Sunday's loss to No. 24 Wisconsin wasn't a harmful one, but it makes Iowa's upcoming slate against Ohio State and Penn State must-wins.
MADISON, WI - After winning its sixth straight game on Super Bowl Sunday, Iowa basketball was in position to be a near-lock for the NCAA tournament.
But an inexplicable loss to a bad Maryland team on Feb. 11 put those dreams on hold and triggered a stretch where the Hawkeyes have lost three of their last four games.
Sunday's 84-71 defeat against No. 24 Wisconsin was the latest chapter in the rough patch. Losing to a ranked team on the road, especially in an arena that's notably been a house of horrors for Iowa, is nothing to be ashamed of, but the Hawkeyes are definitely feeling the pressure.
Iowa would hear its name called on Selection Sunday if the season ended today, but unfortunately for the Hawkeyes (and their fans), there's still four games remaining in the regular season.
Four games to secure a bid, or four games to derail a season.
That's what Iowa has in front of it right now, but Ben McCollum and Co. will take it one game at a time - or in this case, one week.
This is the most obvious thing you've read this season, but it goes without saying that this is the biggest week of the Hawkeyes' 2025-26 campaign. Two wins would likely be enough to return Iowa to the Big Dance, while a combination of 1-1/0-2 would have Hawkeye fans biting their nails all the way to Selection Sunday.
Both games - home against Ohio State on Feb. 25 and at Penn State on Feb. 28 - don't scare the casual fans, but each contest presents its own unique challenge.
Ohio State comes to Iowa City on Wednesday squarely on the wrong side of the NCAA tournament bubble - the exact scenario it faced when it played Iowa in the Big Ten tournament last season.
But unlike last year's clash in Indianapolis, the Buckeyes still have some time to build enough of a resume to sneak into the Field of 68. Ohio State doesn't own a Quadrant 1 win yet, but it has two opportunities to make that happen.
Iowa is the Buckeyes' first hopeful victim on that list (Purdue on March 1 is the other). Ohio State HAS to beat the Hawkeyes to have any chance to make the Dance, and though Iowa has the comfort of playing at home, playing a desperate team is never a good thing.
If the Hawkeyes escape the Buckeyes, they've got an equally-crucial trip to Penn State waiting for them. The Nittany Lions currently sit in last place in the Big Ten, but any longtime Iowa basketball fan knows previous trips to the Bryce Jordan Center have sometimes ended in disaster (2016 and 2022 are great examples).
I've seen some people saying the Hawkeyes are safely in the field with just one win this week, but when you consider Iowa has games against Michigan and Nebraska to close the regular season, it needs to find a way to win two games this week.
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