team's surge into the polls and early success in conference play -- names like jarrod uthoff and nicolas baer come to mind on --how or why -- the hawkeyes have started this strong -- but there'sne hawk who we're all forgetting forgettingmike gesell -- the seinor point guard is playing lights out against big 10 opponents -- he's averaging 18 points per game -- and his assist to turnover rat is 4 to 1 -- so it's easy to see that the hawkeyes go as gesell goes. "he was a big time scorer in high school. and i pretty much asked him to be the point gugud... what yy're seeing is his development... he's in great shape physically. he's in a great place mentally... everybody feels better when he's got the ball." ball.""i think i'm much more nfident, much more aggressive guy.y. some of through experience. and with this team they got a lot of experience." other news on the hardwood -- both george niang and monte morris found themselves on the lute olson award mid-season watch list -- the award is given to the nation's top division 1 player who's played at least 2 seasons -- this years niang is averaging

13 of his game high 22 in the second halfand the bench came up big as well -- brady ellingson, nicolas baer, and dom uhl combined for 19 points pointsas iowa beats ppurdue 83 to 71 -- pat moroney was at carver and explains how the second half surgue propelled the hawks to 7 and oh in the big 10 for the first time in 46 years. they say basketball is a game certainly the case today at carver-hawkeye arena - when iowa turned a two-point halftime deficit into a 15-point lead... with a 23 to half... you hit two or three threes in a row... it's easy to go on a run... we have shooters everywhere on this team... you never know who's gonna get hot... everybody shooting well... anybody can go off any second... that's been really helping us.... but winning - isn't all about scoring - today it was the defense that feuled iowa's game-changing run... i think we locked in defensively... i think in the first half we missed some assignments... we really didn't have the great energy that we usually do... we picked up the intensity on defense and really got into them... that contributed a lot to our offensive

to see nicolas baer, brady, and dom uhl quality minutes, especially when woody got in foul trouble. hawkeye travel to number seven maryland on thursday -- uni women at drake -- the panthers and the bulldogs tied for first in the mvc standings -- weekly -- the uni guard pops the trey early -- panthers led 20, 19 after the firsrs -- weekly again from outside -- 6 of 9 from three point land -- 25 points -- sharnae lamar adding a little something herself -- pops the j -- lamar chipped in 10 points -- panthers got it done late -- uni now all alone in first in the missouri valley after a 79, 73 win -- hawkeye wreretlers going after a 19th straight big ten dual win -- on the road at number 11 nebraska -- at 125 -- thomas gilman takes down tim lambert -- gilman remained perfect after an 11, 4 decision -- same goes for brandon sorenson -- undefeated at 149 -- sneaks by 5th ranked jake sueflohn 6 to 5 -- all 3 undefeated hawkeyes stayed that way -- nathan burak gets the decision at 197 -- hawks win 7 of ten matches -- they get nebraska tonday 21, 11 -- who's the rebel now? no way. yes way! sa