Iowa coach Fran McCaffery knows it was just the first step of many.
Jarrod Uthoff and Aaron White each scored 18 points to lift the Hawkeyes past No. 20 Ohio State 71-65 Tuesday in the Big Ten opener for both teams.
“You can take a lot (out of it),” McCaffery said. “We beat a ranked team, on the road and kind of led wire to wire, and we fought when we had to fight. If you’re going to be a good team in this league and an NCAA tournament team, that’s what you’ve got to be able to do. Now we’ve got to do it again. And again.”
The Hawkeyes (10-4, 1-0) never trailed after the opening minute, leading by as many as 12 points in the first half and holding on when Ohio State (11-3, 0-1) applied pressure at the end.
“We came into this game expecting to win. And we played like it out there,” Iowa point guard Mike Gesell said. “You could see it in our confidence. Right away we jumped on them and we were able to hold them off the rest of the way.”
