Previewing Michigan Basketball’s Next Game at Iowa

The 27-2 Michigan Wolverines will travel to the 20-9 Iowa Hawkeyes to play them this Thursday night. So far this year, Iowa is 10-8 in Big Ten conference play and look to be an NCAA tournament team. They’re coming off a tough road loss to Penn State, while Michigan is riding high off a big win on the road over Illinois last Friday night. It wasn’t all positive though for Michigan on Friday night after it was revealed that key reserve L.J. Cason tore his ACL in the game and he will now be out for the rest of the year. With the Big Ten regular season title wrapped up though for the Wolverines, they do have a few games here to experiment with the new look rotation without Cason.

Other than that, there’s not a ton of motivation for this game but they do have a chance to go undefeated in Big Ten road games this year if they can go get a win against Iowa. That would be a very impressive feat for any team, and would certainly add to the list of their accomplishments so far this year. Let’s dive more into this matchup below.

Iowa Hawkeyes

On offense, Iowa is 12th in the Big Ten in scoring average per game, 3rd in shooting percentage from the field, 6th in 3-point shooting, 14th in offensive rebounds, 10th in assists, and 6th in turnovers. It’s a decent offense based on the statistics for the Hawkeyes, led primarily by their shooting, but they don’t do anything else at a super high level. As long as Michigan is focused on defense, they should be able to keep Iowa’s offense in check.

On defense, Iowa is 1st in the Big Ten in limiting opponent scoring per game, 15th in opponent shooting percentage allowed, 12th in opponent 3-point shooting percentage allowed, 17th in defensive rebounds, 3rd in steals, and 17th in blocks. Their defense is good in some stats but pretty average in others. They do like to play at a slower pace, which makes their overall scoring averages both on offense and defense lower on a per game basis. The other thing that really stands out about their defense is their steals. Michigan does have turnover problems on offense though and that could be something to keep an eye on for this game.

Individually, Iowa is led by Bennett Stirtz at 20.5 points per game, followed by Tavion Banks at 10.5, and nobody else over 10 points per game on average. It’s a very, very top heavy–offense for the Hawkeyes but Bennett Stirtz can fill it up from anywhere. He’ll be a challenge for Michigan’s guards to keep in check on defense.

Michigan Wolverines

Michigan enters this game at 1st in the Big Ten in scoring average per game, 1st in overall shooting percentage per game, 3rd in 3-point shooting percentage per game, 7th in offensive rebounds, 2nd in assists, and 15th in turnovers. It’s an elite offense for Michigan that really shouldn’t be challenged much by this Iowa defense other than possible turnover problems.

On defense, Michigan is 5th in limiting opponent scoring per game, 1st in limiting opponent shooting from the field per game, 2nd in 3-point defensive shooting average per game, 1st in defensive rebounds, 9th in steals, and 1st in blocks per game. Michigan’s defense is still one of the tops in the country at least by the stats. They shouldn’t have too many issues containing Iowa’s offense other than Bennett Stirtz, as he’s really the only major scorer for the Hawkeyes.

Individually, Michigan is led in scoring by Yaxel Lendeborg at 14.3 points per game, followed by Morez Johnson Jr. at 13.4, Aday Mara at 11.4, and Elliot Cadeau at 10.1 points per game. They're known for having a very deep and balanced offense but they did lose L.J. Cason for the rest of the season so it will be a bit of a different rotation for the Wolverines in this game.

Other than losing Cason, Michigan has been on such a roll lately following the loss to Duke. I don’t see them having a problem going into Iowa and coming out with a win but it might be closer than Wolverine fans want to see. Iowa plays at a slower pace which has tended to give Michigan problems so far this year and I could see that happening again in this one. Nonetheless, I expect Michigan to go get another win as they wrap up their Big Ten road schedule and set up another game against Michigan State at home in their last regular season game of the year.