Bracketology 2021: Illinois, Iowa, and Baylor among big winners

Iowa

For most of the season, Iowa has been a team to watch in college basketball because of the play of Luka Garza. They’ve had their fair share of struggles, but things seem to be coming together for the Hawkeyes at the right time. Heck, in this tough Big Ten, it’s not a surprise that they’ve dropped a number of games these last few months.

Coming off a rough loss at Michigan last week, Garza led the way as the Hawkeyes knocked off the then-#4 Buckeyes on the road on Sunday. There was no question about the result on Thursday, as Iowa drilled Nebraska by 38 points, getting a cool 26-point effort from Jordan Bohannon. Iowa now sits at 19-7, with a very impressive 13-6 mark in the Big Ten. Though they do have rough losses to Gonzaga and Michigan (and were swept by Iowa), they own road wins over Wisconsin and Ohio State in the last month, and have swept Michigan State. They’ve now won six of seven games and seem to be peaking at the right time of year.

The Hawkeyes aren’t quite finished, as they’ll host Wisconsin on Sunday to help determine their final position in the Big Ten. Iowa will get a double-bye in the Big Ten tournament and will be one of the teams to beat there. The only question that remains is if they’ll secure a 2-seed in the NCAA Tournament; or perhaps with a couple of big wins next week they could work their way onto the 1-line.