Ohio State Buckeyes vs. Iowa Hawkeyes February 16 Betting Preview

The Iowa Hawkeyes will defend their homecourt against the Ohio State Buckeyes on Thursday night in an attempt to avoid a bad loss on their tournament resume. Iowa is 16-9 on the season with an 8-6 mark in Big Ten league play. 

Iowa enters the game as a (-7) home favorite with a total currently set at 154 points. The contest is scheduled to tip-off at 9:00 PM EST from Carver Hawkeye Arena and will be broadcast on ESPN2. 

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Matchup History

As expected, this rivalry goes back, as far as we can research, the 1949-50 season. These two programs have met 130 times over the years, with Iowa holding a slim margin over the Buckeyes with a 67-63 record. Not surprisingly, the last ten meetings have been split right down the middle at 5-5. Since the 2009-10 season, the Buckeyes hold a 6-4 edge over the Hawkeyes in games played in Iowa City. 

Iowa Hawkeyes Team Overview

When it comes to the Hawkeyes, it is definitely the tale of two halves. Though not in the traditional sense, these two halves are the halves of the court, not halves of the game. Iowa is one of the best-scoring teams in the nation at over 80 points per game and ranking 22nd in the country. 

Forward Kris Murray and Filip Rebraca combine to score over 35 points per game while also snatching 16.5 rebounds per contest.

On the defensive side is where Iowa falls way short, surrendering over 73 points per contest which ranks 286th in the nation. 

The Hawkeyes currently rank 143rd in the nation in adjusted defensive efficiency and 248th in the country in defensive effective field goal percentage. Coach Fran McCaffery’s club also ranks outside the top 200 in three-point defense and 147th in defensive turnover percentage. 

Ohio State Buckeyes Team Overview

After a promising start to the season, the wheels have really fallen off for the Buckeyes. Coach Chris Holtmann is on the verge of his first losing season since the 2011-12 campaign when he led Gardner Webb to a 12-20 record. The Buckeyes are just 11-14 overall this season, with a 3-11 mark in Big Ten play. 

Their 1-10 mark over their last eleven games has effectively ended any chance of dancing outside of an automatic berth. 

As a road team, Ohio State is the worst team in the Big Ten at just 1-7 straight up. The Buckeyes are underperforming the spread by -3.6 points per contest with a negative margin of victory number of -5.0, which surprisingly doesn’t rank within the bottom four of the conference. As a road dog, Ohio State has yet to cover the number a single time this season, notching an 0-6 record ATS. 

The Expectation

Ohio State’s offensive efficiency ranking of 28th in the nation is deceiving as they are currently in free fall in that metric, meaning they likely will not take advantage of this soft Iowa defense. Conversely, Ohio State is also not a good defensive team ranking just within the top 100, which Iowa will likely exploit.