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 The fifth-seeded Hawkeyes ripped off seven straight victories to
open conference play as part of a nine-game winning streak and won
10 of their first 11 league contests overall - the last of which was
a 77-65 triumph at Illinois on Feb. 7. That early surge left Iowa
atop the Big Ten standings, but the Hawkeyes quickly fell back to
the pack by dropping five of their next six before picking up a
confidence-building 71-61 win at Michigan on Saturday. Illinois
should enter Thursday as well-rested as possible after routing
Minnesota 85-52 in opening-round action on Wednesday, setting
tournament records with 14 3-pointers and a 33-point margin of
victory. "It's nice momentum to carry us to the second game. … The
great thing was that we got all of those (3-pointers) from within
the offense," leading scorer Malcolm Hill told reporters after the
Illini's most lopsided win of the season.
TV: 2:25 p.m. ET, ESPN
ABOUT ILLINOIS (14-18): Hill (18.5 points) and Kendrick Nunn (15.6)
have been the most consistent forces on offense this season, but
both took a bit of a back seat to 6-10 freshman forward Michael
Finke, who drained a career-high five 3-pointers and scored 17
points on Wednesday. Indianapolis native Jalen Coleman-Lands (10.3)
has been the team's most productive rookie for the bulk of the
season, however, and nailed three triples of his own versus
Minnesota to move within three of matching the school record by a
freshman. With its victory on Wednesday, Illinois broke its tie with
Ohio State (25) for the most wins in Big Ten tournament history.
[to top of second column] |
ABOUT IOWA (21-9): Unanimous first-team All-Big Ten selection Jarrod
Uthoff (team-high 18.8 points, 6.5 rebounds, Big Ten-best 2.7
blocks) capped a brilliant senior campaign Saturday with 29 points,
seven boards, three blocks and four steals, and is one of only two
players in the last 20 years to average at least two blocks and two
3-pointers in a season (Shane Battier). Second-leading scorer Peter
Jok (15.8 points) earned second-team all-conference honors Monday
and paces Iowa in steals (1.4), 3-pointers (71) and free-throw
percentage (85.6). Center Adam Woodbury (7.9 points, 8.5 rebounds)
averaged 11.4 boards over the last 13 games and became the first
Hawkeye since Reggie Evans in 2001-02 to average at least 10
rebounds in league play.
TIP-INS
1. The winner of this contest will face No. 4 seed Purdue in
quarterfinal action on Friday.
2. Iowa, which has won five of the last six meetings, is 0-3
all-time in the Big Ten tournament as a No. 5 seed, including an
upset loss in the second round to Penn State last season.
3. Illinois hasn't defeated an opponent besides Minnesota or Rutgers
- teams that went a combined 3-33 in conference play during the
regular season - since upsetting Purdue 84-70 on Jan. 10.
PREDICTION: Iowa 74, Illinois 69
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