Changing the Rivalry: Wisconsin Basketball vs. Iowa

The hiring of then-Milwaukee head coach Bo Ryan yielded little fanfare outside the city of Madison.

Other than an improbable run to the Final Four in 2000, there had been few bright spots since the Badgers hung their 1947 Big Ten championship banner. Not only were there no Big Ten titles over that 54-year stretch, but Wisconsin also had four times as many losing seasons (32) as top-four finishes in the league (eight). There were just four NCAA tournament appearances, including 47 straight seasons without one.

So, when Bennett abruptly retired in November 2000, he took with him some of the excitement as the Badgers stumbled to a 13-loss season and a first-round upset. Ryan and associate head coach Greg Gard didn’t wait long to change the culture.

Winning back-to-back Big Ten titles in their first two seasons, the Badgers have been dominant in winning 70.9 percent of its games during Ryan’s 14 seasons as head coach and in the last six-plus seasons under Gard (493-202 through Dec.31). UW has won eight Big Ten titles, appeared in 18 of the last 19 NCAA tournaments, and advanced to two Final Fours.

Since Ryan and Gard arrived, Wisconsin has the most Big Ten wins and the best winning percentage in the conference at 243-114 (.681) and have flipped many conference rivalries that had long been one-sided affairs.

Over the course of this Big Ten season, BadgerBlitz will examine Wisconsin’s series with the 13 other conference teams, what it was before Ryan and Gard arrived, what the series looks like now, and some memorable moments along the way.

Today, we look at Wisconsin’s series with Iowa.

Pre 2001-02: Iowa led 72-63

Since 2001-02: Wisconsin leads 22-13

Ryan’s Record vs. Iowa: 19-7 (7-5 in Iowa, 1-1 neutral)

Gard’s Record vs. Iowa: 3-6 (2-3 in Iowa, 0-1 neutral)

Record when both teams were ranked: Ryan 2-0; Gard 1-2

When Wisconsin was ranked, Iowa was not: Ryan 11-2; Gard 1-1

When Iowa was ranked, Wisconsin was not: Ryan 0-2, Gard 1-1

When both teams were unranked: Ryan 6-3, Gard 0-2

In a series that dates to 1909, Wisconsin won the first eight meetings and 17 of the first 22. As the decades went on, however, the two programs traded punches evenly. From the 1930s until the 1980s, the Badgers' longest winning streak was three and their longest losing streak was six. One of the more memorable games was UW's Dale Koehler scoring 38 points (the second-most in school history at the time) in a 86-85 overtime victory in the UW Fieldhouse.

The series changed in the 80s, as Iowa went 16-4 during the 10 years. After stabilizing things in the 90s with a 9-8 record, UW won three of the first four meetings in the new millennium.

Under Ryan: Wisconsin lost two of the three meetings in 2002 but the Hawkeyes didn’t register multiple victories against the Badgers in a season again until 2011-12. In that gap, Wisconsin won six consecutive meetings and 13 of 16. The longest losing streak in the series by Ryan’s Badgers was three. UW broke that streak with a double-overtime victory in 2013, which was the first of five straight victories for Ryan to end his tenure.

The games were usually close with Ryan at the helm. The average margin of victory between the two schools during his tenure was 9.2 points with six decided by one possession, and 12 decided by two possessions. UW’s record in the latter category was 8-4, a credit to how prepared and disciplined Ryan’s teams were in crunch time.

Under Gard: Wisconsin won three of the first five meetings in the series, including a pair in Iowa City where the Badgers improved to 9-6 in Carver-Hawkeye Arena with Gard on the bench. The last four meetings haven’t gone as well with the Hawkeyes winning all of them by an average of 7.5 points per game. Last year was particularly painful for UW, as the Badgers’ veteran team lost three times to them in 23 days, the latter two when the Hawkeyes were ranked fifth nationally.

Overall, Ryan/Gard went 12-4 against coach Steve Alford, 4-1 against Todd Lickliter, and 9-9 (so far) against Frank McCaffery.

“Iowa wanted to run the ball down your throat, so you wanted to make sure you didn’t give them a lot of easy baskets. It was all the little things that were wrapped up in transition. We always talk about taking care of the ball, getting good shots, and making them guard. If you got a nice shot, make them guard, and take their legs away. If they're guarding, they can’t score.

“With both Steve Alford’s teams and Fran McCaffery’s, that’s huge if you can take away their transition and make them beat you in the halfcourt.

“We had guys who believed in what we were doing and paid attention to what the scouting report presented and stuck to it. Some teams don’t do that, just go off on their own on a tangent. Our guys bought into what we’re doing and the things we were trying to do to give us a chance. That’s what you want to do, especially on the road, so there aren’t many peaks and valleys.”

- Former Wisconsin assistant coach Gary Close, who was an assistant at Iowa and did UW’s scouting report on the Hawkeyes

One of the biggest shots in the series happened in 2005 when Alando Tucker banked in a running 3-pointer as time expired to lift Wisconsin to a 59-56 victory in the Big Ten tournament semifinals in Chicago. And who could forget the ‘Frantrum” in 2014 when McCaffery got two technical fouls and was ejected in the second half, completely flipping the game in UW’s favor?

Iowa hasn’t won a Big Ten regular-season since 1979, so the two schools haven’t played a ton of meaningful games that had championships hanging in the balance. However, the Hawkeyes were chasing one back in February 2016 when they hosted the Badgers. UW delivered one of the more satisfying victories in recent series history with a 67-59 road victory over No.8 Iowa in Gard’s first game in the series as head coach.

A victory would have put Iowa in a first-place tie in the conference with three games to go, but instead was saddled with a third loss in four games, a streak that ended up costing the Hawkeyes a share of the conference title.

The game was also viewed as Jarrod Uthoff’s best chance to beat Wisconsin. Uthoff entered 0-4 in his career against the team he left high and dry after the 2011-12 season. Uthoff finished with 11 points on 3-for-12 shooting in just 23 minutes and didn’t address the media after, having never beaten the Badgers.

It was the third top-10 win for the interim Gard, who likely earned the full-time job because of that fact and his 12-6 record Big Ten record.

_________________________________________________

*Chat about this article in The Badgers' Den

*Check out our videos, interviews, and Q&As on our YouTube channel

*Subscribe and listen to the BadgerBlitz.com podcast (as seen on Apple, Google, Spotify and wherever you listen to podcasts)

*Follow us on Twitter: @McNamaraRivals, @JakeKoco, @TheBadgerNation, @RaulV45

*Like us on Facebook