Uthoff's winner at Minnesota came on play 'run to perfection'

Jarrod Uthoff has hit clutch jumpers from nearly the same spot on the floor in two of Iowa's three road victories this season. One was by design, one wasn't.

Uthoff's hoop with 1 minute 35 seconds to play clinched a 71-65 victory at Ohio State on Dec. 30. The basket came out of Iowa's half-court offense, not a set play.

"That was just a guy making a play," Iowa coach Fran McCaffery said.

Uthoff's 17-footer from the right elbow with 3.5 seconds remaining at Minnesota on Tuesday came on a designed play. That basket gave Iowa a 77-75 victory at Williams Arena.

McCaffery called the play from the sideline with 17 seconds to go. From the right corner, Uthoff rubbed his defender, Andre Hollins, off a Gabe Olaseni screen. Uthoff took a pass from Anthony Clemmons and made the jumper over Hollins and Carlos Morris, who had dropped off Clemmons to help.

"Rarely do you call a play that works to perfection," McCaffery said. "Something always happens. There's a deflection, there's a switch, and then someone's got to go make a shot. But they ran the play to perfection, and (Uthoff) drilled it."

The execution of the play looked even better when McCaffery watched it on film.

"Especially when the ball goes through," he said.

Iowa, 3-1 in the Big Ten and 12-5 overall, meets Ohio State (14-4, 3-2) at 1 p.m. Saturday in Carver-Hawkeye Arena. The game is sold out.