For the reason that Iowa Hawkeyes (17-9, 9-6) took down the Northwestern Wildcats (19-7, 10-5) on January’s final day, the groups are a collective 7-2 with the winner of tonight’s recreation having second place of the convention. At current, Northwestern is only one recreation again of the Boilermakers within the loss column.

The groups discover themselves on this place by very completely different routes. In Iowa’s final 12 video games, simply 4 have been performed inside single digits. Iowa’s gained 9 of them in a complete rewrite from the place they had been midway by way of the Indiana recreation. They’re on monitor to have the very best scoring offense within the convention for a fifth straight season.

Northwestern’s final 12 has been an inverse of the Hawks’ with eight performed inside single digits the place they’ve gone 6-2 together with profitable the final 5 determined by 9 or much less. They’ve gained by stealing, kind of, the Wisconsin mannequin. Powerful D to maintain video games within the 60s and hitting robust photographs down the stretch to get the W. They’ve scored over 80 factors in simply 4 of their 26 video games and gained simply as soon as (street win at Indiana) when each groups are over that mark.

Superior stats don’t love them (KenPom presently slots them at eighth within the convention) however video games aren’t performed on spreadsheets. Behind Boo Buie & Chase Audige, the Wildcats have an offense which may squeak out Ws when it’s tight.

Can Iowa discover sufficient offense away from dwelling?

This has been half & parcel for the Hawkeyes this season: stellar at dwelling, much less so on the street. They acquired to the golden variety of 80 simply as soon as on the street in eight makes an attempt vs 13 in 15 tries at dwelling. Naturally, it’s a tall order as most of Iowa’s street video games come in opposition to convention opponents married to sluggish tempo (KenPom presently ranks the Massive Ten thirty first out of 32 conferences), however a worthwhile quantity to focus on nonetheless.

From deep, eight of Iowa’s 10 worst video games have come away from dwelling with simply the Seton Corridor & Clemson being wins for Iowa the place they shoot underneath 32% from deep. Iowa has only one loss when capturing over that mark (at Ohio State).

For Northwestern, although, nothing is especially notable about their offense outdoors of how cautious they’re with the ball. They’ve acquired a sub-300 efficient subject purpose share in order that they wrestle to generate straightforward appears on the basket. In some methods, this performs into what Iowa desires to do, which is make opponents make the photographs Fran McCaffery desires them to take. In the event that they make them, Iowa will try to get these again on the opposite finish.

Maybe one of the best litmus take a look at for that is Chase Audige. He hit seven photographs in opposition to Iowa within the first contest and rattling close to each one felt like a spotlight. But he went simply 7/19 from the sector. He’s struggled equally within the six video games since, going 23/73 (31.5%) and attending to the road simply 9 occasions.

Northwestern’s offense has more and more leaned on Boo Buie, as he’s scored over 20 factors in eight of 12 video games, together with a clutch 21-point efficiency in opposition to Indiana the place they eked it out on the again of his final minute shot-making.

If Iowa can drive these robust photographs and lock down the boards, I like their probabilities of stringing sufficient stops collectively alongside a torrid offensive stretch to place far between the 2 groups. Chris Collins usually appears to get lured into these “shot making” kinds of video games in opposition to Iowa and it hasn’t been to their profit.

But when Iowa doesn’t get sufficient three-point capturing and finds the sport within the 60s within the waning minutes, it would come right down to who could make these robust photographs and Buie has made a reputation for himself in hitting these.

Season averages: Group / Opponent

PPG: 68.0 / 61.9
RPG: 34.7 / 34.9
APG: 13.2 / 13.6
TOPG: 10.0 / 14.4
FG%: 40.8% / 40.6%
3P%: 31.2% / 33.9%

Coach:

Chris Collins: tenth season at Northwestern, tenth total
Report: 153-157 (.494)

Statistical Leaders:

PPG: Boo Buie 16.8, Chase Audige 15.1
RPG: Matthew Nicholson 5.7 (2.2 ORPG), Robbie Beran 5.0 (1.3 ORPG)
APG: Buie 4.4, Audige 2.9
FG%: Nicholson 56.5%, Tydus Verhoeven 51.0%
3P%: Julian Roper II 42.1% (missed final seven of final eight video games), Audige 33.7%, Beran 33.3%

Most used starters ($) & 2022-23 stats:

G – #0 Boo Buie, Sr, 6’2”, 180 lbs: 16.8 PPG, 4.4 APG, 3.5 RPG, 40.1% FG, 28.8% 3P, 88.9% FT, 34.5 MPG
G – #3 Ty Berry, Jr, 6’3”, 185 lbs: 8.5 PPG, 4.6 RPG, 1.5 SPG, 35.2% FG, 29.5% 3P, 86.7% FT, 26.6 MPG
G – #1 Chase Audige, RS Sr, 6’4”, 200 lbs: 15.1 PPG, 2.9 APG, 2.4 SPG, 38.3% FG, 33.7% 3P, 83.1% FT, 34.0 MPG
F – #31 Robbie Beran, Sr, 6’9”, 215 lbs: 9.3 PPG, 5.6 RPG, 39.0% FG, 36.1% 3P, 82.1% FT, 29.3 MPG
C – #34 Matthew Nicholson, Jr, 7’0”, 255 lbs: 6.1 PPG, 5.7 RPG, 1.2 BPG, 56.5% FG, 20.8 MPG

Final 5 video games:

W – v Indiana, 64-62 (2/15)
W – v Purdue, 64-58 (2/12)
W – at Ohio State, 69-63 (2/9)
W – at Wisconsin, 54-52 (2/5)
L – v Michigan, 68-51 (2/2)

2023 KenPom: ($)
AdjEfficiency: (46)
AdjOffense: 108.6 (104)
AdjDefense: 94.3 (28)
AdjTempo: 65.7 (281)

2022:

AdjEfficiency: +9.38 (87)
AdjOffense: 106.6 (101)
AdjDefense: 97.2 (73)
AdjTempo: 67.7 (137)

NET: 43

Bart Torvik: 41

Evan Miyakawa: 53

Date: Sunday, February nineteenth
Time: 5:37 pm CT
Opponent: Northwestern Wildcats (19-7, 10-5); Massive Ten Convention; Evanston, IL
Location: Welsh-Ryan Enviornment; Evanston, IL
Playing (by DraftKings): Iowa -1.5 | -125 at Northwestern +105 | O/U 145.5
TV: Massive Ten Community (Jeff Levering & Jess Settles)
Radio: Hawkeye Sports activities Community (Brandon Gaudin & Stephen Bardo)
Streaming: Fox Sports activities Stay