West Coast road trips have doomed every Hawkeye program since conference expansion, but Ben McCollum's Hawkeyes left the Pacific Northwest with two impressive wins.
Iowa men's basketball's two-game visit to the beautiful Pacific Northwest caused some worry for loyal Hawkeye fans.
It wasn't because they didn't have confidence in their team, it was because the looming fear of the West Coast draped over their shoulders. Whether it be football or women's basketball, the long road trips usually haven't produced positive results for Iowa.
Those woes continued on the women's side last week, but Ben McCollum's men's team walked into tricky tests against Oregon and Washington and passed them with flying colors.
Iowa experienced little resistance from the injury-riddled Ducks on Sunday, pulling away in the second half for an 18-point rout. That triumph was expected, but Wednesday's game at Washington was declared a coin-flip.
The Huskies came in with a pedestrian 12-10 (4-7 Big Ten) record, but some strong performances against the Big Ten's best gave them some confidence heading into the soft end of the schedule.
To say Washington came out hot to begin this one would be an understatement. The Huskies, the 14th-best three point shooting team in the league, couldn't miss from deep in the first, riding that surge to a ridiculous 76.9 first half shooting clip from the floor.
Iowa's halftime deficit was seven. Previous Hawkeye teams would've folded like a lawn chair in this very scenario, but McCollum's squad appears to different. Even in some of Iowa's losses, McCollum's halftime adjustments have always been superior, and boy did the Hawkeyes need them on Wednesday.
Any team that shoots 77 percent in a half is expected to regress to the mean. Washington did just that in the second, but Iowa's defensive improvements were very noticeable. The Hawks were just a step slow in the first, but their guards did a good job keeping the ball on the wing in the second, which forced the Huskies to take rushed shots late in the shot clock.
When it was all said and done, Washington's field goal clip was down to just 36 percent, and Iowa left the Emerald City with an 84-74 victory - its second Quadrant 1 triumph of the year.
Oregon and Washington aren't NCAA tournament teams - not even close - but this was a very crucial two-game stretch for the Hawkeyes. The goal was to obviously leave with a pair of victories, but Iowa needed to look good while doing so.
The Hawkeyes didn't look great in narrow home wins over Rutgers and USC, but the thing that stands out to me from Iowa's two wins in the PNW is its resiliency.
The key to transforming from a solid basketball team into a great basketball team is battling resiliency, and the Hawkeyes did just that. Coming back from a seven-point halftime deficit at Washington was a prime example of that.
Don't look now, but Iowa is quietly one of the hottest teams in the country. After losing three straight in mid-January, the Hawkeyes are now winners of five straight and boast an impressive 17-5 (7-4 Big Ten) record.
If the season ended today, Iowa would be in the NCAA tournament for the first time in three years. That would be an incredible accomplishment in McCollum's first year in Iowa City, but this team has the potential to not only make the Big Dance, but earn a quality seed.
Winnable games against Northwestern and Maryland are next, before a marquee close to the regular season that includes showdowns with Purdue, Nebraska (twice), and Michigan.
There's a ton of basketball to be played, but one thing's for certain:
Iowa men's basketball is on a roll.
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