3 Things To Watch As Indiana Heads To Iowa

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – When it comes to Indiana and Iowa’s men’s basketball teams, they find themselves in similar places.

Neither is an NCAA Tournament cinch, but both are in range of making the field. On Friday, ESPN bracketologist Joe Lunardi had the Hoosiers as his last team in the field. Iowa was among the first eight teams left out.

The Hoosiers and Hawkeyes are very similar in the metric rankings. In the NCAA NET rankings, Iowa is No. 52 and Indiana is No. 56. At Kenpom.com, Indiana is No. 49 and Iowa is No. 51.

Barttorvik.com has a wider disparity with Iowa at No. 42 and Indiana ranked No. 52. Indiana also has the edge in the early Big Ten standings with a 4-1 mark. Iowa is 2-2, though the Hawkeyes have played a tougher schedule.

If there’s a Big Ten team that Indiana is going to fight with on the NCAA Tournament bubble, it’s Iowa. That makes Saturday’s 8 p.m. ET game at Carver-Hawkeye Arena a crucial early tiebreaker of sorts.

Iowa (11-4 overall) has the distinct advantage of playing at home. Indiana has only played one true road game and it went badly in an 85-68 defeat at Pinnacle Bank Arena on Dec. 13.

Indiana (13-3) did earn a sort-of road win with a 77-71 victory over Penn State Sunday at the Palestra in Philadelphia. It counts as a road game officially – even though we all know it wasn’t a true road game. Kenpom calls these games “semi-away.”

Semantics aside, it can’t hurt for the Hoosiers to go to Iowa having won away from Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall in the very recent past.

Iowa is a high-scoring outfit even by offensive-minded coach Fran McCaffery’s standards. The Hawkeyes are averaging 89.9 points, second-best in Division I, and if the Hawkeyes can keep the pace up, their third-best scoring average in program history.

Here are three things to watch when the Hoosiers face the Hawkeyes:

1. Don’t Be Afraid To Run With The Hawkeyes

Indiana's Trey Galloway (32 has the ball knocked away by Rutgers' Tyson Acuff (5) during the Indiana versus Rutgers men's basketball game at Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall on Thursday, Jan. 2, 2025. | Rich Janzaruk/Herald-Times / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

You look at Iowa’s offensive team stats and it’s scary. The Hawkeyes lead Division I at 33.3 field goals per game. Iowa is 8th in field goal percentage at 50.7% and 17th in 3-point percentage at 39.1%. Kenpom has the Hawkeyes rated 20th in adjusted tempo.

The initial reaction is to slow the Hawkeyes down, but does that fit what Indiana is most capable of successfully doing?

Indiana likes to run. The Hoosiers are good when they can get out on the break. That includes big man Oumar Ballo, who is at his best when he’s able to catch and move towards the rim.

The Hoosiers are not always great at playing half-court defense. It seems a bridge too far to expect Indiana to try to play a half-court possession-style game.

So let Indiana’s horses run free. Players like Myles Rice, Mackenzie Mgbako, Trey Galloway and Luke Goode, among others, can play this way. Let them, and we’ll see whether Indiana can beat Iowa at its own game.

2. Crash The Offensive Boards

Indiana Hoosiers center Oumar Ballo (11) rebounds the ball while South Carolina Gamecocks forward Nick Pringle (5) defends in the first half at Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall. | Trevor Ruszkowski-Imagn Images

What Iowa gives up in the style it plays is having any kind of presence on the glass. The days of Luka Garza, or even someone like Filip Rebraca, being a challenge in the rebounding department is not the current state of play for the Hawkeyes.

Iowa ranks 301st in rebounding nationally. None of Iowa’s regular rotation players has a rebounding percentage (the percentage of rebounds available when a player is on the floor) above 13.8%. Ballo’s rebounding rate is 18.1%.

If Indiana is going to run, that takes the priority away from defensive rebounding, as the Hoosiers will need to release to get down the floor.

Offensive rebounding, however, is a place where the Hoosiers should have an advantage. Ballo has an offensive rebounding percentage of 11.3%, a very solid number. Langdon Hatton is at 12.5%, one of the biggest strengths in his repertoire. Second chances could be an avenue where the Hoosiers can get some traction on enemy hardwood.

3. Stay At Home Defensively

What’s impressive about Iowa’s offense is that there’s not really a single player who dominates scoring, nor is there one area of the floor that can be concentrated on.

Forward Owen Freeman provides the inside muscle at 16.7 points per game. Josh Dix (14.8 ppg, 45.5 3P%) and Drew Thelwell (10.1 ppg, 41 3P%) are dangerous inside and outside the 3-point arc. Payton Sandfort (16.5 ppg, 34.5 3P%) does a little bit of everything and can be streaky.

(Thelwell did not play against Nebraska, though he could return to play the Hoosiers.)

Both Dix (95 FT%) and Sandfort (86.8 FT%) are deadly at the free throw line.

Indiana has to keep it simple defensively. There can’t be too much that complicates the simple notion of keeping the Hawkeyes covered. They have too many weapons that can hurt you if too much emphasis is placed on one of the scorers.

Players like Mgbako, who will be needed on the offensive end, also can’t get too handsy in their guarding efforts. Apart from foul trouble, Iowa will punish Indiana at the line if they march there.

1. Don’t Be Afraid To Run With The Hawkeyes

2. Crash The Offensive Boards

3. Stay At Home Defensively

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