The Buckeyes of OSU just grabbed a huge road win at Wisconsin on Saturday and they now take the momentum developed from that outing into Iowa for another big conference battle on Tuesday night.
Iowa is yet another solid ball club within the conference, but they could still do some work in further establishing their resume. They have taken care of mostly weaker competition in recent weeks, but wins against Michigan, MSU and Wisconsin all escaped them.
These two squads already met once this season. It comeback on January 12 in Columbus and the end result was a 10 point Hawkeye road win. It was the second Buckeye loss of the season and came within the midst of a four game losing streak which they eventually snapped a little over one week ago.
OSU has one of the top defenses in America, but that did not matter in the first game. Iowa dropped 84 on Thad Matta’s squad and had five guys in double figures. Iowa center Adam Woodbury was neutralized by Amir Williams, but every other Hawkeye starter had their way with the Buckeyes defense.
Iowa grabbed 12 offensive boards and used their deep front court to hammer away at OSU inside. Matta Sam Thompson for 21 minutes in that game and also played Marc Loving. Loving picked up three fouls in only ten minutes and his contributions were very limited.
Turnovers were another major story for an OSU offense that has struggled a ton in the last month. Aaron Craft and LaQuinton Ross had 11 turnovers collectively, although Ross did have a greg overall floor game.
Iowa has an offense which is predicated upon pounding the ball inside. They occasionally dump it into their forwards, but they also often run their forwards off down screens and curl action to enable them to get the ball inside the paint.
Attacking the teeth of a defense is critical to playing the Buckeyes. They have great perimeter quickness and can take guard centric teams off their games with relative ease. What made Iowa more effective was their insistence on working down low.
Since that game, OSU has gone 2-3, but their win at Wisconsin was a big one. It prevented them from falling too far down in the conference standings, and they can still make a run at things with what they have left.
For Iowa, this game will be the beginning of a gauntlet that could well decide what sort of NCAA positioning they will likely receive. After OSU, Michigan, Penn State, Indiana, Wisconsin and Minnesota all await the Hawkeyes, with three of those coming on the road.
Iowa has the look of a team that could struggle given how hard they have just worked over the course of their last eight games. This spread opened at 5.5/6 and has since settled at 5.5 as we head toward game time.
That is an interesting number given the relative ease with which Iowa won the first meeting on the road. I’d expect OSU to learn from their mistakes and restrict their absurd turnover numbers here. They will likely look to play a slower game that minimizes their depth issues in this sort of match-up.
I would typically say that an underdog in the form of Matta’s club would hold some value in a rematch scenario even if it came on the road. But betting the Buckeyes in this spot comes down to what you believe their interior defense can do in this match-up.
They need much better games from Thompson and Loving, and they need LaQuinton Ross to force less offensively while also helping more on the defensive glass.
Those issues are indicative of the Buckeyes’ struggles over the last month in general. They were not ready to be a top five group when they sat in that position. The saying goes that “what goes up must come down.”
In college basketball as in many sports, it goes both ways. Sometimes, what goes down must actually go back up, and OSU could well be in position to experience movement like that beginning with this game.
This is a gritty and tough minded club. If they were catching something in excess of 6.5, I’d probably play them. Either way, this match-up will tell us a lot about where this team is at and just how ready their young interior pieces are for what should be an interesting stretch run.
