By JOHN BOHNENKAMP

Resumé enhancing wins can be found in December, and Iowa has a chance at one in Thursday’s home game against No. 3 Iowa State.

The Hawkeyes (7-2) are at No. 50 in the NCAA’s NET, and don’t have a Quad 1 win yet this season. Here come the Cyclones (7-1), who are No. 9 in the NET.

Throw in that this is a rivalry game, and there’s a lot at stake for the Hawkeyes in this game.

“I don’t know how much more juice we could get,” senior Payton Sandfort said. “You get a top-five team, especially coming in here, I think you’re ready to go.”

“I mean, it’s a great opportunity for us,” sophomore Owen Freeman said.

It’s been an unusual rivalry between the two programs, especially in recent seasons. Iowa has won eight of the last 10 home games against the Cyclones, including the last four by an average margin of 18.8 points. The last six games, which includes two Iowa State wins, have been decided by an average of 20.3 points.

“I don’t even know that, to be honest with you,” Iowa coach Fran McCaffery said when informed of the double-digit victory margin. “Home-court advantage is a factor all the time. But you know, a lot of times, when you’re dealing with good teams and rivalry situations, it doesn’t matter as much.”

This Iowa State team is probably the most formidable the Hawkeyes have faced in recent seasons in the rivalry. The Cyclones have power-conference wins over Dayton and Colorado in Maui Invitational and a home win over No. 5 Marquette last week.

Keshon Gilbert leads five Cyclones in double figures, averaging 17.4 points and 5.5 assists. Curtis Jones averages 16.3 points off the bench with a team-high 23 3-pointers.

Iowa State is eighth in the nation in scoring, averaging 87.8 points per game, while shooting 50.8 percent. The Cyclones average just 9.1 turnovers per game, seventh-fewest nationally.

“I think it’s a really deep team,” McCaffery said, “They’ve got a lot of weapons. They’ve got a lot of guys who can score in different ways. I think they’re playing really well together right now, it seems to me. They’ve been impressive with what they’ve done, I think they did really well, in Maui and then beating Marquette, I think Marquette is really a terrific team, so that was a big win.”

The Hawkeyes are coming off an 85-83 loss at Michigan last Saturday in which they trailed by double digits in both halves, and yet still had a last-second shot to try for the win. That followed an 80-79 win at home over Northwestern earlier in the week in which they rallied from an eight-point deficit late to win on Josh Dix’s buzzer-beating 3-pointer.

“We’ve got some dogs,” Freeman said. “I mean, that’s kind of just how we think. We went through the offseason just training with that mindset, that we’re not going to give up, we’re going to fight back. We’re in every game. So that’s the kind of mindset that the coaches kind of stuck into us, and that we’re just playing every game with.”

It’s a mindset the Hawkeyes will need against the Cyclones.

“We’re just going to walk into the game with that mindset and play 40 minutes with it,” Freeman said.

Photo: Iowa’s Josh Dix tries to cut through Michigan’s defense in last Saturday’s game. (Steven King/IconSportswire)