Pregame Glance: Iowa

The Bucks are coming home after an emotionally difficult loss to the Michigan State Spartans. Up next is a tougher-than-expected Iowa squad that may be looking to steal one in Columbus. Let’s take a glance.

School: University of Iowa

Location: Iowa City, IA

Founded: 1847

Student Population: 31,498 total, 20,574 undergrad

School Type: Public

Stadium: Carver-Hawkeye Arena

Seating: 15,500

Opened: 1983

Head Coach: Fran McCaffrey

Experience: 3rd year

Here we go, another ‘Before we get started‘ commentary. Actually, I don’t have anything, so on to the Preview. Information will be pulled from the excellent site at Statsheet . I‘ll measure of teams capabilities that I will refer to will be the Four Factors; effective FG%, TO%, Off Rebounds Rate and FT Rate, as well as a couple other metrics just to flesh out the teams performances.

Iowa

Iowa is coming off an impressive take-down of Wisconsin 70-66 on Saturday. They held the Badgers to 18 (not a typo) first half points. Fran McCaffrey has Iowa on a trajectory of improvement in his third year as head coach. The Hawkeyes haves to gone from 11-20 in Fran‘s first year, to 18-17 last year to (13-5, 2-3) thus far this season. Starter Stats below:

			GP	MPG	PPG	FG%	FT%	3P%	RPG	APG	TPG	SPG	FPG
	#4	R. Marble	17	30.6	14.9	42.9	79.3	37.5	4.3	2.8	2.1	0.8	1.2
	#30	A. White	18	27.0	13.5	55.1	75.2	20.8	6.2	1.5	1.3	1.0	1.7
	#10	M. Gesell	18	25.7	8.9	39.9	76.3	29.0	3.0	3.1	2.1	1.3	1.9
	#5	A. Clemmons	18	18.9	4.8	39.0	60.7	36.0	1.8	4.1	1.1	0.7	1.9
	#34	A. Woodbury	18	16.7	5.8	53.6	50.0	0.0	5.4	0.4	1.1	0.4	2.2

Ohio State

The 14th ranked Buckeyes (13-4, 3-2) get back to the friendly confines of Value City Arena . The usual cast of characters and their stats, below.

			GP	MPG	PPG	FG%	FT%	3P%	RPG	APG	TPG	SPG	FPG
	#1	D. Thomas	17	33.6	20.8	47.2	79.4	42.0	6.6	1.5	1.4	0.6	1.4
	#4	A. Craft	17	31.8	8.7	38.5	82.1	32.7	3.2	4.7	1.6	1.9	2.4
	#32	L. Smith Jr.	17	27.4	10.1	43.4	59.3	42.0	5.6	1.8	1.5	0.5	1.8
	#12	S. Thompson	17	24.0	7.0	44.9	70.6	24.1	3.5	1.1	1.2	0.9	1.4
	#23	A. Williams	17	15.8	4.4	62.5	52.1	0.0	4.0	0.2	0.8	0.3	2.5

The below table has the comparative Four Factors as well as possessions per game (PPP), points per possession – offense (PPP-O) and points allowed per possession (PPP-D).

Iowa runs a pretty deep bench, with nine (count ’em) players that get significant playing time. Starters are: Roy Devyn Marble (G/F, 6‘1“), Mike Gesell (G, 6‘1“), Anthony Clemmons (G, 6‘1“), Aaron White (F, 6’8”) and Adam Woodbury (C, 7’1”). This is a very young Iowa team, with Gesell, Clemmons and Woodbury as Freshmen and White as a Sophomore. Coming off the bench are Zach McCabe (F, 6’7”), Eric May (G, 6’5”), Josh Oglesby ( G, 6’5”) and Melsahn Basabe (F, 6’7”).

OSU counters with Craft (G, 6’2”), Smith (G, 6’4”), Thomas (F, 6’7”), Thompson (F, 6’7”) and Williams (C,6’11“). Providing relief are Scott (G, 6’1”), Ravenal (C,6’8”) and Ross (F, 6‘8“).

Only a couple things of note; Iowa runs at a slightly faster pace then the Buckeyes (note to Ferentz; give McCaffrey a call), they are a slightly better offensive rebounding team (no surprise there), but they are not as good a shooting team as OSU. The Buckeyes are a bit better with ball handling than Iowa, and I would expect/hope that some crafty ball pressure on Iowa’s young guards will cut short some Iowa possessions and provide OSU with some transition baskets. Let’s hope the Buckeyes don’t get into a situation where they need a 3-pointer from Scott .

Tip-off is on January 22nd at 6:30 at Value City Arena. Please join us for the live blog at 6:15. The game is televised on BTN.