The need to heat up

Last week at this time, the Hoosiers found themselves in a great position in the Big Ten. They were tied at the top of the standings at 5-1 and had six of their last 10 games at home.\nBut IU has dropped two-straight games, one at Michigan State and the home contest Tuesday against Illinois. Now the Hoosiers need a win against Iowa Saturday to stay alive in the Big Ten race.\n"We still believe we can win," sophomore guard Marshall Strickland said. "We think it's going to be tough for anybody to come in here and win against us. We're going into this game with a lot of confidence."\nIU coach Mike Davis said last week that if the team took care of its home court, they would put themselves in a good position to win the conference crown. But the Hoosiers (11-8, 5-3 Big Ten) couldn't score a field goal in the final 9:53 against Illinois and let a game in their control slip away from them.\n"We didn't dig in defensively, and the shots we got, we missed lay-ups," Davis said. "We missed five lay-ups that could have won the game. We missed a couple of opportunities where we had wide-open shots. Sometimes you're going to miss wide-open shots. But to miss lay-ups is tough to overcome."\nThe Hawkeyes (11-8, 4-4) have struggled on the road this season, going just 1-6. Iowa lost Wednesday at Michigan State, 89-72. The Hoosiers lead the all-time series 90-63, including four-straight at home. But Davis isn't taking this team lightly.\n"I think it's going to be a tough game for us to win if we don't show up to play. I really do," Davis said. "I watched them play, and offensively, they score a lot of points and more points than we can imagine scoring."\nSophomore guard Pierre Pierce leads Iowa with 17 points per game. Two guards, senior Brody Boyd and sophomore Jeff Horner, also average double figures. IU senior forward A.J. Moye said Iowa has one of the most potent backcourts.\n"I really love their backcourt because they have a shooter in Boyd, and Horner is probably the best set-up man in the Big Ten," Moye said. "And Pierce can slash his butt off. That's a dangerous group."\nThe Hoosiers held halftime leads their last two games but failed to pull out the win. Moye said it starts with leadership from him.\n"We got to be aggressive," Moye said. "We do that in the second half. We get big leads, and we settle for jumpers. I got to lead more. I feel like I'm doing a lot, but I got to do more."\n-- Contact staff writer Tyler V. Hoeppner at thoeppne@indiana.edu.