(U-WIRE) IOWA CITY, Iowa – Let’s swallow our pride and painfully rewind to Jan. 26.

On that fateful day in Evanston, Ill., the Iowa Hawkeyes collapsed. Holding a 12-point lead with 3:09 remaining, they fell apart. Their NCAA soul was crushed with a flourish of 3s and layups from Vedran Vukusic, and they lost 75-74 in overtime to the Northwestern Wildcats.

Fast forward to Feb. 12. Iowa held a 13-point halftime lead. Suddenly, that lead vanished as quickly as it was built. In 3:02, that lead shrank to four with a 9-0 run from the Wildcats. It nearly dropped to two with T.J. Parker standing at the line with two foul shots. He missed both, and the Hawkeyes never looked back. This time, there was no soul crushed. Instead, Iowa rose from the dead, earning a huge win with a 64-54 triumph. There was no choking this time.

“We needed to challenge them,” Hawk coach Steve Alford said. “We saw an awful lot of pressure from Northwestern being up 12 with three minutes to go at their place, and we folded.”

He challenged his team this week, and the Hawks responded. He told them the Feb. 12 game was a make-or-break game. Last year, two losses to Northwestern sank Iowa’s NCAA hopes. Another would’ve done the same thing to the Hawkeyes this year. This time, the players stepped up to the plate.

“I had to make absolutely sure that they understood the [NCAA pressure],” Alford said. “I told them that’s part of college athletics. You’ve got to learn to deal with pressure.”

Granted, a win over Northwestern can hardly be counted as a big win, and when the NCAA committee looks at Iowa for consideration, it isn’t going to look at a win over Northwestern and automatically put Iowa in a bracket. However, after you’ve lost three straight to the Wildcats dating back to last season, dropped games to Michigan State and Wisconsin, and lost Pierre Pierce in the span of two weeks, a victory over Northwestern is big.

A huge weight was lifted off the shoulders of both the players and the coaches. This team proved it can win without Pierce, even if it is against Northwestern. The proverbial monkey has been removed, and the players’ relief after the game was visible.

“It was a big win,” guard Adam Haluska said after registering his best all-around performance of the season, finishing with 20 points, eight rebounds, five assists and four steals. “Northwestern’s playing well, and we’ve lost to them three straight times. I really think this team came out and played with urgency. I think we were resilient and came out with the win.”

The popular word postgame was “urgent.” Haluska used it twice in his comments. All the Hawkeyes have to do is get wins, and the rest will take care of itself.

“We’ve got to get wins, and we’ve got to play hard and do whatever it takes to get in that tournament,” Haluska said.

This was a start for the Hawkeyes to restore their NCAA hopes, and it sets up a big week. Haluska and Co. showed the urgency needed to get into the dance that has eluded them the last three years. They can build those hopes with Wednesday’s game at 10th-place Purdue, a winnable game for the Hawkeyes. A win would put Iowa at 17-7, a good mark going into Iowa’s Saturday showdown with top-ranked Illinois.

“This was a need-win for us, and we were able to get it. Now, we’ve got a big week next week,” Alford said.

– Nick Richards