Indiana signed on for two more years of the Crossroads Classic this week. It’s a move, coach Tom Crean said, that changes some non-conference scheduling.“We’re going to play a neutral game in Indianapolis.FORT WAYNE – There’s no place like home. Unless you’re the Iowa Hawkeyes, where the reverse has been true.
Two weeks into Big Ten play, Iowa has more conference victories on the road than at Carver-Hawkeye Arena. The Hawkeyes are just one of the teams finding success away from familiar surroundings.
Iowa already has more road conference wins this year than all of last season.
Purdue’s conference schedule started with three of the first four games away from Mackey Arena. The Boilermakers won two of the three road games. Michigan State won at Wisconsin for the first time since 2001. And Indiana won just its second road conference game in the Tom Crean era. Seven of the 12 teams have at least one road conference win. Three teams have two.
“Any road victory you come across in this league is like gold, there’s no question about it,” Crean said during the Big Ten teleconference Monday. “It counts extra in the RPI for a reason, because they are hard to get.”
Iowa is 2-2 in conference games. Both wins have come on the road, at Wisconsin and Minnesota. The Hawkeyes had one road conference win last season.
“There’s so many factors that enter in to preparing for a road game in this league,” Iowa coach Fran McCaffrey said. “You have to get used to a number of different things. Obviously, you have the travel side, the crowd, the fact that teams you play typically play better at home, shoot better. The runs are going to come more frequently. You have to have enough composure and a lot of times that’s a function obviously the individuals, but many times the experience of the players. We’re much more experienced this year than we were last year in handling that.”
Purdue recovered from a 20-point road loss at Penn State by beating Minnesota at Williams Arena 79-66 on Sunday. It was the Boilermakers’ second road conference win this season. Purdue opened the conference season with a 79-76 victory at Iowa on Dec. 28.
“You just try your best to prepare your team and try your best to take the crowd out of it,” Purdue coach Matt Painter said. “…We’ve done a good job, for the most part the past four or five years of just trying to be steady and be consistent and do the little things; take care of the basketball, make your free throws when we go on the road.”
Indiana relied on its three-point shooting (making 16 of 24) to win at Penn State 88-82 on Sunday. The Hoosiers snapped a 16-game conference road losing streak.
“It’s difficult to win on the road in any league, especially this league,” Crean said. “…. It’s an extremely well-coached league. Every team has got a very good home court and they’ve got fans that are passionate and they’ve got players that have had experience.
“There are very few inexperienced teams in this league and when you put all those things together with a good plan and a good scheme, it makes it hard.”
Michigan State has two road conference wins. Today, they’ll get a home game against the road-warrior Hawkeyes.
“Any time you get a road win in this league right now,” Michigan State coach Tom Izzo said, “it’s valuable.”
