Iowa vs Longwood College Basketball Picks, Odds, Predictions 11/9/2021

The Longwood Lancers and the Iowa Hawkeyes meet in college basketball action from Carver-Hawkeye Arena on Tuesday night.

The Longwood Lancers will be out to improve on a 2020-21 season that saw Longwood go 12-17 overall, including 10-10 in conference play to finish with the 5^th seed in the Big South conference tournament. The Lancers took down UNC-Asheville in the quarters before falling to eventual champion Winthrop in the semis. The Lancers bring back a lot of last season’s talent, led by their two double-digit scorers Justin Hill (11 PPG, 4.2 RPG, 3.1 APG) and DeShaun Wade (11.2 PPG, 3 RPG) as well as big man Leslie Nkereuwem (8.2 PPG, 3.1 RPG). Jordan Perkins transfers in from NC Central after logging 4.2 APG for the Eagles last season while Zac Watson is also back after recording a team-high 4.5 RPG last season. The Lancers are likely to improve, but the issue is that it looks like the entire Big South conference is getting better as well.

The Iowa Hawkeyes will hope to replicate some of their success from 2020-21 after finishing the season 22-9 including a 14-6 mark in Big Ten conference play. The Hawkeyes received the #3 seed in the conference tournament as well as a double bye, defeating Wisconsin in the quarterfinals before falling to eventual champion Illinois in the semifinals. The Hawkeyes got a #2 seed at the NCAA tournament, taking down Grand Canyon in the first round before being upset by Oregon in the second round. The Hawkeyes don’t have the luxury of Luka Garza in the lineup anymore, but they did reload via the transfer portal, snagging big man Filip Rebraca from North Dakota after logging 16.8 PPG and 7.6 RPG for the Fighting Hawks last season. Jordan Bohannon also returns as the only double-digit scorer coming back from last year’s team, chipping in 10.6 PPG and 4.4 APG last season. Keegan Murray had 7.2 PPG and 5.1 RPG, but it’ll be interesting to see if his workload is increased this season. Safe to say, this year’s Hawkeyes will look very, very different from last year’s squad.

Longwood is 9-4 ATS in their last 13 games overall while the over is 3-1-1 in their last 5 road games. Iowa is 0-3-1 ATS in their last 4 home games and 0-4-1 ATS in their last 5 games overall while the under is 9-4 in their last 13 Tuesday games.

I get why you’d be skiddish to side with Iowa as the Hawkeyes will look a bit different this time around. However, I just don’t think that Longwood has what it takes to hang with Iowa on the road for a full 40 minutes. Longwood has struggled against higher-tier teams in the past and I expect this to be no different. I’ll lay the points with Iowa here.