“They’re more up and down,” MSU senior guard Kalin Lucas said. “When they get it, they’re trying to score. They push it, they go and their fast break is a lot better.”

Unlike when the Hawkeyes (8-13 overall, 1-8 Big Ten) beat the Spartans (13-8, 5-4), 43-36, in 2008, Iowa now prefers a more run-and-gun style — as evidenced by two 90-point games earlier this season.

Lucas, one of the fastest players in the Big Ten, said he’s excited MSU isn’t getting ready to play the Hawkeye teams of old.

“It is going to be a little different,” Lucas said. “But I like teams that play a little more up-tempo and don’t come down and just wait until the shot clock pretty much runs out.”

Despite Iowa’s transformation into a faster-paced team, the Hawkeyes have struggled to turn that into results on the court and in the win column. Iowa still ranks ninth in the conference in scoring offense (68.6 points per game) and only has one league win against Indiana.

The Hawkeyes are led by junior guard Matt Gatens, but part of their struggles could be contributed to the fact Iowa leans heavily on a number of freshmen, McCaffery said.

Melsahn Basabe, a freshman forward, has been the Hawkeyes’ best post player, and McCaffery said he had been recruiting Basabe since before he left Siena to coach at Iowa.

“I looked at him as an impact player,” McCaffery said during a teleconference Monday. “I thought he was a guy that could be the rookie of the year in the league.”

Basabe’s 10.6 points and 6.8 rebounds per game have been solid, especially for a freshman, but McCaffery said he has struggled with items such as adjusting to the other team’s defense, much like any young player.

At his weekly press conference Monday, MSU head coach Tom Izzo said the Spartans might be giving Basabe and the Hawkeyes a new look Wednesday and for the rest of the season.

Following the dismissal of junior guard Korie Lucious, MSU’s bench is shorter than it once was, and to conserve energy, Izzo said the Spartans might go to a zone for stretches this season.

“You should see somewhat more zone,” Izzo said. “Could be two minutes, could be 10, could be five, could be who knows. But I think that’s one area where you will see a little change.”

After practice Monday, players said they spent time working on both a 2-3 and 3-2 zone. But after years of Izzo building a foundation of strong man-to-man defense at MSU, junior forward Draymond Green said as long as Izzo is around, he doubts the Spartans ever will go zone.

“At the beginning of every year, we always work on zone,” Green said. “And we all sit around and wonder why, because we never do it.”

Izzo said he understands why anyone would be skeptical when he says MSU might play zone, and also admitted the Spartans are not ready for it quite yet.

“You’ve got to spend some time on it to do it,” Izzo said. “And we didn’t. We didn’t spend a lot of time on it.”

Regardless of what defense MSU plays Wednesday, Lucas said he and the Spartans hope to take the momentum gained from Sunday’s win against Indiana into Iowa City, as they continue to try to rebound from a rough first half of the Big Ten season.

“We know they’re going to come at us,” Lucas said. “We just (have to) come ready to go and keep this thing going.”