Angry Iowa Gets Auburn in Big Dance

Hawkeyes Facing Former Assistant Thursday in Birmingham

Auburn coach Bruce Pearl yells at his players during a second-round SEC Men s Basketball Tournament game against Arkansas on  March 9, 2023 at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, Tenn. (Andrew Nelles /Tennessean.com/USA TODAY NETWORK)

The anger that had been boiling after Thursday’s Big Ten Tournament loss hung with the Iowa men’s basketball team over the weekend.

It mostly went away when the Hawkeyes saw their name pop up on the NCAA Tournament bracket on Sunday night.

Iowa is the No. 8 seed in the Midwest Regional, playing ninth seed Auburn on Thursday in Birmingham, Alabama

Still, the Hawkeyes have some fury about how the season ended for them — first the 81-77 home loss to Nebraska in the regular-season finale, then getting dumped by the Buckeyes, 73-69, in the second round of a tournament they had won the previous season.

“Pissed off,” was how forward Filip Rebraca described it.

“Guys weren’t definitely in good moods, without a doubt,” guard Connor McCaffery said. “Guys were pretty pissed off. I’m assuming practice will be a war tomorrow.”

Iowa coach Fran McCaffery, though, thinks the Hawkeyes will be in their usual mood by the time they get to Alabama.

“Win or lose, regardless of what it is, we take a businesslike approach,” McCaffery said. “We were close the other day, we didn’t win. A couple of tough plays at the end could have gone the other way. … I believe we’re still playing, so we just move on to the next.”

The Hawkeyes, even though they’re the higher seed, feel like they’re playing a road game against the Tigers, whose campus is just two hours from Birmingham.

“It’s a lot different being an 8-9 game versus, like the last couple (of tournaments), when we were a five (seed) and a two,” Connor McCaffery said. “It’s not like you’re playing a game where you feel like you’re supposed to win, have to win. I feel like you’re playing with house money a little bit.”

It’s a mentality McCaffery says the Hawkeyes enjoy.

“I think that we have guys who rise to the occasion,” he said.

Auburn (20-12), coached by former Iowa assistant Bruce Pearl, finished seventh in the Southeastern Conference. The Tigers, who have lost three of their last four games, have four players who average in double figures in scoring, led by Johni Broome’s 14 points per game. Guard Wendell Green Jr., averages 13.8 points, and leads the team with 133 assists and 41 3-pointers.

“They play hard, they compete,” Fran McCaffery said of Pearl’s teams. “They’re athletic. It’s hard to do what he’s done and been consistently good, so it’s a credit to him and how he’s built the program.”

Iowa assistant coach Matt Gatens worked on Pearl’s staff at Auburn for one season as a graduate assistant.

Asked if Gatens would get the scouting assignment, Fran McCaffery said, smiling, “That’s probably a good guess.”

Iowa went into the NCAA Tournament with momentum last season after winning the Big Ten Tournament, and lost in the first round. The Hawkeyes go into this tournament dealing with the disappointments of the last week.

“I think you just start over, whether you won or lost,” Fran McCaffery said. “You lose in the Big Ten Tournament, you lost to a good team. You win in the Big Ten Tournament, you beat a good team.”

TOURNAMENT NOTES: Iowa has qualified for seven of the last nine NCAA tournaments (2014, 2015, 2016, 2019, 2021, 2022, 2023). The Hawkeyes likely would have qualified for the 2020 tournament, but it was canceled because of the COVID-19 pandemic. … Iowa won eight games over NCAA Tournament teams this season: Indiana (twice), Illinois, Iowa State, Maryland, Michigan State, Northwestern and Southeast Missouri State. … Thursday will be the first time an Iowa team has played a game in Alabama.