saturday in Sioux Falls, S.D.

Sioux City Heelan’s Zach McCabe did score 28 points to lead his team to 58-47 win over Sioux Falls Roosevelt, which was playing without its future Hawkeye, Cody Larson.

A sprained ankle kept Larson on the bench for the match-up that was to have featured two of the four players Iowa signed to letters of intent in November.

McCabe scored nine of Heelan’s first 11 points in the fourth quarter, allowing the Crusaders to pull away late in a game that was tied at 21-21 at the half. Heelan outscored Roosevelt 23-10 in the final quarter of a game that was part of a shootout played at Sioux Falls’ Augustana College.

“He’s a great player. We expected him to be good and he showed us he was,” Roosevelt’s Jared Bartling told the Sioux Falls Argus-Leader. “He’s definitely tough to guard.”

The 6-foot-7 McCabe is discribed by Iowa coach Todd Lickliter as a point forward, providing both the ball-handling skills and floor savvy of a traditional point guard as well as the inside ability and size of a forward.

Larson has missed now missed three games for Roosevelt, which suffered its third straight loss and fell to 6-4.

Iowa basketball coach Todd Lickliter said he appreciates that athletics director Gary Barta is willing to go to bat for the school’s student-athletes, whether or not the student-athlete involved is his son.

A satirical movie trailer that appeared during a Sunday sports program on WHO-TV in Des Moines and has made its way onto YouTube pokes a fun at the state of the Hawkeye basketball program. It included clips of Todd Lickliter and his son, John, a redshirt freshman walk-on who has seen plenty of playing time since the suspension of Anthony Tucker.

Mock movie review lines were part of the clip, including “The New York Times raves — who is John Lickliter?” and Roger Ebert proclaims “It’s like Rudy — sans the happy ending.”

Barta phoned WHO officials on Thursday, unhappy that the image of a student-athlete had been singled out. He reportedly told members of the UI’s Presidential Committee on Athletics during its regular meeting on Thursday that “It went far beyond what, in my opinion, would be acceptable.”

“If they want to criticize me, if they want to criticize the coach, none of us like it, but it goes with the territory. When they go further and criticize a student-athlete, that is crossing the line,” Barta told the group.

Lickliter said he agreed with Barta’s stance, although he said he had not seen the video.

“John is 20 and he has a lifetime ahead of him. In some regards, these sorts of things will give him something to draw upon and while you don’t wish this on him or anyone, he will have an opportunity to grow through this,” Lickliter said.

“Some people say this is the landscape in which we live, but I don’t know that it has to be that way.”

The question wasn’t a surprise.

After two hours of listening to the chants of Illinois’ spirited Orange Krush ring through his ears from their source just a few feet away from the Iowa bench, Todd Lickliter had just one question about the 200 or so members of the Illini student section who found their way to Carver-Hawkeye Arena on Wednesday.

“Did they pay to get in?” Lickliter asked.

He paused, then followed, “They did? Good. OK.”

“I don’t have many thoughts about them. They travel well. Those seats usually sit empty and they filled them,” Lickliter said.

As usual for the group’s one unannounced road trip of the year, the Krush buys tickets under assumed organization names to secure seats in arenas where they sometimes might not be welcome.

The past two years, they’ve scored end zone seats under the basket at Penn State and now at Iowa, where the group’s location near the Hawkeye bench allowed them to raise a ruckus throughout the game and do what they could to distract Hawkeyes at the free-throw line throughout the second half, just as they would do in Champaign.

Per usual, the group showed up dressed in the school colors of the opposition and disgarded their gear just before tipoff. A video accompanying this blog shows what transpired.

The show impressed Iowa players.

“To make the trip from Champaign and be here for their team, that’s impressive,” Iowa sophomore Matt Gatens said.

What wasn’t impressive was the Hawkeyes’ play down the stretch. With the ball and down by three, Iowa began a string of four scoreless possessions to end the game that allowed Illinois and its fans — who numbered around 2,000 in the announced crowd of 11,441 — to enjoy a road win.

“At some point, we need to eliminate attempting plays that we can’t make,” Lickliter said. “We probably try 10 plays that even the best players can’t make. When I say best players, I mean NBA guys. We try to make plays that just aren’t there, that are so low percentage, and when you do that seven or eight times against a team like this, your chance of winning is so diminished because we just don’t have that kind of margin for error.

“We did more good than bad and hopefully we can fight and compete and eventually make some winning plays when it comes that time. I feel like this is two games now (Ohio State being the other a week ago) when it was time to win, we just couldn’t come up with the right plays.”

Illinois presents the Iowa basketball team with another challenge tonight. Although coach Bruce Weber hasn’t been overwhelmed with his team’s recent performances, the Illini continue to help themselves with solid defense.

Illinois leads the Big Ten in field goal percentage defense and is third in defending the 3-point shot. Weber’s team led both categories a year ago.

“Bruce is a terrific coach. His teams are always tough and defensive minded, something that I’m sure carries over from his days with coach (Gene) Keady,” Iowa coach Todd Lickliter said. “Illinois is a team that has shown a lot of resiliency. They’ve gotten deeper since we last played them. Guys like (Mike) Tisdale, (Demetri) McCamey and (Mike) Davis are impressive and they are surrounded by some younger guys who are playing good basketball.”

While many Iowa fans were watching the Orange Bowl, the Illini handed the Hawkeyes a 59-42 loss at the Assembly Hall on Jan. 5. The game had a lot of similarities to Iowa’s struggle at Michigan last weekend. The Illini grabbed an early lead, put together what Weber has labeled his team’s best defensive performance of the season and decided the outcome in the first half.

“They were coming in off a tough loss and let that motivate them,” Lickliter said. “Hopefully, that can motivate us. Illinois has not played against a good Iowa team and I’d hate for them to go through a season without playing against a good Iowa team. That said, it’s going to take a great effort.”

Lickliter likes the aggression and versatility he sees in the Illini.

“Defensively, they were so sound and aggressive over there. They did not allow us to do what we wanted to do,” Lickliter said. “They were good in and around the basket and displayed such good balance. One of the problems we have to solve is trying to figure out how to keep them in front of us.”

Anthony Tucker continues to practice with the Iowa basketball team, but coach Todd Lickliter said Monday he does not expect the recently reinstated sophomore guard to play in Wednesday’s game against Illinois.

Asked if Tucker’s was getting closer to a return, Lickliter said, “He’s not getting any further away. He’s done what he’s needed to do up to this point. My biggest concern isn’t how much Anthony plays. It’s that he is on scholarship and is working toward his degree and what lies ahead.”

Lickliter said he wants Tucker to “concentrate on the things he can control. He needs to understand that if we make bad decisions it may eliminate our ability to control things. That’s a very valuable lesson for him.”

Lickliter said he wants that lesson to extend beyond the individual involved.

“If someone else can look at it and learn from it, maybe it can be a positive things,” Lickliter said.

The Iowa coach was also asked if Tucker - who hasn’t played since being suspended Dec. 20 following his second arrest in 13 months on public intoxication charges - has a future with the Hawkeye program.

“I would think so,” Lickliter said. “It’s like everything. You evaluate and see. The biggest thing for Anthony’s future is that he earns as many credits as he can and continues to work toward his degree.”

Tucker is Iowa’s second-leading scorer. He averages 11.9 points and started for the Hawkeyes in all 11 games that he played.

Also on Monday, it was announced that Iowa’s game at Wisconsin has now been set for a 7:30 p.m. tipoff on Wednesday, March 3. The game will be televised by the Big Ten Network.