Maryland vs. Iowa Prediction: Hawkeyes or Terrapins in Tonight's Big Ten Showdown?
Maryland vs. Iowa Prediction: Hawkeyes or Terrapins in Tonight's Big Ten Showdown
Date: Monday, January 3
Time: 9:00
Where to Watch: BTN
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Maryland vs. Iowa Prediction
Two teams both trying to get their first Big 10 win tonight in Iowa. Iowa has lost two conference games already, to Purdue and Illinois, and doesn’t want to start 0-3 in conference play.
We can’t forget that Keegan Murray was out for the Purdue game and when he played against Illinois he was not at full strength. We care about this because he is the nation's leading scorer and the key to this Iowa offense. This was a month ago and Iowa has now won three in a row, beating up on weak opponents with a bunch of blowouts over bad teams. Tonight they get tested.
Maryland was in the same boat as Iowa. Coincidentally, they lost three in a row as well and have now won three in a row, but they did have an impressive win over a ranked Florida team after those three tight losses (4,6 and 8 points) against very good teams. The key has been Eric Ayala. He's shooting over 50% and scoring over 20 points a game since that losing streak.
We like this Danny-Manning led team with Ayala and transfer Fatts Russell running the show as they play good defense, holding opponents to under 40% shooting and 65 points a game. That will be key as Iowa doesn’t like to play slow-down basketball, scoring 88 a game as the 2nd best offense in the NCAA.
This is a classic game of offense vs. defense and we will take defense all day. You can stop a team, you can beat that team and with the Maryland guards playing well they can contain Iowa’s star and they can hold Iowa well below their 88 point average. We like the numbers too. Maryland is 25th in the country holding opponents to 43.8 shooting from two-point range, so if Iowa wants to win big they will have to hit their 3s. Iowa is 214th in the nation, giving up 29.3 offensive rebounds so Maryland can miss, get the rebound and hold it, forcing Iowa to play defense and slow down the game.
Defense beats offense tonight as we see this game going down to the wire and 9 points is more than enough for the cover . Take the points and fear the turtle tonight. I like turtles.
Maryland vs. Iowa Pick
- PICK: Maryland +9 (-110)