Who’s gonna stop Luka Garza and the No. 4 Iowa Hawkeyes? The Indiana Hoosiers will try to trip up the Hawkeyes this coming Thursday, as they look to recover from a bad loss. Check out our preview along with the odds and predictions for this game.
Indiana is coming off a bad loss at home against bitter rivals Purdue Boilermakers last Thursday, 81-69. It was a forgettable shooting night for the Hoosiers, who shot just 43.9 percent from the field, which was heavily tanked by their poor outside sniping. The Hoosiers made just 3 of 18 shots from deep, the second time they shot below 20 percent from behind the arc. But Indiana’s not been known for its 3-point shooting. Instead, the Hoosiers will look to do better defensively against the high-scoring Hawkeyes. Indiana is allowing just 67.6 points per game and ranks 25th in the nation in terms of adjusted defensive efficiency, with opponents scoring just 91.8 points per 100 possessions. Against Iowa, it’s going to be a whole lot about controlling the pace to prevent the Hawkeyes from taking many shots. Indiana opponents are taking only 56.9 field goal attempts per game, almost 10 shots fewer than Iowa’s season average.
Indiana is 3-1 against the spread in its last three games.
Luka Garza didn’t even need to play the final 12 minutes of the game against the Northwestern Wildcats last Sunday for the Hawkeyes to score a lopsided 96-73 win on the road. Still, Garza finished with 17 points and 10 rebounds in 24 minutes on the floor. The Hawkeyes are just shooting the lights out of late. They have shot better than 53 percent from the field in all their last three games and have gone 32 of 64 (50%) on their 3-point attempts during that stretch. The Hawkeyes are second in the nation in scoring with 92.2 points per game, but are No. 1 according to KenPom in terms of adjusted offensive efficiency. They also rebound the ball well, as scoring isn’t the only thing Garza is great at. Iowa is 14th in the nation with 41.5 rebounds per game, with Garza averaging 26.9 points and 8.7 rebounds per game. He’ll be a handful for Indiana.
Iowa is 4-1 against the spread in its last five games overall.
