BIG TEN Iowa in 'must-win' at Ohio State

The Hawkeyes are trying to keep their tournament hopes alive.
IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) -- Iowa is in a four-way tie for fourth place in the Big Ten.
And the Iowa players and coach Steve Alford all know a victory at Ohio State tonight is the best way to get out.
It would also keep NCAA tournament hopes alive and give the Hawkeyes (13-9, 6-5 Big Ten) back-to-back league wins for the first time all season.
The immediacy of the game is clear.
"It's a must-win for us," said forward Glen Worley. "We have to get out of that logjam."
Teammate Jeff Horner stretched the theory a little longer.
"We're going to probably have to win the rest of our games in order to get where we want," said Horner, the team's leader in assists, minutes and 3-point shooting.
Iowa beat Ohio State (11-12, 3-7) last month with a mix of good shooting, strong defense and a season-low eight turnovers.
But several factors make tonight's matchup at the Schottenstein Center a little different than the Hawkeyes' 79-65 victory Jan. 24 in Iowa City.
Buckeyes ace is back
Last time, the Buckeyes played without their flashy playmaker and leading scorer, Tony Stockman, who is averaging 12.9 points per game and leads the team in assists. Stockman, also among the Big Ten leaders in steals and 3-pointers, did not travel for the Iowa game but has led the Buckeyes in scoring in three of the five games since.
"He's a playmaker. He does a good job of getting his teammates open looks," said Horner. "We're just going to have to be ready to play with him in there now."
The other change is the Hawkeyes lack the services of center Sean Sonderleiter, who helped neutralize the Buckeyes' big front court.
It's no secret that teams with big post players will try to beat the Hawkeyes inside, like Michigan did Saturday, outrebounding Iowa 48-32, Alford said.
Alford said the Michigan game proved it's time to spread the rebounding and low-post defensive chores around.
"It's a tough matchup, because they're as big a team as we'll play here the rest of the way out. We're obviously not very big," said Alford, whose team has won seven of the last eight games in Columbus.
"We're going to have to do a better job with blocking out. Our guards have got to get in there. And we've got to demand more from Glen [Worley] and Erek [Hansen]. That's what has got to happen down the stretch because people are going to come at us inside," he said.
After Ohio State, the Hawkeyes will have the weekend off and a chance to watch the Big Ten race unfold on television.
Tight conference race
The Hawkeyes are bundled together with Purdue, Indiana and Northwestern and two games behind third place Michigan State.
Beating the Buckeyes could give the Hawkeyes some separation in the logjam and keep the team on track for a fourth place Big Ten finish, a spot Alford believes should be good enough for a NCAA tournament bid.
Postseason projections call for three of four Big Ten teams getting invitations. The conference has had at least five teams invited to the tournament every year since it was expanded to 64 teams in 1985. Iowa has not been to the tournament since the 2000-01 season.
"All I know is that it's important to stay in the upper echelon going into the Big Ten Tournament," Alford said. "We just have to be sure to stay close and not be separated" in the lower half of the standings.