Men's Basketball Breakdown: Iowa vs. Iowa State
Breaking down Thursday's game between Iowa and Iowa State.
Game facts
Time and place — 7 p.m., Hilton Coliseum, Ames
TV — ESPN2 (Jason Benetti, play-by-play; Dan Dakich, analyst)
Radio — Hawkeye Radio Network.
Records — Iowa 7-3, Iowa State 6-3
Rankings — Neither team is ranked.
Series — Iowa leads, 45-27.
The lineups
Iowa — Luka Garza (C, 6-11, Jr., 22.5 ppg.), Jordan Bohannon (G, 6-1, Sr., 8.4 ppg.), Connor McCaffery (G, 6-5, Soph., 7.7 ppg.), CJ Fredrick (G, 6-3, Fr., 10.4 ppg.), Joe Wieskamp (G, 6-6, Soph., 11.9 ppg.)
Iowa State — Solomon Young (F, 6-8, Jr., 9.7 ppg.), Michael Jacobson (F, 6-9, Sr., 9.1 ppg.), Rasir Bolton (G, 6-3, Soph., 15.3 ppg.), Tyrese Haliburton (G, 6-5, Soph., 16.2 ppg.), Prentiss Nixon (G, 6-2, Sr., 10.2 ppg.)
The lines
Spread — Iowa State -4
Over/under — 157 1/2
Moneyline — Iowa +155, Iowa State -185
The analytics
KenPom — Iowa 30th (Adjusted offense 4th, adjusted defense 118th), Iowa State 33rd (Adjusted offense 27th, adjusted defense 55th).
Sagarin — Iowa 31st, Iowa State 32nd.
What to watch
Well, chances are this will be one with a lot of talking, during and after.
The other reality is these are two teams who have shown plenty of grittiness in the early weeks of the season.
So, this will be a tense rivalry game in a raucous Hilton Coliseum environment.
Expect Haliburton to put on a show — he's averaging 8.2 assists per game. Iowa's defense will have to be at its best, keeping an eye on him at all times.
It will be interesting to see how the Cyclones guard Garza, the Big Ten leader in scoring. Garza has shown the ability to make in-game adjustments to defenses, so Iowa State will have to have a Plan B, and maybe a Plan C.
This could be the last game of the season for Bohannon, who can't play after tonight if he wants a medical redshirt season. Bohannon, trying to comeback from offseason hip surgery, had 10 assists on Monday against Minnesota.
You want X-factors? Bolton, a transfer from Penn State, is second on the Cyclones in scoring. Wieskamp is coming off his best game of the season on Monday against Minnesota.
Buckle up.
