Preview: Illinois at Iowa

[February 25, 2015]  Two Big Ten NCAA Tournament bubble teams headedin different directions meet Wednesday night when Illinois visits Iowa. The hostHawkeyes shook off a pair of tough losses to Minnesota and Northwesternto rout Rutgers (81-47) and Nebraska (74-46) to climb back above .500 inconference play. The Fighting Illini entered last week riding afour-game win streak and sporting a 7-5 Big Ten record, but were unable to standup to conference heavyweights in losses to Wisconsin and Michigan State.

The consecutive league wins by 28-plus pointswere Iowa’s first since the 1995-96 season. The Hawkeyes shot a combined 50.4percent in the two contests, including 13-of-27 from 3-point range, whileoutrebounding the Scarlet Knights and Cornhuskers 77-63, holding them to acombined 32.7 percent shooting from the floor and forcing 32 total turnovers. “We’replaying as good as ever,” Iowa junior forward Jarrod Uthoff told reporters following thewin in Lincoln. “We’re ready (for Illinois).”

TV: 9 p.m. ET, Big Ten Network.
 

ABOUT ILLINOIS (17-10, 7-7 Big Ten): The Illini shot only 28.8 percent from the field, including 2-of-16 from 3-point range, in the 60-53 defeat against Michigan State on Saturday. “We got the right guys shots,” Illinois coach John Groce told the Champaign News-Gazette. “(But) their team tonight was much more connected and played better together than our team did on the offensive end.” Rayvonte Rice, who played the last three contests after missing the previous nine due to injury and a suspension, averages a team-best 15.9 points and 6.4 rebounds while Malcolm Hill (14.7 points) and Kendrick Nunn (11.5) also contribute for the Illini, who top the nation in free-throw accuracy (79 percent) but rank 250th in field goal percentage (42.1).

ABOUT IOWA (17-10, 8-6): The magic number for theHawkeyes would appear to be 64 as Iowa is 16-1 when scoring 64 or more points.Defense, though, has been the key for the Hawkeyes as they rank in the Big Ten’stop four in scoring defense (61.5 points), opponent field-goal percentage(39.5) and 3-point percentage defense (31.3). Senior forward Aaron White is pacingthe team in scoring (14.7) and rebounding (7.1) while Uthoff is averaging 12.2points and six rebounds.

TIP-INS

1. This is the only regular-season meetingbetween Iowa and Illinois, and the Hawkeyes have won three of the last fourmeetings despite the Illini’s 66-63 win in Iowa City to close out the 2013-2014regular season.

2. Illinois’ 9.7 turnovers per game ranks asseventh-lowest total in the nation.

3. Iowa announced that reserve PG TreyDickerson is leaving the program and will transfer. Dickerson averaged 2.7points and 1.2 assists in 15 games this season.

PREDICTION: Iowa 68, Illinois 66

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