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Iowa beats Wisconsin, honoring Chris Street’s 20th anniversary

Jerry Storm

Iowa director of basketball operations Jerry Strom puts Chris Street’s No. 40 jersey over an empty chair at the end of the bench as the lights went out for Iowa’s introductions before an NCAA college basketball game against Wisconsin, Saturday, Jan. 19, 2013, in Iowa City, Iowa. The Iowa team was commemorating the death of Street who was killed in a car wreck 20 years ago this month. (AP Photo/The Gazette, Brian Ray)

AP

The story coming out of Carver-Hawkeye Arena on Saturday evening had nothing to do with the basketball game being played on the floor and everything to do with honoring No. 40.

Twenty years ago Saturday, Chris Street was killed when a snow-plow struck the car that he was driving. If you don’t know the story, watch this. In short, Street was a typical Midwestern sports star: humble, hard-working and a fan favorite. He was averaging 14.5 points and 9.5 boards as a junior when he died.

Iowa honored and celebrated Street’s life at halftime, as the 20 players that have won the Chris Street Award since his passing and more than 50 members of Street’s family were in attendance. They all wore matching t-shirts that the team had on during warm-ups. A video tribute was played in the arena as well.

And you can’t help but think that the added energy and spirit in the building had something to do with what happened on the court, as the Hawkeyes jumped out to a 30-10 lead on the Badgers on Saturday night. Wisconsin hit just three of their first 19 shots from the field, digging themselves a hole that was simply too big to climb out of.

This was an enormous win for an Iowa team looking to change the direction of their program. Fran McCaffery has as much talent on the roster as the Hawkeyes have seen in a decade, and after a couple of close calls, they finally notched a win over one of the Big Ten’s elite. Aaron White led the way with 17 points and seven boards, hitting the final two free throws to seal a 70-66 win.

The outcome throws a wrench into an already-complicated Big Ten race. Wisconsin entered as the league’s last undefeated team, having knocked off Indiana in Assembly Hall on Tuesday and whooped up on Illinois in the Kohl Center last Saturday. They were playing their best basketball of the season and looked like a serious contender for the Big Ten title.

Until they rolled in Carver-Hawkeye Arena as Iowa honored a fallen member of their program.

You don’t have to be one of our more spiritual readers to see how much Saturday night’s performance resembled the move “The 6th Man”. The only difference? Chris Street was probably a better player than Kadeem Hardison.