Takeaways: Iowa Endures at Minnesota

Kris Murray Scores 28, Grabs 14 Boards in Sunday's Victory

Iowa’s Kris Murray during warm-ups before a game against Indiana on Jan. 5, 2022 at Carver-Hawkeye Arena in Iowa City, Iowa. (Rob Howe/HawkeyeNation.com)

Sometimes there are wins that need to be endured.

Such was the case in Iowa’s 68-56 win at Minnesota on Sunday.

Beating the Gophers (7-16 overall, 1-12 Big Ten, 239 NET) wasn’t exactly going to be a resumé enhancer, but a loss would have been a crusher for Iowa (16-9, 8-6), which moved into a five-way tie for fifth place in the conference heading into the final six games of conference play.

The Hawkeyes didn’t shake the Gophers until the final minutes — Minnesota shot 54.2 percent in the first half, 50 percent for the game.

But any win looks good in the mess in the middle of the conference standings, and it was important for Iowa to keep pace.

It was the Hawkeyes’ eighth win in their last 11 games, but bouncing back from Thursday’s loss at Purdue was important, considering they’re in a stretch of three out of four games on the road.

Other takeaways from Sunday’s game:

MURRAY’S NUMBERS

Kris Murray had his sixth double-double of the season, finishing with 28 points and 14 rebounds. He added three steals, two assists and two blocked shots.

It wasn’t his best shooting game of the season — Murray was 12-of-27 from the field — but he was 3-of-5 in 3-pointers and came up with big shots in the second half.

MCCAFFERY ON THE GLASS

Guard Connor McCaffery had just three points on 1-of-4 shooting.

But the senior contributed in so many different ways. McCaffery had 10 rebounds, four assists and three steals.

Iowa coach Fran McCaffery talked on Saturday about Connor’s contributions on the court, and his stat line on Sunday proved that.

THE SAME WITH PERKINS

It wasn’t a good shooting day for Iowa’s Tony Perkins.

Perkins only had seven points on 3-of-12 shooting, but like Connor McCaffery, found other ways to contribute.

Perkins had seven rebounds and three steals, and tied a career high with six assists against one turnover.

OTHER GAME NOTES

— Iowa had 11 steals for the second consecutive game.

— The Hawkeyes were plus-9 in turnover margin for the second consecutive game. Iowa lost the ball just five times.

— Iowa had 17 offensive rebounds compared to just two for the Gophers. That equaled a season-low for a Hawkeye opponent.

— Fran McCaffery has now won 123 regular season Big Ten games, three behind Tom Davis (126) for the most in program history.

— Iowa has played on Super Bowl Sunday each of the past four seasons and six of the last eight years.

— It was the third road win of the season for the Hawkeyes.