The Minnesota Golden Gophers travel to take on the Iowa Hawkeyes tonight in Big Ten College Basketball action. The game is scheduled for a 7:00 p.m. start time and it will be televised live on the Big Ten Network. Currently the Betting Odds for the game have the Hawkeyes favored to pick up another win here tonight.
This is going to be a big game for Iowa. The Hawkeyes have crept back into the area to be a potential at-large big for the NCAA Tournament. Iowa has a 6-4 record in the very packed Big Ten standings, but they have won two straight games over Michigan and Maryland. Two of the Hawkeye losses came to the best team in the conference in Wisconsin in a really short span of just three games overall.
Minnesota had some bright spots at the beginning of the season, but they have really come down to earth. The Golden Gophers are just 6-6 in league play and now find themselves at 15-9, but it's hard to see them being able to make the tournament at this point. Then again, they do play Wisconsin twice during the rest of their Big Ten games, so a win over the Badgers does carry a potential big ticket reward. Many of the games remaining on Minnesota's schedule are winnable, but they have VERY tough road games beginning tonight against Iowa before games against Indiana, Wisconsin and Michigan State away from home.
While the Gophers have scored a good amount of points this season at better than 75 per contest, in Big Ten play it's been a lot different. Minnesota has scored just 66 points a game on average in conference play and they've scored just 60 and 62 points in each of their last two games, but both were wins. Maybe Minnesota should concentrate more on playing defense, making their possessions count and not try and turn the game into a track meet.
Aaron White might be the best player on the floor tonight, but Iowa is going to have to rebound well in order to stay in this one. Minnesota is not a good rebounding team, led by Maurice Walker and his 6.6 boards per game. Iowa is better on the boards because of their big front line with Adam Woodbury, Gabriel Olaseni and Jarrod Uthoff all hauling in better than five rebounds a game.
Iowa gets it done tonight.
Free Pick: Iowa 70, Minnesota 62
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