[Herky] Uthoff does it again

[Sue Bailey]

Uthoff does it again

Senior scores 22 points as No. 9 Iowa improves to perfect 7-0 in Big Ten

By Scott Dochterman,The GazetteIOWA CITY - Iowa players and coaches know 
they have something special in senior forward Jarrod Uthoff, and so does 
the rest of the Big Ten.

Uthoff added to his season highlight reel and in turn propelled the No.

9 Hawkeyes to their best league start in 46 seasons.

Uthoff, the Big Ten's leading scorer, put up 22 points to push Iowa to 
an 83-71 win against No. 22 Purdue on Sunday at Carver-Hawkeye Arena.

In yet another big-time performance, Uthoff added three assists that 
were every bit as vital as his four 3-pointers. Twice on back-toback 
possessions, Uthoff successfully drove in the lane past Purdue freshman 
Caleb Swanigan, which brought up center A.J. Hammons. Both times Uthoff 
dished to Iowa center Adam Woodbury for easy layups, which stretched a 
four-point lead to eight points.

Uthoff, who stands nearly 6-foot-10, did most of his damage against the 
powerful 6-9 Swanigan. In the teams' first meeting at West Lafayette, 
Purdue (17-4, 5-3 Big Ten) had top defender Rapheal Davis guard Uthoff.

That led to 25 points from Uthoff, and Purdue Coach Matt Painter elected 
for the change. The result was the same.

'We considered going with Rapheal on Uthoff, but (Peter) Jok has been so 
good,' Painter said. 'Nomatter who guards Uthoff, I thought he had the 
upper hand on them. He's a tough cover. He's put them at another 
level.'Uthoff twice hit 3-pointers in the game's first three minutes to 
vault Iowa to a 10-4 edge.

When Purdue ralliedand took a seven-point lead, Uthoff knocked down 
another to cut the deficit
to four. Then, as part of an 8-0 run to start the second half, Uthoff 
capped it with another 3-pointer to push Iowa ahead 41-35.

Iowa forward Jarrod Uthoff dunks the ball over Purdue center A.J. 
Hammons (20), guard Dakota Mathias (31) and forward Caleb Swanigan (50) 
during the second half Sunday at Carver-Hawkeye Arena in Iowa City. 
Uthoff had 22 points and Iowa won, 83-71.

Cliff Jette/The Gazette


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'You can't double him, because you know we've got weapons,' Jok said. 
'It's a like a mismatch nightmare for anybody who's guarding him. 
Whenever he has mismatches - which is pretty much any night we just go 
to him.' Uthoff took advantage of his reputation with those passes to 
Woodbury. The first looked almost like a jumper, but it was placed 
perfectly at head level for Woodbury. On the second pass, Woodbury drove 
near the basket and flipped the ball around Hammons for the easy bucket.

'To be honest, in practice, I do that a lot,' Uthoff said. 'The fiveman 
has a tendency to come up, especially when he sets a down screen. So 
when I'm coming up, if I see a resemblance of the five-man coming up, I 
know that's going to be open because there's no weak side that can guard 
him. I know that's going to be open so when I see that five-man, I just 
throw it.' 'I think what you saw was an aggressiveness that you love to 
see him play with,' Iowa Coach Fran McCaffery said. 'I mean, he was 
really attacking, and I don't think anything he does anymore surprises 
anybody.' Uthoff averages 18.9 points and has scored in double digits in 
every game this year. In Big Ten action, he averages 20. The last player 
to score more than 20 a night was Adam Haluskain 2007.Woodbury finished 
with 13 points and 10 rebounds in a tough match-up against Purdue's 
7-foot tandem of Hammons and Isaac Haas. Hammons scored 10 points with 
six rebounds, while Haas had only one point andtwo rebounds.

'He was special today, Adam Woodbury,' Mc-Caffery said.

Five different Iowa players hit 3-pointers in the second half's first 
seven minutes to take the Hawkeyes from a 35-33 halftime deficit to a 
56-41 lead. Bench playersBrady Ellingson, Nicholas Baer and Dominique 
Uhl each hit 3-pointers on consecutive possessions.

'The thing I wold say about Iowa is a lot of people have good teams that 
don't want to get to their bench, but these guys don't have much of a 
drop off and in fact, against teams like us, they tend to improve,' 
Painter said.

Iowa (16-3, 7-0 Big Ten) has won 13 consecutive Big Ten games, one shy 
of tying the school record.

The Hawkeyes remain tied atop the Big Ten with Indiana and are 7-0 in 
league play for the first time since 1970. Iowa has won six of its seven 
Big Ten games by double digits this season.

•Comments: (319) 339-3169; scott.dochterman at thegazette.com 
<mailto:scott.dochterman at thegazette.com>

Purdue forward Caleb Swanigan and Iowa center Adam Woodbury struggle for 
control of the ball Sunday at Carver-Hawkeye Arena in Iowa City.

Cliff Jette photos/The Gazette

Iowa guard Anthony Clemmons puts his hand in the face of Purdue guard 
Rapheal Davis on Sunday at Carver-Hawkeye Arena in Iowa City.

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