CBB Picks: Iowa vs Grand Canyon 3/20/21 College Basketball Picks, Odds, Predictions

The Iowa Hawkeyes and the Grand Canyon Antelopes meet in an NCAA tournament first round matchup in March Madness college basketball action from the Indiana Farmers Coliseum on Saturday night.

The Grand Canyon Antelopes come into this one representing the WAC after finishing the year at 17-6, winning the conference tournament as well as finishing regular season co-champion with Utah Valley after finishing the year 17-6 with a 9-3 mark in conference play. The Antelopes trounced Seattle and New Mexico State on the way to the WAC championship and their reward is a date with Iowa. Asbjorn Midtgaard leads the Antelopes in scoring and rebounding with 14 PPG and 9.9 RPG while Alessandro Lever has 13.3 PPG with 5.4 RPG and Jovan Blacksher Jr. has 11.9 PPG with a team-high 5.3 APG to make up the trio of double-digit scorers for Grand Canyon up to this point in the season. As a team, Grand Canyon is averaging 75.4 PPG on 49.2% shooting from the field and 32.7% from three while allowing 62 PPG on 38.2% shooting from the field and 29.6% from three this season.

The Iowa Hawkeyes come into the tournament after finishing the year with a 21-8 mark overall and a 14-6 record in Big Ten conference play. The Hawkeyes took down Wisconsin in the semi-finals before being upended by conference tournament champion Illinois in the semi-finals. Luka Garza leads Iowa in scoring and rebounding with 23.7 PPG and 8.8 RPG while Joe Wieskamp has 14.7 PPG and 6.6 RPG this season. Jordan Bohannon has 10.9 PPG with 3.1 RPG and a team-high 4.5 APG to lead Iowa in assists and cap off the trio of double-digit scorers for Iowa up to this point in the season. As a team, Iowa is averaging 85 PPG on 47.4% shooting from the field and 39.6% from three while allowing 72.1 PPG on 41.2% from the field and 34.9% from three this season.

Grand Canyon is 5-0 ATS in their last 5 games as an underdog and 16-5 ATS in their last 21 neutral site games while the under is 7-1 in their last 8 games following a win. Iowa is 0-2-2 ATS in their last 4 neutral site games and 1-3-1 ATS in their last 5 games against a team with a winning record while the under is 9-2 in their last 11 games overall.

This is an intriguing matchup because the Antelopes have been a good a cover team as any that we’ve made money on this season, and not many people remember that the Antelopes would’ve made the NCAA tournament a few years ago in their first season in D-I, but due to the classification restrictions, the Antelopes couldn’t participate in the postseason. The issue here though is that Iowa just has too many weapons for Grand Canyon to deal with and while the Antelopes battled against teams like Nevada, Arizona State, Colorado and San Francisco, Iowa and the offensive onslaught that the Hawkeyes possess is just too much to handle. I’ll lay the points with Iowa as I see the Hawkeyes pulling away in the second half.