By JOHN BOHNENKAMP

IOWA CITY, Iowa — Drew Thelwell smiled and confessed that yes, after one of his six steals in Iowa’s 85-60 win over Indiana on Saturday night, he turned to the Hawkeyes’ bench and said something like, “I’m a dog.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Thelwell laughed when asked for confirmation after the game. “I won’t lie.”

Thelwell has seen a lot throughout his career — there’s a certain education a player gets on the long bus rides to destinations in the Ohio Valley Conference, where Thelwell played in his four seasons at Morehead State.

It’s why he is embracing this much bigger stage on a Big Ten team, why any chance he gets he’s trying to coax louder noise out of the Carver-Hawkeye Arena crowds.

And it’s that experience that made him a spark for Iowa’s defense, often criticized but also a big factor in the Hawkeyes’ turnaround from what appeared a season on the brink — not that they thought so — to one that may indeed just have some promise to it.

The Hawkeyes won two games this week to get to 12-4 overall, 3-2 in the Big Ten, victories that looked completely different yet had the same common denominator.

Iowa can defend. It’s what allowed the Hawkeyes to come back from a 15-point deficit to beat Nebraska 97-87 in overtime on Tuesday, it’s what allowed them to turn the Hoosiers into a muttering-to-themselves mess in this game.

It was eight days ago when the Hawkeyes surrendered 21 3-pointers and 116 points in a 31-point thrashing at Wisconsin, eight days ago when they were mocked in the Badgers’ post-game interviews with the theory that they weren’t a team interested in defense.

So all the Hawkeyes did in this one was hold Indiana to its lowest point total of the season, score 24 points off 16 turnovers, come up with 11 steals, block six shots, and put together runs of 21-4 and 16-0 in the first half.

“Going back to what everybody’s kind of talked about, we need to lock in on defense and get stops,” Thelwell said. “And I think we showed that we can do that today.”

“We kind of just needed to lock in on that, on that side,” said forward Owen Freeman, who had four of the blocks.

Thelwell was one of the players especially bothered by the words from Madison last week.

“I mean, our focus was like, we know our offense is fine, like we’re one of the best offenses in the country,” Thelwell said. “But it was just making sure we have an identity on defense and getting stops when we need to get big buckets, big steals.”

“We got humbled at Wisconsin, and the way we responded to it shows what we’re capable of,” forward Payton Sandfort said. “I think, you know, a lot of people were writing us off. A lot of people kind of disrespected us. The leadership and the way that we came together is special. And you know, you’re going to get beat like that in this league sometimes, and you’ve just got to be able to respond.”

The blueprint for this one was drawn, Sandfort said, when the Hawkeyes watched the video of Indiana’s 89-61 loss to Louisville earlier this season. The Cardinals had staggered the Hoosiers in that game, and the Hawkeyes thought they could do the same.

“They went on a big run early (in that game),” Sandfort said. “But then, once you kind of hit them and keep hitting them, you respond to their runs, that’s when they kind of started to shut down and got a little tentative. So that’s when you’re able to take over the game.

“They’ve got a really good team, and the way that we took them out was a real credit to our guys and our coaches for getting us ready.”

Iowa coach Fran McCaffery said the Hawkeyes’ zone defense worked against the Hoosiers because, he said, his team was “connected.”

“If you’re going to play zone, which we played a good portion of the game, you’ve got to communicate,” he said.

Some of the Hoosiers’ early turnovers came from center Oumar Ballo, who had the ball knocked away from him on three consecutive possessions. Ballo, who would end up with just 10 points, was protesting every time.

“I didn’t see it, but some of my teammates said that he was talking to himself, or kind of, like, complaining,” Freeman said. “So it was good, I mean, for him not to be as dominant as he normally is.”

“That was the plan,” McCaffery said. “Every game he gets some type of defense like that — double the post, double him on the catch, double him on the bounce. Double him when they think he’s going to go into a move. Chop him on a spin. Whatever. Just try to put some doubt in his mind.”

All of the Hoosiers’ turnovers, and a 37-31 rebounding edge for the Hawkeyes, helped Iowa’s transition offense thrive. The Hawkeyes had a 26-2 edge in fast-break points.

“Getting the first rebound is huge,” Sandfort said. “It’s kind of demoralizing. You know, we rebounded really well. I think we outrebounded them. And then when we get rebounds, they’re crashing so hard that we can just really push in transition. And we’ve got great, great playmakers. We’re getting layups. We’re hitting wide-open threes, Owen’s running. That’s the energy we need to have the rest of the (season), let the defense dictate how we’re going to play.”

Iowa’s win over Nebraska was due in large part to Sandfort’s 30 points in the second half and in overtime, one of those shooter’s zones that he has found himself in throughout his career.

Thelwell was in his own world on defense.

“I feel like sometimes you just get in the zone where you can just read eyes and just have a feel for where they’re going to throw it,” he said.

Thelwell impressed the rest of the Hawkeyes when he joined the program out of the transfer portal in the summer.

“It’s been night and day just having a veteran guy, obviously,” Freeman said. “Morehead was a great defensive team, and he kind of brings his stories and his mindset to our team. You can see, it’s kind of bled through our whole team. So he changes our defensive side, and our offensive side for sure.”

“His basketball performance in the past speaks for itself,” McCaffery said. “The numbers are there. You know, there’s a reason why he won his 100th game, but his character is infectious. It just took him a little while to learn what we do and how we do it, and once he did, that was a game changer for the entire program.”

“I just love playing defense honestly,” Thelwell said. “Seeing the other team get so mad because they wanted that possession to be different, and just knowing like we’re running and their coach is pissed at them.

“It just feels great for me.”

Photo: Iowa’s Drew Thelwell drives to the basket against Indiana’s Oumar Ballo in Saturday’s game. (Keith Gillett/Icon Sportswire)