Luka Garza and Iowa Basketball must outpace efficient Oregon offense

With a trip to the Sweet 16 on the line, Iowa Basketball will face one of its greatest offensive challenges yet, taking on the seventh-seeded Oregon Ducks on Monday afternoon.

The Hawkeyes enter the showdown fresh off a high-scoring, 12-point romp over Grand Canyon in the opening round, in a 86-74 win.  With a game-high 24 points from Luka Garza, the Hawkeyes also earned double-digit efforts from Joe Wieskamp (16), Jordan Bohannon (13), and Keegan Murray (13) – and were wildly efficient on the offensive end, finishing with 1.37 points per possession and shooting clips of 59.4% (2PT, 19-32) and 45.5% (3PT, 10-22).

Iowa will now face an Oregon squad that advanced to the Round of 32 after the Ducks’ opening round game with VCU was ruled a no contest, due to multiple positive COVID-19 tests within the Rams’ program.  Having not seen action since falling in the Pac-12 Tournament back on March 12, the Ducks will play in their first March Madness game since 2019 – with just one returning player from that season’s roster.

The regular-season champs in the Pac-12, Oregon’s last game yielded a 75-64 defeat to the eventual conference tournament champions in Oregon State in the semifinals.  The Ducks received double-digit efforts from four of their five starters, with Chris Duarte, LJ Figueroa, and Eugene Omoruyi all tallying 14 points apiece, while Eric Williams logged 10 points.

This will be a clash of similarly efficient defenses and crazily efficient offenses with different strengths and weaknesses.  For Iowa, that means shutting down Oregon’s assortment of guards as well as Omoruyi – and ensuring that their offense is capable of outpacing Oregon.