Iowa at Indiana: Game Day Essentials | Tale of the Tape | Keys to Victory

What do you know?  A home game.

After spending the better part of January and early February at the airport, Indiana gets to stick around Bloomington for more than a week.

First up at Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall are the Iowa Hawkeyes.  IU earned the season sweep last year, but they will essentially be seeing the same team once again in 2019 as Iowa returned almost all of its production from the 2017-18 season.

All of that experience is paying off thus far for Iowa.  They are significantly improved over last year and will present a major challenge for an Indiana team that will be trying to build on a stunning upset of Michigan State in East Lansing.

GAME DAY ESSENTIALS

No. 20 Iowa (17-5, 6-5) at Indiana (13-9, 4-7)

• Tip time:  9:00 p.m. Eastern
• Location: Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall, Bloomington, Indiana
• Television:  ESPN (Dan Shulman and Dan Dakich)
• Series:  Indiana leads 103-76 (Indiana won the last meeting 84-82 at Iowa City)
• Point Spread:  The game is even in Vegas; KenPom has Indiana by 1.
• Tickets (Seat Geek affiliate link)

Fran McCaffery is in his 8th season leading the Iowa program.

Additional Coverage:

• Archie Miller previews the game.
• Fran McCaffery previews the game.
• Indiana’s remaining schedule doesn’t let up.
• The Hoosiers get a boost from their upperclassmen.
• Three Years Ago:  No. 4 Iowa visits Indiana.

IOWA LEADERS

Points per game

Tyler Cook – 16.1

Luka Garza – 15.1

Joe Wieskamp – 11.4

Jordan Bohannon – 10.3

Isaiah Moss – 9.8

Rebounds per game

Cook – 8.1

Wieskamp – 5.0

Assists per game

Bohannon – 3.3

Connor McCaffery – 3.1

Blocks per game

Nicholas Baer – 1.1

Steals per game

Baer – 1.3

Turnovers per game

Cook – 3.2

TALE OF THE TAPE

KEYS TO VICTORY

Slow Down Iowa’s Offense.  The Hawkeyes boast one of the most efficient offenses in the country.  Coming in at No. 11 in KenPom adjusted offensive efficiency, Iowa can beat you in a number of ways when they have the ball.  They shoot the ball well inside and out and don’t turn it over.

Iowas likes to play up-tempo and Indiana is going to need to get back in transition and find Iowa’s numerous three-point shooters.

Finally, the Hawkeyes live at the free throw line.  Indiana is going to have to guard hard but smart to keep Iowa off the line, because the knock them down when they get there.

Luka Garza is a tough match-up.  At 6-foot-11, Garza has several inches on Juwan Morgan and Justin Smith.  Iowa will look to get their sophomore forward matched up in the post against IU’s forwards to take advantage of his size.

Indiana can counter with De’Ron Davis, who is a better matchup from a size perspective.  The Hoosier junior played great at Michigan State, but Garza likes to pull bigs out to the perimeter, and he can run to.  Archie Miller will likely try a lot of different matchups to see what works.

Super freshmen going head to head.  The Hawkeyes have their own high caliber freshman in Joe Wieskamp, and he is likely to be matched up with Romeo Langford for much of the game.  Wieskamp has won the Big Ten freshman of the week two of the last three weeks.

Both players will have their hands full when they are on the defensive end.  This appears to be a matchup that would allow Langford to have a big night, and with Iowa not being a great shot blocking team, the Hoosier freshman might be able to exploit the paint.

Read the defense.  Iowa likes to play different defenses including a number of press and zone looks.  Indiana cannot have wasted possessions trying to figure out how they will attack what the Hawkeyes are doing.  The Hoosiers don’t see a lot of zone, but they struggled against Nebraska the last time they saw a healthy dose of it.

While the Hawkeyes throw a lot of looks at you, they aren’t necessarily the master of any of them.  Iowa is better this year defensively than they have been, but still capable of being exploited.  Indiana is going to have to score more points than they have been recently to keep up in this one.

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