The Iowa Hawkeyes and the Wisconsin Badgers meet in Big Ten college basketball action from the Kohl Center on Thursday night.
The Iowa Hawkeyes come into this one looking to build on an 80-75 win over Maryland last time out. Keegan Murray leads the Hawkeyes in scoring and rebounding with 24.5 PPG and 8.2 RPG while Patrick McCaffery has 11.3 PPG and Jordan Bohannon has 10.7 PPG to round out the group of double-digit scorers for Iowa on the year. Kris Murray has 9.2 PPG and 4.7 RPG so far this season while Joe Toussaint also has a team-high 3.9 APG for the Hawkeyes this season. As a team, Iowa is averaging 87.4 PPG on 47.9% shooting from the field, 35.5% from three and 78.2% from the foul line while allowing 70.5 PPG on 42.3% shooting from the field and 32.4% from three this season.
The Wisconsin Badgers will look to build on a 74-69 road win over Purdue in their last game. Johnny Davis leads the Badgers with 22.3 PPG, 7.3 RPG and 2.5 APG while Brad Davison has 14.5 PPG and 4.1 RPG as the only other double-digit scorer for Wisconsin up to this point in the season. Tyler Wahl has 8.9 PPG with 5 RPG and Steven Crowl’s also got 8.5 PPG and 4.6 RPG this season. As a team, Wisconsin is averaging 70.6 PPG on 40.6% shooting from the field, 29.9% from three and 76.6% from the foul line while allowing 63.6 PPG on 41.9% shooting from the field and 33.7% from three this season.
Iowa is 7-3 ATS in their last 10 games overall and 4-9-1 ATS in their last 14 games following an ATS loss while the under is 9-1 in their last 10 road games. Wisconsin is 7-3 ATS in their last 10 games overall and 7-3 ATS in their last 10 games against a team with a winning record while the over is 4-1 in their last 5 home games. The road team is 2-0-2 ATS in the last 4 meetings between these two teams.
I get why Wisconsin would be favored with home court advantage but home court hasn’t mattered much as the home team’s failed to get the cover in each of the last four head-to-head meetings with two pushes. Wisconsin’s the better defensive team here, but the Iowa offense is incredibly efficient and it blows Wisconsin’s out of the water. I look for Iowa to go on the road and find a way to get the job done, so give me the Hawkeyes here.