No. 21 Iowa hopes for more magic vs. No. 24 Maryland
Iowa keeps winning -- and winning at the buzzer. The No. 21 Hawkeyes have won four consecutive games, including Saturday's crazy finish at Rutgers. Joe Wieskamp, picking up a deflected three-quarters-court pass in the corner, banked in a 3-pointer with 0.2 seconds left for an 71-69 victory. A game earlier, Jordan Bohannon hit a game-winning 3-pointer with less than one second remaining to take down Northwestern 80-79. The high-wire act continues Tuesday night when Iowa rides its late-game magic into a Big Ten matchup against No. 24 Maryland in Iowa City. "We have a group that is executing well, whether we are running our late-game action or set plays or whatever," Iowa coach Fran McCaffery said Monday, via Rivals.com. "We have good ball-handlers and passers. We don't have turnover guys. I think we have intelligent guys who understand time and score and what we need. We are defending better ... so it's a collective thing with personnel and what we are doing." Iowa (20-5, 9-5 Big Ten) didn't move in the AP poll after its win over the Scarlet Knights. Maryland (19-7, 10-5) also kept its spot after splitting two games last week -- beating then-No. 12 Purdue at home by 14 points on Tuesday and losing at then-No. 6 Michigan by 13 points on Saturday. This will be the last chance this season for Terrapins coach Mark Turgeon to beat a ranked team on the road. He is 0-19 when facing those circumstances in his eight years with Maryland. Maryland likely will need a big game from 6-foot-10 sophomore Bruno Fernando, who narrowly missed his eighth consecutive double-double with 12 points and eight rebounds against Michigan. He went scoreless in the first half, which Turgeon said had consequences at the other end. "He let his offense affect his defense," Turgeon said in the Baltimore Sun. ?????"We were playing four-on-five out there defensively, and Bruno has been one of our best defenders, right? "That was the most disappointing thing. I can handle the missed jump hooks. You've got to bring it at the other end. He hasn't done that all year. The second half he was terrific. He was much better." Fernando is averaging 14.5 points and a team-high 10.6 rebounds per game. Jalen Smith, a 6-10 freshman, is averaging 6.8 rebounds, helping the Terrapins post a plus-10.4 average rebounding margin, second-best in the nation entering Monday. That will be a challenge for Iowa big man Tyler Cook, who is averaging team highs of 16.3 points and 8.1 rebounds. The Terrapins won last season's meeting 91-73, when Fernando had 21 points and seven rebounds, while Cook managed seven and one, respectively, before fouling out. "Maryland has a lot of weapons," McCaffery said. "They can go inside, they have multiple shooters, they have speed and quickness and guys that have done it before. They have a good combination of things that make them hard to guard." Guard Anthony Cowan Jr. leads Maryland in scoring at 15.8 points per game. Iowa has a better 3-point attack, led by Wieskamp, whose 44.9 percentage (44 of 98) is on pace to be a freshman school record. Bohannon is hitting 46.7 percent (43 of 92) from beyond the arc in the past 16 games. This is the only regular-season meeting between Iowa and Maryland this season. --Field Level Media |