INDIANA HOOSIERS (23-6)

at IOWA HAWKEYES (20-8)

Carver-Hawkeye Arena – Iowa City, IA
Tip-off: Tuesday, 9:00 p.m. ET
Line: Iowa -4.0

No. 16 Iowa looks to avenge its midseason road loss to No. 12 Indiana when it hosts the streaking Hoosiers.

With the Hawkeyes losing to Ohio State this past Sunday, the Hoosiers clinched a share of the Big Ten Championship and have an opportunity to clinch the outright championship and No. 1 seed in the Big Ten tournament this Tuesday. The Hawkeyes will be looking to avenge their earlier loss to Indiana, and—more importantly—with a loss on Tuesday they will leave themselves in a tough position to capture the No. 2 seed in the Big Ten Tournament and the ever-important two-game bye.

In their first meeting on February 12 in Bloomington, the Hoosiers got out to a hot shooting start. They even stretched their lead in the first half to 16 points. Indiana was able to accomplish this using the three ball, one of their strengths all season (first in Big Ten, averaging 10.1 per game). Indiana had seven three-pointers in the first half and nine for the game. Iowa, though, mounted a comeback in the middle of the second half to gain the lead. Star forward Jarrod Uthoff (18.5 PPG, 6.4 RPG, 1.1 APG) led the way for Iowa with an impressive 24-point performance. Uthoff’s performance did not prove to be enough, as the Hoosiers fended off Iowa’s late run and ultimately came away with an 85-78 victory. Though this may have seemed like an upset—Iowa was ranked No. 4 and Indiana was unranked at the time—Indiana has played very well against Top 5 opponents at home over the past five seasons. This win pushed them to 6-1 at home against Top 5 opponents over the past five seasons. This explains why the line was -3.5 in Indiana’s favor, which it covered.

Ever since Indiana’s home win versus Iowa, the two teams have gone in very different directions. Since that game Indiana has gone 3-1, with key home wins versus No. 17 Purdue and Nebraska and a blowout road win (74-47) versus Illinois. The loss was a difficult defeat (88-69) to No. 8 Michigan State. In those four games, Indiana has lead with its defense, besting its season-points-against average of 68.6 PPG by 5.35 PPG. Indiana has also been fortunate to have the Big Ten’s top offense, scoring 82.9 points per game (14th in NCAA). This has been supported by Kevin “Yogi” Ferrell (17.0 PPG, 3.9 RPG, 5.5 APG), Indiana’s senior point guard and the fifth-leading scorer in the conference. Indiana will not only look for a strong performance from Ferrell, but will also look for its entire roster to perform as it did in its last game with Iowa, when five different players were in double figures. Indiana will also look for junior forward Troy Williams (12.6 PPG, 6.0 RPG, 2.0 APG) to have a big game. He has stepped up of late, with an 18-point performance versus Nebraska and a 19-point performance versus No. 17 Purdue.

Iowa has gone through a rough patch over the last two weeks since its loss in Bloomington. It has lost three of its last four games, and to make matters worse, all of its losses have come against non-ranked opponents. In order for Iowa to flip the script on Tuesday, Uthoff and junior guard Peter Jok (16.3 PPG, 3.3 RPG, 1.4 APG) will have to come up big. Uthoff is considered one of the top forwards in college basketball this year, and is second in scoring in the Big Ten. Iowa will need a repeat performance from Uthoff, who went off for 24 points when the Hawkeyes visited Indiana. Iowa, though, will need a complete team effort to get back to its winning ways. Over its last four games since the loss to Indiana, it has averaged less points (68.25 PPG) than its season average (78.8 PPG). The defense has also struggled over that stretch, allowing 71.25 PPG versus their season average of 68.6 PPG.

Indiana is hitting its stride in the key part of the season, and Iowa seems to be limping towards the finish line. This game may come down to home-court advantage, which has been influencing college basketball all season. All of Indiana’s six losses this season have come away from Assembly Hall. The Hoosiers are 5-4 in away games and 2-2 in neutral sites. Indiana’s last road win was this past Thursday, a 74-47 win over lowly Illinois. The two road games before that were losses to No. 8 Michigan State and unranked Penn State (68-63). Iowa, on the other hand, has been very strong in protecting its home court. It has gone 13-1 in Iowa City, with its only home loss coming to a hot Wisconsin team (67-59) last week. Iowa has been relying on its offense at home, recording a higher-than-season average of 81.7 PPG. Iowa will rely on home support to snap its current losing streak and give the seniors a win on senior night.