Iowa Basketball Falls to #22 in AP Poll

On the heels of a week featuring a close loss to the then-24 ranked Maryland Terrapins and a close win over the unranked Indiana Hoosiers on Friday, the Iowa Hawkeyes fell a spot to #22 in this week’s AP Top 25:

This ranking continues a downward trend for the Hawkeyes, particularly after five games of relatively uninspiring play that required two straight walk-off buzzer beaters and overtime against some of the worst teams in the Big Ten to win. There are still no bad losses on Iowa’s resume, but the team’s play as a whole certainly isn’t inspiring confidence in me, or the voters, either.

Maryland, meanwhile, benefited from the victory over Iowa and a double-digit win over Ohio State, jumping seven spots from #24 all the way to #17, tying with Kansas State for the week’s biggest jump. Elsewhere near the bottom of the Top 25, Wisconsin moved three spots to #19. At the top of the rankings, Michigan and Michigan State flip-flopped positions, as the Spartans dominated the Wolverines in the second half on the road; Michigan State rose four spots to #6, and Michigan fell two spots to #9.

The Hawkeyes don’t have an easy week ahead of them, either. They’re on the road tomorrow to face a feisty middle-of-the-pack Ohio State squad before hosting Rutgers on Saturday in what has become an interesting rematch after Joe Wieskamp’s game winning three off the glass at the RAC.

Go 2-0, and Iowa will probably be able to jump some spots, or at least stay put in the rankings. Go 1-1 or even 0-2, and a fall from the top is likely. Putting those games away quickly would inspire a lot of confidence in this team from me and a lot of others, so let’s hope that’s the outcome.