Wednesday's loss to Maryland was easily the Hawkeyes' worst of the season, but Iowa has to put it behind it.
After winning six straight, many Iowa basketball fans expected the streak to reach seven on Wednesday night.
On paper, it made complete sense. Though they were on the road for the third time in four games, the Hawkeyes faced a struggling Maryland team in the usually-quiet Xfinity Center (at least when Maryland is bad) in College Park.
The Terrapins weren't just struggling, they were in basketball purgatory - an unthinkable place for a program with so much history.
Some teams mail in their seasons by this point, but Buzz Williams' Terps came out with something to prove, and Iowa was on the wrong end of that. Maryland played efficient basketball all night long, and though the Hawkeyes attempted to fight back in the second half, it was the Terrapins who secured a 77-70 upset win.
Maryland absolutely deserved to win this basketball game, but Iowa will look back at this game tomorrow morning and kick itself for not pulling this one out. He would never be the first one to admit this, but the player most disappointed in the loss has to be Bennett Stirtz.
Stirtz's stat line - 32 points, 13/21 shooting, six assists - is nothing to be ashamed about, but the Hawkeyes lost this one because he didn't receive any help from his teammates.
Tavion Banks (13 points) was the only other Hawkeye to eclipse double figures on Wednesday, and he needed five points from the charity stripe to do so. Bench players Alvaro Folguieras and Isaia Howard didn't register a single point, while the rest of the starting five (Kael Combs, Cooper Koch, Cam Manyawu) combined for just 15 points.
The Big Ten is a grind, so there's always a potential for off nights. Iowa certainly had its rough game on Wednesday, but Stirtz having to carry much of the scoring load has been a problem over the six-game winning streak.
Playing bad teams helped mitigate that (especially in Sunday's win over Northwestern), but Stirtz couldn't save the Hawkeyes tonight. That's not his fault, and Ben McCollum knows that.
"I'm disappointed for him. He was desperately trying to carry the load for us. We just need other guys to show up," the coach told the Hawkeye Radio Network after the game.
There's plenty of season left, but Iowa will have to get a balanced scoring attack going - quickly. The Hawkeyes are now into the gauntlet portion of their schedule, and it begins with ranked tests against No. 13 Purdue and No. 7 Nebraska.
Both will be played at Carver-Hawkeye Arena, but Iowa's loss to Maryland leaves it no other choice but to declare both games must-wins. The Hawkeyes would be comfortably in the NCAA tournament if the season ended today, but they're probably on the undesired 8-9 seed line.
Another lengthy winning streak will take care of those problems, but Iowa has to find a way to protect its home court in these next two contests. If it doesn't, it could be trending closer to the bubble.
There's little room for error.