Iowa Hawkeyes vs. Wisconsin Badgers Pick & Prediction FEBRUARY 17th 2024

No. 20 Wisconsin will try to complete a regular-season sweep against Iowa when the teams meet in a Big Ten Conference matchup Saturday afternoon in Iowa City, Iowa.

The Badgers (17-8, 9-5 Big Ten) are coming off a 62-54 win at home against Ohio State on Tuesday evening. The victory snapped a four-game skid, which included three losses on the road.

Wisconsin center Steven Crowl said he and his teammates had the right mindset going forward.

“It felt good,” said Crowl, who led the Badgers with 16 points and 10 rebounds. “We knew we’d come out of it, just the way we were practicing. I don’t think our confidence ever really wavered.

“Teams go through some things every year, and we’re one of those teams. We bounced back (this week) and hopefully we can keep it going Saturday against Iowa.”

The Hawkeyes (14-11, 6-8) have alternated wins and losses in each of their last six games. They are looking to bounce back from a 78-66 loss at Maryland on Wednesday evening.

Payton Sandfort scored 19 points in a losing effort for Iowa. Ben Krikke added 11 points, and Tony Perkins scored nine despite missing 10 of 13 shots from the field.

Iowa coach Fran McCaffrey wants to see a better effort from his team for all 40 minutes.

“We weren’t as active,” McCaffery said after the loss against Maryland. “We did press a little bit more in the first half. I thought our activity level was definitely better in the first half.

“It needs to be better in the second half, and it wasn’t.”

The Badgers earned a home-court win over Iowa in the teams’ first meeting of the season on Jan. 2. The score was tied at 32-32 at halftime, but Wisconsin pulled away for an 83-72 victory thanks to a strong second half in which it outscored Iowa 51-40.

Tyler Wahl scored 19 points to lead Wisconsin, which had four players finish in double digits. Crowl notched a double-double with 14 points and 13 rebounds.

Perkins led all scorers with 25 points for Iowa on 8-for-14 shooting, including 2-for-2 shooting from beyond the arc. Owen Freeman had a double-double with 14 points and 13 boards.

On the season, Perkins leads Iowa with 15.4 points and 4.2 assists per game. Sandfort is second on the scoring list with 15.1 points per game to go along with a team-high 6.6 rebounds.

A.J. Storr is Wisconsin’s leading scorer with 16.3 points per game. Wahl is second with 11.4 points per game, and Crowl is averaging 10.9 points and a team-high 7.8 rebounds.

Wisconsin coach Greg Gard also praised his team’s hard-nosed defense as of late. He wants to see more of it Saturday afternoon.

“I thought we were much more aggressive, specifically defensively,” Gard said after the win over Ohio State. “I thought we were really good defensively in the first half. And then we were back to being an old-school Big Ten (game) there, first one to 60.”

–Field Level Media