By JOHN BOHNENKAMP

His arm had so many scratches, it was as if he had just played 35 ½ minutes of basketball against a team of feral cats.

His white No. 20 jersey had a hole torn in it.

“I have orders to show everybody this from all of my cuts tonight,” Payton Sandfort said.

Sandfort and his Iowa teammates had scratched and clawed — and judging by the damage done to Sandfort, were apparently scratched and clawed themselves — for 40 minutes against Michigan State on Thursday night and it wasn’t enough.

The 91-84 loss to the eighth-ranked and now Big Ten champion Spartans was the latest good-but-not-good-enough game for the Hawkeyes.

They have been nicked and cut all year, but this late in the season, these losses are blood-letting gashes to their hopes.

It comes down to Sunday’s game at Nebraska whether Iowa can make the Big Ten Tournament, or whether this season ends and the offseason of what comes next begins.

The Hawkeyes, now 15-15 overall and 6-13 in the Big Ten, had a 22-2 first-half run and led 58-48 with 12:13 left, and then got caught in the Spartans’ tornado, a 33-6 storm that lasted eight minutes but felt like forever.

“Damn, they played good,” Michigan State coach Tom Izzo said of the Hawkeyes. “They deserved more than they got out of this, too.”

Izzo used a good chunk of his post-game press conference to defend Iowa coach Fran McCaffery, whose future with the program is at its most uncertain given what has happened this season.

“I listen to things and read things,” Izzo said as soon as he sat down at the table in the press room. “I mean, Fran outcoached us. His team outplayed us for 75 percent of the game.”

And when Izzo was asked later to expand on his thoughts about McCaffery, the coach leaned his head back against the wall, as comfortable as a batter knowing what kind of pitch in what location was coming at him.

“I look at some of the players he’s had, and what they’ve done, and, you know, you get lucky and unlucky,” Izzo said. “I mean, I just went through a three-year period where everybody wants to ship me out. I mean, it’s just the way it is.

“You know, they don’t have the resources here. I’m gonna say what I think. This ain’t what Fran thinks. Everybody has different amounts of resources. They’re not on the middle or high end.”

He wasn’t done.

“Watch what you wish for,” Izzo said. “I’ve seen this happen to a couple of football programs close to us. And people better appreciate … it’s easy to throw stones. Everybody says, ‘Well, we’re paying guys money now, so you should be able to win.’ Well, don’t you think the rest of us are paying money?

“Franny’s one of my favorite guys. He does speak his own piece. He’s very smart, and he’s sticking around if it’s up to me, because I need him. I need some of the guys that helped build this conference again, and he’s one of them, And I think tonight proves it.”

The decision, of course, will fall to athletics director Beth Goetz after McCaffery said earlier this week he has no intention of going anywhere after the season.

The recent results aren’t helping the cause, but Izzo said to look behind the numbers.

“We had everything to play for,” Izzo said. “They didn’t have as much to play for. I’m supposed to be such a good coach. He kicked my butt, our butt, for most of that time.”

“I think it’s a credit to the guys,” McCaffery said. “I appreciate him saying that. I really do. I don’t think he would say it if he didn’t believe it. So I appreciate that, and it’s a reflection on these guys and how they keep fighting. Really proud of them.”

The Spartans, who clinched a share of the Big Ten title on Wednesday night when Michigan lost to Maryland, won it outright with this win. They have won this season by smothering opponents, and that eight minutes of torment in the second half of this game was another example.

Michigan State shot 27 second-half free throws, a number that, like Sandfort’s scratches and damaged fabric, indicated the fury of what the Hawkeyes faced.

McCaffery went through an analysis of how the Spartans attacked, and then added tersely, “Twenty-seven free throws in the second half.”

Pressed for more specifics, McCaffery said, “Twenty-seven free throws in the second half.”

The damage to Sandfort was nothing compared to the damage to Iowa guard Drew Thelwell, who sat at the end of the bench, face buried in a towel, in the final minutes after he limped off with what appeared to be a re-injury to the right ankle that has bothered him in the closing weeks of the season.

“He’s been through the ringer,” Sandfort said. “It sucks to go out that way.”

The same can be said for the Hawkeyes — a season through the ringer, with nothing to show for it but the scars of so many fights that have been lost.

Izzo made sure to leave with final words in defense of McCaffery.

“Jud Heathcote said 10 or 15 percent of the people make enough noise to ruin a lot of things,” Izzo said. “I know what I think. I know what the coaching community thinks. That’s all I can tell you. I watched it. I was 40 feet from it tonight. He’s got a lot left in the tank. I promise you that.“

Photo: Iowa’s Payton Sandfort (right) hugs assistant coach Tristan Spurlock after Thursday’s loss to Michigan State. (Keith Gillett/Icon Sportswire)