Just over two years ago to the day, I sat inside then Bankers Life Fieldhouse and watched as Northwestern fell to Minnesota on the first day of the Big Ten Tournament 74-57. Even as the ‘Cats held a 31-29 lead at halftime, it never felt as though they had a shot to win that game. The Gophers had defeated them by a whopping 26-point margin just over two weeks prior, and promptly outscored Northwestern by a 30-12 margin in the first 10 minutes of that second half on the road to victory.
Iowa at least had the decency on Thursday afternoon to not tease ‘Cats’ fans with any sense of victory, dominating from the open tip on the way to the most prolific offensive performance in the tournament’s history, winning 112-76 over Northwestern.