The Iowa Hawkeyes and the Maryland Terrapins meet Thursday in college basketball action from Xfinity Center College Park. Iowa is currently 15-7 so far. The Hawkeyes beat Minnesota in their last game. As for Maryland, they’re 11-12 and coming off a loss to Ohio State. Check back all season long for free college basketball picks at Sports Chat Place.
Iowa posted an 11-3 run over their first 14 games, losing to only Purdue, Illinois and Iowa State. The Hawkeyes are 4-4 since then. The victories in that stretch have come courtesy of Indiana, Minnesota, Penn State and Minnesota again.
In the Sunday rematch versus the Gophers, the Hawkeyes were outscored 34-38 in the first half. Iowa bounced back well on a 37-21 run to snag the 71-59 win, though. Tops in scoring was Keegan Murray with 24 points and 15 boards.
Over on the Maryland side, they put up a decent 8-4 run over their first 12 games but have only been able to win consecutive games once since then. The Terrapins are on a three-game losing streak to Indiana, Michigan State and Ohio State right now.
On Sunday in the Ohio State game, the Terrapins were outscored 29-42 in the first half and 38-40 in the second during an 82-67 loss. Donta Scott was the top team scorer on 25 points, and Fatts Russell put up 12 points with six boards.
Maryland is 4-9 ATS in their last 13 at home and 5-2 ATS in their last seven after an ATS loss. The under is 14-5 in the Terrapins’ last 19 at home.
Meanwhile, the Hawkeyes are 1-4 ATS in their last five road games and 1-4 ATS in their last five overall. The over is 5-1 in Iowa’s last six Thursday games.
PICK: I’m probably going to stay with Iowa. This is yet another dice-roll call in a Big Ten game, though. Iowa is coming off a nice win over Minnesota, but they’ve had some rough times during this 2-3 stretch. The last time these teams met up back on January 3, Iowa managed an 80-75 win. I’d imagine this rematch will be a fairly high-scoring game as well; both teams have been permissive to capable offenses lately. I think the Hawkeyes will eke out the cover, but it’s probably not one to mess with.