Sure, we all have football on the brain at the moment after the surprising news re: Ken O'Keefe heading to Miami, but we can spare a few hours to think about the basketball team, right? Right. Iowa looks to build on their thrilling comeback win over Minnesota on Wednesday with a second-straight win today as they entertain B1G cellar dweller, Penn State. PSU is just 2-8 in the league but they're still not a team Iowa should take lightly. Past experience (coughcough Campbell coughcough Nebraska) should have taught us that Iowa isn't in a position to be taking any team lightly and, frankly, Penn State is probably a little better than that 2-8 record. Tim Frazier is an excellent player (he leads PSU in points, rebounds, assists, and steals) and their two league wins came over Purdue and Illinois, so they're certainly capable of beating good teams.
Of course, both of those wins came in the friendly confines of State College; Penn State is winless on the road in the league this year (in fact, they have just one true road win all season -- over Boston College in the Big Ten-ACC Challenge) and all five road defeats have been by double digits. If Iowa can play more like they did at the beginning and ending of the Minnesota game -- and less like they did in the godawful middle of that game -- this is a game they should win. Iowa's also honoring the 1986-1987 Elite Eight team at this game and wearing those sweet gold throwback jerseys we talked about a few weeks ago. So there's quite a bit going on in this game.
The game is on ESPNU at 2pm CT.
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