Before every Ohio State men’s basketball game, Connor Lemons is on the “Good Hoops Morning” podcast to give you the day’s key stats, players to know and trending storylines to get you ready for the day’s action.
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9 Iowa Hawkeyes and No. 8 Ohio State Buckeyes (-1.5, 139.5 overall) | KenPom predicts: Iowa 1
Game date/time: Thursday, March 12 at 12:00 noon ET
Place: Chicago, Illinois
television: BTN
radio: 97.1 FM/ 971thefan.com
The Ohio State men’s basketball team (20-11, 12-8) enters the Big Ten Tournament with a three-game winning streak and will face off against one of two teams that have beaten the eighth-seeded Buckeyes by at least 15 points this season. Iowa State (21-11, 10-10), the No. 9 seed in the Big Ten Tournament, defeated No. 17 seed Maryland 75-64 on Wednesday afternoon to win a third-round matchup with the Buckeyes.
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On February 25, Iowa defeated Ohio State 74-57 in Iowa City. The Hawkeyes got 22 points from All-Big Ten first-team selection Bennett Stietz, who shot 8-of-11 from the field. As a team, Iowa shot 22 of 29 from two-point range (75.9 percent) and led by 23 points in the second half.
Since that loss, Ohio State has won three straight games against Purdue, Penn State and Indiana State. The Buckeyes are averaging 89 points per game during the win streak and have won those three games by an average of 17.7 points.
The winner of that game will face top-seeded Michigan at noon (ET) on Friday.
Conner’s prediction: Iowa 68, Ohio State 67
Contact Connor:
Twitter: @lemons_connor
