Indiana vs. Iowa: 2018-19 College basketball game preview, TV schedule
The Indiana Hoosiers are returning home to play Iowa after snapping a seven-game losing streak in dramatic fashion up in East Lansing while the Iowa Hawkeyes manged to knock off the Wolverines last week.
TV Schedule: Thursday, Feb. 7, 9 p.m. ET ESPN
Arena: Assembly Hall, Bloomington, IN
Many bracketologists came out last Friday with Indiana out of the Tournament because of their losing streak. It was hard after the Hoosiers lost to Rutgers. The next day, Indiana went to Michigan State and knocked them off for the Spartans second-straight loss. Lukas Harkins now has Indiana safely in as a 10-seed. The Hoosiers took Michigan State to overtime and come out with the victory even after Juwan Morgan suffered a shoulder injury under halfway left in the first half.
Iowa also managed to beat one of the top-two teams in the Big Ten. The Hawkeyes were just coming off a two-game losing streak. They were in control for the first three-quarters of the game against Michigan State, but their offense went cold and defense slowed down. Iowa was in a barn-burner against Minnesota where they eventually lost 87-92. The Hawkeyes returned home, played a complete game of basketball and beat the No. 5 ranked Michigan Wolverines. They are now a six-seed and are in this week’s Big Ten Power Rankings top-five.
Indiana is staying in the Tournament because of their beat down of Marquette way back at the beginning of the season. Along with defeating Louisville and Butler who are both Tournament teams as well. If it weren’t for the losses to Northwestern and Rutgers, the bubble talk wouldn’t even be a thing for the Hoosiers. There are 10-quality teams in the Big Ten right now. Indiana does have just one win over that group, but it’s a pretty big one. Especially since it was on the road.
The thing that Iowa has going for itself right now is that they don’t have any bad losses. They went 11-0 in the non-conference. But that isn’t going to show up since the Big Ten played two early conference games in December. Instead they had two losses once the calendar flipped to 2019. The Hawkeyes did start Big Ten play 0-3, but all of those teams are currently ranked now. Besides Minnesota, who will be a bubble team all the way up until Selection Sunday, all of Iowa’s losses have come to top-five teams in conference.
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It’s easy to point to where Indiana struggles. They are so reliant on Morgan and Romeo Langford. That’s what makes their win over Michigan State that much more bizarre. Morgan played just 13 minutes before getting hurt. Langford didn’t shoot the ball overly well. But Aljami Durham showed why he is shooting close to 40 percent from behind-the-arc for the season. Justin Smith played a much-needed good game. Devonte Green looked thankful for being back from suspension and De’Ron Davis was happy to be back from injury.
Iowa has depth and they showed it against Michigan. The Wolverines have a very solid core seven. But they’re still trying to find third and fourth guys off the bench. The Hawkeyes may be a little young, but they do have their only senior coming off the bench. That’s a mature thing to do from Nicholas Baer who has done a lot for the Iowa program in four years. They start three guards who can all shoot the ball really well. But their strength is in the front court with All-Big Ten candidate Tyler Cook and breakout sophomore Luka Garza.
Assembly Hall is going to be crazier than ever on Thursday night. Their Hoosiers just knocked off a very quality basketball team to earn themselves a safe spot above the cut line for the time being. Archie Miller and company are going to look to now go on a winning-streak so they aren’t sweating too much on Selection Sunday.
Iowa feels the same way. Despite technically losing two out of their last three, the Hawkeyes could easily be on an eight-game winning streak right now. They do need a quality road win in the worst of ways. Iowa has just two road wins all season and those were to Northwestern and Penn State. This game is going to mean a lot to both squads.
If we want to evaluate it on just who has the better players, Iowa is going to make a lot of shots and score from anywhere on the court. They have four guys who have made 25 or more three-pointers this season. Indiana has just one. Plus Morgan is questionable at best even though he did take part in Monday’s practice.
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He’s a huge piece for Indiana and they’re so much better with him out on the court. But the Hoosiers managed to pull the upset over Michigan State because they knew it was time to panic and they wanted to get a win for their injured senior.
Prediction: Indiana 72, Iowa 70