Iowa Hawkeyes Basketball: Is There Light at the End of the Tunnel?

Despite 20 turnovers, the Iowa Hawkeyes managed to completely dominate the Indiana Hoosiers in Assembly Hall tonight, 58-43.

It was a much-needed win for the Hawkeyes, who had not won a Big Ten road game since March of 2008. This victory also ended a school-record 15-game road losing streak, dating back to November 2008.

The last time Iowa won in Assembly Hall was Feb. 11, 2006.

Does the victory mean there is a small beam of light starting to form at the end of the losing tunnel in Hawkeye basketball? 

The Hawkeye faithful sure hope so. So does Todd Lickliter.

Indiana (9-10, 3-4) had won its last two games before heading into Sunday's game against Iowa (8-12, 2-5). Those wins included an overtime win against Minnesota and a road victory at Penn State, causing some to think Indiana would come into the battle for last place in the conference with a little more confidence.

They thought wrong. 

The guard-centric Hawkeyes changed things up a bit, going inside to Aaron Fuller and Jarryd Cole. Fuller was the leading scorer in the game with 13 points. Cole added 11 points and 10 rebounds.

Fuller and Cole got some help from Eric May and Brennan Cougill, too.  Iowa outscored the Hoosiers in the paint, 34-16. They also out-rebounded Indiana 39-23, with 18 of those coming on the offensive end.

Iowa has now won three of its last four games, all without guard Anthony Tucker, who was suspended back in December after an arrest for a public intoxication charge.

That's good news, considering Tucker returns to practice on Monday. Tucker averaged almost 12 points a game before his suspension.

"It looks like he’ll start practicing when we get back (from Indiana) on Monday," Lickliter told reporters earlier in the week. "I just got notice that everything isn’t complete, but everything is set in motion and all that he could complete to date is. So we’ll see how that goes, but we’ll make practice available to him and give him an opportunity."

Iowa's next game is back in Iowa City against No. 25 Ohio State on Wednesday. The Hawkeyes hope they can keep the spark going.

The Buckeyes are 2-5 on the road this year, so anything's possible.