Game Day Essentials: Game #15 vs Iowa

Iowa Info

Head Coach: Fran McCaffery
Location: Iowa City, IA
Conference: B1G
Nickname: Hawks

Coach's Nickname: White Magic

Mascot: Herky the Hawk

KenPom rank: 20

Point Spread: Iowa by 7.5

Depth: 9+

Previous history: Nebraska leads the all-time 8-4. 2019 had eventful meetups as the Huskers melted down at the RAC as part of a 7 game conference skid and beat the Knights in their B1G tournament run

Shirt not to wear: Medieval 

Offensive Style: In the paint

Defensive Style: In the paint

Key Injuries: 

• Patrick McCaffery - out
• Jordan Bohannon - out
• Jack Nunge - out
• CJ Fredrick - questionable: ankle
• Connor McCafery - quesionable: illness

Hoiberg Presser

Yvan Ouedraogo Presser

Discussion mostly focused on the start of conference play

Players to watch:  Luka Garza

Garza is having a monster year as the junior center is averaging 22.5 ppg to go along with 10.1 rebounds and 1.6 blocks. Nebraska will try to deny Garza but the outside shooting and passing ability of the Hawks will make this quite difficult

Players to watch:   Joe Wieskamp

Soph Joe Wieskamp is a sharp-shooting G/F who is over 40% for his career. Wieskamp is Iowa's 2nd leading scorer at 13.5 per game

Roster points

Iowa is the walking wounded with 2/5ths of their current most used lineup questionable  A lot of ball handlers on this team as Toussaint, Fredrick, McCaffery and Evelyn are point guards

• Freshman Toussaint became a starter with Bohannon out for the year. He's beenhas been an aggressive driver with an inconsistent outside shot
• Fredrick is shooting lights out, hitting 50% from 3
• Connor McCaffery is the least turnover prone of the guards and draws a lot of contact. Outside shot still isn't there
• Senior F/C Ryan Kriener will play alongside Garza at the 4 and is capable of making 3s
• Jr Cordell Pemsl is a formidable rebounder but has brought zero offense this year. He's depth for Garza and Kriener
• Senior grad transfer and former Husker Bakari Evelyn was brought in for depth/leadership but has seen his minutes uptick with all the Hawkeye injuries. Evelyn is turnover prone and his outside shot is inconsistent 
• Former walk-on Riley Till is depth but isn't much of an offensive threat when on the court. Michael Baer and Nicolas Hobbs are walk-ons that could see limited action

Multimedia

It's On, Hoiberg snippit

The Infamous "Francon Alert System"

The Skinny:

You might have forgotten that Nebraska started out that Rutgers game quite well and possibly would have won if they'd played the rest of the game like the first 8 minutes.  The Huskers were hit by the adversity train and never recovered as their inability to score often led to poor defensive effort.  The silver lining to Nebraska losing is that they tend to put in more effort and focus after a loss.  Will it be enough against this depleted Iowa team?

I expect Connor McCaffery to play but the possible loss of CJ Fredrick and his outside shooting would be a big blow to the Hawks.  Regardless of who will play I expect Iowa to stick with their game plan to execute with pace on offense and run their 1-2-2 zone off of made baskets. Nebraska will get points in transition tonight..will they be patient enough to work into what should be a forgiving zone?

On defense the best Nebraska can probably hope for is to fluster the offense into turnovers that they can in turn into offense.  Enough of that and the Huskers might pull off the home upset.  If Iowa is allowed to execute their offense without any pressure it's likely to be another home beat down.

Prediction: Iowa 86 - Nebraska 79