Men's Basketball Breakdown: Iowa vs. Wisconsin
Breaking down Monday's game between Iowa and Wisconsin.
Game facts
Time and place — 7:30 p.m. (CST), Carver-Hawkeye Arena, Iowa City
TV — BTN (Kevin Kugler, play-by-play; Stephen Bardo, analyst)
Radio — Hawkeye Radio Network
Records — Iowa 14-5 (5-3 Big Ten), Wisconsin 12-8 (5-4)
Rankings — Iowa is No. 18 in the Associated Press and USA Today coaches polls.
Series — Wisconsin leads, 85-81.
The lineups
Iowa — Joe Wieskamp (F, 6-6, Soph., 15 ppg.), Luka Garza (C, 6-11, Jr., 23.2 ppg.), Joe Toussaint (G, 6-0, Fr., 6.9 ppg.), CJ Fredrick (G, 6-3, Fr., 10.9 ppg.), Connor McCaffery (G, 6-5, Soph., 6.5 ppg.)
Wisconsin — Aleem Ford (F, 6-8, Jr., 7.7 ppg.), Nate Reuvers (F, 6-11, Jr., 13.8 ppg.), D'Mitrik Trice (G, 6-0, Jr., 9.1 ppg.), Brad Davison (G, 6-4, Jr., 8.9 ppg.), Kobe King (G, 6-4, Soph., 10 ppg.)
The lines
Spread — Iowa -5 1/2
Over/under – 135
The analytics
NET — Iowa 22, Wisconsin 30
KenPom — Iowa 14, Wisconsin 31
Sagarin — Iowa 16, Wisconsin 36
What to watch
The Hawkeyes are on a four-game winning streak and are in the thick of the Big Ten title chase. But with a traffic jam ahead and behind them, they can't afford a home stumble.
Wisconsin is its typical defensive self — the Badgers rank 20th nationally in scoring defense, giving up an average of 61.1 points. Iowa, though, has done well against defensive teams this season — the Hawkeyes scored 85 points on Rutgers in last Wednesday's win.
Reuvers' job will be trying to handle Garza, the Big Ten's leading scorer. The Badgers may try to pack the defense against Garza, which means Iowa's 3-point shooters will have to be sharp.
Iowa gets a ranked Maryland team on the road on Thursday before coming back home to face a ranked Illinois team. The Badgers always present a problem, though, and this is just another in a series of tests for the Hawkeyes.
