The Indiana Hoosiers and the Iowa Hawkeyes meet Thursday in college basketball action from Carver-Hawkeye Arena. 

Indiana enters this one at 8-6 so far. The Hoosiers are 1-2 in their last three games and coming off a loss to Purdue. As for Iowa, they’re 12-2 this year. The Hawkeyes are riding a five-game win streak and coming off a victory against Northwestern. Check back all season long for free college basketball picks at Sports Chat Place. 

Indiana began their year at 3-2 with losses to Texas and Florida State. After two more wins, the Hoosiers took losses to Northwestern and Illinois before taking out Penn State and Maryland. Since then it’s been a win over Nebraska between losses to Wisconsin and Purdue. 

In the 81-69 loss to the Boilermakers last week, the Hoosiers’ top scorer was Trayce Jackson-Davis with 25 points, four rebounds and one assist. Race Thompson added 13 points with 10 rebounds and three assists for a double-double, and Armaan Franklin had 14 points with seven boards. 

Over on the Iowa side, they kicked off their season with six straight wins prior to their first loss to Gonzaga on December 19. The Hawkeyes then beat Purdue and fell to Minnesota before a five-game win streak over Northwestern, Rutgers, Maryland, Minnesota and Northwestern. 

In the 96-73 win over the Wildcats on Sunday, Iowa’s Luka Garza doubled up on 17 points with 10 rebounds and two assists. Joe Wieskamp added 16 points with three assists and four rebounds, and CJ Fredrick had 13 points, three assists and one rebound in 23 minutes. 

Iowa is 35-17-2 ATS in their last 54 home games and 5-2 ATS in their last seven Thursday games. The Hawkeyes are 24-9-3 ATS in their last 36 games overall and the over is 12-4 in their last 16 games overall. 

Meanwhile, the Hoosiers are 6-1 ATS in their last seven road games and 4-1 ATS in their last five road games versus a team with a winning home record. The under is 11-5-1 in Indiana’s last 17 road games and the over is 4-1 in their last five overall. 

PICK: I’m going to stick with Iowa. Since their loss to Minnesota on Christmas, the Hawkeyes have rolled through their last five games (with only the 77-75 win over Rutgers being close). Iowa has put up 77 or more points in each of their last six games, and they haven’t had a “bad” offensive outing yet. Indiana can score pretty well when the matchup is right and I wouldn’t be surprised to see the Hoosiers hang around for most of the game, but I like Iowa to eventually power out a cover.