NFL Tickets
TV Schedule: Friday, Mar. 18, 3:10 pm ET, TruTV
Arena: Barclays Center-Brooklyn, N.Y.
Current Line: Iowa (-7)-Vegas Insider.com
A first-round matchup in the South Region features two teams going in opposite directions heading into the NCAA tournament. The No. 7 seed Iowa Hawkeyes lost six of their last eight games, while the Temple Owls won four in a row before losing to Connecticut in a conference tournament semifinal.
What To Watch For: Iowa
Jarrod Uthoff is Iowa’s best player, averaging team-highs in points (18.9), rebounds (6.4) and blocks (2.7) per game, and after a shooting slump that coincided with the start of the team’s slide, he has topped 20 points in back-to-back games.
The experienced guard trio of Peter Jok, Anthony Clemmons and Mike Gesell will be the most important players for the Hawkeyes on Friday afternoon. Jok showed signs of recapturing his shooting touch in a Big Ten tournament loss to Illinois, with 29 points (4-for-6 from beyond the arc), and he’ll have to step up again against Temple.
What To Watch For: Temple
Leading the charge for Temple is the senior duo of Quenton DeCosey (15.6 points, 6.0 rebounds and 2.6 assists per game) and forward Jaylen Bond (10.2 points and 8.3 rebounds per game). Bond has been particularly good lately, with three double-doubles in the last four games (15-for-21 from the floor over the last two), and his individual matchup with Uthoff will be one to watch during Friday’s game.
Sophomore forward Obi Enechionyia is coming off a bad game against UConn, but he scored in double figures in the previous eight and will be an important scorer for the Owls.
First-round matchups of No. 7 and No. 10 seeds are effectively toss-ups, but momentum can be a key indicator heading into the Big Dance.
Prediction: Temple 68, Iowa 63
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