The Iowa Hawkeyes (14-5, 4-4) look to get above the .500 mark in conference with the USC Trojans (15-5, 4-5) coming to town this evening. The Hawks let the game in LA get away from them last year amidst the wildfires in California in what seemed, retrospectively, like the beginning of the end for Fran McCaffery.
Iowa has stabilized in KenPom around the 20-mark over the last month or so. Since their close loss at ISU, Iowa has been between 17-22 heading into every game since. Right now they’re 21st
with the 37th rated offense and 17th rated defense.
If that holds, it would be the best defense since 2013’s group which finished 24th according to KenPom and the second best in KenPom’s database, which dates back to the 1996-97 season. The 2006 outfit finished tops in the country, which is crazy to think about.
As for the Trojans, Eric Musselman is bringing the Muss Bus into town with a huge & experienced group – KenPom considers them the 4th tallest team, with the 12th most years of D-1 experience. The group is so transfer-heavy, the minutes continuity is just 3.2% (Cooper Koch’s minutes from last year have Iowa’s continuity at 2.3%).
Much like Maryland, they get a ton of offense at the free throw line – 25.1%, which is 15th nationally. They defend the thee point line well, allowing just 29.1% from deep. Despite the size differential, Iowa has the rebounding edge on both ends and USC does not do an especially good job protecting the rim.
Key stat for me outside the above is whether Iowa can get live ball turnovers. In conference play, Iowa’s getting steals 10.2% of opponent possessions, good for 2nd in conference while USC is yielding live ball turnovers 9.4% of the time, good for 4th worse.
USC Trojans (15-5, 4-5)
Los Angeles, CA
Eric Musselman (32-23 at USC, 253-116 overall)
How to Watch
Tonight, 1/28: USC at Iowa
6:00 PM, Big Ten Network (Kevin Kugler, Jordan Taylor, Andy Katz)
Carver-Hawkeye Arena, Iowa City, IA
Hawkeye Radio Network
Live Stats (StatBroadcast)
Stat Pack
KenPom ($): +15.71; 50th (116.8; 72nd | 101.1; 45th)
BartTorvik: 50th (114.4; 88th | 100.5; 41st)
Sports-Ref:
PPG: 82.1 (79th) | 75.5 (227th)
RPG: 37.9 | 33.8
Leaders (via Sports-Ref)
PPG: Chad Baker-Mazara (19.2), Ezra Ausar (16.2)
RPG: Jacob Cofie (7.3, 1.9 off), Ausar (6.0, 2.1 off)
APG: Baker-Mazara (3.2), Kam Woods (2.6)
FG% (min 10 MPG, 2 FGA/game): Gabe Dynes (82.9%), Ausar (60.5%)
3P% (min 1 3PA/game): Jordan Marsh (39.1%), Baker-Mazara (36.9%)
Last 5 games
1/25: W at Wisconsin: 73-71
1/21: L v Northwestern: 74-68
1/17: L v Purdue: 69-64
1/13: W v Maryland: 88-71
1/9: W at Minnesota: 70-69 (OT)
Let’s go Hawks!
