Ohio State Buckeyes (18-12) vs. Iowa Hawkeyes (18-13)
March 14, 2024 6:30 pm EDT
The Line: Iowa Hawkeyes +2; Over/Under: 157.5
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The Ohio State Buckeyes and the Iowa Hawkeyes meet Thursday in Big Ten Tournament college basketball action from Target Center. Let’s get into our Ohio State vs. Iowa prediction. Check back all season long for free college basketball picks at Sports Chat Place.
Ohio State Buckeyes
The Buckeyes got off to a pretty rough 13-10 start this year but they’ve been playing better lately. Ohio State is 6-2 over their last eight games. The wins in that time were over Maryland, Purdue, Michigan State, Nebraska, Michigan and Rutgers. The losses were to Wisconsin and Minnesota otherwise.
Back on Sunday versus Rutgers, the Buckeyes went into halftime with a 30-28 edge. Ohio State hit a 43-23 run the rest of the way and powered out the win 73-51. Roddy Gayle was the leading team scorer on his 14 points with five rebounds and two assists in 26 minutes of work.
Iowa Hawkeyes
Over on the Iowa side, they started the year at 11-6 overall. The Hawkeyes would then hit a rough 3-5 stretch over the next eight, however. Since then Iowa is 4-2 with wins over Wisconsin, Michigan State, Penn State and Northwestern alongside a pair of losses to Illinois.
In their home rematch versus the Illini on Sunday, the Hawkeyes were down by 10 points in the locker room. Iowa didn’t end up getting any closer on a 34-32 second half and lost 73-61 in the end. Tops in scoring was Payton Sandfort with 23 points and seven boards.
ANDREW’S FREE OHIO STATE VS IOWA PREDICTION
I’ll lean toward Ohio State. The Buckeyes are playing pretty well these days and made short work of Rutgers (after a bit of a slow first half) in their last game. Ohio State hit 50 percent from the field in that one with 39 rebounds, but did have 15 turnovers for 16 Knights points. Still, the Buckeyes are rolling with four straight wins and 73 or more points in each of their last three.
On February 2 when these teams last played, the Buckeyes took a tough 79-77 road loss. Ohio State shot well in that one (46.6 percent) but also gave up 53.7 percent on the other side. I like this one to be competitive as well, with the Buckeyes getting a bit of revenge in the end. Should be a fun one to watch.
