A big one is set to go down from Carver-Hawkeye Arena on Thursday night when the No. 13 ranked Ohio State Buckeyes pay Iowa City a visit to run with Luka Garza and the No. 7 ranked Iowa Hawkeyes. This is a legit battle of Top-15 ranked teams with Chris Holtmann’s kids ranked No. 10 per the current Pomeroy Ratings and Fran McCaffery’s troops clocking in at No. 5 with the latter the highest ranked B1G team in the nation. That said, the Buckeyes enter this tilt the hotter team having logged wins in six of their last seven (5-2 ATS) to become a major player in the conference’s regular season title race. Iowa on the other hand has fallen upon lean times with it losers of two straight heading into Tuesday night’s home tilt against the beatable Michigan State Spartans. The team’s downswing has coincided completely with the injury to CJ Fredrick so make it a point to check the injury reports leading up to tip-off if in fact you want to side with the black and yellow at online sportsbooks. The home team has won and covered each of the last three meetings between these Big Ten heavyweights with the over cashing in each of the last two.
Take this Big Ten matchup in live on ESPN at 7 p.m. ET from Carver-Hawkeye Arena on Thursday, February 4, 2021. We'll have NCAA basketball odds at BookMaker.eu available for this and every game slated to go on Thursday’s college basketball schedule.
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Odds Analysis
Since dropping a tough 67-65 decision at home to Purdue in a game that saw the Boilermakers battle back from a 6-point halftime deficit and outscore OSU 36-28 in the second half by shooting 48 percent from the field for the game, Ohio State has logged three straight wins (2-1 ATS) which was kickstarted with a huge 12 point outright win in Madison as 5.5-point underdogs. The win pushed the team above the breakeven point on the road at 4-3 and 3-3-1 ATS. Since failing to log a single cover in their first four road games, the Buckeyes have won and covered each of their last three. Iowa was firing on all cylinders through the middle of January. The team cut through Northwestern, Rutgers, Maryland, Minnesota and Northwestern like a hot knife through butter. Then, Fredrick was hurt early on in the home game against Indiana. Since then, the team has dropped 81-69 and 80-75 decisions to the Hoosiers and Fighting Illini. This is a pivotal week for the Hawkeyes as they attempt to improve upon their 9-1 SU and 8-2 ATS records when playing in front of the hometown cardboard cutouts.
Ohio State Buckeyes
After getting a scare at home from what proved to be a game pack of Penn State Nittany Lions, the Buckeyes wasted no time in letting Michigan State know things weren’t going to be as easy for Sparty as they had been in prior seasons. MSU entered the tilt winners in each of the previous four meetings. However, it was Ohio State that had the last laugh after bolting out to a 42-30 first half lead before coasting over the game’s final 20 minutes to log the decided 79-62 win and cover as 5.5-point home favorites. E.J. Liddell continued his high scoring ways logging a game-high 20 points on 6 of 12 shooting to log a third straight game of scoring 20+ points. The triumph moved the team to 8-4 SU in conference play and into third place behind Illinois and Michigan.
Iowa Hawkeyes
Though Iowa fell 80-75 at Illinois last time out, it still had numerous chances to win the game outright as 3-point underdogs. That bodes extremely well for McCaffery’s bunch considering they went at the Illini without Fredrick’s 9.1 points and deadly 3-point shooting. On the bright side, the Hawkeyes interior defense limited Kofi Cockburn to just nine points on 2 of 7 shooting. On the dark side, it allowed the guard tandem of Trent Frazier and Ayo Dosunmu to eat them up with the duo combining for 49 points. Garza and Joe Wieskamp each went for 19 apiece, but the Hawkeyes inability to compete on the glass ultimately proved to be their undoing. Now 6-3 SU in B1G play, Iowa must circle the wagons at home this week if it’s to continue battling for regular season conference supremacy.
Ohio State vs. Iowa Prediction
Look for the Hawkeyes to be installed home chalk in the 4-6 point range with the total lined in the high 140s to low 150s. I’d feel much better about Iowa’s chances of protecting its home hardwood with Fredrick back in the mix if leaning towards laying the points with the home team. Even if back, I wonder how game ready he’ll be to run with a confident Buckeyes bunch looking to extend their current win streak to four in a row. Since dropping an embarrassing 77-60 decision at Minnesota, OSU has been nothing if not road warriors in procuring wins at Rutgers, Illinois, and Wisconsin; all in the underdog role. The offense has recently been playing with its hair on fire, and it owns the better of the two defenses in this matchup. Wait to back Iowa in the rematch at the end of February hopefully when fully healthy. Ohio State is the team to beat in the B1G right now, and I don’t foresee a shorthanded Iowa squad being able to turn the trick. Take the points if you must but you won’t need them – Buckeyes outright!
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