The red-hot #24 Rutgers Scarlet Knights are having their best season in over 40 years, the #19 Iowa Hawkeyes will look to bring them back down to the norm in Iowa.
TV Schedule: Wednesday, January 22nd, 9:00 PM EST on the Big Ten Network
Arena: The Carver-Hawkeye Arena in Iowa City, Iowa
Yes, you read that right, Rutgers basketball is ranked. For the first time in 41 years, Rutgers was chosen as one of the top 25 teams in the country on the AP Poll. To put that into perspective the last time the Scarlet Knights were the list (March 12, 1979) The Warriors was the highest-grossing movie in theaters(there wasn’t even a sequel to either Rocky or Star Wars by this point and time) and Gloria Gaynor’s “I Will Survive” was leading the Billboard Hot 100 and US Top 40 singles charts with the number two song being Tragedy by The Bee Gees. So basically disco was still thriving and the James Bond was the number one franchise.
Rutgers has finally come back and with the way that they have been playing thanks to head coach Steve Pikiell’s rebuild, it has been well deserved. Rutgers has posted their best conference start at 5-2 since the 1982-83 season when they were in the Atlantic 10 and started conference play 6-1. Matter of fact they are already tied for their second-most wins in conference play since the Big East disbanded in 2013. That is still not the most impressive stat involving this year’s Rutgers squad, as they post an amazing 13-0 record so far at the RAC including wins against ranked Seton Hall and Penn State squads.
The #24 Scarlet Knights have had a lot of momentum recently, but they will have to fight hard in order to build upon it as they have an away match at the #19 Iowa Hawkeyes. It should be noted that this game is at the Hawkeye Arena as the Big 10 Conference as a whole has been having a season where the home team wins the game unusually more than the other conferences, with the home team winning 42 out of 51 matchups so far this season. Luckily for those with superstitions, this game should not be as easy to call just like that as both Rutgers and Iowa have picked up one of the few road wins and Iowa has also had a road team win against them (Penn State 89-86).
The Iowa Hawkeyes have arguably been the best team in the Big 10 for the past two weeks. The Hawkeyes have not only gone 3-0, but they picked up wins at home against a ranked Michigan and Maryland in addition to an away win at Northwestern. With how even this conference is with every team beating each other, they have the second-longest win streak out of 14-teams with just three straight wins.
Rutgers will be led by sophomore guard Ron Harper Jr who leads the team in scoring and is second on the team in rebounds per game with 11.8 points and 5.8 rebounds per game. They also have sophomore forward Myles Johnson who leads the team in rebounds and is third in points with 9.3 points and 8.2 rebounds per game. Junior guard Geo Baker rounds out the lineup with 10.7 points per game and 3.7 assists per game which is second in points per game and first in assists per game on the team.
The Iowa Hawkeyes are led by junior forward Luka Garza, who is a contender for Big 10 Player of the Year. Garza averages a double-double in points and rebounds with 22.9 points and 10.2 rebounds per game which not only leads his team it leads the entire conference in points and second in rebounds. Iowa also has sophomore guard Joe Wieskamp up their sleeve, who is second in points and rebounds on the team with 14.8 and 6.2 rebounds per game. Another key contributed to the team is freshman guard CJ Fredrick, who is third on the team in points and assists per game with 11.1 points and 3.1 assists respectively.
Going back to the Big 10 home/away anomaly it should be brought up that Iowa shoots an amazing 46.67% from three during Big 10 conference games at home, while Rutgers only shoots 28% at three throughout all of their away games. All in all, this is a matchup between one of the top Big 10 offenses and one of the top defenses but in the end, I believe that the Rutgers defense is equipped enough for an offense like Iowa’s. This will be yet another unexpected win as seen from the preseason projections from one of this season’s most pleasant surprises.